Tag: fraud

ICE refuses to disclose records on Ilhan Omar fraud probe, cites ongoing ‘enforcement proceedings’

The federal government is refusing to turn over records related to an investigation conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement into allegations of immigration fraud by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., citing a legal exemption for ongoing investigations. 

Just the News filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the records in January, seeking the records pertaining to any investigations conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement into the allegations that Rep. Omar, who represents Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, married a relative in order to help him remain in the country. 

Omar has denied the allegations. No court records, DNA evidence, or other documentary proof has ever substantiated that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, Omar’s legal husband from 2009–2017, was her biological brother.

“ICE has determined that the information you requested is being withheld in full pursuant to Title 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(7)(A). Disclosure of any responsive records at this time could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings,” ICE told Just the News in response to the FOIA in May. 

The FOIA exemption cited by the agency “applies to records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes when their release could disrupt such proceedings,” the reply reads. 

You can read the letter below: 

Final Response 2026-ICFO-11295 3 (1).pdf

The Department of Justice guidelines for invoking exemption 7(A) say that doing so requires a two-step assessment. “First, there must be a ‘reasonable likelihood’ of a pending or contemplated law enforcement proceeding,” the guidance says. “Second, release of the information must be reasonably expected to cause some articulable harm to that proceeding.” 

Harm includes things such as exposing the case to witness tampering or tipping off suspects, according to the guidance. The exemption makes no distinction between criminal, civil, and administrative cases. 

Omar’s office did not respond to a request for comment. 

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Five Current and Former Texas City Officials – Including the Mayor – Arrested For Fraud

Five current and former Refugio, Texas, city officials were arrested on Wednesday for fraud after they allegedly mishandled hundreds of thousands of dollars that spanned 19 transactions.

Refugio Mayor Wanda Dukes was charged with misapplication of fiduciary property, a first-degree felony, for misusing funds from the Refugio Economic Development Corporation between October 2023 and October 2025.

City Secretary Callie Shreckengost was also charged with misapplication of fiduciary property.

Current City Council Ixtlazihuatl Vasquez, former City Council Frank Hosey, and former City Council Michael Rocha were all hit with third-degree felony charges of abuse of official capacity.

According to the indictment, the state claimed that more than $1 million was misapplied to payments, audit services, garbage collection, and festivals.

KRIS TV reported:

Five current and former Refugio town officials face felony charges after a Refugio County grand jury returned indictments this week following a Texas Rangers investigation.

Mayor Wanda Huff Dukes and Town Secretary Callie Gray Shreckengost turned themselves in at the Refugio County Jail on Wednesday and were later released. Both are charged with misapplication of fiduciary property, a first-degree felony. Bond for each was set at $25,000.

The indictments accuse both officials of misusing funds from the Refugio Economic Development Corporation between Oct. 3, 2023, and Oct. 29, 2025. According to the charging documents, Dukes exercised control over EDC funds as mayor, while Shreckengost had authority to authorize and sign disbursements as town secretary.

The indictments list 19 transactions totaling more than $1 million that the state says were misapplied, including payments for windstorm insurance, garbage collection, water main maintenance, audit services, a police department holiday event and Fourth of July festivals.

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Former Southern Poverty Law Center executive arrested over alleged secret payments to informants

ormer Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) Chief Financial Officer Heidi Beirich was arrested on Wednesday, with authorities alleging that she made secret payments to informants in white supremacist groups.

The Department of Justice brought charges against the SPLC earlier this year over fraudulent payments. Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed the arrest in a press conference.

“I believe she was part of the effort to open bank accounts in completely fictitious companies’ names and make payments to individuals for reasons that were not accurate as described,” Blanche told reporters. 

Beirich has also been accused of cohabitating with and dating one of the informants whom she allegedly paid.

In June, the DOJ announced charges against the organization on 11 counts of wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The agency alleged that the SPLC paid people to remain in neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups to become informants.

Beirich’s arrest followed a superseding indictment that added her as an individual defendant, CNN reported.

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Axelrod Can’t Believe His Ears as He Learns Obama Got on 2008 Ballot With Election Fraud, Resulting in Criminal Convictions of Multiple Dems

Election meddling does not happen. At least, that’s what top Democratic Party officials believe, but it’s possible they just have a short memory or were not paying attention.

Former Chief Strategist and Senior Advisor to the Obama Administration David Axelrod either forgot, did not remember, or played dumb on CNN Tuesday evening when faced with the reality of such a case in Indiana.

