Information for Victims in Large Cases
United States v. Aleksii Burkov, 15-cr-245
From approximately 2011-2013, Burkov, a national and resident of Russia, ran a website called Card Planet that sold stolen credit card information on a massive scale. The U.S. Secret Service obtained a copy of the back-end server hosting Card Planet and determined that over 150,000 stolen credit card numbers were offered for sale on the site. The numbers appear to have been issued by over 1300 banks. Burkov was arrested while vacationing in Israel in 2015 and extradited to the United States in 2019. The USSS was not able to seize any assets from Burkov and he is likely to be deported to Russia upon serving his sentence.
United States v. Ahmad Abouammo et al.
Defendants were charged with acting as agents of the Saudi government without notice to the Attorney General for their roles in the unauthorized access of Twitter accounts of users who had publicly renounced the Saudi government. Defendants Abouammo and Alzabarah were employees of Twitter and were provided user names that were of interest to the Saudi government by a foreign official/representative of the Saudi Royal Family.
United States vs. Matthew Brent Goettsche et al.
Defendants Goettsche, Balaci, and Weeks have been charged with conspiracy to engage in wire fraud in connection with their roles in BitClub Network. From April 2014 through December 2019, BitClub Network was a fraudulent scheme that solicited money from investors in exchange for shares of purported cryptocurrency mining pools and rewarded investors for recruiting new investors into the scheme. Goettsche, Balaci, Weeks, and others conspired together to solicit investment in BitClub Network through fraudulent means, including by providing false and misleading figures that BitClub investors were told were “bitcoin mining earnings” purportedly generated by BitClub Network’s bitcoin mining pool. Goettsche, Balaci, Weeks, and others obtained the equivalent of at least $722 million from BitClub Network investors.
Defendants Goettsche, Balaci, Weeks, and Abel also conspired to sell BitClub Network shares—which were securities—notwithstanding that BitClub Network did not register the shares with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Weeks and Abel created videos and traveled around the United States and the world to promote BitClub Network and recruit others to invest.
U.S. v. Brandon Demond Frere
Fraudulent student loan forgiveness program that operated from 2014 through November 2018.
Rosanne Day, et al
The indictment alleges that PacNet, under the defendants' direction, was the payment processor of choice for companies that mailed large volumes of fraudulent notifications designed to mislead victims into falsely believing they would receive a large amount of money, a valuable prize, or specialized psychic services upon payment of a fee. From 1994 until September 22, 2016, PacNet served as the middleman between banks and the fraudulent mailers - aggregating the checks, cash, and credit card payments collected by its clients, depositing the payments into PacNet-controlled bank accounts, and then distributing the funds as directed by the clients, according to the indictment. The notifications that induced the payments processed by PacNet were false - the victims who submitted the fees did not receive a large amount of money, a valuable prize, or specialized psychic services, according to the indictment. Many alleged victims were elderly or otherwise vulnerable, according to the indictment.
United States v. Dino Paolucci
The defendant, Dino Paolucci, was charged with wire fraud and securities fraud in connection with his involvement in promoting a stock manipulation scheme, commonly referred to as a “pump and dump.”
United States v. Douglas Gordon
The first two counts of a three-count superseding indictment charge Douglas Gordon, a former co-owner of a chain of Edge Video movie rental stores in Maine, with willfully infringing copyrights of motion pictures by reproducing and distributing counterfeit DVD copies of movies in 2014 and 2016. The third count of the indictment charges the defendant with engaging in a mail fraud scheme from about April, 2014 to about January, 2019. He is further charged in the third count with having established FindrareDVDs (FRD), Lostmoviesfound (LMF) and Lostmoviefinder (LMFinder) websites to advertise the sale of more than 100 motion pictures in DVD format. The FRD, LMF and LMFinder websites allegedly misled customers about the quality of DVD versions of motion pictures and accepted “Mail in” orders as well as “On-line” orders. The indictment alleges customers had expectations based on false representations and material omissions on the websites of receiving an authentic motion picture in a DVD format of good quality. For the purpose of executing or attempting to execute the scheme to defraud, the Defendant is alleged to have received very large numbers of customer orders for DVDs of motion pictures and to have knowingly caused to be delivered by mail, burned DVD copies of movies of inferior quality, or did aid and abet the same.
U.S. v. Pigida et al
Volodimyr Pigida and Marina Bondartenko are charged with operating a Ponzi scheme through their business Trend Sound Promoter. Through the scheme, defendants are alleged to have caused more than $11 million is losses. They are further alleged to have fraudulently used proceeds from their scheme for their own benefit, to include the purchase of houses and vehicles. Finally, the charges allege that the defendants committed fraud by hiding assets and transactions in connection with Trend Sound Promoter’s bankruptcy proceeding.
US v Rust et al.
Alleged scheme to defraud investors by inducing them to purchase investments in a fraudulent silver trading program. All three defendants are charged with wire fraud conspiracy in the first count of the indictment and money laundering conspiracy in the second count. Gaylen Rust is also charged with two counts of securities fraud. Denise Rust and Joshua Rust are each charged with one count of money laundering.
U.S. v. Nicole Rogers
According to the indictment, Nicole Rogers obtained stolen mail containing credit cards, checks, and personal identifying information belonging to others. Nicole Rogers deposited or attempted to deposit the stolen checks into her account.
United States vs. Edgar Del Rio and Patti A. Kern
The information allege that Patti Kern and Edgar Del Rio conspired to defraud more than $1.5 million from senior citizens using a prize promotion scam. Between May 2011 and February 2018, Kern and others carried-out a direct-mail prize scam targeting seniors. The mailings were made to appear as if they came from sophisticated companies and misled victims to believe they would receive large sums of money, if they paid a relatively small fee, typically $20.00. None of the victims who sent a fee in response to the mailing ever received a large cash prize.
US vs Constant et al
Randy Constant, Tom Brennan, James Brennan, and Mike Potter each pled guilty to one count of wire fraud. John Burton has been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The charges resulted from the sale of grain fraudulently marketed as organic. The sales were primarily done through a business co-owned by Randy Constant named Jericho Solutions, which was located in Ossian, Iowa. The sales at issue occurred between 2010 and 2017.