Justice Triumphs

Indianapolis, Indiana - An Indianapolis, Indiana immigration attorney was sentenced Friday to 75 months in prison for defrauding the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and more than 250 of his clients by filing fraudulent visa applications and reaping approximately $750,000 in illegitimate fees.  Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Special Agent in Charge James M. Gibbons of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) in Chicago made the announcement.

A federal jury in Central Islip, New York, returned a guilty verdict Monday against Fernando Clarke, an investigator with the New York City Department of Correction, on child pornography trafficking offenses.

Washington, DC - The Justice Department announced that William Curtis Howell, 61, a former supervisory deputy jailer at the Kentucky River Regional Jail (KRRJ) in Perry County, Kentucky, has been sentenced to 120 months in federal prison related to his role in violently assaulting a pre-trial detainee and willfully failing to provide necessary medical attention that led to his death. Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore of the Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney Robert M. Duncan Jr. for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and Special Agent in Charge Amy Hess for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, made the announcement.

Miami, Florida - A Miami-area man was sentenced to 60 months in prison today for his role in a $63 million health care fraud scheme involving a now-defunct community mental health center located in Miami that purported to provide partial hospitalization program (PHP) services to individuals suffering from mental illness.

Joel Zweig, an attorney who resides in New York, was charged with wire fraud, obstruction of justice, perjury, aggravated identity theft, and false statements to a government agency announced United States Attorney Brian J. Stretch, Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge John F. Bennett, and U.S. Postal Inspection Service Inspector in Charge Rafael Nuñez.  The charges stem from allegations that Zweig attempted to manufacture evidence to prove losses suffered by a litigant in a federal case pending in the Northern District of California.