News Releases and Statements

In December 2023, ICE Homeland Security Investigations, the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Concord, New Hampshire Police Department began investigating a sophisticated gift card fraud scheme that is perpetuated by criminal organizations in China.

The indictment charges Elijah Gavin aka Timothy O’Reilly aka Elijah Thomas, 29, with wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering.

During this operation, ICE and local police identified and arrested 15 individuals for the violation of federal law involving the use/manufacturing of an access device with the intent to defraud.

Alejandro Munoz and Abel Pena-Garcia, who are identical twins, were involved in a fraudulent dispute scheme that targeted third party payment platforms, like PayPal and Square.

Canadian law enforcement provisionally arrested 23 Canadian nationals March 4 after they were indicted by federal grand jury in Vermont for participation in a “grandparent scam” uncovered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The scam allegedly defrauded elderly individuals in more than 40 states of over $21 million.

Manual Domingos Pita, of Wesley Chapel, previously pleaded guilty to those charges on July 9, 2024.

Feliciano Rodriguez, 47, of Orlando, was ordered to pay $3,338,558 in restitution, and ordered to serve a five-year term of supervised release.

Ping Ping Zheng, 37, of Jacksonville, faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison. As part of the plea agreement, Zheng has agreed to forfeit to the United States a residence in Jacksonville and a transit van.

Darlington Akporugo, a 47-year-old criminal alien from Nigeria, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud; and wire fraud, aiding and abetting.

Aboudramane Karamoko, 21, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 39 months’ imprisonment followed by three years’ supervised release in Camden federal court Feb. 13. Three other defendants, all from Philadelphia, were previously sentenced.

According to the complaint (3:24cv840), in February 2024, an elderly woman was tricked by a scammer who mimicked Microsoft customer support. The victim transferred approximately $550,000 to the scammers in two wire transfers.

On Feb. 6, 2025, Ippei Mizuhara, a former Japanese-language interpreter was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison for illegally — and without authorization — transferring nearly $17 million from the bank account of Major League Baseball star Shohei Ohtani to pay off his own substantial gambling debts incurred with an illegal bookmaking operation and for signing a false tax return, following a joint Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), IRS Criminal Investigation probe.

On Jan. 29, William Panzera, 51, of North Haledon, New Jersey was convicted of drug trafficking conspiracy and international promotional money laundering conspiracy at the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

The 15-count indictment, returned last month and unsealed on Jan. 24, charges nine defendants with conspiracy, smuggling and breaking customs seals. The defendants allegedly took containers flagged for off-site secondary inspection, unloaded the contraband, then stuffed the targeted containers with filler cargo to deceive customs officials and evade law enforcement.

Oleg Oliynyk and Oleksandr Yurchyk were each sentenced to 15 years in prison for conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to commit money laundering after a joint investigation between Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Miami-Key West and IRS Criminal Investigation.

Monishkumar Kirankumar Doshi Shah, a/k/a “Monish Doshi Shah” (Shah), 40, of Mumbai, India and Jersey City, New Jersey, who operated jewelry companies in New York City’s Diamond District was sentenced to 30 months for spearheading a scheme to illegally evade customs duties for more than $13.5 million of jewelry imports into the United States and for illegally processing more than $10.3 million through an unlicensed money transmitting business.

Naxin Wu, 26, Mengying Jiang, 34, and Mingdong Chen, 28, pleaded guilty in federal court in Concord to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Judge Landya B. McCafferty scheduled Wu’s sentencing for April 8, 2025 and Jiang’s sentencing for April 22, 2025.

Jose Molina-Herrera, 27, of Honduras, was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison. The court also ordered Molina-Herrera to forfeit $867,005, which are proceeds of the wire fraud offense.

Timothy Siverd, 37, of Webster, was arrested and charged by criminal complaint with wire fraud, access device fraud, and aggravated identity theft, which carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,00 fine, the U.S. District Court for the District of Western New York announced Jan. 16, 2025.

As alleged, the enterprise operated in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, using credit card “skimmers” that stole financial information from credit and debit cards to create “cloned” cards that were used to make fraudulent fuel purchases.