Axelrod found himself hearing it from former White House spokesman and political commentator Pete Seat on “Anderson Cooper 360” and looked completely dumbfounded when Seat reminded him that Democrat officials in Indiana — Seat’s home state — were convicted of petition fraud relating to the 2008 primary.

“The gentleman you previously worked for, David Axelrod, Barack Obama got on the ballot because Democrats in that county submitted fraudulent ballot petition signatures.”

“People, including the Democrat county chair, went to jail over that.”

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ANOTHER DEMOCRAT BALLOT SCANDAL: Former NJ Mayor Gina LaPlaca and Husband Hit With New Criminal Charges for Forging Signatures to Fraudulently Get on Democratic Primary Ballot

They can’t win without CHEATING! The modern Democrat Party is completely LAWLESS.

Former Lumberton Township Mayor and current Committeewoman Gina LaPlaca, along with her husband, Democratic operative Jason Carty, are facing a new round of criminal charges after prosecutors say they submitted fraudulent signatures to place LaPlaca on the June Democratic primary ballot for the Lumberton Township Committee.

Burlington County Prosecutor LaChia L. Bradshaw’s office announced the charges this week. An investigation found that multiple people whose names and purported signatures appeared on LaPlaca’s nominating petition never signed it and never authorized anyone to sign on their behalf. Without those fake signatures, LaPlaca would not have had enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot at all.

LaPlaca, 47, signed a sworn affidavit claiming she had “personally circulated the petition” and that every signature was in the voter’s own handwriting. Investigators determined her husband Carty, 49, also collected signatures. The petition was submitted to the Lumberton Township Municipal Clerk by Carty.

The charges:

  • LaPlaca faces fourth-degree making a false statement under oath, third-degree knowingly filing a false petition, two counts of third-degree tampering with public records or information, and fourth-degree falsifying or tampering with records.
  • Carty faces third-degree knowingly filing a false petition, two counts of third-degree tampering with public records or information, and fourth-degree falsifying or tampering with records.

Both are scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Mount Holly on September 21.

Official Burlington County results show LaPlaca finishing dead last in the three-candidate race for two committee seats. She received just 323 votes, or 13.03 percent.

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Federal Grand Jury indicts 11 in massive $100K-per-couple marriage fraud scheme

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed a two-count indictment charging 11 individuals for orchestrating a massive, decade-long marriage fraud network that arranged over 1,000 sham marriages.

Federal prosecutors described the operation as one of the largest marriage fraud prosecutions in U.S. history, spanning “from 2016 through July 2026 and generating tens of millions of dollars in illegal revenue.”

The criminal scheme primarily aimed to secure fraudulent green cards and lawful permanent residency for foreign nationals, predominantly citizens of the People’s Republic of China, the DOJ noted.

According to the 21-page indictment unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the defendants marketed their services through social media, word of mouth and targeted advertising.

Foreigners reportedly paid the enterprise up to $100,000 each to facilitate a fake marriage and process green card applications. In turn, the network recruited U.S. citizens to act as spouses, paying them up to $30,000 per arrangement, while recruiters pocketed commissions of around $5,000 for every participant enrolled.

Federal officials explained further how the syndicate functioned as a “full-service” operation designed to systematically evade federal immigration checks. Facilitators hired officiants and photographers, staged wedding ceremonies — sometimes at local restaurants where participants wore traditional attire to fabricate authenticity — and generated fake documentation.

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Woman Who Defrauded USAID-Funded Nonprofit Avoids Prison, Settles Civil Claims For $160,000

A Maryland woman has agreed to pay the U.S. government $160,000 to resolve civil allegations that she submitted false claims for payment, following her earlier criminal conviction for defrauding a nonprofit that received USAID funding.

Carleena Graham, 59, formerly served as vice president of human resources at World Learning, a nonprofit that received millions of dollars in grants and contracts from both the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department. According to the USAID Office of Inspector General, she orchestrated a scheme that drained roughly $425,000 from the organization between about 2016 and mid-2022. Of that total, approximately $272,500 came directly or partially from U.S. government funds.

Graham arranged for goods and services to be delivered to Washington-area nonprofits where she held positions or had relationships, then directed World Learning to pay for them through electronic transfers from its accounts. She falsified vendor invoices to create the appearance that World Learning itself had received the items. She also used the organization’s credit cards to cover expenses for those outside entities.

