TWO PLEAD GUILTY TO IMPORTING, SELLING HAZARDOUS AND COUNTERFEIT CHILDREN'S TOYS

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Two Individuals Plead Guilty to Importing and Selling Hazardous and Counterfeit Toys in New York

Two New York residents pleaded guilty today in connection with importing more than 100,000 counterfeit and hazardous children’s toys from China for sale in the United States.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Loretta E. Lynch of the Eastern District of New York, Special Agent in Charge James T. Hayes Jr. of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York, Director Robert E. Perez of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) New York Field Operations, Chairman Elliot F. Kaye of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and Commissioner William J. Bratton of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) made the announcement.

“In a criminal twist on a toy story, the defendants made millions importing dangerous, knock-off toys that put children in harm’s way,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell. “The defendants used a continuously shifting series of corporate entities in an effort to stay one step ahead of law enforcement. But their game has now come to an end. The Department of Justice is committed to stopping those who would smuggle hazardous, counterfeit goods into the United States.”

“For eight years, the defendants lined their pockets while putting at risk the health of our children by smuggling dangerous and copyright-infringing toys into the United States,” said U.S. Attorney Lynch. “Today’s guilty pleas signify the end of this dangerous pipeline from China. We will continue to be vigilant and prosecute those who would smuggle dangerous and unlawful items into our country and neighborhoods.”

“The United States has some of the strongest toy standards and lowest lead limits in the world, specifically to keep children safe,” said CPSC Chairman Kaye. “We have no more important mission than protecting children. For that reason, the CPSC will continue to work with our federal partners to enforce toy safety requirements at the ports and in the marketplace.”

“The defendants in this case endangered thousands of American children by manufacturing for sale counterfeit toys made with unsafe amounts of lead and other hazardous chemicals,” said Special Agent in Charge Hayes Jr. “HSI focuses its efforts to protect intellectual property, first and foremost, on those counterfeit goods that present health and safety hazards to consumers.”

Chenglan Hu, 52, and Hua Fei Zhang, 53, of Bayside, New York, pleaded guilty in connection with importing children’s toys with copyright-infringing images and counterfeit trademarks of popular children’s characters, as well as unsafe lead levels, small parts that presented risks of choking or ingestion, easily-accessible battery compartments, and other potential hazards. Hu and Zhang were the last of nine defendants to plead guilty in this investigation; Guan Jun Zhang, Jun Wu Zhang, and five corporations – Family Product USA Inc., H.M. Import USA Corp., ZCY Trading Corp., Zone Import Corp. and ZY Wholesale Inc. – previously pleaded guilty to Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA) and trademark counterfeiting charges. In pleading guilty to trafficking in hazardous consumer goods in violation of CPSA, Hu and Zhang also agreed to forfeit $700,000 and more than 120,000 unsafe children’s toys. The government previously seized three luxury vehicles and six bank accounts, and filed lis pendens against two real properties owned by Zhang in Queens, New York.

According to court filings and facts presented at the plea hearings, from July 2005 through January 2013, Hu, Zhang, and the other individual defendants used the companies they owned to import and sell toys from China from a storefront and warehouse in Ridgewood, New York, and other locations in Brooklyn, New York and Queens, New York. According to the indictment, CBP seized toys imported by the defendants from shipping containers entering the United States from China on 33 separate occasions. Seventeen of the 33 seizures contained toys prohibited from import into the United States because of excessive lead content, excessive phthalate levels, small parts that presented risks of choking, aspiration or ingestion, and easily-accessible battery compartments. Sixteen of the 33 seizures contained toys bearing copyright-infringing images and counterfeit trademarks, including a wide variety of popular children’s characters, such as Winnie the Pooh, Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants, Betty Boop, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Spiderman, Tweety, Mickey Mouse, and Pokémon, as well as those from movies such as “Cars,” “Toy Story” and “High School Musical.”

Hu, Zhang, and the other individual defendants changed their use of the companies, sometimes even forming new companies, and alternated their formal titles in order to conceal their continued importation and distribution of the hazardous and counterfeit toys.

Hu and Zhang pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein of the Eastern District of New York. Sentencing will be announced at a later date.

The case was jointly investigated by the HSI Intellectual Property Rights Group and the NYPD, through its participation in the New York Border Enforcement Security Task Force, with the assistance of CBP and CPSC. The case was prosecuted by Senior Counsel Evan Williams of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys William Campos and Claire Kedeshian of the Eastern District of New York.

MAN CONVICTED IN "VIOLENT SEX TRAFFICKING CONSPIRACY"

FROM:   U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 
Thursday, March 20, 2014

Maryland Man Convicted in Violent Sex Trafficking Conspiracy

A federal jury convicted Jean Claude Roy, aka Dredd the Don and Dreddy, age 31, of Germantown, Md., late yesterday of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, three counts of interstate transportation for prostitution and witness and evidence tampering.
 
The verdict was announced by Acting Assistant Attorney General Jocelyn Samuels for the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein for the District of Maryland, Special Agent in Charge William Winter of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Chief J. Thomas Manger of the Montgomery County Police Department.

“This defendant preyed on vulnerable young women and exploited them for prostitution,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Samuels.  “The Civil Rights Division is committed to seeking justice on behalf of victims of human trafficking.”

“Protecting our communities from those who engage in human trafficking is a top priority for HSI,” said Special Agent in Charge Winter.  “As a member of the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force, HSI is committed to working with our law enforcement partners to investigate human trafficking, as well as working with our local non-governmental, community-based and faith-based organizations to identify, rescue and assist victims of trafficking.”

