Substantial Assistance Cooperation agreements are usually embodied in the text of a plea agreement and require the defendant to perform some act of “substantial assistance” to the government. Substantial assistance can involve providing information that will lead to the investigation and arrest of other persons, going undercover, agreeing to repeated debriefings with law enforcement officers, agreeing to meetings with prosecutors…
Alejandro Andrade Cedeno (Andrade), 54, a Venezuelan citizen residing in Wellington, Florida and a former Venezuelan national treasurer, was sentenced yesterday to 10 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Robin L. Rosenberg in the West Palm Beach Division of the Southern District of Florida. Andrade pleaded guilty under seal on Dec. 22, 2017 to one count of conspiracy to…
When an individual earns income via illegal channels, they will often take measures to conceal where that money came from. While the concept of money laundering may evoke images of organized crime, it is also a practice that occurs in white collar settings, and it can result in federal criminal charges. Money laundering can present as a subtle criminal act.…
Etevaldo Ferreira De Souza, 47, of West Palm Beach, was found guilty by a jury on November 9 of one count of making false statements in a naturalization proceeding, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1015(a). According to the evidence presented at trial, De Souza was charged with aggravated homicide and armed conspiracy in Brazil in 1993. According to the Brazilian…
A federal judge delayed the criminal trial of Palm House developer Robert Matthews, his wife and a real estate attorney until next summer. All three defendants, who are free on bond, face charges related to the unfinished Palm House hotel-condominium project in Palm Beach. Judge Victor A. Bolden of the U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, Connecticut, said in an order…
The Sun Sentinel published an article today asking “What is it about South Florida that makes the region such an effective hatchery for scams and schemes?” Today’s article cites to a 2015 article that calls South Florida the nation’s organized fraud capital, positing, “Is it the weather? Is it because it’s beautiful and the fraudsters want to live here? Is it…
A former West Palm Beach, Florida resident pleaded guilty today to multiple criminal charges in connection with a sophisticated global cell phone fraud scheme that involved compromising cellphone customers’ accounts and “cloning” their phones to make fraudulent international calls. Braulio De la Cruz Vasquez, 54, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, access device fraud, the…
A Port St. Lucie, Florida, man was convicted by a federal jury yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida of ten counts of aiding and assisting in the filing of false income tax returns and three counts of filing false income tax returns. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, from 2012 through…