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Orlando, Florida – U.S. District Judge Paul G. Byron today sentenced Frank Richard Nickens (58, Arizona) to three years in federal prison for wire fraud. The court also ordered Nickens to forfeit $69,155 traceable to proceeds of the offense and to pay restitution to the victims. Nickens pleaded guilty on March 3, 2025.

Greenbelt, Maryland – Zakria Hussain, 28, of Prince George’s County, Maryland, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, relating to the submission of fraudulent CARES Act unemployment insurance claims. According to the plea agreement, beginning in at least March 2021, and continuing until about August 2022, Hussain and his co-conspirators engaged in a scheme to defraud the United States, the State of Maryland, multiple financial institutions, and multiple individuals.

U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced today Hormoz Mansouri, 71, of Amherst, NY, who was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and bank fraud, was sentenced to time served and five years’ supervised release, to include one year of home detention. He was also ordered to pay restitution totaling $3,197,562 and to forfeit $1,888,603.

A former Amtrak employee was sentenced today to 25 months in federal prison for conspiring with her husband to steal nearly $1 million in COVID-19 pandemic-related unemployment insurance (UI) benefits and for fraudulently obtaining more than $63,000 in sickness benefits while she worked at the passenger railroad company.

CINCINNATI – Herman Brunis, 62, of Cincinnati, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 12 months and one day in prison for conspiring to commit wire fraud. Brunis was also ordered to pay nearly $300,000 in restitution.

BOSTON – A couple from Randolph, Mass., have pleaded guilty to running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded dozens of individual investors out of millions of dollars.

BOSTON – A Weymouth man pleaded guilty today in federal court in Boston to submitting fraudulent information in an effort to obtain loans through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program.

The defendants allegedly fraudulently obtained more than $2 million in small business loans.

OMAR RAJEH, 57, of Hamden, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport to 15 months of imprisonment, followed by two years of supervised release, for defrauding COVID-19 pandemic relief programs of more than $750,000. Judge Underhill also ordered Rajeh to pay a $2,000 fine.