Minneapolis, Minnesota - Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney Erica H. MacDonald, Assistant Director John Brown of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division and Special Agent in Charge Jill Sanborn of the FBI Minneapolis Division yesterday announced the guilty plea of Negar Ghodskani, 40, for her participation in a conspiracy to  illegally export controlled technology from the United States to Iran. Ghodskani, who was indicted on Dec. 8, 2015, arrested in Australia in 2017, and made her first appearance in District Court on July 22, 2019, entered her guilty plea Friday before Judge Joan N. Ericksen in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis.

Washington, DC - The operator of a network of businesses in Lebanon and Africa whom the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated as a financier of  Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based terrorist group, was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to forfeit $50 million by U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton of the District of Columbia.

U.S. Virgin Islands - Yohanna Gonzalez-McFarlane, 38, of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, was arrested on August 7, and charged in a criminal complaint with one count of alien harboring for financial gain and one count of interstate transportation for prostitution. The arrest was announced by Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and U.S. Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert for the District of the Virgin Islands.

Washington, DC - The Department of Justice announced Tuesday the FBI-led recovery or identification of 103 child victims and the arrest of 67 sex traffickers through Operation Independence Day.  This initiative - a revamping of a previously successful program - was executed during the month of July through 161 operations conducted nationwide.

Washington, DC - The former CEO of the Israel-based company Yukom Communications, a purported sales and marketing company, was found guilty yesterday for orchestrating a scheme to defraud investors in the United States and worldwide by fraudulently marketing approximately $145 million in financial instruments known as “binary options.”

Seattle, Washington - A 34-year-old citizen of Pakistan, who is alleged to have paid insiders at telecommunications giant AT&T to plant malware and otherwise misuse computer networks to unlock cellphones, was charged in a 14-count federal indictment unsealed Monday following his extradition from Hong Kong to the Western District of Washington.