Financial Crimes

Shawn Phillips, 44, received a federal sentence to run consecutively to his pending state charges. The Court further sentenced Phillips to three years of supervised release following his term of imprisonment and ordered him to pay restitution in the amount of $50,718.

According to court documents, Edafe Onoetiyi, 34, of Nigeria, but living in Dallas, Texas; and Susan Johns, 54, of Bothwell, Washington, pled guilty in U.S. District Court in Natchez, Mississippi.

The report – Detecting and Reporting the Illicit Financial Flows Tied to Organized Theft Groups and Organized Retail Crime – highlights red flags associated with organized theft groups, including structured deposits and withdrawals, large purchases of stored-value cards, high-dollar wire transfers tied to wholesale companies involved with health and beauty supplies, and large purchases of lighter fluid or heat guns, among others.

Jesus Acosta-Gandarilla was accused on April 25, of committing Second Degree Money Laundering, Conspiracy, and Illegally Conducting an Enterprise between Sept. 26, 2017 to Nov. 1, 2017, by allowing others to deposit approximately $55,000 into his Wells Fargo Bank account and by personally wiring approximately $55,000, in order to conceal the identity of the actual persons receiving the money.

The lead defendant is 37-year-old Natalie Le Demola. She is currently serving a life prison sentence after she was convicted in 2005 of first-degree murder. 32-year-old Carleisha Neosha Plummer of Los Angeles is also charged. She was a close associate of Demola in prison until she was paroled in July 2020.

A California man, residing in Atlanta, Georgia, was indicted Tuesday for smuggling cash into Mexico from the United States, following an investigation conducted by ICE's HSI with the assistance of the U.S. Border Patrol, RGV Sector.

Individuals arrested were Akber Jesani, 39, and Hardin Ameena, 28, both residents of Sugarland, Texas, and Shamshuddin Dosani, 52-year-old resident of Richmond, Texas. All three are charged with engaging in organized criminal activity, aggregate theft, and money laundering in violation of Texas law. The Harris County (Texas) District Attorney’s Office is prosecuting all three individuals.

Jaliya Chitran Wickramasuriya, 61, of Arlington, Virginia attempted to misappropriate $332,027 during the Sri Lankan government’s 2013 purchase of a new embassy building in Washington, D.C.

Marco Antonio Martinez Sanchez, a citizen of Mexico, was charged March 21, in the Santa Cruz County Superior Court.

On March 17, David John Nava, 63, of La Jolla was sentenced in federal court for his role in multiple felonies related to the operation of his financial firm, Surf Financial Group, LLC, including conspiring to defraud shareholders of publicly traded companies, transmitting millions of dollars through an unlicensed money transmitting business, and falsifying multiple years of federal tax returns. He was also ordered to pay $3,716,888.27 in restitution.