Articles Posted in Federal Crimes

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The first signs of the investigation came several weeks ago. The FBI showed up at a local social club in Stoughton and surprised members by pulling two flat-screened televisions from the wall, checking the serial numbers on the back, and then taking them away. Now, it turns out that the Boston federal investigators may be granting certain local law enforcement officials the chance to get to know some criminal defense attorneys in a professional setting.

According to today’s Boston Globe, the afore-mentioned televisions, allegedly stolen, were seized as part of an ongoing federal grand jury investigation into allegations of theft and corruption involving Stoughton police officers.

“The feds aren’t just looking at receiving stolen goods,” said an anonymous source allegedly familiar with the investigation.

Meanwhile, the spokesman for the FBI’s Boston office will only say, “We can neither confirm nor deny whether there is or is not an active investigation into anything in Stoughton.” A spokeswoman for the US attorney’s office also declined to comment.
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Yesterday’s Boston Herald signaled the end to the saga of former sportscaster Bob Gamere’s (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) in federal court which was co-hosted by federal prosecuting attorneys.

Apparently, he is expected to plead guilty to child pornography charges.

The Defendant was charged last October with two counts of transporting child pornography videos and one count of possessing child pornography. Specifically, he is accused of using his home computer to send multiple people e-mails with child pornography videos attached.

The trial had been scheduled to begin tomorrow in U.S. District Court. However, a change-of-plea hearing has been scheduled for today.

The evidence against the Defendant had included the alleged prohibited materials as well as statements that the he is said to have made to law enforcement. The materials were seized from his apartment in 2007. Attempts to suppress their seizure have failed.
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Albert G., the 28-year-old gentleman from Miami (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) who had been charged with being a computer hacker agreed to plead guilty in Boston’s federal court last week. His attorney, however, still disagrees with prosecutors about his role in the hacking.

Yesterday, his attorney still insisted that he was not the “ringleader” in the, now nationally
known, scheme which has been described as one of the largest payment-card thefts in recent history.

The Defendant has agreed to plead guilty to charges that he helped engineer the theft of more than 40 million card numbers from retailers like TJX Cos Inc and BJ’s Wholesale Club Inc. Of course, that’s just in Boston. Last month, in New Jersey, the U.S. Justice Department charged him and two others with conspiring to steal another 130 million payment card numbers, the most ever.

Both cases put the Defendant at the center of the action — especially bold conduct since authorities say he was a Secret Service informant earlier this decade.
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Today, the Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog returns to a subject that dominated headlines for much of the early months of the year. This would be the Bernard Madoff nightmare and his infamous Ponzi scheme. As you will recall, we learned that the Ponzi scheme was originated here in Boston and many of Madoff’s victims indeed lived here in the Commonwealth.

Yesterday, in a New York courtroom, a gentleman by the name of Frank DiPascali, 52, (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) proved all of us who claimed that Madoff could not have acted alone right…thereby exposing Madoff to be, among other things, a liar.

Now, that’s a surprise, isn’t it?

The Defendant pleaded guilty to conspiracy, securities fraud and eight other charges Tuesday as part of a cooperation deal in which he’s expected to help prosecutors target other suspects in the massive embezzlement scam.
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In days of old, if there was a financial dispute, one might expect to be sued by whoever claimed you took, or owed, money. Well, that can still happen. However, one should also be wary of being criminally charged with the crime of larceny… in one way or another.

“Larceny” is basically another word for “theft” under the Massachusetts General Laws. According to Chapter 266of such laws, anyone ” Who steals, or with intent to defraud obtains by a false pretence, or whoever unlawfully, and with intent to steal or embezzle, converts, or secretes with intent to convert, the property of another… whether such property is or is not in his possession at the time of such conversion or secreting, shall be guilty of larceny”.

Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it?

Well, not so much.

Actually, there are varying degrees of larceny. While larceny seems to simply be what we call in the outside world, “stealing”, how it was done and how much was stolen come under different sub-headings in the law and are treated differently.
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The criminal prosecution seems to have ended for John R., of Vermont, (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) and his lawyer. On June 8th, he pleaded guilty to charges, the investigation of which reflects some important information to those who assume themselves beyond suspicion.

