True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Fugitive Eco-Terrorist Nabbed In Cuba After 12 Years On the Run

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Fugitive Joseph Mahmoud Dibee was last seen in the U.S. in 2005.

PORTLAND, Oregon  — One of the last remaining fugitive members of a dangerous eco-terrorist group behind a string of arson fires that caused millions of dollars in damage has been caught after more than a decade on the lam, the FBI said.

Joseph Mahmoud Dibee, 50, was apprehended after investigators got a tip he was traveling through Central America on his way to Russia with a planned stop in Cuba, according to court documents.

With the help of Cuban authorities, Dibee was arrested there before boarding a plane bound for Moscow and was then sent back to the United States to face justice.

Dibee was a member of “The Family,” a notorious band of environmental radicals who set more than 40 arson fires at development sites in the Western United States between1995 and 2001. The fires caused more than $45 million in damages, with a 1998 arson attack on a ski resort in Vail, Colorado its most brazen act. That blaze caused $26 million in damages.

A fire set by The Family at a Vail, Colorado ski resort in 1998

Dibee fled the U.S. in December 2005. The following year, he was indicted along with 11 co-conspirators and has been on the run since.

“The crimes they committed were serious and dangerous,” said Special Agent Tim Suttles, who has been working on the investigation since 2004. “Just because time passes doesn’t mean the FBI forgets. We are very gratified to have Dibee in custody.”

Dibee’s capture leaves one fugitive from the group still at large. Josephine Sunshine Overaker, a U.S. citizen believed to be either 43 or 46 years old, fled to Europe in late 2001 and hasn’t been seen since.

“She’s the last one,” Suttles said, explaining that Overaker faces 19 felony counts in Oregon, Colorado, and Washington State. “We will continue to pursue her and to run down every lead that comes to us. We’re not going to give up just because time has passed.”

Thieves Steal Priceless Swedish Crown Jewels in Daring Daytime Heist

By HardBoiledNews Staff

A smashed display case was all that stood between the thieves and these priceless crown jewels

 

STRANGNAS, Sweden — Brazen thieves carrying out a daring daytime raid at a medieval Swedish cathedral, made off with priceless crown jewels and then made their escape by boat through a nearby series of lakes.

Two men sauntered into the Strangnas Cathedral about 40 miles east of Stockholm around  noon on Tuesday and smashed open a display case in front of stunned visitors.

They grabbed a gold crown and an orb dating to 1611 that were made for King Karl IX’s funeral, and a jewel-encrusted crown dating to 1625 that was used in Queen Kristina’s funeral. Breaking the glass on the display triggered an alarm, but the men quickly ran out of the cathedral

Outside, the men hopped aboard two bicycles and pedaled to a nearby lake where they vanished aboard a speedboat or on jet skis into the dizzying patchwork of lakes that surround the city, police said.

Police sent out a helicopter and boat to hunt for the thieves but were unable to locate suspects.

While the stolen artifacts are of great historic and cultural value, police said the stolen pieces would be “impossible to sell” because of their notoriety, according to the Swedish newspaper, Aftonbladet.

“It’s too difficult to assign a value to these things. They are so unique and historically significant,” said police spokesman, Thomas Agnevik.

The stolen artifacts are funeral regalia, which are placed inside or on top of a coffin to symbolize a deceased royal’s identity and social ranking.

While some funeral regalia are kept in the cathedrals of Strangnas, Uppsala and Vasteras, most of Sweden’s crown jewels are kept in vaults under the Royal Castle in Stockholm.

In 2013, 16th-century copies of King Johan III’s crown, orb and scepter were stolen from the cathedral in the central Swedish city of Vasteras, 60 miles west of Stockholm, during a nighttime burglary. They were eventually found and returned to the cathedral. No one was arrested.

 

Japan Doomsday Cult Leader Executed for Subway Nerve Gas Attack

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Cult leader Shoko Asahara said his group had been preparing for a apocalyptic war with the Japanese government

TOKYO — The leader of a Japanese doomsday cult and six of his top disciples have been put to death for a spate of killings including the 1995 sarin gas attack on the the Tokyo subway that killed 13 people and sickened thousands.

Shoko Asahara, leader of the murderous Aum Shinrikyo cult, was the first to be hanged, followed by the other six, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported.  Asahara was 63 years old.

In all, 12 of Asahara’s followers had been sentenced to death for crimes that killed 27 people.

The most shocking attack came in 1995, when Asahara’s followers punctured plastic bags to release deadly sarin gas into packed train car. In all, 13 people were killed and 6,000 sickened.

Founded in 1984, the cult became popular among young people, including some graduates of top universities, who became Asahara’s top lieutenants.

The group amassed a large arsenal of chemical, biological ahead of what they believed would be an apocalyptic showdown with the government.

At its peak, the cult claimed 10,000 members in Japan and 30,000 in Russia. It has since disbanded, though nearly 2,000 followers have migrated over to three splinter groups, whihc are closely monitored by authorities.

Authorities said they are taking precautionary measures in case of any retaliation by his followers.

 

Radical Professor at Kent State University Charged With Lying to FBI in ISIS Probe

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Kent State University history professor Julio Pino has been under investigation about alleged ties to ISIS

CLEVELAND — A radical professor at Kent State University has been charged with lying to the FBI during a probe into his possible connections to the Islamic State.

Julio Pino, 58, who has taught history at the Ohio university since 1992, is charged with falsely telling investigators he didn’t know a man he messaged with online and egged on as he discussed killing people, including a judge involved in his custody case.

“I’m playing the game backwards.  and winning! . . . I will kill 100s of people if they take my rights as a father away!” the man, identified in court papers only as J.E. said.

“Devour them, [J.E.],” Pino replied.

