Massachusetts
Man pleads guilty to fraudulently getting disaster relief loans during the pandemic
BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts man accused of using stolen identities to fraudulently obtain more then $450,000 in federal disaster relief loans during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Darwyn Joseph, 26, of Lawrence is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 19 after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court in Boston on Wednesday to several wire fraud-related charges. As part of a plea deal, an identity theft charge was dismissed, according to court documents.
Joseph and an accomplice in 2020 used the stolen identities of U.S. citizens to obtain Small Business Administration Economic Injury Disaster Loans, which are intended for small businesses, agricultural cooperatives and nonprofit organizations that have suffered financially during a disaster.
They also used the stolen identities to open bank accounts to receive the funds. The money was then laundered through the purchase of about $250,000 worth of iPhones in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, which were then resold, prosecutors said.
Some of the money was also sent overseas.
Joseph’s accomplice, Ramon Joseph Cruz Jr., pleaded guilty in May and is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 30. They were arrested in December 2020 and indicted by a federal grand jury in January 2021.
They each face a maximum of 20 years in prison.
Washington
Estate of fugitive killed by police files wrongful death lawsuit
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A federal lawsuit alleges police in Washington state had no plan other than to use deadly force against a fugitive who was on the run in 2020 after shooting a supporter of a far-right group during clashes between supporters of then-President Donald Trump and Black Lives Matter in the streets of Portland, Oregon.
“The actions of the officers, before, during, and after the shooting, show that they either had no plan to arrest the man without injury, made no effort to follow such a plan, or planned to use deadly force from the start,” said the lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma by the estate of Michael Forest Reinoehl, who identified as an anti-fascist.
Reinoehl fatally shot Aaron “Jay” Danielson during chaotic clashes between racial injustice protesters and far-right groups who held a pro-Trump car rally in downtown Portland. The shooting attracted Trump’s attention and further inflamed tensions in Oregon’s largest city, which saw weeks of violent protests against racial injustice and police brutality following George Floyd’s murder.
Reinoehl was caught on surveillance video shooting Danielson, a supporter of the far-right group Patriot Prayer, on Aug. 29, 2020, after a demonstration backing Trump.
Trump cheered on the manhunt for Reinoehl, tweeting just before he was killed for police to “Do your job, and do it fast.”
A federal task force was trying to arrest Reinoehl, 48, at an apartment complex in Lacey, near Olympia, in September 2020 when four officers fired at him as he exited his car.
Law enforcement officers in “militia-style fatigues” raced through a quiet residential neighborhood in unmarked vehicles, the lawsuit said: “Meanwhile, the officers sprayed more than 40 bullets through the neighborhood, killing (Reinoehl), grazing a child playing nearby, and striking cars, fences, backyard playground equipment, buildings, and residences.”
At least five bullets struck him, the lawsuit said.
A Washington state prosecutor decided not to file criminal charges against police who shot and killed him.
Washington state and local police were operating as a U.S. Marshals Service task force.
Spokespersons for the Washington State Patrol and for Pierce County said Wednesday they don’t comment on pending litigation.
Lakewood police Chief Patrick Smith said that while they don’t comment on pending litigation, he referred a request for comment to the city’s legal department, which didn’t immediately respond.
The U.S. Department of Justice didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last year, a judge dismissed a federal lawsuit filed against the city of Portland, the mayor and the Multnomah County district attorney by Danielson’s estate.
The lawsuit had alleged that negligence around increasingly violent clashes between competing groups in Portland created an environment that encouraged lawlessness and led to the killing.
Washington
Colonel awarded $975K in sex assault case
WASHINGTON (AP) — A retired Army colonel has reached a court settlement of nearly $1 million in a sexual assault lawsuit against Air Force Gen. John Hyten, who served as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The settlement with the U.S. government ends more than four years of investigations, reviews and congressional digging into the matter, which delayed — but ultimately did not defeat — Hyten’s nomination for vice chairman in 2019. He served two years and did not seek a second term.
Army Col. Kathryn Spletstoser, who served as Hyten’s aide in 2017, filed the lawsuit, and in the settlement reached in U.S. District Court in California on Wednesday, the federal government will pay her $975,000.
“It is my sincere hope that the successful outcome in my case will embolden other survivors of military sexual violence to come forward — no matter how high ranking the perpetrator,” she said in a statement Thursday.
In an interview with The Associated Press in 2019, Spletstoser said Hyten subjected her to a series of unwanted sexual advances by kissing, hugging and rubbing up against her in 2017 while she was one of his top aides. She said she repeatedly pushed him away and told him to stop, and that he tried to derail her military career after she rebuffed him.
