Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations

WASHINGTON�Alstom S.A. (Alstom), a French power and transportation company, pleaded guilty today and agreed to pay a $772,290,000 fine to resolve charges related to a widespread scheme involving tens of millions of dollars in bribes in countries around the world, including Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Bahamas.

Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole, Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department�s Criminal Division, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael J. Gustafson of the District of Connecticut and FBI Executive Assistant Director Robert Anderson Jr. made the announcement. Continue reading at �. http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/alstom-pleads-guilty-and-agrees-to-pay-772-million-criminal-penalty-to-resolve-foreign-bribery-charges

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FBI � Connecticut Construction Company Agrees to Pay $2.4 ... Million, Admits Making False Statements to U.S.

U.S. Attorney�s Office April 07, 2014� District of Connecticut (203) 821-3700

Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut; Ted Doherty, regional Special Agent in Charge for the U.S. Department of Transportation�s Office of Inspector General; Patricia M. Ferrick, Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Cheryl Garcia, Acting Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations, New York Region, today announced that Plainville-based construction company Manafort Brothers Inc. (Manafort) will pay $2.4 million and implement internal reforms subject to independent monitoring to resolve a multi-agency joint criminal and civil investigation into alleged fraud committed by the company in connection with a public works project that commenced in 2007. As part of the resolution, Manafort admitted that it made false statements to the United States and the State of Connecticut Department of Transportation that disadvantaged business enterprises (DBE) performed subcontracted work on the federally and state funded relocation of Route 72 when, in fact, non-DBE performed the work.

The joint investigation revealed that, in 2007, Manafort submitted a bid to ConnDOT to serve as the general contractor on a federally and state funded project that involved a two-mile relocation of Route 72 in Bristol and Plainville, as well as the reconstruction of 2.4 miles of existing secondary roads. All qualifying bids were required to designate a percentage of work that would be performed by DBE, a requirement designed to provide socially and economically disadvantaged contractors, who have faced historical barriers to entry in the construction industry, with fair opportunities to compete for federally funded work. http://www.fbi.gov/newhaven/press-releases/2014/connecticut-construction-company-agrees-to-pay-2.4-million-admits-making-false-statements-to-u.s

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Man convicted in Milford sex trafficking case - Connecticut ...

Posted on January 26, 2015 | By Daniel Tepfer

blog.ctnews.com/connecticutpostings

HARTFORD � A New York man was convicted of sex trafficking two teenaged girls at a Milford motel.

A federal court jury Monday found Edward �Fire� Thomas, 40, of New York, guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of a minor and two counts of sex trafficking of a minor. He faces a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 10 years and a maximum term of imprisonment of life when he is sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny on April 17.

According to the evidence at trial, in September 2012, Thomas, a New York-based pimp, answered an Internet prostitution advertisement for a 17-year-old girl in Oregon. Over the next month, Thomas recruited and enticed the girl to travel to New York to work for him. The girl eventually agreed and traveled to New York with a second girl, who was 16 at the time, using bus tickets purchased by Thomas. Thomas discussed with both girls that they would be prostituting for him in New York and Connecticut.

After the girls arrived in New York, Thomas immediately took them to a hotel in Milford, where they met Kayla Walters, Thomas� co-defendant, and posted prostitution advertisements, the evidence showed. In Milford, the girls saw customers for commercial sex acts at the direction of Thomas. Continue reading at �..� http://blog.ctnews.com/connecticutpostings/2015/01/26/man-convicted-in-milford-sex-trafficking-case/

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Broker imprisoned for mortgage fraud faces new charges ...

December 24, 2014 By Torsten Ove / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

David C. Jackson, a former Monroeville mortgage broker, went to federal prison in 2006 for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme in which he inflated appraisals to secure loans.

But when he got out in 2009, federal authorities say, he picked up where he left off and went back to scamming people in another loan scheme, this time in New England.

A federal grand jury in Connecticut indicted him this week on charges of operating an advance fee fraud scheme that cost 20 victims about $3 million, according to prosecutors and the FBI in New Haven.

Jackson, 53, was charged Monday along with a Massachusetts cohort, Alex Hurt, 45.

The FBI said the two of them conspired to rip off clients in what amounted to a Ponzi scheme in which they offered the promise of large commercial loans in exchange for upfront fees wired directly to Jackson�s bogus company, initially established using the address of an abandoned building in Dayton, Ohio, and later two addresses in Pittsburgh.� Continue reading at� http://www.post-gazette.com/local/east/2014/12/24/Former-Monroeville-businessman-faces-more-federal-charges/stories/201412240193

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