Federal authorities charged her with one count of wire fraud in May 2023. She pleaded guilty and, in March 2024, received a sentence of four years’ probation, an order to pay $425,000 in restitution, and a three-year debarment from receiving U.S. government funds. Her plea agreement estimated an advisory sentencing range of 27 to 33 months’ imprisonment.

In July 2026 she entered a separate civil settlement with the Department of Justice under the False Claims Act, agreeing to the $160,000 payment. That agreement closes a joint investigation by the USAID and State Department Offices of Inspector General. The government’s announcement notes that the claims resolved by the civil settlement are allegations only and that there has been no determination of liability.

Graham’s is not the only USAID-linked fraud case to reach resolution. As we reported in June of last year, former USAID contracting officer Roderick Watson and three corporate executives pleaded guilty over a decade-long bribery scheme spanning at least 14 prime contracts worth more than $550 million. Prosecutors said Watson accepted bribes valued at more than $1 million, including cash, laptops, tickets to a suite at an NBA game, a country club wedding, and down payments on two residential mortgages. He faced a maximum of 15 years. The two contractors involved, Apprio and Vistant, admitted criminal liability and entered deferred prosecution agreements. In a separate case, a British national who worked on a USAID-funded power distribution program in Pakistan was extradited after more than two years, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to time served for a kickback scheme that cost the program almost $100,000.

The settlement lands amid broader scrutiny of USAID’s oversight of foreign-aid spending. Inspector general memoranda issued in 2025 flagged weaknesses, including limited visibility into sub-recipients, resistance from some international partners in sharing misconduct information, and incomplete reporting of potential fraud by organizations that received agency funds. World Learning was among the recipients of USAID programming during the period of the scheme.

USAID was formally dissolved on July 1, 2025, with its remaining functions absorbed into the State Department.

Also, the DNC is oddly out of money.

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Justice Watch: Justice Timothy Keene gives community sentence to immigration fraudster who charged migrants up to $40K

A Saskatchewan man who charged foreign nationals as much as $40,000 for immigration sponsorship while using fake businesses and forged documents to obtain work and residency permits will serve his sentence in the community.

Balvir Singh, 58, pleaded guilty in April to counselling misrepresentation under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Last month, Saskatchewan Court of King’s Bench Justice Timothy Keene sentenced him to a conditional sentence of two years less a day and imposed a $10,000 fine.

The conditional sentence allows Singh to avoid serving his custodial sentence behind bars. He must instead live at an approved residence, obey a curfew and cannot leave Saskatchewan without permission.

According to the sentencing decision, Singh submitted false documents to the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP) and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, including forged corporate tax documents and payroll records connected to businesses that did not actually exist.

The SINP allows eligible Saskatchewan employers to nominate foreign nationals for jobs where workers are needed, potentially providing those workers with a pathway to permanent residency.

The Canada Border Services Agency began investigating Singh in 2018 after authorities noticed an unusually large number of immigration applications connected to entities associated with him. Search warrants were executed at Singh’s home and a Saskatoon restaurant in June 2021.

Investigators determined Singh was charging foreign nationals up to $40,000 for immigration sponsorship.

One victim identified in the court decision met Singh through a gurdwara and was offered employment. After Singh provided him with a work permit, Singh demanded $10,000, forcing the worker to borrow the money.

Singh later told the man he would have to pay more to obtain permanent residency. The worker paid another $16,000, followed by additional payments that ultimately brought the total to approximately $40,000.

“[The victim] was a vulnerable person victimized both financially and emotionally by the actions of the accused,” the court found, noting the victim was also required to perform unpaid work.

The decision further stated that anyone who worked for, or had a permanent residency application connected to, one of Singh’s companies had paid him money.

The victim worked at two restaurants Singh actually operated, Taste of Indian and Broadway Pizza. Although both operated from the same kitchen, they were represented as separate businesses for SINP purposes.

The worker also helped Singh erect a sign advertising a purported construction company so Singh could photograph it.

“The sign was only up to take the photos, then it came down. Balvir made the company up for SINP,” the sentencing decision states.

Singh’s defence sought either a conditional discharge or a suspended sentence, but Keene rejected those options.

The judge said a custodial sentence was required to meet the objectives of “denunciation and deterrence,” finding those goals would not be “satisfied by probation.”

However, Keene allowed that custodial sentence to be served in the community, concluding Singh “does not pose a risk and can be managed by the terms of a conditional sentence order.”

