While forecasters were plotting the course of Hurricane Gustav, the federal government was ramping up its response and activating agencies that might be needed to help in the wake of a natural disaster. The FBI, along with other federal law enforcement agencies, was included in that response.
Read about our Top Ten news stories of the week, including the convictions of two former Bank of China managers and their wives in a $485 million embezzlement, racketeering, and money laundering scheme; the arrest of a man for possessing Molotov cocktails, which he allegedly planned to use at the Republican National Convention; and the charging of a former Maryland state delegate for possession of child pornography.
A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. returned a superseding indictment against Terry Hall, of Rex, Georgia, a civilian contractor, for allegedly paying bribes to Army contracting officials at Camp Arifjan, an Army base in Kuwait, and for committing honest services fraud in connection with the same conduct.
Former lobbyist Jack A. Abramoff was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay more than $23 million in restitution to victims based on his guilty plea to conspiracy, honest services fraud, and tax evasion charges.
A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. returned a superseding indictment against Terry Hall, of Rex, Georgia, a civilian contractor, for allegedly paying bribes to Army contracting officials at Camp Arifjan, an Army base in Kuwait, and for committing honest services fraud in connection with the same conduct.
The FBI and its partners announced that the reward for information leading to the arrest of James J. "Whitey" Bulger has been increased from $1 million to $2 million, and that a new Top Ten wanted posted of Bulger featuring age enhanced photographs has been issued. Bulger has been a fugitive since his disappearance in 1995.
Juan Luis Cadena-Sosa was sentenced to 15 years in prison on federal civil rights violations for conspiring to smuggle Mexican women and girls into the United States and forcing them to engage in prostitution by means of intimidation, violence, and threats of physical harm.
Cesar Navarrete, Geovanni Navarrete, Villhina Navarrete, Ismael Michael Navarrete, and Antonio Zuniga Vargas pled guilty to charges relating to a scheme to enslave Mexican and Guatemalan nationals and compel their labor as farmworkers in Florida.
Kenneth Barnes, of Erie, Pennsylvania pled guilty to charges related to his involvement in a bank robbery scheme in which a pizza deliveryman, acting as an unwilling participant, robbed a bank while wearing a bomb around his neck. The bomb later detonated, killing the robber.
