Fresno, California - Michael Shafer, 34, of Modesto, was sentenced to five years in prison for conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute heroin and conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuana, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

Los Angeles, California - Two South Los Angeles men were each sentenced Monday to 144 months in federal prison for committing an armed robbery last year on the crowded patio of a Beverly Hills restaurant in which one customer had a gun held to his head while the robbers removed his $500,000 wristwatch, and a second restaurant patron was shot and wounded.

Los Angeles, California - A Los Angeles man was sentenced Monday to 240 months in federal prison for operating a Ponzi scheme that raised at least $650 million with bogus claims that investor money would be used to acquire licensing rights to films that HBO and Netflix purportedly had agreed to distribute abroad.

San Diego, California - A California man was sentenced Thursday to 18 months in prison for employment tax crimes.

Miami, Florida - A federal jury convicted a Florida doctor Thursday in the Southern District of Florida for a health care fraud scheme that billed private health insurance companies approximately $110 million for addiction treatment services that were not medically necessary. This is the second trial conviction to arise out of the Justice Department’s Sober Homes Initiative.

Springfield, Massachusetts - A Maine man was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Springfield, in connection with the December 28, 2020, fire that destroyed a predominately Black church in Springfield.