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Tag: U.S. Attorney John M. Bales

  • FEDS: Texas Man Who Attacked U.S. Marshal With Razor Blade In Courthouse Later Attacked Federal Prosecutor In Courtroom; Jose Garcia Jr. To Spend 28 Years In Prison

    A Texas man who pleaded guilty to charges of attempting to kill a deputy U.S. Marshal with a razor blade later assaulted a federal prosecutor, authorities said.

    In May 2009, Jose Garcia Jr. was being led into a federal courtroom in McAllen to face allegations that he had violated the conditions of his probation. As he was being escorted, Garcia attacked the marshal with a razor blade and caused “serious bodily injury,” the office of U.S. Attorney John M. Bales of the Eastern District of Texas said.

    Garcia, 33, of Mercedes, pleaded guilty to attempted murder of the marshal in December 2009. Sentence court was conducted in Houston in March 2010.

    During the proceeding, Garcia became agitated because a federal judge had denied his bid to change his plea, authorities said.

    At that point, Garcia “charged” a federal prosecutor, “causing the prosecutor to fall backwards against the railing of the jury box and breaking the prosecutor’s fingers in the process,” Bales’ office said.

    Garcia was sentenced later on the same day to 20 years in federal prison for the murderous assault against the marshal.

    Four months later — in July 2010 — Garcia was charged with attacking the federal prosecutor in a federal courtroom.  He was found guilty by a jury in January 2011, and was sentenced earlier this week to eight more years in federal prison.

    The sentences will be served consecutively, meaning Garcia will be behind bars for nearly three decades.

  • Ponzi Pitchman Pleads Guilty To Alleged Role In Massive Oil-And-Gas Swindle; ‘We Will Be Relentless In Our Pursuit’ Of Scammers, Top Federal Prosecutor Says

    A Dallas man accused of fleecing investors in oil-and-gas schemes that gathered $535 million in Texas and Michigan has pleaded guilty to his role in the alleged schemes.

    “Investment fraud is, at its core, a betrayal of trust by one person to another,” said U.S. Attorney John M. Bales of the Eastern District of Texas.  “We will be relentless in our pursuit of those individuals responsible for abusing the trust of others in order to obtain criminal profits.”

    Joseph Blimline, 35, was accused of making “materially false representations” and failing to disclose material facts as a representative of Provident Royalties, which was implicated in a securities swindle by the SEC.

    Blimline, who faces up to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of conspiracy,  previously had been charged with securities fraud by the state of Michigan, prosecutors said.

    Provident was accused by the SEC in July 2009 of orchestrating a $485 million offering fraud involving more than 7,700 investors. Blimline was accused of orchestrating a separate fraud in Michigan that involved $50 million.