In January 2016, the man was charged with threatening a judge. Around that time, the FBI launched a probe into Pino, questioning his students about whether he attempted to recruit any of them to join ISIS. At the time, Pino called the allegations preposterous.

A Muslim convert, Pino has long been a lightning rod for controversy. In 2002, he wrote a newspaper column, eulogizing a suicide bomber in Jerusalem. Nearly a decade later, he shouted “Death to Israel” at a lecture by a former Israeli diplomat.

There have been calls to revoke his tenure, but the school always refused on first amendment grounds. The school has suspended him following the filing of charges on Monday. His attorney told Cleveland.com, that his client is planning to retire.

Sailors Use Boiling Water, Oil to Repulse Pirate Attack

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Sailors in the Philippines got old school in their efforts to drive off pirates attacking their ship

SIBAGO ISLAND, Philippines — They got medieval on their asses.

The crew of a cargo ship drove off a gang of pirates trying to board their vessel by pouring a mixture of boiling oil and water on them as they came up alongside, authorities said.

The attackers, armed with high-powered weapons, motored towards the MV Kudos 1 aboard three small boats just off Sibago Island in the southern Philippines on Friday, according to the Philippine Coast Guard.

As the smaller vessels pulled alongside the ocean-going cargo ship and tried to board, the quick-thinking dumped a scalding hot mixture of oil and water on the approaching pirates, Captain Chris Paul Maligmat told authorities.

The pirates then opened fire on the ship before aborting the attempted hijacking and getting away before the authorities arrived. One of the 27 crew members aboard the Kudos was injured by flying glass, the coast guard said.

Officials believe the attackers are members of the Islamic militant group, Abu Sayyaf, who are active in the region and have attempted similar hijackings of cargo ships in the past.

The Kudos was carrying a cargo of steel bars on its way to Manila.

‘I Blew Half His Face Off’ — Loudmouth Killer Boasts to Undercover Cop

By HardBoiledNews Staff

KANSAS CITY — It’s the kind of thing you probably don’t want to be blabbing about all over town.

A Kansas City drug dealer landed himself in major trouble when he admitted the details of a grisly slaying he committed a few days earlier to an undercover cop he was selling drugs to, prosecutors allege.

Orval Johnson, 24, was meeting with the officer for the fourth time to sell him cocaine in March and made the eye-popping confession when the cop noticed a gun hanging out of Johnson’s pants and asked what was going on.

“They tried to rob me out there the other day and shit,” Johnson allegedly said, according to an affidavit filed in federal court. “I had to kill that bastard, blew half his fucking face off.”

“He tried rob me and kill me and my bitch, I blew half his fuckin face off,” Johnson allegedly continued. He then told the cop that he had his girlfriend “play the rape thing,” meaning she’d shot the man in self defense because he tried to rape her.

A review of recent killings in the area quickly turned up the shooting death four days earlier of 30-year-old Ricky Boswell in which a woman told cops she shot him because he had tried to rape her. Turns out the woman was Johnson’s girlfriend.

After being taken in for questioning, Johnson admitted that he had met with Boswell to sell him cocaine, but that Boswell pulled out a gun to rob him. The two men scuffled, and Johnson said he told his girlfriend to give him his gun. She shot Boswell and when he then tried to attack her, Johnson admitted he shot him several times, killing him. He then wiped his DNA off the gun and concocted the rape story with his girlfriend to cover his tracks.

Johnson has been charged with distribution and possession with intent to distribute drugs, possession of a firearm during a drug trafficking crime and being a drug user in possession of a firearm. He has not been charged with Boswell’s killing.

 

At the time of his death, Boswell had only been out of jail for three months after serving four years in a murder case.

 

Top Prosecutor Charged in Cover Up of Police Chief’s Dildo Beating

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Thomas Spota has been Suffolk County district attorney since 2002

CENTRAL ISLIP, New York — A county district attorney and his top deputy have been charged with trying to cover up the role of a disgraced police chief in the beating of a handcuffed junkie who had stolen the former top cop’s sex toys from a car.

Thomas Spota and assistant Christopher McPartland stood on the other side of the courtroom in Long Island Wednesday to face charges for trying to keep former Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke out of jail for beating the suspect inside a police precinct in 2012.

Christopher Loeb’s crime had been breaking into Burke’s police-issued SUV and swiping a bag containing sex toys, a porn video, a gun belt, cigars and a humidor.

As Loeb was chained to a ring on the jailhouse floor, Burke threatened to give him a “hot shot” or a lethal dose of heroin and then beat him so severely that an officer told him, “Boss, leave it alone.”

Loeb admitted stealing the bag, but later said his confession had been coerced by the beating. The charge led the FBI to open a probe, which prompted Spota, 76, and McPartland, 51, to allegedly pressure witnesses not to cooperate.

Late last year, Burke was sentenced to 46 months in prison for the brutal beating and for conspiring to cover it up.

For three years the cover-up worked, but in 2015, the FBI managed to get a handful of officers to testify about what had really happened and Burke’s defense unraveled.

Spota was elected in 2002 after running a campaign in which he promised to clean up corruption in the county. He announced earlier this year that he would not run for reelection in November.

Both Spota and McPartland face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

 

Psychic Pleads Guilty to Tax Fraud in Bilking Elderly Woman Out of $3.5 Million

By HardBoiledNews Staff

BOSTON —  Surely she should have seen the tax man coming.

A predatory psychic who bilked an elderly Martha’s Vineyard woman out of $3.5 million in order to rid her of demons, has pleaded guilty to tax evasion.

Sally Ann Johnson, 41, swooped into the victim’s life in 2007 and convinced to pay top dollar for repeated spiritual cleansing ceremonies, exorcisms and healing services over the next seven years. At times, Johnson even lived with the victim.