After all, the Defendant had been something of a celebrity. Now in his 60’s, he had had helped found a gay rights group in Provincetown in the early 1990’s. In 1989, he helped form the Provincetown chapter of ACT UP, a group that described itself as diverse and nonpartisan, and committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis. He also served on a working group to combat hate crimes.

And now?

Now he has been convicted in the cyber-crime of possessing and distributing child pornography.

To make the charges against him seem even more unlikely, they are not even the result of a local investigation. In fact, it was not even initiated within the United States.
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This week, the daily Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog examined various news stories about a particular large population in the Boston area, namely, students. Whether it be graduate school, college, high school or even grammar school, a momentary, perhaps youthful, mistake can bring a postponement or even end to a lifetime of future dreams for that student and accompanying family. Now, as schools are adjourning for the summer, and graduations are upon us, our weekly Attorney Sam’s Take discussion looks directly at how the criminal justice system, and its results, can effect Massachusetts students.

There is a lot to say, so this week’s Discussion is a two-parter, which will continue into and conclude tomorrow, Friday, June 12th.

How many times have you read about a youth getting arrested and thought, “Well, it’s a kid. A juvenile. What can they do to a kid…spank him?”

Well, no. Spanking has been off the criminal justice books for many a decade.

However, the myth that juvenile offenders cannot be damaged by the justice system, although widely believed, is not really true. Most kids, of course, do not realize that. This is why many ongoing criminal enterprises, such as drug traffickers, are often able to use juveniles to do the “dirty work” of street selling. They convince the young eager entrepreneur that “the law” cannot really touch him/her and so, while the chance for money is high, the accompanying risk is low.
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You’ve heard of Costco, haven’t you? It is a very popular chain of stores that specializes in cost-cutting by purchasing in volume. You know, why buy one box of napkins when you can by 80 and get a bargain in the process? It looks like some Boston-area entrepreneurs took the idea alittle too far this week. And, in case you are wondering, no, one cannot retain attorneys in bulk…although two North Shore gentlemen may wish one could.

It was in the Costco parking lot on Route 1. It was Wednesday at noon. And it was, according to law enforcement, more than 500 pounds of marijuana that was recovered.

How much is 500 pounds? Well, you know that new law that says it is no longer a crime to have a “small amount” of marihuana for your own use? Well, this would be over 8,000 x that amount.

Probably not a simple error in measurement.

The Massachusetts State Police believes that the operation was a large-scale narcotics delivery in Danvers.

The troopers set up surveillance in the parking lot in connection with an ongoing investigation. According to the officers, Brian T., 42 of Revere (“Defendant Greeter”) arrived in a rented truck as Phillip W., 37, of Saugus (“Defendant Lookout”) acted as the lookout. Then, occupants of a tractor-trailer with Indiana license plates met with Defendant Greeter.
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Workers in the sex trade have been in the news lately. First of all, we have heard a great deal about them as victims, as in the case of the so-called “Craig’s List Killer”. Some have been in trouble for things other than prostitution. For example, awhile ago, the Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog told you about an enterprising lass who had had a long-standing money-for-sex relationship with an older wealthy gentleman. When he decided to end what he called a “last hurrah”, she made a decision of her own – to blackmail him.

To refresh your memory, you may want to read the original postings, which can be found on the postings on 2/18/09 and 2/19/09.

While it is my usual practice to give the first name, last initial and age of people who populate the judicial system, law enforcement and the courts have found it vital to give no information about the complainant involved in this matter. Therefore, I think it only fair to only refer to the young lady as the “Defendant”, with no other identifying information in this blog.

You may recall that the Defendant was given a lenient federal sentence in exchange for keeping her former customer’s name a secret. We will call him “John”. She had allegedly threatened to expose John unless he paid her money.

A great deal of money.

$280,000 of money.

No, there are no rights to palimony for prostitutes recognized in the Commonwealth.
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