NYPD OFFICER CHARGED IN TWO INDICTMENTS: FOR ASSAULTING A SUSPECT, AND FOR LYING ABOUT PATROL CAR STRIKING MOTORCYCLIST

 

Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced that an NYPD Police Officer has been charged in two separate indictments, for assaulting a suspect with a police radio and for lying about a patrol car striking and injuring a motorcyclist. 

District Attorney Clark said, “The defendant allegedly lied about police car accident that injured a motorist to cover up for the officer who was driving, and four months later the defendant allegedly struck a suspect on the head with his radio. His alleged actions are a betrayal of public trust and tarnish the shield.” 

District Attorney Clark said Kenny Victoria, 34, who was assigned to the 44th Precinct, was arraigned today on both indictments before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Brenda Rivera. The defendant is due back in court on December 3, 2024.

The defendant was charged in one indictment with Attempted Offering a False Instrument in the first degree, second-degree Offering a False Instrument for Filing, second-degree Falsifying Business Records, and Official Misconduct.

According to the investigation, on December 16, 2023, at approximately 2:24 p.m., near Monroe Avenue and East 173rd Street, the defendant was a passenger in a NYPD patrol car that crashed into a motorcyclist, fracturing his leg, and forcing him over the car’s hood. The biker was arrested and charged with Reckless Engagement and Criminal Mischief. An investigation revealed Victoria allegedly filed a collision report stating the motorcyclist was doing a wheelie and drove into the police vehicle; however, video surveillance showed that the police car accelerated and turned into the motorcyclist as he was entering an intersection.

In the second indictment, the defendant was charged with second-degree Assault, thirddegree Assault, and Official Misconduct. According to the investigation, on April 30, 2024, at approximately 3:41 p.m., near 311 East 170th Street, the defendant responded to calls of a person with a firearm. When he arrived, he identified the man with the gun, and chased him. The suspect tossed the gun and was eventually pulled to the ground by another officer. Victoria allegedly struck the suspect on the head with his police radio. The suspect received staples at a hospital to stop the bleeding from the back of his head. 

District Attorney Clark thanked Sergeant Thomas Little and Sergeant Jonathan Yan of the Internal Affairs Bureau and Lieutenant Hugo Batista of PSA 7 (formally of the Internal Affairs Bureau).

An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’ 

Former FAA Contractor Indicted for Illegally Acting as an Agent of the Iranian Government

 

Former Federal Aviation Administration contractor, Abouzar Rahmati, 42, a naturalized U.S. citizen and resident of Great Falls, Virginia, was indicted for acting and conspiring to act as an agent of the Iranian government in the United States without prior notice to the Attorney General. He made his initial appearance in the District of Columbia today this afternoon.

According to the indictment, from at least December 2017 through June 2024, Rahmati conspired with Iranian government officials and intelligence operatives to act on their behalf in the United States, including by meeting with Iranian intelligence officers in Iran, communicating with coconspirators using a cover story to hide his conduct, obtaining employment with an FAA contractor with access to sensitive non-public information, and obtaining open-source and non-public materials about the U.S. solar energy industry and providing it to Iranian intelligence.  

“As alleged, the defendant conspired with Iranian officials and intelligence operatives, even lying to obtain employment as a U.S. government contractor only to then share sensitive government materials with Iran,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “When undisclosed agents of Iran or any other foreign government seek to infiltrate American companies or government agencies, the Justice Department will use every available tool to identify them and bring them to justice.”  

“This defendant is charged with infiltrating a U.S. agency with the intent of providing Iran with sensitive information vital to our national security,” said U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves for the District of Columbia. “Thanks to the great work of the FBI and the FAA’s investigators, this defendant was stopped in his tracks and a known adversary’s plot was exposed.”

“This indictment describes the reprehensible actions of an individual who allegedly betrayed his country by transferring sensitive U.S. information to a foreign power. This alleged betrayal not only undermines our national security but also puts U.S. jobs and livelihoods at risk,” said Executive Assistant Director Robert Wells of the FBI’s National Security Branch. “We will not tolerate any actions that compromise U.S.-based sensitive information and are committed to ensuring that justice is served swiftly and decisively.”

According to the indictment, from June 2009 to May 2010, Rahmati served as a First Lieutenant in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — an Iranian military and counterintelligence organization under the authority of the Supreme Leader of Iran. After being discharged from the IRGC, Rahmati lied to the United States government regarding his military service with the IRGC in order to, among other things, gain employment as a U.S. government contractor.

In August 2017, Rahmati offered his services to the Iranian government through a senior Iranian government official who previously worked in Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security and with whom Rahmati had previously attended university. Four months later, in December 2017, Rahmati traveled to Iran, where he met with Iranian intelligence operatives and government officials and agreed to obtain information about the U.S. solar energy industry, to provide that information to Iranian officials, and to conduct future communications under a cover story based on purported discussions about research with fellow academics.