Federal prosecutors say Johnson, who also went by the names Angela Johnson, Angelia Johnson, and Sally Reed operated various psychic businesses in Florida, Illinois, New York and Massachusetts.

The businesses, Flatiron Psychic, Psychic Match, Inc., and Psychic Spiritual Salon, Inc., all offered “psychic readings,” “spiritual cleansing & strengthening,” and “meditation & healing.”

But what ultimately landed Johnson in the dock was the lengths she went to in order to obscure the payments the victim made to her so that the IRS wouldn’t pick up on it.

Prosecutors say Johnson used an alias and directed that payments be sent to at least three different bank accounts connected to her, including an account in another person’s name. Johnson would then withdrew large amounts in cash.

She also ran up huge credit card bills on accounts in the victim’s name and had her pay the bill in lieu of paying directly for her services.

Prosecutors say the whole subterfuge was designed to conceal Johnson’s income from the IRS and that, in fact, she never paid a dime in tax on the $3.5 million.

Johnson pleaded guilty to interfering with the administration of the Internal Revenue laws and had agreed to pay $3,567,3000 back to the victim as well as pay back taxes. Sentencing was scheduled for Jan. 17, 2018.

 

Ex-NFL Player Convicted in $10 Million Ponzi Scheme

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Merrill Robertson had been a standout player at UVA

RICHMOND, Virginia — A former standout linebacker at the University of Virginia who had a brief stint in the NFL has been convicted of running a Ponzi scheme through which he bilked dozens of people he met through his playing days out of $10 million.

Federal prosecutors had alleged that Merrill Robertson Jr., 36, and his co-conspirator, Sherman Carl Vaughn, ran a bogus investment company called Cavalier Union Investments, but instead of investing the cash they raised , they used it to line their pockets or pay out earlier investors.

The pair operated the scam from 2009 until 2016, during which Robertson utilized relationships he had made in college and the NFL as well as his high school days at Fork Union Military Academy to find targets.

Robertson was a starting linebacker for the UVM Cavaliers, and spent time in training camp for the Philadelphia Eagles and Minnesota Vikings in 2003 and 2004.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said that among Robertson’s victims included coaches, alumni, donors and employees of the schools he had attended.

In all, the men bilked around 50 people out of $10 million which they partly used to cover their own living expenses, including mortgage and car payments, school tuitions, spa visits, restaurant and department store bills, and vacations.

While Robertson and Vaughn represented themselves as skilled investors, Vaughn had, in fact, filed for personal bankruptcy four times, including twice during the scam.

Vaughn pleaded guilty last year and is awaiting sentencing in September. Robertson was convicted of mail fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering and faces a maximum prison term of 330 years when sentenced on Dec. 6.

Robertson’s lawyer argued at trial that Vaughn was the mastermind behind the scam and had duped Robertson as well, saying he was a victim as well.

Lawyer in Biggest Social Security Scam in History May Have Fled to Mexico

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Eric Conn’s ads dotted the Kentucky landscape

LEXINGTON, Kentucky — A disability lawyer who went on the lam after being convicted of stealing over half a billion dollars in the biggest Social Security scam in history has been sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison and ordered to pay back $170 million.

Authorities say Eric Conn, who was held under home detention in Kentucky after his conviction in March, in snipped off his electronic monitoring anklet on June 2 and went on the run.

The FBI says it has tracked Conn to New Mexico where he has been spotted buying gas and shopping at Walmart.  They say Conn fled using a truck owned by a friend who had registered it to a dummy corporation in Montana.

The truck has been recovered in New Mexico near the Mexico border, although officials say they have no evidence Conn had fled into Mexico.

“The negative impact of Conn’s presence in our community will be felt for generations,” said FBI agent Amy Hess. “His flight from prosecution has diminished any legitimacy and integrity he once held as an attorney and officer of the court.”

The FBI has tracked Eric Conn as far as New Mexico where he was spotted shopping in Walmart

Conn, 56, was a well known figure in Kentucky with ads appearing on TV nonstop and ambulance chasing billboards dotting the landscape. He earned millions by representing thousands of clients pressing for disability claims from Social Security. But it was all a fraud, prosecutors said. In all, they say he defrauded the government out of $550 million.

Con was also seen shopping in a New Mexico Walmart

Conn admitted he had routinely presented false evidence of disabilities, paid unscrupulous doctors to rubber stamp forms and even bribed a Social Security judge who approved thousands of claims for Conn’s clients in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A second judge has admitted retaliating against a whistleblower who tried to blow the lid off Conn’s sleazy dealings with the judge. Both judges are awaiting sentencing.

At his sentencing, Judge Danny Reeves gave Conn the maximum jail term allowed by law, but acknowledged that 12 years didn’t fit the crime.

“It did hurt the entire system and the reverberations are still occurring,” Reeves said, according to the Lexington Herald Leader.

Three Sentenced in $19 Million Maple Syrup Heist

By HardBoiledNews Staff

TROIS-RIVIERES, Canada — Call it sweet justice.

Three men have been sentenced to prison for stealing nearly $19 million worth of Canadian maple syrup.

The ringleader, Richard Vallieres, 38,  was given an eight-year sentence and ordered to pay $9.4 million in fines. If he is unable to do so, he will be hit with an additional six years behind bars, a judge ruled.

Vallieres’ father and another man, who served as a syrup reseller, were sentenced to two year terms, the Canadian Broadcasting Company reported. Some 26 people have been arrested in connection with the heist.

The elaborate plot involved Vallieres and his accomplices draining barrels of the syrup held in the warehouses of the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, a regulatory body that oversees Canada’s trade, and replacing the sweet elixir with water.

