FBI's Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending April 18, 2008

1. Las Vegas: Man Charged with Unlawful Possession of Biological Toxin after Ricin Discovered in Hotel Room

Roger Von Bergendorff was arrested for Possession of Biological Toxin-Ricin, Possession of Unregistered Firearms, and Possession of Firearms not Identified by Serial Number, following his release from a Las Vegas area hospital.

2. Washington Field: Contractor Sentenced for Conspiracy to Defraud U.S. Military

Wallace A. Ward, of Spring Lake, North Carolina, a former Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) employee who worked in Afghanistan, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 26 months in prison for conspiring to receive bribes, making false statements and filing false claims.

3. Anchorage: Rapper Sentenced to Ten Years for Drug Trafficking.

Sean Sullivan, a resident of Anchorage, Alaska, also known by his rapper name, “Joker the Bailbondsman”, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on his convictions for two counts of distribution of crack cocaine and one count of attempted distribution of crack cocaine.

4. Kansas City: Two Missouri Men Indicted for Sabotaging War Materials.

Charles Dale Osborn, of Odessa, Missouri, and Timothy Duane Langevin, of Independence, Missouri, were charged in a 10-count indictment with participating in a conspiracy to steal specially fabricated copper components, known in the munitions industry as bullet cups, which are used to manufacture copper-jacketed 7.62 mm bullets for the military.

5. Newark: Former Mayor Sharpe James and Mistress Guilty of Corruption and Mail Fraud.

Former Newark mayor Sharpe James was convicted on all corruption charges against him in connection with a scheme that enabled his mistress, Tamika Riley, to fraudulently obtain steeply discounted city-owned land and resell it for hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits.

6. Knoxville: Physicist Guilty of Violating Arms Export Control Act

Daniel Max Sherman, a physicist, conspired to allow a Chinese national access to sensitive U.S. Air Force plans to develop plasma actuators for a munitions-type Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.

7. Los Angeles: President of Cambodian Opposition Group Convicted of Plotting to Overthrow Cambodian Government

Yasith Chhun, the president of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters-a Long Beach, California-based organization that was formed to seize political control in the southeast Asian country-was found guilty today of conspiring to kill in a foreign country.

8. Los Angeles: IT Security Consultant Guilty of Wiretapping and Identity Theft in First “Botnet” Conviction

John Schiefer, an information security consultant from Los Angeles, California, pled guilty to federal charges related to his use of “botnets” (armies of compromised computers) to steal the identities of victims throughout the country by extracting information from their personal computers and wiretapping their communications.

9. Tampa: Two Florida Men Face Terrorism Charges Related to Explosives Located in Their Car in South Carolina

A seven count superseding indictment was filed against Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed and Youssef Samir Megahed for possessing explosive materials and a destructive device. The
FBI later discovered an instructional video recording which defendant Mohamed had distributed via the Internet on the making and use of a remote controlled detonation and ignition system.

10. Atlanta: “Crown Royal Bandit” Bagged

Bruce Allen Hughes, of Blairsville, Georgia, was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery, three counts of armed bank robbery, and four counts of use and possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent felony. Hughes used Crown Royal liquor bags to stash the money during the robberies, which spanned 10 years.