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U.S. Attorney’s Office

Southern District of Texas

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, May 28, 2021

Robstown man gets huge sentence for sexual exploitation of a child

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – A 53-year-old local man has been ordered to federal prison for conspiring to entice a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing child pornography, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer B. Lowery.

Santos Gonzalez pleaded guilty March 2.

Today, U.S. District Judge Drew B. Tipton sentenced Gonzalez to 420 months in prison. He will then have to serve the rest of his life on supervised release, during which time he will have to comply with numerous requirements designed to restrict his access to children and the internet. Gonzalez will also be ordered to register as a sex offender.

At the time of his plea, Gonzalez admitted to soliciting co-defendant Diane Martinez to produce and send illicit photographs of a minor victim. In exchange, he provided Martinez money for groceries and medication.

Forensic analysis of Facebook accounts belonging to Gonzalez and Martinez revealed they communicated between Jan. 21, 2016, and May 20, 2020. Throughout the thousands of pages of communication, Gonzalez expressed wanting to have sexual intercourse with the minor victim. Gonzalez would offer food, groceries, gifts and other items of monetary value in exchange for Martinez sending nude photographs of the child.

Eventually, Gonzalez no longer used Martinez as an intermediary, directly soliciting the minor victim for sex.

Authorities received information about the abuse from a family acquaintance of the victim as well as a tablet used to commit the crimes.

Gonzalez will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future. Martinez is scheduled to be sentenced July 28 before Judge Tipton.

Homeland Security Investigations, Corpus Christi Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Unit and Texas Department of Public Safety conducted the investigation.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/robstown-man-gets-huge-sentence-sexual-exploitation-child

U.S. Attorney’s Office

Southern District of Texas

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, May 28, 2021

Houston consulting company admits to H-1B visa fraud conspiracy

HOUSTON – Cloudgen LLC has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit H-1B visa fraud, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer B. Lowery.

Cloudgen LLC is a consulting and strategic solutions company located on South Dairy Ashford Road in Houston. Through its corporate representative Jomon Chakkalakkal, Cloudgen pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit visa fraud from on or about March 2013 to December 2020. During the plea, the company admitted to recruiting multiple Information Technology workers from India and falsely procuring H-1B visas for them to enter and work in the United States. A H-1B visa permits the temporary employment of non-immigrants to fill specialized jobs in the United States.

Specifically, in this “bench and switch” scheme, the company would file documents with the Departments of Labor (DOL) and Homeland Security (DHS) containing fraudulent statements about the availability of work at third-party national employers. Cloudgen would then submit forged contracts stating each third-party company had a job for the individual Indian national. Next, based on those false documents, Cloudgen would submit paperwork to get an H-1B worker’s visa for the Indian nationals. When granted, they would use that visa to allow the Indian nationals to enter the United States.

However, because the jobs were fake, they were housed in different locations across the country while Cloudgen obtained other employment for them. Such action gave Cloudgen a competitive advantage by having a steady “bench” or supply of visa-ready workers to send to different employers based on market needs when the true process actually takes some time. Once workers had obtained new employment, the “switch” would occur when the new third-party company filed immigration paperwork for the foreign workers.

Cloudgen would also extend their visas, based on the original false ones, to allow them to stay and continue working in the United States. Cloudgen took a percentage of the worker’s salary as their fees, earning approximately $493,516.28 in profits during the course of the conspiracy.

Chief U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal will impose sentencing Sept. 16. At that time, the company could have to pay up to $500,000 or the greater of twice the gross gain or twice the gross loss as well as a maximum five years of probation.

The Department of State conducted the investigation with the assistance of DOL and DHS. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Richard W. Bennett and Jay Hileman are prosecuting the case.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/houston-consulting-company-admits-h-1b-visa-fraud-conspiracy

U.S. Attorney’s Office

District of New Jersey

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, May 28, 2021

California Man Sentenced to 90 Months in Prison for Conspiring to Distribute over 30 Pounds of Crystal Methamphetamine and Five Kilos of Fentanyl into New Jersey

CAMDEN, N.J. – A California man was sentenced today to 90 months in prison for shipping approximately 30 pounds of crystal methamphetamine and conspiring to send an additional five kilograms of fentanyl into New Jersey, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced.

Isabel Otanez-Sanchez, 27, of San Jacinto, California, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman to an information charging him with one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine and a quantity of fentanyl. Judge Hillman imposed the sentence today in Camden federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

In September 2018, law enforcement officers received information that an individual known as “Pancho,” later identified as Otanez-Sanchez, was shipping large quantities of narcotics to New Jersey from California. On Jan. 28, 2019, Otanez-Sanchez agreed to send 30 pounds of methamphetamine to a law enforcement confidential source (the “CS”) in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Otanez-Sanchez and conspirator Jesus Zavala-Torres hid 28 packages of methamphetamine inside a salvaged vehicle that was shipped to New Jersey from California. Agents recovered the 28 packages, totaling approximately 30 pounds, from the car’s gas tank. On Feb. 12, 2019, the CS met with Otanez-Sanchez and Zavala-Torres in Riverside, California. Otanez-Sanchez and Zavala-Torres also agreed to sell an additional five kilograms of fentanyl that would be shipped to the CS in New Jersey in the same manner as the methamphetamine. Following this meeting, Otanez-Sanchez and Zavala-Torres were arrested by law enforcement and the five kilograms of fentanyl they intended to ship to New Jersey were recovered.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Hillman sentenced Otanez-Sanchez to five years of supervised release. Zavala-Torres is scheduled to be sentenced June 2, 2021.

Acting U.S. Attorney Honig credited special agents of the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Cherry Hill, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jason J. Molina in Newark, with the investigation leading to the charges and today’s sentencing. She also thanked HSI in Riverside, California; the New Jersey State Police; the Hemet, California, Police Department; and the Atlantic City Task Force for their assistance.

The government is represented by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Meriah Russell of the U.S. Attorney's Office Criminal Division in Camden.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/california-man-sentenced-90-months-prison-conspiring-distribute-over-30-pounds-crystal

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Next 1/2 of central banks/ import export audits?