Richard Vallieres

The scheme came unraveled when regulators conducting a spot check found a barrel filled with water rather than the expected maple goodness.

An investigation revealed that Vallieres and his partners had walked off with 3,000 tons of syrup over the course of several months in 2012.

Vallieres claimed he only participated in the scheme out of fear of a crooked syrup dealer who had had threatened him with a gun and warned that his family could get hurt.

He and the others are appealing their convictions.

Couple Busted in Old School ‘Pigeon Drop’ Con Targeting Elderly Women

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Vanessa Favors and Milous Brown keep their scams old school

KENNER, Louisiana — A con artist posing as a devoutly religious woman and her boyfriend have been charged with running an old-fashioned “pigeon drop” scam to bilk an elderly woman out of her cash.

Police say Vanessa Favors, 61, of Atlanta, Georgia., and Milous Brown, 74, of Birmingham, Alabama, were busted after targeting a 65-year-old woman at a store in Kenner, Louisiana, but say they have been arrested for running similar scams in the past.

“We certainly believe they are traveling and preying on the elderly to scam them,” Kenner Police Lt. Brian McGregor told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “We’ve also been in contact with other police jurisdictions who are reviewing similar cases.”

In a “pigeon drop”con, scamsters typically pretend to find a bag, wallet containing a large sum of cash, and approach their mark asking if the bag belongs to them. The fraudsters then propose splitting the money, but only after agreeing to a complicated arrangement in which the victim hands over cash as security while a lawyer ensures their keeping the money is legal.

In this case, Favors is charged with approaching the woman outside a Kenner grocery store. Favors, who was carrying a bible, asked the woman if she dropped her bag and then opened a purse holding a large wad of cash.

Favors offered to share the money for a fee and got the woman to agree to drive to a nearby where Favors said she planned to contact an attorney, cops said. On the drive over, cops say Favors began reciting biblical verse loudly, distracting the victim while she stole her wallet.

When they arrived at Wal-Mart, Favors took the handbag and the victim’s wallet inside where she met with Brown and quickly ran up several hundred dollars worth of items on the woman’s credit cards.

It was only after Favors did not return that the woman became suspicious and realized her wallet was gone.

Police believe the couple pulled off a similar scam on a 69-year-old woman outside a Winn Dixie in Kenner in 2013. Investigators believe other victims may have been targeted in and around New Orleans but may not have come forward because they were embarrassed.

Fraudster Doc Who Faked His Own Death to Avoid Jail Finally Faces the Music

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Svadjian paid $200 or this phony death certificate in Russia

LOS ANGELES — A doctor who went on the lam 15 years ago to avoid being tried for fraud and then bribed police in Russia to help him fake his own death, has been sentenced to 2 ½ years for fleeing justice.

Tigran Svadjian, a 58-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Armenia who worked as a doctor in Los Angeles and Fresno, had agreed to plead guilty in 2002 to stealing $2.4 million from Medi-Cal by billing for tests he never performed on patients who were dead.

But Svadjian fled to Russia just before he was due in court, leaving his wife and son behind, federal prosecutors said.

Later that year, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow received notification that Svadjian had died of pneumonia and that his body had been cremated. The embassy then issued a death certificate which Svadjian’s lawyers presented to prosecutors.

Svadjian later admitted he had paid a Russian cop $200 in 2002 to submit a phony official report about his death to the embassy. Svadjian then obtained a fraudulent Russian passport in a different name, Vasily Petrosov, and relocated to Hurghada, Egypt, where he worked as a scuba instructor, remarried and had two kids.

In 2013, after years of trying to get further confirmation of Svadjian’s death, prosecutors dismissed the health care fraud case.

But late last year, Svadjian was arrested in Egypt after being deported by Ukrainian authorities when he tried to enter the country on a fake Lithuanian passport. When Egyptian authorities searched his home, they found an old U.S. passport with his true name.

In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors said Svadjian “did not simply flee from prosecution.”

“Instead, defendant planned and implemented a sophisticated, fraudulent scheme that involved bribing foreign officials, using false statements to mislead U.S. State Department officials into creating a false death certificate, and submitting that false certificate to federal prosecutors. Defendant then hid from U.S. authorities through the use of false identities for approximately 15 years. He abandoned his wife, son, and parents, and started a whole new life without them because he did not want to spend time in prison.”

But since the initial fraud case had been dismissed, the evidence against Svadjian had been destroyed and prosecutors were only able to charge him with fleeing prosecution.

“Did the defendant get away with his scheme? Yes, Mr. Svadjian, to a degree you were successful,” Judge Michael Fitzgerald said, according to the Los Angeles Times. “You deserve 60 months

Modern-Day Cattle Rustler Gets 10 Years in Multi-Million Dollar Scam

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Authorities say the case involved one of the biggest cattle scams in Texas history

FORT WORTH, Texas — It was cattle rustling for the modern age.

A cattle trader has been sentenced to 10 years in a federal prison in one of the largest cattle fraud cases in Texas history in which he stole millions of dollars from a major livestock brokering firm by claiming to sell tens of thousand of heads of cattle to phony “big money” Texas rancher.

Tony Eugene Lyon, 52, of Fort Worth, pleaded guilty last November in federal court to a single count of wire fraud in the case that rocked the tight-knit cattle-trading world.

Prosecutors say Lyon was well-known trader in the North Texas cattle markets, engaging in buying, fattening, and selling cattle, as well as securing pastureland and transporting them. But he also once served 37 months in prison for bank fraud.

Through his work, Lyon became a representative in North Texas for Sidney, Nebraska-based Midwestern Cattle Marketing firm and bought and sold cattle on their behalf.

