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From the
Forum:
A 13-member counterfeit ring, responsible for the production of over $86 million in counterfeit U.S. currency, has been taken down by the United States Secret Service. The last two defendants named in the scheme pleaded guilty last week to RICO conspiracy involving multiple acts of counterfeiting U.S. currency and money structuring. Two other co-conspirators of the 13 are Rego Park and Forest Hills residents.
The criminal enterprise involved the production, sale, and distribution of high-quality counterfeit $50 and $100 Federal Reserve notes. The Secret Service first detected the well-designed $100 in 1999. Since that time, over $86 million of this particular note has been seized globally. In addition, the crime ring was in the process of counterfeiting the “new” $100 note released in October 2013, including certain security features such as watermarks, security threads, and blue 3-D ribbons. According to the Secret Service, this new $100 is much more difficult to simulate, and there has not yet been a significant occurrence of its counterfeiting.
Queens does happen to be a focus for the agency right now, owing to nearby airports and the fact that a large portion of counterfeit is manufactured overseas, then brought in bulk to the United States. Additionally, in Queens, there are high populations of many of the groups known to be producing counterfeit overseas. Counterfeit produced in the United States is most frequently $20 Federal Reserve notes, while $100s are more commonly manufactured overseas.
From the
NY Observer:
Like something out of a spy movie, residential building owners are now using private investigators and hidden surveillance to track down absentee tenants in rent stabilized buildings.
In a recent case, law firm Rosenberg & Estis represented Blair Hall Inc., the owner of a 200-unit rent stabilized building in Queens. Using surveillance techniques, the firm was able to ascertain that tenant Janina Vilcek’s primary residence was in the state of Florida.
In a decision dated February 13, Judge Gilbert Badillo of the Housing Part of the Civil Court of the City of New York in Queens, awarded possession of the apartment to Blair Hall, Inc.
Via video surveillance using hidden cameras in Exit signs and smoke detectors, it was learned that Ms. Vilcek, who was also under investigation by the Secret Service on suspicion of partaking in multiple marriages to convey citizenship, was subletting her apartment to another building tenant while living in Florida.
Ms. Vilcek’s defense was hardly convincing, according to Judge Badillo.“To this Court’s observation, whenever [Ms. Vilcek] was confronted with the contradictions, she would no longer remember or understand the question or information,” he wrote in his decision.
The law firm also subpoenaed Ms. Vilcek’s phone records to ascertain her location and used internet databases to learn the Polish-born woman was registered to vote in Florida and had cars registered in multiple states.
From
NBC:
The operator of a Queens medical practice specializing in radiological exams was arrested by FBI and Secret Service agents early Thursday on charges of filing more than $30 million in false Medicare and Medicaid billings, prosecutors tell NBC 4 New York.
Ting Huan Tai, 34, was taken into custody from his apartment on the 58th floor of a luxury high-rise building in Lower Manhattan. Agents executed a search warrant at Tai’s apartment and seized his 2008 Lamborghini and several bank accounts containing millions of dollars, law enforcement sources said.
According to court papers, Tai became the operator of United Medical Diagnosis (UMD), based in Flushing, in May 2010 after the departure of the former owner. Between May 2010 and May 2012, Tai and his employees submitted bills to Medicare and Medicaid for more than $30 million for radiological services never performed. The bills used the identity of the radiologist and former owner of UMD without his knowledge or consent, sources said.
Prosecutors say Tai used money from the scheme to pay personal expenses, including credit card bills and rent.
From the
NY Post:
Phony $100 and $50 bills are flooding the city -- and the feds want your help to stop the high-quality fakes.
The funny money, on paper that seems genuine and with watermarks and imbedded strips, looks so real that it can easily fool stores and even banks, they say.
So US Secret Service investigators have circulated posters showing the bogus bills' tiny imperfections, which include a flawed "T" in "STATES" on the $100 and a minuscule dot inside the "5" on the $50.
Investigators seized $148,000 of substitute loot in New York last week, including $97,000 in a raid near JFK, and $65 million last year in the United States, $10 million of it from Peru.
Genuine notes have small red and blue threads in the paper that look like tiny hairs. The fiber, 70 percent cotton and 30 percent linen, is almost impossible to reproduce, with a slightly rough texture and heavier feel than the fakes, agents said.
From the
NY Post:
Florin Necula, of Long Island City, Queens, swallowed a black 4 gigabyte Kingston flash drive after Secret Service agents raided his home to bust up a New Jersey-New York bank fraud ring, according to court papers.
Federal agents raided the apartment of Necula and his co-defendants in the case, seizing cell phones and laptops and digital cameras.
But before agents could grab all the evidence, Necula scooped up the roughly inch-long mini-drive and gobbled it up.
Patient feds waited days for the suspect to download the evidence, but the computer drive was jammed in his system as his attempt to obstruct justice, instead obstructed his colon.
"Doctors from the New York Downtown hospital later removed the flash drive because they were concerned that Necula would be injured if they allowed the flash drive to remain inside him," special agent Joseph Borger wrote in an affidavit.
Some unfortunate crime lab technician was still able to retrieve the information.
Necula and three co-defendants were charged with illegally attaching a device, called a skimmer, to bank ATMs in Jersey City and Queens that would allow them to read customer’s debit card numbers. They allegedly stole over $35,000.
