U.S. Capitol Police Send Out Shelter in Place Emergency Alert Due to #ActiveShooter Incident!

"SHELTER IN PLACE. Gunshots have been reported on Capitol Hill requiring all occupants in all House Office Buildings to shelter in place. Close, lock and stay away from external doors and windows. Take annunciators, Go Kits and escape hoods; and move to the innermost part of the office away from external doors or windows. If you are not in your office, take shelter in the nearest office, check in with your OEC and wait for USCP to clear the incident. No one will be permitted to enter or exit the building until directed by USCP. All staff should monitor the situation. Further information will be provided as it becomes available."

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10 Students Arrested on Felony Mob Action Charges After Brawl Outside of Rich South High School

Ten students are facing felony mob action charges after a brawl outside a suburban Chicago high school.

Authorities say three students were injured at Rich South High School as a fracas erupted Monday between students from the school and Rich Central High.

Officials say about 1,400 Rich Central students were bused to Rich South after a bomb threat. While they were waiting in the gym, someone pulled a fire alarm, sending about 2,800 students from both schools outside.

That's when fights erupted. It took more than two dozen police officers about an hour to control the crowd.

All the teenagers are charged in juvenile court except for one. District 227 Superintendent Doris Langon says more charges are expected.

School board members say their emergency plan had been approved by police.

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Sabirhan Hasanoff Sentenced to 18 Years in Prison for Providing Material Support to al Qaeda

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Sabirhan Hasanoff was sentenced in Manhattan federal court to 18 years in prison for providing and attempting to provide material support to al Qaeda associates in Yemen and elsewhere and for conspiring to provide material support to al Qaeda over the course of nearly three years. Hasanoff, who was arrested in the United Arab Emirates in 2010 and transferred to United States custody, pled guilty in June 2012 to one count of providing and attempting to provide material support and resources to al Qaeda and one count of conspiracy to provide material support and resources to al Qaeda. He pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Kimba M. Wood, who also imposed this sentence.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara stated, “Today’s sentence reflects the egregiousness of Sabirhan Hasanoff’s conduct. The defendant not only funneled equipment capable of being used for nefarious purposes and thousands of dollars to al Qaeda operatives abroad, he also travelled to U.S. soil to surveil a major New York landmark for a potential terrorist attack. We will not hesitate to continue, with our law enforcement partners, to pursue individuals engaged in similar behavior and do what we can to ensure they are brought to justice.”

According to various public filings and sworn statements made by the defendant during proceedings in Manhattan federal court:

From 2007 through late 2009, Hasanoff supported al Qaeda in a variety of ways. Hasanoff and his co-defendant, Wesam El-Hanafi, sent equipment, including remote-controlled devices capable of use in an explosives attack, to terrorist operatives abroad. In addition, Hasanoff and El-Hanafi together funneled approximately $67,000 to al Qaeda operatives overseas. Hasanoff and El-Hanafi collected some of this money from a third individual who resided in the United States. During this time, both defendants used aliases to disguise the source of their money when making cash donations to their terrorist contacts and made extensive plans for travel to engage in jihad in Somalia, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

In August 2008, Hasanoff entered the United States from abroad, travelled to New York City, and performed surveillance on the New York Stock Exchange—all on instructions from overseas terrorists who were considering the location for a possible attack. The information that Hasanoff gathered on the stock exchange was then sent to the terror operatives.

In addition to his prison term, Hasanoff, 37, a dual citizen of the United States and Australia who resided in Brooklyn, New York, was sentenced to three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay a $200 special assessment fee and forfeiture in the amount of $70,000.

El-Hanafi pled guilty in June 2012 to one count of providing and attempting to provide material support and resources to al Qaeda, and one count of conspiracy to provide material support and resources to Al Qaeda. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Mr. Bharara praised the outstanding investigative work of the New York-based Joint Terrorism Task Force—which principally consists of special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and detectives of the New York City Police Department. Mr. Bharara thanked the Department of Justice’s National Security Division and Office of International Affairs, the Kansas City-based JTTF, and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri for their extraordinary assistance in this matter.

This case is being handled by the Office’s Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys John P. Cronan, Aimee Hector, Glen Kopp, Michael Lockard, and Brendan R. McGuire are in charge of the prosecution.