Federal prosecutors say that in early 2014, Lyon told the firm they could save money if they purchased cattle directly from him. They agreed, and Lyon was provided with MCM checks and a signature stamp, enabling him to purchase cattle without having to wait for authorization.

Tony Lyon played fast and loose with how he bought and sold cattle

Between Feb. 4 and June 29, 2015, prosecutors say Lyon told MCM he bought more than 50,000 head of cattle from a firm called the George Cattle Company, located in Fort Worth, Texas, which he said was  owned by a man named John George. In total, $87 million was purportedly spent in over 130 transactions.

But prosecutors say there was no John George and the George Cattle Company was just a figment of Lyon’s imagination. In reality, he was using the cash to pay off his and his parents’ debts and lining their pockets in an elaborate check-kiting scheme.

Prosecutors say the house of cards collapsed in June 2015, when a cash shortfall led Midwestern Cattle’s president, Jason O’Connell, to drive all night from Nebraska to confront Lyon.

O’Connell testified that Lyon confessed that “there were no cattle, there was no George Cattle Company, and there was no money to turn over.” When later deposed, Lyon asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to answer the question.

In the end, Lyon’s scheme caused MCM to suffer $5.1 million in losses and knocked them out of business.

In a separate civil case in Texas, a January, a jury awarded MCM $23.1 million in damages.

“At its heart, this case was about the reputation of the Texas livestock industry. I told the jury they had the power to send a message to the rest of the country that Texans do not tolerate cattle fraud and they would protect all people who buy and sell cattle in the Lone Star State. And, God Bless Texas, this jury definitely sent that message,” MCM lawyer Chris Trowbridge said in a statement at the time.

In their defense, Lyons and his parents argued that it was MCM’s own fault for entrusting him with the checkbook and that they should have known better because of Lyons’ earlier fraud conviction.

 

 

 

Strongman Champ Known as ‘White Rhino’ Shoots Self as FBI Closes In

By HardBoiledNews Staff

 

Gerard Benderoth was once ranked the 10th strongest man in the world

HAVERSTRAW, New York — A retired cop and strongman champion known as the “White Rhino” fatally shot himself in front of a school after being pulled over by FBI agents who were about to arrest him, authorities said.

Gerard Benderoth, 48, was about to be indicted on charges related to a quintuple homicide and drug conspiracy case brought by federal prosecutors in December against retired Westchester cop Nicholas Tartaglione, a bodybuilder and pal of Benderoth’s, the North Rockland Daily Voice reported.

As federal agents closed in to arrest Benderoth Wednesday morning and began tailing him with flashing lights, he pulled over near an elementary school, pulled out a gun and shot himself.

The FBI confirmed the episode, but declined to say why they had pulled Benderoth over and the nature of the charges he faced was not immediately clear.

Benderoth had been a cop for two decades, working as a New York City police officer until 2006 and then joining the force in the town of Haverstraw, about 35 miles north of the city. He retired two years ago.

But he had gained his greatest notoriety through his participation in strongman competitions where contestants exhibit feats of great strength, like carrying 450-pound boulders, pushing truck tires and pulling tractor trailers long distances.

Weighing 360 pounds, the behemoth Benderoth was able to deadlift 800 pounds and lift 185 pounds with one arm. In 2004, he was ranked 10th as the strongest man in the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48RVXJhvc4o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHTbZCM2Jnk

In December, federal prosecutors charged Tartaglione with the gangland slaying of four men as part of a cocaine deal gone wrong. They disappeared last April and their bodies were found in December on Tartaglione’s property.

A retired Briarcliff Manor police officer, Tartaglione could face the death penalty in the case.

 

 

 

Smuggler Gets 11 Years in Plot to Send U.S. Technology to Russian Military

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Prosecutors said the sophisticated electronics could be used in Russian missile systems

NEW YORK — The manager of a Texas-based front company was sentenced to 11 years in prison for his role in smuggling $50 million worth of sophisticated electronic components to the Russian military.

Alexander Posobilov, 62, of Houston, was accused of procuring cutting-edge microelectronic equipment from U.S. companies and then evading tight American export restrictions and shipping them to companies in Russia that supplied the Russian Ministry of Defense.

“Export laws exist as an important part of our national security framework and protecting national assets from ending up in the hands of our potential adversaries is one of our highest priorities,” said acting assistant attorney general for national security, Mary McCord.

The items in question —  digital signal processors, micro-controllers, amplifiers and field programmable gate arrays — are not manufactured in Russia and are often used for military radar and surveillance systems, missile guidance systems and detonation triggers, federal prosecutors said.

Authorities say that between 2002 and 2012, Posobilov’s company, Arc Electronics, Inc., shipped approximately $50 million worth of microelectronics and other technologies to Russia.

The ultimate recipients of these products included a research unit for Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, which succeeded the KGB following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and Russian concerns that builds air and missile defense systems and electronic warfare systems for the Ministry of Defense.

Prosecutors say Posobilov and his team lied to the American companies about the intended purpose for the electronics and then falsified export documents to send them out of the country.

Posobilov was one of 11 people and two companies charged in 2012 as part of the conspiracy to export the restricted equipment. He and two co-conspirators were convicted in 2015, five others pleaded guilty and three more remain at large.

Houston-based Arc Electronics, for which Posobilov served as procurement manager, has since been shut down. The company’s owner and mastermind behind the operation, Alexander Fishenko, was sentenced to 10 years in prison last year after pleading guilty.

A second company in Russia to which Arc sold its wares, Apex System, LLC, failed to appear in court.

Florida Man Charged in Bomb Plot Aimed at Sinking Target’s Stock Price

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Mark Barnett

OCALA, Florida  — This guy took the notion that Wall Street is just filled with a bunch of criminals a bit too far.

