FBI

BULLETIN: The former president and chief executive officer of Unico Inc. in San Diego has been indicted on federal charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and obstruction of justice, amid spectacular allegations of legal chicanery. Mark Anthony Lopez was accused of conspiring with New Jersey-based stock trader Mark Allen Lefkowitz to manipulate the share […]

In 2009, AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming claimed a city in Washington state targeted him for “DEATH” and threatened to kill him by “HUNTING” him down “in screaming packs and mobs” and using “several armed street gangs” that served as police, according to records. Leaming, now 57, further claimed the Pierce […]

BULLETIN: (UPDATED 12:35 P.M. ET U.S.A.) AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming has reached out from jail again in a bid to sue the government and officeholders. Leaming, 57, is detained in the SeaTac federal-detention facility near Seattle on charges of filing false liens against at least five public officials involved in […]

James P. Burg, formerly of Fairplay, Colo., ripped off his customers for gold coins and, in at least one instance, “used one customer’s payment for coins to refund funds to another customer,” federal prosecutors said. The scam fetched more than $2.4 million and operated through three websites, prosecutors said. Burg, 61, became the subject of […]

A German national who allegedly conducted a Ponzi scheme in Hawaii and then fled to Indonesia is the subject of an FBI manhunt. Peter Heckman, 63, ran a Ponzi scheme in which he promised investors “guaranteed returns of 10 to 15 percent for terms as short as two weeks,” the FBI said. The scam allegedly […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: Thanks to PP Blog reader “Tony” for a heads-up on this: Joseph “Jose” Banks, a purported “sovereign citizen” convicted of bank robbery earlier this month, has been captured after his escape from a federal jail in Chicago on Tuesday, the FBI told the Associated Press. A manhunt for alleged fellow escapee Kenneth Conley […]

BULLETIN: Two inmates escaped from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago earlier today, the FBI said. One of the escapees — Jose Banks — is a purported “sovereign citizen” who got a mention on the PP Blog Dec. 15. Banks, a convicted bank robber,  is considered “armed and dangerous,” the FBI said. Also considered […]

Mikael Patrick Sallnert has been sentenced to 48 months in federal prison for his role in processing payments for a cybercrime ring, the U.S. Justice Department announced. Sallnert, 37, is a citizen of Sweden. As part of “Operation Trident Tribunal,” Sallnert was arrested in Denmark on Jan. 19, 2012, and extradited to the United States […]

“The Intelligence Community’s most recent Worldwide Threat Assessment confirms that U.S. networks have already been subject to ‘extensive illicit intrusions.’ The head of the National Security Agency and the Pentagon’s Cyber Command, for one, believes such intrusions may have resulted in ‘the greatest transfer of wealth in history.’” — Lisa Monaco, Assistant Attorney General for […]

“As alleged in the complaint, the defendant came to this country intent on conducting a terrorist attack on U.S. soil and worked with single-minded determination to carry out his plan. The defendant thought he was striking a blow to the American economy. He thought he was directing confederates and fellow believers.” — U.S. Attorney Loretta […]

A California man wanted by U.S. prosecutors in a Ponzi-scheme case was living in a rented house in Ireland and has been convicted in an Irish drug case, the Independent reported. Scott Edward Cavell, now 29, was described on the FBI website in 2009 as “still a fugitive, believed to be outside the United States.” […]