After Rahmati returned to the United States in December 2017, he obtained various non-public and open-source materials related to the U.S. solar energy industry and provided them to an Iranian government official. Rahmati also applied for multiple positions with private companies and U.S. government entities that would provide him with access to sensitive information, eventually obtaining a position with U.S. Company 1 supporting the FAA on a contract related to the power and electrical architecture of the FAA’s National Airspace System (NAS). After Rahmati obtained the position, he informed an Iranian intelligence officer that he was “in the process of moving to and joining a new company” and that they could “work more effectively if it is finalized.”

In response to tasking from Iranian officials, and in furtherance of his agency relationship with the Government of Iran, Rahmati exploited his employment with U.S. Company 1 by downloading sensitive non-public U.S. Company 1 documents related to the FAA, storing them on removable media, and taking them to Iran, where he provided the documents to the Government of Iran in April 2022. These included documents related to the NAS that would give a person unfamiliar with NAS facility engineering a reasonable understanding of how the NAS power and electrical architecture is configured.

After he returned to the United States in April 2022, in response to tasking from Iranian government officials, Rahmati sent additional information relating to solar energy, solar panels, the FAA, U.S. airports, and U.S. air traffic control towers to his brother, a co-conspirator, so that he would provide those files to Iranian intelligence on behalf of Rahmati.

The FBI Washington Field Office is investigating the case. FAA’s Office of Counterintelligence and Technical Operations provided significant assistance. 

Husband And Wife Found Guilty Of Murder And Car-Jacking

 

Jamie and Nicholas Orsini Murdered Jamie Orsini’s Ex-husband 

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that, on Friday, September 27, 2024, a jury found JAMIE ORSINI and NICHOLAS ORSINI guilty of carjacking resulting in death and conspiracy to commit carjacking. The ORSINIs were found guilty following a two-week trial before U.S. District Judge Philip M. Halpern. 

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Over four years ago, in Beacon, New York, Jamie and Nicholas Orsini killed Jamie’s ex-husband, Steven Kraft, and engaged in a sophisticated scheme to hide their crime. Indeed, Kraft’s body still has not been found.  For more than four years, Kraft’s family has waited for justice.  Their wait is now over. With its verdict, the jury has now held Kraft’s ex-wife—Jamie Orsini—and her husband—Nicholas Orsini—responsible for that murder and subsequent cover-up.  This should serve as a lesson: if you commit a crime—if you commit a murder—it does not matter how well you cover your tracks, or how successfully you think you destroyed the evidence, law enforcement will not give up, and the career prosecutors of this Office and our law enforcement partners will never stop investigating and prosecuting these righteous cases.  If any member of the public has information that they wish to share with us about any unsolved murder, then we encourage you to come forward.” 

According to the Indictment, public court filings, and the evidence presented at trial:

In 2020, JAMIE and NICHOLAS ORSINI plotted the murder of JAMIE ORSINI’s ex-husband, Steven Kraft. As part of that murder, they planned a sophisticated cover-up, involving the use of burner phones, the movement of Kraft’s car to a different city, and the destruction and disposal of all physical evidence.  Among other things, they purchased items—such as a 1,000-square-foot tarp and a full-body coverall—to allow them to commit the murder and dispose of evidence, they repeatedly practiced “dry runs” for how they would move Kraft’s car, and they purchased a “burner phone” to use without law enforcement being able to trace the phone to them.  On April 28, 2020, in Beacon, New York, after Kraft dropped his daughters off with the ORSINIs, who had custody of their children, the ORSINIs killed Kraft and took his car and cellphone.  NICHOLAS ORSINI then drove the car into Newburgh, New York, leaving it in a high-crime neighborhood, got rid of Kraft’s cellphone, and used the burner phone to call a taxi to bring him back to Beacon, throwing the burner phone out before getting into the taxi.

After the murder, the ORSINIs managed to destroy or dispose of evidence—including Steven Kraft’s body—buying a new burner phone to use when they repeatedly drove to and from upstate New York, and creating large homemade incinerators.  JAMIE ORSINI sent multiple text messages to make it look like she believed that Kraft was still alive, and, having dumped Kraft’s car in Newburgh, when speaking with the police, professed ignorance, but kept hinting that, maybe if Kraft went to Newburgh after leaving her home, something might have happened to him there.

If you believe you have information related to the ORSINIs, or the location of Steven Kraft’s body, please consider reporting using the following link: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/report-crime.

JAMIE ORSINI, 38, and NICHOLAS ORSINI, 36, both of Amsterdam, New York, were each convicted of: carjacking resulting in death; and participating in a conspiracy to commit carjacking.  The carjacking count carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, and the conspiracy count carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

The maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by a judge.

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York State Police, which also supported the prosecution through trial.  He also thanked the Dutchess County District Attorney’s Office, the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office, the City of Beacon Police Department, the Town of Marlborough Police Department, and the City of Newburgh Police Department.