A Florida man has been charged with plotting to set off bombs at 10 Target stores along the East Coast in a bizarre scheme to drive the company’s stock price down so he could buy it on the cheap and make a killing when it went back up.

Federal prosecutors say Mark Barnett, 48, of Ocala, had paid a man $10,000 to set the bombs on shelves in stores stretching from Florida to New York.

The Orlando Sentinel reported that on Feb. 9, Barnett gave the man the explosives, gloves, a mask and cover to obscure his license plate. But instead of carrying out the plan, the man went to authorities and turned Barnett in.

Officials say the bombs were powerful enough that they could have killed or seriously injured anyone who was nearby when they went off.

Barnett was being held by local authorities on a variety of parole violations related to grand theft and sexual assault charges.

 

 

Ugandan Official Buried with $55K to Bribe Way Past Pearly Gates

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Charles Obong tried to take $55,000 with him in case he needed to atone for his sins

LIRA, Uganda — They say you can’t take it with you, but don’t tell Charles Obong.

The recently-deceased Ugandan government official instructed relatives to bury him with $55,000 in cash to offer to God for his sins.

Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper reports that Obong, who served for 10 years as a public service officer, died from a long illness on Dec. 17 and was buried in his ancestral village in the country’s north.

While Obong didn’t specify in his will what sins he was seeking to atone for, the public service ministry has been engulfed in a pension scandal in which $71 million has gone missing and three top officials have been found guilty of fraud.

Obong, who was 52 when he died, instructed his wife, Margaret, to place the cash in his steel-lined coffin and that his brother and sister make sure she followed his will to the letter, the paper reported.

His plans went awry on Jan. 7, when members of his clan exhumed his coffin and removed the cash after Obong’s widow confessed to the village’s elders what she had done. The newspaper reported that it is considered a taboo among Obong’s tribe to bury someone with money.

Anglican priest, Rev. Joel Agel Awio told the paper that  no amount of money can buy someone’s way into heaven.

“The price for eternal life is the blood of Jesus. If you want your sins to be forgiven, do it when you are still alive,” he was quoted as saying.

Woman Charged with Framing Hubby’s Ex in Bizarre “Rape Fantasy” Plot

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Angela Diaz (left) is charged with framing her husband’s ex, Michelle Hadley in a terrifying ‘rape fantasy’ plot

SANTA ANA, California — The wife of a California U.S. Marshal has been charged with a sinister plot to frame her husband’s ex-fiancee for unleashing a terrifying campaign of harassment that included soliciting a dangerous rape fantasy, authorities said.

The ex, Michelle Hadley, was charged last summer with 10 felony counts in the nefarious scheme and had faced up to life in prison. But in a bizarre twist Monday, prosecutors admitted they had gotten it wrong and dropped the case against her. Instead, they charged Angela Diaz, the initial victim, with concocting the whole thing.

“Ms. Hadley is an innocent victim of a diabolical scheme,” Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said. He said investigators were not sure what Diaz’s motive was.

The two women were brought together by having both been involved with the same man — who prosecutors identified only as John Doe, but the Los Angeles Times reported was a U.S. Marshal.

Authorities say they do not believe he was involved in the scheme.

Hadley had been engaged to him, but the two broke it off in August 2015. In January the following year, the man met Diaz on a dating website and the two were married and living together a month later. In May, Diaz said she was pregnant with twins.

In June, Diaz went to police in Anaheim, California to report that she had been getting harassing emails from Hadley, threatening to have her raped. The most chilling accusation she made was that Hadley had posted online solicitations in Diaz’s name inviting men to engage with her in”rape fantasies.” The ads included her photo and address and inviting men to have sex with her even if she screamed or resisted.

Bolstering the claim, police intercepted two men near Diaz’s house who believed they were responding to a real ad. In June, Diaz reported fending off a man in her garage, who had torn her blouse in an attempt to rape her.

That day, police arrested Hadley. When she was released the next day on bail, Diaz reported that the harassment continued. Eventually, Hadley was held on $1 million bail and spent several months behind bars.

During the investigation, however, police discovered that Diaz appeared to have committed various acts of fraud, including forging checks forgery, faking cervical cancer, pretending to be an attorney, forging doctor’s notes, faking a pregnancy, and impersonating another one of her husband’s ex-girlfriends over email.

They also increasingly began to believe Hadley’s story that she was innocent.

What had thrown investigators off the scent was that Diaz had used proxy servers to make it look like the email messages were coming from somewhere else. It took months, but eventually police unravelled the case when they were able to track the messages back to Diaz’s home and the home of her father.

Diaz, 31, was arrested last week in Phoenix. For Hadley, finally being exonerated was a huge relief.

“This has been a huge nightmare for me — probably the most traumatic experience of my life,” Hadley, 30, said outside the courthouse on Monday as the case against her was dropped.

 

http://orangecountyda.org/civica/press/display.asp?layout=2&Entry=5054

http://orangecountyda.org/civica/press/display.asp?layout=2&Entry=5055

Midwest Trucker Charged With Hiding Serbian Death Squad Past

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Prosecutors say trucker Alexander Kneginich was hiding a dark past

 

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan — A mid-western trucker has been arrested for allegedly hiding  that he’d been part of a Serbian death squad in the 1990s and had faced trial in Bosnia for murdering Muslims when he applied to come to U.S. as a refugee and later became a citizen.

Alexander Kneginich, 56, of Crown Point, Indiana, had served in an ethnic Serb army during Bosnia’s brutal civil war in the early 1990s, federal prosecutors said. In 1994, he and three others were charged with storming into a Muslim couple’s home and fatally shooting them.