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Details on Lyons Police Officer Jimmy Rodgers Facing Federal Robbery Charge

An officer with the Lyons Police Department (LPD) whose duties included investigating the sale of contraband and counterfeit cigarettes has been charged with robbing and extorting targets of his investigations. The charge was announced by Robert J. Shields, Jr., Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Gary S. Shapiro, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

Jimmy J. Rodgers, 43, was charged in a one-count criminal complaint filed last Thursday in U.S. District Court in Chicago with Hobbs Act robbery, a felony offense. The complaint was unsealed following Rodgers’s court appearance last Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Geraldine Soat Brown. Rodgers was released pending his next court appearance, which has not yet been scheduled.

According to the complaint, Rodgers, who was also assigned to a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) task force, recruited a cooperating source to assist in setting up transactions in which the source would sell contraband cigarettes to potential targets. The complaint states that Rodgers agreed to pay the source a fee for each transaction the source conducted. The complaint describes two such transactions between the source and targets, for which the source was provided a Village of Lyons check to pay for his services. The complaint alleges the source engaged in subsequent transactions and was paid in cash from money paid to the source during the transactions. The transactions between the source and Rodgers were reported by the source to the FBI last June.

At the direction of the FBI, the source recorded conversations and meetings with Rodgers in connection with another contraband cigarette transaction with a potential target. The complaint alleges that on July 30, the source received $11,280 from the target in exchange for 300 cartons of cigarettes and was told by Rodgers to keep $3,280 of that amount. The source was also given 30 cartons of cigarettes to pass to another source, who helped arrange the transaction with the target. In a recorded meeting a few days later, Rodgers allegedly acknowledged that he was not supposed to pay the source from the proceeds of the transactions and instructed the source to say that all payments to the source were by way of a check from the police department. An FBI agent subsequently reviewed the report of the July 30 transaction filed by Rodgers and noted that the report did not mention the seizure of cash from the target. LPD had no record of Rodgers turning in $8,000 from the transaction.

Mr. Shields expressed his gratitude for the substantial assistance provided by both the Lyons Police Department and the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations during the course of this investigation.

If convicted of the charge filed against him, Rodgers faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.

The public is reminded that a complaint is not evidence of guilt and that defendants in a criminal case are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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James L. Prange Sentenced in Securities Fraud Scheme

A self-described financing consultant to small and emerging companies was sentenced for his role in a kickback scheme.

James L. Prange, 63, of Greenbush, Wisconsin, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton to 30 months in prison, two years of supervised release, a $15,250, fine and forfeiture. In May 2013, Prange was convicted by a jury of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, and mail fraud.

Prange was sentenced for his role in a scheme to pay secret kickbacks to an investment fund representative who had agreed to use the fund’s money to buy stock in three companies that had hired Prange’s firm, Northern Equity, to help them raise capital. The kickbacks were concealed through the use of sham consulting agreements and other fraudulent documents. Prange and the company executives were unaware that the purported investment fund representative was actually an undercover agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The conviction and sentence followed a year-long investigation focusing on preventing fraud in the micro-cap stock markets. Microcap companies are small, publicly traded companies whose stock often trades at pennies a share. Fraud in the microcap markets is of increasing concern to regulators as such markets have proven to be fertile grounds for fraud and abuse. This is, in part, because accurate information about microcap stocks may be difficult for the average investor to find, since many microcap companies do not file financial reports with the Securities Exchange Commission.

Executives of three publicly traded companies who were also charged as part of the undercover operation were sentenced in the last two months. In August, Karen L. Person, 62, of Las Vegas, Nevada, the chief executive officer of SBCO, Inc., and John C. Jordan, 62, of Cameron Park, California, the chief executive officer of Vida Life International Ltd., were each sentenced to 30 months in prison for their roles in the scheme. Person pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and Jordan was convicted after trial on multiple counts of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud. In July, Steven Berman, 50, of Ohio, the former chief executive officer of China Wi-Max Communications Inc., and Richard Kranitz, 69, a Wisconsin securities attorney who served as an adviser and a member of the board of directors of China Wi-Max, were each sentenced to 18 months after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, which conducted a parallel civil investigation alongside the FBI undercover operation, cooperated with criminal authorities in bringing these charges and charges against 10 other defendants who participated in the kickback scheme. Eight of those defendants have already pleaded guilty to charges arising out of their involvement in the scheme.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and Vincent B. Lisi, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division, made the announcement. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sarah E. Walters, Stephen E. Frank and Vassili Thomadakis of Ortiz’s Economic Crimes Unit.

This case was brought in coordination with President Barack Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. President Obama established the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch and, with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes. For more information about the task force visit www.stopfraud.gov.

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