The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged Catherine Beth Washburn, 37, of Irondequoit, New York, with attempting to provide material support to the Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years' imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. According to the criminal complaint, Washburn made approximately 80 separate transfers of cryptocurrency totalling around 30,116 USDC (roughly $30,116

A Honduras-based Chinese national has pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Virginia to conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, to laundering the proceeds of drug trafficking, and to providing material support to a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO), the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG). According to court documents, Wenshen Xu, 52, operated a transportation network across Latin America — encompassing airstrips, airports, armoured cars,

The US Justice Department has announced the seizure of a cloud computing account used by subsidiaries of the Huione Group, a Cambodia-based conglomerate alleged to have provided laundering services for the proceeds of cryptocurrency investment fraud, cyber scams, and other criminal activity. The account hosted the backend infrastructure supporting these subsidiaries, enabling illicit cryptocurrency proceeds to be transferred, moved, and concealed before conversion into the le

LOGZONE Inc, a Huntsville, Alabama-based defence contractor, has agreed to pay $507,144 to resolve liability under the False Claims Act (FCA) arising from its failure to meet cybersecurity requirements on contracts with the Department of the Navy. The settlement concerns allegations that LOGZONE knowingly submitted false or fraudulent claims for payment on two Navy contracts despite not complying with the contracts' cybersecurity obligations. Between May 2021 and March 2025,

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has unsealed a five-count complaint against Reda Mazen Rida Sabassi, 38, of San Diego, charging him with terrorism, sanctions evasion, wire fraud, money laundering and false statement offences linked to the diversion of purportedly charitable donations to Hamas. Sabassi was arrested in San Diego and presented before a US magistrate judge in the Southern District of California. According to the complaint, Sabassi solicited donations from in or a

Two former senior officials in the US Virgin Islands have been sentenced for their roles in a procurement fraud, bribery, and money laundering scheme involving federal pandemic relief funds. Ray Martinez, former Commissioner of the Virgin Islands Police Department (VIPD), was sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Jenifer O'Neal, former Director of the Virgin Islands Office of Management and Budget (OMB), received a seven-year custodial

The guilty plea of Avtandil Kalandadze offers a useful case study in how dark fleet sanctions evasion converges with terrorist financing exposure, deceptive shipping practices and active obstruction of enforcement. Kalandadze, 47, a Georgian national and former master of the tanker Bella 1, has pleaded guilty in the US District Court for the District of Columbia to failing to heave to a US Coast Guard cutter. The plea follows a multi-week pursuit from the Caribbean Sea across

A Texas couple who defrauded more than 10,000 people of over $30m through a fraudulent chain-referral pyramid scheme have each been sentenced to 40 years in prison, following their conviction on conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering charges in January 2026. LaShonda Moore, 38, and Marlon Moore, 39, of Frisco, Texas, co-founded and operated "Blessings in No Time" (BINT), which they marketed through weekly live-streamed broadcasts to thousands of participants across the

A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia has indicted Jaime "Jimmy" Sanchez Soriano, 45, a Mexican national accused of importing substantial quantities of methamphetamine into the United States and laundering the proceeds. Sanchez Soriano sourced methamphetamine from Los Viagras Cartel, a violent organisation affiliated with the United Cartels (Cárteles Unidos), before his arrest by Mexican authorities on 19 March. The United Cartels rank among the world's largest met

A California man has been sentenced to 27 months in prison for tax evasion, operating an illegal gambling business and money laundering, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced. Jason Noah Feinman, of Calabasas, operated a Costa Rica-based business whose website enabled unlicensed and illegal gambling operators to facilitate betting activity. Customers placed wagers through sites Feinman maintained, in breach of both state and federal law. The case offers a textbook

A Chinese national resident in Buford, Georgia has pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder millions of dollars in narcotics proceeds, in a case that illustrates the operational hallmarks of trade-based money laundering (TBML) tied to transnational criminal organisations. Puquan Huang, 50, admitted to participating in an international money laundering organisation that, since at least 2021, collected bulk cash from fentanyl and cocaine sales across South Carolina, North Caroli

The arrest of Jamshid Ghomi exposes a procurement and laundering architecture that should be familiar to anyone running sanctions controls, even as its scale and end-users mark it out. Ghomi, a dual US-Iranian national and chief executive of Tehran-based Faraz Pardaz Rayaneh Co Ltd (FPR), was detained on 3 June 2026 on a federal complaint alleging conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The conduct described runs the full evasion playboo