The men were initially acquitted, but in 1996, the verdict was overturned and they faced retrial. In 2000, Kneginich allegedly lied on an application for refugee status in the United States, by claiming that his wife was ethnic Croat and that as a mixed-marriage couple they feared for their safety. Prosecutors say his now ex-wife is actually Serbian.

Kneginich posted this flag of a banned Serbian ultra-nationalist party on his Facebook page

On his Facebook page, Kneginich featured a picture of a flag of a banned fascist party in Serbia that has been accused of burning synagogues and mosques and attacking ethnic Roma.  On his right arm, Kneginich sports a prison tattoo of a Serbian crucifix.

In 2001, Kneginich was granted refugee status and settled in northern Indiana where he has worked as an electrician and a long-haul trucker. In 2007, he became a U.S. citizen in Michigan. Two years later, two of his co-defendants were retried in Bosnia and were convicted. Kneginich avoided retrial because he had resettled in the U.S.

Throughout his immigration process, prosecutors say he lied on his applications by failing to disclose that he had been charged with murder and had spent time in jail awaiting trial. He is also accused of lying about his wife’s ethnicity to gain refugee status.

“For persons who immigrate into the United States, citizenship is the brass ring,” said Pat Miles, U.S. Attorney in Michigan. “This office will zealously pursue any case where that prized status appears to have been obtained through fraud and deceit.”

Kneginich faces up to 10 years in prison and will lose his citizenship and be deported back to Bosnia if he is convicted.

 

White Supremacist Gets 30 Years in Muslim ‘Death Ray’ Plot

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Glendon Crawford had apocalyptic visions of killing Muslims with a radioactive death ray

ALBANY, New York  — A White Supremacist was sentenced to 30 years in prison for a bizarre plot to kill Muslims and President Obama using a “death ray” that could unleash lethal doses of radiation.

Glendon Scott Crawford, 52, a Navy veteran and a self-professed member of the Ku Klux Klan, was convicted in 2015, making him the first person in the U.S to be found guilty of attempting to acquire and use a radiological dispersal device as a “dirty bomb.”

“His plot to murder people he did not know was designed to, in his oft-repeated words, ‘take his country back’ from government leaders by forcing them to change government conduct he perceived as favoring Muslims,” prosecutors wrote in a pre-sentencing filing.

Prosecutors said Crawford, who worked as an industrial mechanic at General Electric Co in Schenectady, N.Y., carried out extensive research on radiation dispersal devices and conducted reconnaissance on potential targets, including several mosques in Upstate New York.

Evidence presented at trial showed that Crawford in April 2012 approached local Jewish organizations seeking financial support for his plan to acquire the device to be used against people he described as being “enemies of Israel.” Authorities were alerted to Crawford’s plot by members of a synagogue he had approached.

That same month, Crawford drove to North Carolina to solicit support from the Ku Klux Klan, prosecutors said.

In conversations recorded by an informant, Crawford spoke passionately of his hatred of Muslims and said he would go after Obama in the White House with the device.

Prosecutors said Crawford had intended to acquire and modify an industrial-grade x-ray radiation device so it would be able to unleash lethal doses of radiation.

With help from co-conspirator Eric Feight, Crawford designed, acquire parts for, and had begun building a remote-control unit that would emit lethal radiation from a distance. Feight pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorists and was sentenced to 97-months in prison.

Crawford eventually tried to acquire a radiation dispersal device from people he believed were  Klan-friendly businessmen, but were actually FBI agents working undercover. Crawford said he specifically wanted to use the device against Muslims, and scouted out mosques and an Islamic community center and school. Other possible targets included the White House and the New York Governor’s Mansion in Albany.

Crawford’s lawyers had argued that their client only moved to build the device at the instigation of undercover federal agents and that he never actually intended to use it. They say they plan to appeal the sentence.

 

Alaska Man Charged in $1 Billion Scheme To Evade Iran Sanctions

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Kenneth Zong is charged with moving $1 billion of Iranian money using phony marble tile sales

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A one-time Alaska restaurateur has been charged with helping illegally move more than $1 billion in Iranian money around the world in an elaborate conspiracy to evade sanctions.

Kenneth Zong, 77, is accused of plotting with four others — three Iranian nationals and a U.S. citizen — to get around restrictions by setting up phony business transactions to sell marble tiles in Iran, federal prosecutors said.

They say Zong — who is a naturalized U.S. citizen from South Korea — netted somewhere between $10 million and $17 million for his role in the scam. Federal authorities had previously seized more than 20 homes around Anchorage, luxury cars, jewelry and yacht they say Zong had acquired using the illicit proceeds.

Zong is currently incarcerated in South Korea on charges related to the plot.

Prosecutors allege that from January 2011 through at least April 2014, Zong and his co-conspirators  worked to move roughly $1 billion of Iranian money from Korean bank accounts and convert them into tradeable currencies, such as dollars and euros, defrauding Korean regulators into thinking the transactions were legitimate in the process.

The Alaska Dispatch News reported that Zong had gotten involved in the plot through his son Mitchell Zong, who while at Colorado State University, met Majid Fasoodeh, an Iranian associated with Farsoodeh & Partnership,  company linked to individuals working for the government of Iran.

The ploy involved Zong using his Korean-registered company, Anchore, to fictitiously sell marble tile and other construction material to an Iranian shell company on Kish Island in Iran, a free trade where foreign investment was allowed to occur.

Using false bills of lading and invoices, Zong was able to transfer Iranian cash into the accounts of his South Korean company, where he would transfer it into dollars or euros and then wired it to accounts controlled by Iranian individuals around the world.

Zong is also charged with 43 counts of money laundering related to efforts to obscure the origin of his multi-million dollar by acquiring real estate and other luxury items.