According to evidence presented during the two week trial, between August and September 2012, Roy transported a victim across state lines to engage in prostitution and forced the victim to engage in prostitution by taking the victim’s identity documents, keeping all of the victim’s money and bragging about beating murder charges.  

In November 2012, Roy recruited co-defendant Brittney Creason to engage in prostitution at his direction.  Thereafter, Creason helped Roy recruit and transport girls from Illinois and North Carolina to engage in prostitution.  He continued to force women to engage in prostitution by bragging about beating murder charges, taking their identity documents and taking their money.  

Trial evidence also showed that from Jan. 1 through Jan. 10, 2013, while Roy was in jail on related state charges, he called an individual several times and had that person access online accounts and storage services belonging to Roy and Creason in order to erase evidence related to these charges.

Roy faces a statutory maximum sentenced of life in prison for conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; a statutory maximum of 10 years in prison for each of three counts of interstate transportation for prostitution; and a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison for witness and evidence tampering.  U.S. District Judge Paul W. Grimm scheduled sentencing for July 16, 2014.
The jury found Roy not guilty of sex trafficking and attempted sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; and possessing and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence.

Creason, aka Kitty Amor, age 19, of Decatur, Ill., previously pleaded guilty to using a facility in interstate commerce for an illegal activity and awaits sentencing.  
This case was investigated by the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force, which was formed in 2007 to discover and rescue victims of human trafficking while identifying and prosecuting offenders.  Members include federal, state and local law enforcement, as well as victim service providers and local community members.  For more information about the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force, please visit this website.  

Report suspected instances of human trafficking to HSI's tip line at 866-DHS-2ICE (1-866-347-2423) or by completing its online tip form.  Both are staffed around the clock by investigators.  

Acting Assistant Attorney General Samuels and U.S. Attorney Rosenstein commended HSI Baltimore and the Montgomery County Police Department for their work in the investigation.  They also thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristi N. O’Malley and Trial Attorney William E. Nolan of the Civil Rights Division's Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, who are prosecuting the case.

INVESTIGATION INTO DEATH OF CARLOS LAMADRID IS CLOSED BY FEDS

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Friday, August 9, 2013

Federal Officials Close the Investigation into the Death of Carlos LaMadrid
The Justice Department will not pursue federal criminal civil rights or other federal criminal charges against the United States Border Patrol (USBP) agent involved in the shooting incident that resulted in the death of Carlos LaMadrid, the Department announced today.

Officials from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) met today with LaMadrid’s family members and their representatives to inform them of this determination.  The department’s decision is based on the facts developed during an independent and comprehensive investigation into the matter.

The department devoted significant time and resources to investigating the events surrounding LaMadrid’s death on March 21, 2011, around noon, at the international boundary fence separating the United States from Mexico in Douglas, Ariz.  A team of experienced federal prosecutors reviewed thousands of pages of evidence generated by the DHS OIG investigators, the Customs and Border Protection Office of Professional Responsibility, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Internal Affairs Unit.  They conducted a detailed and lengthy analysis of numerous materials including videotapes of the incident, the autopsy report, physical evidence reports, official law enforcement use of force training materials, law enforcement accounts and civilian witness accounts.  Federal prosecutors also interviewed several key witnesses and physically examined the scene of the shooting to gather additional information.

The evidence developed during the investigation indicated that LaMadrid, a 19-year-old U.S. citizen, was observed by Douglas Police Department (DPD) officers loading suspected bundles of narcotics into a Chevrolet Avalanche.  DPD officers pursued the vehicle, but LaMadrid failed to yield and drove toward the international boundary fence.  The Avalanche ran into a USBP agent’s service vehicle near the fence.  LaMadrid exited the driver’s door, ran toward the fence, and climbed up a ladder that was resting against the fence.  On top of the fence, near LaMadrid, was another male throwing brick-sized rocks at the USBP agent.  At the time the shots were fired by the agent, LaMadrid was in the line of fire between the rock-throwing male and the agent.   LaMadrid was struck by four bullets, causing him to fall to the ground.  He was transported to a nearby hospital where he died in surgery several hours later.

While a civilian witness who climbed up the ladder behind the victim stated that he did not see anyone throwing rocks at the time of the shooting, his account is contradicted by the physical, testimonial and video evidence.  A law enforcement officer who witnessed the shooting stated that he saw a man on top of the fence throw three rocks at the agent, forcing the shooting agent to duck down behind his vehicle for cover.  The videotapes of the incident, although poor in quality, show an individual on top of the border fence making an overhead throwing motion as the victim ascends the ladder.  Crime scene investigators recovered several brick-sized rocks at the scene, including one that shattered the windshield of the USBP agent’s service vehicle, which the agent was standing or stooping next to when he fired five shots.

  Under the applicable federal criminal civil rights law, prosecutors must establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, that an official “willfully” deprived an individual of a constitutional right, meaning that the official acted with the deliberate and specific intent to do something the law forbids.  This is the highest standard of intent imposed by the law.  Neither accident, mistake, fear, negligence nor bad judgment is sufficient to establish a federal criminal civil rights violation.  After a careful and thorough review, a team of experienced federal prosecutors determined that the evidence was insufficient to pursue federal criminal civil rights charges.

This matter is also not prosecutable under the federal homicide statutes, although it was committed within the Special Maritime and Territorial Jurisdiction of the United States, because there is insufficient evidence for the government to disprove that the agent was acting in self-defense when he fired at the rock thrower and mistakenly struck the victim, who was in his line of fire.