A pre-sentence report found Singh had no previous criminal convictions, had a stable home and employment history and presented a “medium” risk of reoffending.

The report also found Singh minimized his responsibility, suggesting his primary failing was not paying enough attention to how others were operating businesses he owned.

Keene agreed with that assessment and wrote that Singh appeared to retain “a degree of resentment” toward immigration authorities.

Singh came to Canada in 1993 and has four children.

The case follows a CBSA investigation that began roughly eight years before Singh was ultimately sentenced.

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Inspector General Slams H-1B Program: ‘Not Just Fraud… a Criminal Enterprise’

Criminal networks are selling Americans’ white-collar jobs via the huge and complex H-1B visa program, says Anthony D’Esposito, the Inspector General at the Department of Labor.

“This is not just fraud: This is a criminal enterprise that stretches far beyond the borders of America,” D’Esposito told Breitbart News during an interview in his D.C. office. He explained:

Without revealing too much of an investigation, I think that when complete, one of the things that will probably make the American people most angry… and will probably lead to the biggest change from lawmakers — they will probably bring oversight to this — [is] the fact that many of the individuals that you’re talking about that are selling these jobs, getting kickbacks. We will clearly outline and define their relationships with — whether it’s gangs [or] whether it is transnational criminal organizations.

Esposito met with Breitbart News to describe the purpose and scale of his investigation of fraud within the huge, multi-decade H-1B visa program, which now keeps at least 1 million non-immigrant foreign workers in U.S. jobs sought by American graduates. 

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Palisades Fire Fraud: Man Headed To Prison After Scamming $64K Out Of FEMA

An East Hollywood man is headed to federal prison for a year and a day after collecting more than $64,000 in wildfire disaster relief on a Pacific Palisades home he had no connection to whatsoever.

Delvonne Dashon Johnson, 32, was sentenced on July 31 in Los Angeles and ordered to repay $64,148 to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He pleaded guilty last year to fraud in connection with major disaster or emergency benefits – a charge that carries a statutory maximum of 30 years.

In February 2025, weeks after the Palisades Fire tore through the coastline, Johnson filed a FEMA claim listing a Pacific Palisades address as a home he owned. FEMA wired him $64,138 later that same month – except, he didn’t own the house. Someone else did, and she was living in it.

The fraud unraveled only when the actual homeowner tried to file her own claim. FEMA told her someone had already submitted one on her property’s behalf. When investigators interviewed her on April 2, 2025, she told them she had lived at the address since 2015, that it was her primary residence, that she was there when the fire hit, that she had never rented the place to anyone, and that she had never heard of Delvonne Johnson.

Johnson was not working alone – he was one of several people federal prosecutors swept up for running the same play on the same disaster. Deanniah Hogan, 32, of Compton, allegedly posed as a renter at a Palisades home and drew roughly $17,351. Zenalyn McIntre, 38, of Sherman Oaks, allegedly submitted a fabricated utility bill and a driver’s license listing a different address, and received about $25,229. Hedeshia Robertson, 36, of Lakewood, pleaded guilty after obtaining some $24,899. Another defendant allegedly claimed a nonexistent Altadena address as her destroyed primary residence and collected $23,441, plus two FEMA-booked hotel stays. Jaime Arturo Carrillo, 48, pleaded guilty after claiming property damage and utility disruption at a South Los Angeles address roughly 20 miles from either fire.

The pattern extends well beyond Los Angeles County. In June, a Honolulu man was sentenced to two years for conspiring to submit false FEMA claims tied to both the Lahaina fire and the Pacific Palisades fire, with a co-defendant posing as his Maui landlord before turning around and claiming to have lived in Pacific Palisades herself. The pair collected more than $60,000. He then filed fabricated flight records with the court and picked up an obstruction charge on top.

Victims of the Eaton and Palisades fires could qualify for a one-time $750 FEMA payment, up to $43,600 in other-needs assistance covering personal property, transportation and medical costs, and housing assistance for as long as 18 months. Homeowners were eligible for up to another $43,600 in repair money. Money that moves fast enough to help people who just lost everything moves fast enough to reach people who lost nothing.

The two fires ignited on Jan. 7, 2025, burned close to 60,000 acres, destroyed more than 16,000 structures, and killed 30 people.

For claiming a slice of the recovery money set aside for those people, Johnson drew 12 months and one day.

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