Hard Boiled News

True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Sailors Use Boiling Water, Oil to Repulse Pirate Attack

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.