Guilty Plea from Dias Kadyrbayev for Impeding Boston Marathon Bombing Investigation

Dias Kadyrbayev, 20, a close friend of alleged Boston Marathon bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston, to impeding the bombing investigation. Kadyrbayev pleaded guilty to conspiring to obstruct justice and obstructing justice with the intent to impede the Boston Marathon bombing investigation.

The terms of the plea agreement provide that the U.S. Attorney will recommend a sentence of seven years in prison. Kadyrbayev has agreed to be deported from the United States after serving his sentence. U.S. District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock scheduled sentencing for Nov. 18, 2014.

In August 2013, Kadyrbayev was indicted with Azamat Tazhayakov for obstructing the investigation of the Marathon bombings. Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov are both nationals of Kazakhstan who were temporarily living in the United States on student visas while attending the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (UMass). However, at the time of their arrests on May 1, 2013, their visas had been revoked.

Kadyrbayev admitted that on the evening of April 18, 2013, after he viewed images of the suspected Boston Marathon bombers released by the FBI, he exchanged text messages with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He then went with Azamat Tazhayakov to the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth campus. At approximately 10:00 p.m., Kadrybayev, Tazhaykaov and a third individual entered Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s dormitory room at UMass.

While inside Tsarnaev’s dormitory room, Kadyrbayev searched it and found a backpack containing fireworks and a jar of Vaseline. The fireworks appeared to have been opened, manipulated, and some of the explosive powder appeared to have been removed. After finding this backpack and the fireworks, Kadyrbayev showed them to Tazhayakov and they both agreed to remove the backpack from Tsarnaev’s dormitory room. Kadyrbayev also found Tsarnaev’s laptop computer. At approximately 10:30 p.m., Kadrybayev, Tazhayakov and a third individual left Tsarnaev’s dormitory room. When they left, Kadyrbayev removed several items from Tsarnaev’s room, including Tsarnaev’s laptop computer and his backpack and its contents. Kadyrbayev, accompanied by Tazhayakov and the third individual, then brought the items back to the apartment he shared with Tazhayakov in New Bedford.

Kadyrbayev also admitted that, after returning to their apartment, on the evening of April 18, 2013 and the morning of April 19, 2013, he and Tazhayakov watched television news reports and read Internet news articles about the bombing investigation and the manhunt for the two suspected Boston Marathon bombers whom they believed were Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev. During the early morning hours of April 19, 2013, Kadrybayev and Tazhayakov discussed getting rid of Tsarnaev’s backpack and the fireworks. They both agreed that they should get rid of Tsarnaev’s backpack and as a result of their agreement, Kadyrbayev placed the backpack and its contents, including the fireworks, into a large black trash bag and threw the entire bag into the garbage dumpster in his apartment complex. After discarding the backpack in the garbage, Kadyrbayev decided to keep Tsarnaev’s laptop computer and continue to conceal it. He did not attempt to return it to Tsarnaev’s dormitory room, nor did he notify law enforcement that he had Tsarnaev’s computer.

On April 26, 2013, after 25 federal agents searched a landfill in New Bedford for two days, Tsarnaev’s backpack, containing fireworks, a jar of Vaseline, and a thumb drive, was found. Although these items were found, the condition of the backpack and its contents had been altered by the actions of Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov.

If the plea agreement is accepted by the Court, Kadyrbayev will be sentenced to no more than seven years in jail and three years of supervised release. Kadrybayev will also be deported after serving any sentence that the Court imposes.

In July 2014, Azamat Tazhayakov was found guilty by a federal jury in Boston of conspiring to obstruct justice and obstructing justice with the intent to impede the Boston Marathon bombing investigation. Sentencing is set for sentencing for Oct. 16, 2014.

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8 Members of Two Six Nation Indicted on Racketeering, Drug & Murder Charges

Eight purported street gang members have been indicted on racketeering and drug trafficking charges in federal court in northwest Indiana.

WBBM Newsradio’s Mike Krauser reports the Two Six Nation street gang – which has roots in Chicago, and has spread into northwest Indiana – uses a cartoon rabbit with a bent ear as a symbol, but federal prosecutors allege the warm and fuzzy ends there.

David Capp, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana, and Chicago U.S. Atty. Zach Fardon said the gang’s violent crimes are numerous, including allegations they regularly moved hundreds of pounds of illicit drugs and killed at least two people.

“My message to those who are members of, or who continue to associate with violent street gangs – we are coming after you, and you are next” Capp said.

“Violent street gangs like the Two Six move drugs and guns and violence. We will follow,” Fardon said.

James Trusty, the Chief of Organized Crime in the U.S. Justice Department, said there are more than 40 alleged crimes detailed in the indictment against eight members and associates of the Two Six Nation, including:

• Frank “Pumpkin” Perez Jr., 33, of Verona, Pennsylvania;
• Adron “AWOL” Herschel Tancil, 36, of East Chicago;
• Jesus “Chu Chu” Valentine Fuentes, 39, of Gary, Ind;
• Anthony “P-nut” Cresencio Aguilera, 35, of Portage, Ind.;
• Oscar “Cos” Cosme, 41, of East Chicago;
• Ester “Mama D” Carrera, 61, of Gary;
• Paul “Big Brock” Brock, 27, of Gary;
• and Alma Delia Carrera, 28, of Gary.

