Investigative News Releases

CHICAGO — A former U.S. Postal Service employee in Chicago has been indicted on federal charges for allegedly stealing government stimulus checks from the mail. Olivia L. Bryant, 33, of Chicago, is charged with three counts of theft from the U.S. mail. Bryant pleaded not guilty to the charges during her arraignment Monday in federal court in Chicago. A status hearing is set for May 13, 2022, at 1:00 p.m., before U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey. The indictment was announced by John R...

A former Acting Branch Chief of the Information Technology Division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS-OIG) was convicted today by a jury of multiple federal charges stemming from the theft of proprietary software and sensitive databases from the U.S. government. Murali Y. Venkata, 56, of Aldie, Virginia, was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government, theft of government property, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and obstruction. Venkata, along with co...

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – United States District Judge Lance M. Africk sentenced Shannel Smith, age 41, of Orleans Parish, Louisiana, to three (3) years of probation for issuing money orders without receiving full payment, announced U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans. The sentencing occurred on April 6, 2022. According to court documents, beginning in May 2019 and continuing until August 2019, Smith, being an employee of the Postal Service, for the purpose of fraudulently enabling herself to obtain and...

PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams announced the criminal and civil resolutions of multi-year investigations of various health care fraud schemes involving prescriptions for compounded medications formulated by Heritage Therapeutics, LLC, a Delaware County pharmacy. The investigations yielded six criminal convictions and recovered over $8.7 million in criminal forfeitures, criminal restitution, and civil settlement payments. From 2013 into 2015, Heritage formulated...

INDIANAPOLIS – Manuel J. Bojorquez, 44, of Anaheim, California, was sentenced to 36 months of probation, with 18 months to be served on home confinement, and ordered to pay over $3.3 million in restitution for offering and paying kickbacks to physicians to prescribe compounded medications. According to court documents, Bojorquez was the owner and operator of MD Medical Distribution LLC d/b/a DynaMD, a California-based company. Beginning in 2013, and continuing through 2016, Bojorquez served as a...