The Trump administration frequently refers to the U.S.-Mexico border as a “crisis” zone that can only be fixed by building a border wall. The cause for the crisis, President Trump says, is illegal immigrants coming to this country to commit…
Author: John Floyd
2019
Category: Fraud | Mortgage Fruad | Tax Evasion
Former President Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort recently received relatively light prison sentences for two federal convictions, far below the federal sentencing guidelines, in two U.S. District Courts—one in the Northern District of Virginia and the other in the District…
2019
Category: Corruption | Criminal Justice Reform
In an excellent October 18, 2018 piece published in the Texas Observer and written for Harper’s Magazine, Melissa del Bosque, a Lanman Reporting Fellow with the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute, delivered a message of just how powerful the…
2019
Category: Fraud | White Collar Crime | Wire Fraud
Wire fraud involves the use of any form of electronic communication to defraud another party. It is often used by major criminal operations in the commission of offenses such as money laundering. As such, any form of wire fraud is…
2019
Category: Appeals | Corruption | Criminal Law
Open meetings laws are often referred to as “sunshine laws.” These laws require that meetings, decisions and records, with some exceptions, of state and federal agencies and regulatory bodies be open and readily available to the public.
The public…
2019
Category: Bank Fraud | Criminal Justice Reform | Tax Evasion
A Texas African-American woman was sentenced last March to five years in a state prison because she voted illegally in the 2016 presidential election. Crystal Mason ran afoul of Texas’s voting laws because she was on federal supervised release from…
2019
Category: Terrorism Criminology
A United States Coast Guard lieutenant was arrested last month on drug and gun charges. Recently released court documents reveal that he has also been accused of stockpiling weapons and taking human growth hormone in an attempt to prepare himself…
2019
Category: Corruption | Sex Crimes Against Children | Sex Trafficking | Sexual Abuse
U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth A. Marra recently issued a ruling that federal prosecutors who negotiated a 2008 plea deal with billionaire Jeffery Epstein violated the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act of 2004 (“CVRA”). Judge Marra ruled that the…
2019
Category: Robbery | Theft Crimes
Federal prosecutors recently announced the indictment of 27 Houston residents in connection with a rash of ATM robberies that targeted ATM technicians in Texas and several other states.
The defendants committed at least 47 strong-arm robberies of ATM technicians…
2019
Category: Corruption | Crimes Against Children
In an excellent Miami Herald report (November 28, 2018), Julie K Brown wrote that Florida billionaire money manager Jeffery Epstein trafficked in underage girls at his Palm Beach Mansion between 2001 and 2006. Stories floated for years that Epstein, a…