Zong and his wife, Kilja, ran the Phillips International Inn and Trattoria Bella restaurants in Anchorage until 2006.. After that he became involved in selling surplus Alaska pink salmon to Korea, as well as various other businesses.

Zong was convicted in Korea for breaking its foreign exchange and customs laws by filing false import and export documents. U.S. prosecutors hope to extradite him back to the U.S. to face trial, but it is unclear when that might happen.

 

 

 

Man who Plotted to Kill Obama for ISIS Sentenced to 30 Years

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Christopher Cornell admitted plotting to kill the president in the name of ISIS

Christopher Cornell admitted plotting to kill the president in the name of ISIS

CINCINNATI — A man who plotted to bomb the Capitol Building and kill President Obama in the name of the Islamic State during the 2015 State of the Union has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Christopher Lee Cornell, 22, of Green Township, Ohio, had plotted for six months, researching weapons, bomb making, and the locations and layouts of the U.S. Capitol and other Washington D.C. buildings for a planned strike on Jan. 20, 2015, federal authorities said.

His chilling plan was to kill as many officers and employees of the United States as possible. Cornell acquired two semi-automatic rifles and approximately 600 rounds of ammunition for the job.

The FBI caught wind of Cornell in 2014 when he began expressing support for ISIS on social media, talking about waging “jihad under our own orders,” and celebrating beheadings and terror attacks. He eventually began plotting the DC attack with another person who turned out to be an informant.

“Cornell plotted to commit violence as a symbolic attack on the United States as a whole.  An attempt to murder another individual is horrific enough and justifies a significant sentence.  But this was more than that.  Cornell wanted to inflict pain on the spirit of the entire country, and terrorize its leadership,” said Southern Ohio U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman.

After being detained, Cornell continued posting statements online using prison computers that called for others to join him in violent jihad against the United States and its citizens on behalf of ISIS. He also published details identifying the informant with whom he had plotted.

In a jailhouse interview following his arrest, Cornell told WXIX-TV that he planned the attack because of what he said was U.S. aggression against Muslims overseas.

“I’m with the Islamic State,” he told the station. “I’m very dedicated to establish the Sharia in America, to wage war on the kafr (an Islamic term for ‘unbeliever’) and raise the word of Allah above all.”

“I’m so dedicated that I risked my whole life,” he said.

As his sentencing approached, his lawyers said argued that Cornell had “lived a fantasy life behind a computer screen,” and had reassessed his life while in prison. In a letter submitted to the judge, Cornell wrote: “I’m not a terrorist, a criminal or a bad person, I’m just a kid who suffered from problems, that made some bad decisions and stupid mistakes.”

But after being sentenced, he called the court a “rigged” system, and that “Allah’s in control, not the judge.”

 

 

 

 

Man Pleads Guilty in Terrorist Plot to Create Separatist State in India

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Balwinder Singh, aka Happy, had some sinister plans for India

Balwinder Singh, aka Happy, had some sinister plans for India

RENO, Nevada — A man named Happy has pleaded guilty to helping organize an assassination attempt on an Indian official and supporting terrorist attacks aimed at creating an independent Sikh state there.

Federal prosecutors in Nevada say Balwinder Singh — who is also known as Jhaji, Happy, Possi and Baljit Singh — had been in contact with a group of Sikh nationalists in India to arrange sending a supporter from the United States to kill a government official.

Singh, 42, is an Indian citizen and a permanent U.S. resident living in Reno. Prosecutors say that in October 2013, Singh had plotted with the others to send the man to India to carry out the attack and acquired two sets of night vision goggles for him to use. In December of that year, the co-conspirator was arrested trying to board a flight from San Francisco to Bangkok, foiling the plot.

Following the bust, Singh and the others continued to discuss and plan a terror attack in India until Singh’s arrest later that December. He has been in custody since.

“National security is a top priority for the U.S. Attorney’s Office and we will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to locate, identify, and prosecute those who conspire and attempt to provide material support to terrorists and terrorist activities,” said U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden.

Singh pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support and resources to terrorists with the intending of it being used to commit terrorist attacks overseas. He faces up to 15 years in prison when he is sentenced in February.

The cause Singh admitted supporting aims to create a separate Sikh nation called Khalistan — or the land of the pure — in the Indian state of Punjab.

 

Investment Advisor Pleads Guilty to Stealing $2.9 million from NFL Players

By HardBoiledNews Staff

No. 1 pick, JaMarcus Russell, was one of the NFL stars bilked

One-time No. 1 pick, JaMarcus Russell, was one of the NFL stars bilked

GREENSBORO, North Carolina — A businessman who served as a money manager for several NFL player pleaded guilty to bilking them out of $2.9 million.

Michael Rowan, 46, of Greensboro, N. Carolina, recruited players as they came out of college to hire him and his partners in Capital Management Wealth Advisors and APS Management to manage their money.

Their more notable clients over the years included Mario Williams, JaMarcus Russell, Carnell “Cadillac” Williams, Carlos Rogers and Jonathan Stewart.

Federal prosecutors say that once a player was drafted by the NFL, Rowan would enter into an agreement to provide them financial services for a fee of between $15,000 and $50,000 a year. He would then have them sign an agreement allowing him access to their bank accounts to make investments for them.

While he told his clients he would only make transactions they authorized, prosecutors say Rowan transferred over $2.9 million for his own accounts and without their knowledge.

The shady investment advisor also pleaded guilty to not paying taxes on the purloined cash between 2009 and 2013.

Rowan was sued in 2010 by former San Diego Chargers wide receiver Craig “Buster” Davis, who claims he was bilked out of $500,000 in a bogus investment.

He faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced in January.