“The indictment alleges that the Two Six Nation orchestrated and carried out a series of brutal crimes; including murders, kidnapping, drug trafficking, robberies, and other offenses spanning more than two decades,” Trusty said. “The gang brandished weapons like sawed-off shotguns and AK-47 assault rifles.”

Tancil, Fuentes and Cosme are charged in the May 2003 murder of Julio Cartagena in East Chicago. Another purported gang member, Kiontay Kyare Pennington, has pleaded guilty to murder for his role in the slaying.

Perez is charge in connection with the July 1999 murder of Jose Pena Jr. in Whiting. Perez made headlines in 2011 when he was arrested in Pennsylvania for Pena’s murder, following a shootout with police.

Capp said the work of the Chicago Police Department’s gang intelligence was invaluable to the case.

Federal prosecutors used the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act to go after the gang – a tactic once reserved for the mob – to charge them with an ongoing criminal conspiracy.

“This is our third use of the federal RICO statue over the past few years against a violent street gang in northwest Indiana. We are going to continue to use this powerful tool to get these individuals off the street,” Capp said.

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Michael Kaiser Gets 20 Years in Prison #OperationBadNickname

Michael Kaiser, one of the defendants arrested in a Longmont Police Department methamphetamine bust last August, was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison, to be followed by five years of mandatory parole, for racketeering under the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act.

Boulder District Court Judge Patrick Butler also sentenced Kaiser to 16 years for conspiracy to distribute between 450 grams and 1 kilogram of methamphetamine, a sentence to run concurrently with the one Butler ordered for the racketeering felony, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Ken Kupfner.

The 41-year-old Kaiser, who originally had been charged with 33 felonies, had pleaded guilty on June 4 to the charges for which he was sentenced on Friday.

Kaiser and his wife, Geraldine Vodicka, were a Loveland couple at the center of what police called their Operation Bad Nickname investigation, which resulted in the arrests of more than 30 people accused of being involved in a methamphetamine-distribution ring.

This past Wednesday, a Boulder County District Court jury found Vodicka guilty of seven felony charges, including violation of the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act and five counts of conspiracy to distribute various weights of a controlled substance and possession of more than one kilogram of the illegal drug.

Also found guilty by that jury on Wednesday was Terry Romero, on five felonies, including a special-offender status, a violation of the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act and conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute between 25 and 450 grams of a controlled substance.

Sentencing hearings for Romero and Vodicka are scheduled for Oct. 24.

Longmont Police Cmdr. Jeff Satur said Operation Bad Nickname was a six-month multi-agency drug investigation into the sales of narcotics in Longmont, Loveland and northern Colorado. He said large quantities of methamphetamine, weapons and other dangerous drugs were recovered during the investigation. Several of the other defendants arrested in the meth-ring bust have also pleaded guilty and have received sentences or are awaiting sentencing.

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Frank Preve Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud in Massive Rothstein Ponzi Scheme

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Donnell Young, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), and George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office, announce that Frank Preve, 70, of Coral Springs, pled guilty in Ft. Lauderdale before U.S. District Judge James I. Cohn to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. At his sentencing, scheduled for December 12, 2014, Preve faces a maximum statutory sentence of up to five years in prison.

In 2009, it was discovered that the law firm of Rothstein, Rosenfeldt and Adler, P.A. (RRA) was being utilized by its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Scott W. Rothstein, to commit a massive Ponzi scheme stemming from the sale of fictitious confidential settlements. In a written factual stipulation filed in connection with his guilty plea, Preve admitted that he worked for a number of companies, referred to as “the Banyon Group,” which solicited lenders and investors into the confidential settlement business being offered by Rothstein. The defendant further admitted that, from on or about July 9, 2009 through October 31, 2009, he defrauded investors by not disclosing that Rothstein had failed to make payments that were due to the Banyon Group, that Rothstein had frozen certain bank accounts that were holding investor funds, that certain paperwork was not being prepared, and that verification of the investments was not taking place, all in violation of a private placement memorandum which had been circulated to potential investors by the Banyon Group. The defendant further admitted that, through these material misrepresentations and omissions, Preve caused more than $20 million to be paid by investors to the Banyon Group.

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Joint Statement from FBI & Justice Department on #Ferguson

The following joint statement was released by FBI Special Agent in Charge William P. Woods, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri Richard G. Callahan and Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Molly Moran:


“At the onset of our federal civil rights investigation, the Attorney General of the United States promised a thorough and complete investigation into the shooting death of Michael Brown.  That investigation is proceeding. We can confirm that FBI agents, working together with attorneys from the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and US Attorney's Office, have already conducted several interviews of witnesses on the scene at the time of the shooting.  Over the next several days, teams of FBI agents will be canvassing the neighborhood where the shooting took place to identify any individuals who may have information related to the shooting and have not yet come forward.  We ask for the public's cooperation and patience, and again urge anyone with information related to the shooting to contact the FBI.  The FBI can be reached at (800) CALL-FBI, option 4.”

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