Hyten vigorously denied her allegations during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in July 2019, with his wife seated behind him and Spletstoser looking on from a short distance away. An internal Air Force investigation determined there was insufficient evidence to charge him or recommend discipline. And a senior Air Force official said at the time that investigators also found no evidence Spletstoser was lying. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.
It is not uncommon for the U.S. government to pay out large sums of money to settle lawsuits, but a sexual assault case against such a high ranking military officer is far more rare.
New York
Founder of failed crypto lending platform Celsius Network arrested on fraud charges
NEW YORK (AP) — The founder and former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network was arrested Thursday on federal fraud charges alleging that he schemed to defraud customers by misleading them about key aspects of the business.
Alexander Mashinsky is charged with securities, commodities and wire fraud in an indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court. He is also charged with illegally manipulating the price of Celsius’s proprietary crypto token while secretly selling his own tokens at inflated prices.
Mashinsky’s attorney did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
According to the indictment, Mashinsky from 2018 to 2022 pitched Celsius to customers as a modern-day bank where they could safely deposit crypto assets and earn interest. But it says Mashinsky operated Celsius like a risky investment fund, taking in customer money under false and misleading pretenses and exposing customers to a high-risk business.
The indictment alleges that Mashinsky promoted Celsius through media interviews, his Twitter account and Celsius’s website, along with a weekly “Ask Mashinsky Anything” session broadcast posted to Celsius’s website and YouTube channel.
Celsius employees from multiple departments who noticed false and misleading statements in the sessions warned Mashinsky, but they were ignored, the indictment states.
Mashinsky’s false portrayal of Celsius as a safe and secure institution caused its customer base to grow exponentially through a large number of retail investors, the indictment says.
By the fall of 2021, Celsius had become one of the largest crypto platforms in the world, purportedly holding approximately $25 billion in assets, it says.
The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday also sued Mashinsky and Celsius, saying they misled investors through unregistered and often fraudulent offers and sales of crypto asset securities.
In January, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Mashinsky in state court in Manhattan, saying he misled hundreds of thousands of investors.
Celsius filed for bankruptcy last year.
Tennessee
$1.2M bail set for man charged with killing surgeon
COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A man charged with killing a hand surgeon at a Tennessee clinic was being held on $1.2 million bail Thursday as those who knew the doctor remembered him as a skilled and beloved medical professional who cared for his patients.
Larry Pickens, 29, told a judge Thursday that he could not afford the bail and wasn’t sure if he could afford a lawyer, the Commercial Appeal reported. He did not enter a plea. Judge Lee Ann Dobson told Pickens that a public defender would not cost him anything and set his next court date for July 20.
Pickens was charged with first-degree murder and aggravated assault in the shooting of Dr. Benjamin Mauck at Campbell Clinic Orthopedics in the Memphis suburb of Collierville on Tuesday. Police said Mauck was shot in an exam room and that Pickens had been at the clinic for several hours before the shooting.
Authorities haven’t disclosed a possible motive for the shooting.
Patients and friends of Mauck remembered him on social media and in news reports as a dedicated physician and friend.
Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital said its staff were grieving the loss of their colleague.
“He left a mark on the lives of the many patients he helped and our Le Bonheur family,” the hospital said in a tweet.
Mauck joined the Le Bonheur/ Campbell Clinic Pediatric Hand Clinic in 2012 after completing a hand surgery fellowship at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, according to an article posted on the hospital’s website.
The clinic treats children with congenital abnormalities or traumatic injuries of the hand and upper extremities, the hospital said.
“The human hand is a so important to what makes us human — how we interact with the world around us and each other,” Mauck said in the article. “I wanted to be a part of restoring a patients’ ability to do that.”
In the article, Kaitlynn Vaughn said Mauck operated on the clasped thumbs of her 4-year-old son, who was born with a form of arthrogryposis, a genetic disorder that primarily affected his hands and feet.
“We love Dr. Mauck and are so happy with how Cayden’s procedure turned out,” she said.
In an email sent to Le Bonheur staff after the shooting, interim president and surgeon-in-chief Trey Eubanks called Mauck’s death “an unthinkable tragedy.” Eubanks said Mauck was a beloved colleague and dedicated doctor.
“We already miss him,” Eubanks said.
Mauck graduated from Lambuth University in 2002 and the University of Tennessee’s medical school in 2006, according to a biography posted on Campbell Clinic’s website.
Memphis musician Chris Milam said Mauck performed surgery on his hand in 2018.
“My future as a guitar player & artist would’ve looked drastically different if not for his work,” Milam said in a tweet. “I knew him as an excellent doctor and a cheerful, conscientious man.”
