Jefferson County Man Guilty of Drug Trafficking as Part of Homeland Security Task Force Investigation in the Eastern District of Texas

 

A Beaumont man has pleaded guilty to federal drug trafficking violations following a Homeland Security Task Force investigation in the Eastern District of Texas, announced Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent in Charge Brian C. Leardo of the Houston Division and U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs.

James William Quinney, Jr., 38, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine before U.S. Magistrate Judge Zack Hawthorn on May 21, 2026. 

According to information presented in court, in October 2024, law enforcement began investigating Quinney for trafficking drugs in Beaumont and the surrounding area.  During the investigation, Quinney was identified as the leader of a drug trafficking organization that distributed kilogram quantities of methamphetamine to other distributors for redistribution.  Quinney was found to be purchasing 18 kilograms of methamphetamine at a time for redistribution.  In total, law enforcement seized nearly five kilograms of methamphetamine from Quinney and over $80,000.00 in U.S. currency.  

This case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States.  HSTF Houston comprises agents and officers from the FBI; U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations - Houston (ICE-HSI); Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI); and U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) Eastern District of Texas; Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office; Beaumont Police Department; Orange Police Department; Orange County Sheriff’s Office; Texas Department of Public Safety; Lumberton Police Department; and Galveston County Sheriff’s Office with the prosecution being led by Eastern District of Texas Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan C. Lee.

D.A. Bragg Announces Indictment In $188K Pension Theft

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Jr., announced the indictment of CHARLENE BUDREAU, 45, for allegedly stealing $187,913 in pension death benefits intended for her stepdaughter by filing falsified paperwork. BUDREAU is charged in a New York State Supreme Court indictment with Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, Criminal Possession of Stolen Property in the Second Degree, Identity Theft in the First Degree, and Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument in the Second Degree. [1]     

“A conductor for New York City Transit saved over the course of his career, intending for his daughter to inherit his hard-earned pension,” said District Attorney Bragg. “Instead, we allege, after he passed, his wife stole the pension death benefits that should have gone to her stepdaughter. City employees work too hard for their retirement savings to be drained through theft, and I thank the New York City Department of Investigation for its partnership combatting fraud.”

DOI Commissioner Nadia I. Shihata said, “As charged, this defendant allegedly stole a nearly $188,000 lump sum pension payment intended for her stepdaughter, depositing the funds into a checking account. Municipal employees work their whole lives for a pension to help support them in their retirement, and their beneficiaries after their death; stealing those precious funds is a crime. I thank NYCERS for reporting this fraud to DOI and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for their partnership in safeguarding the City’s pension system.”

As alleged in court documents and statements made on the record, beginning in April 2020, BUDREAU fraudulently submitted forms to the New York City Employees’ Retirement System (“NYCERS”) purportedly signed by her stepdaughter to obtain a lump sum pension death benefit check for $187,913.72, which she deposited in her own Citibank checking account in May 2021. Her then-teenage stepdaughter was entitled to the entirety of the NYCERS lump sum pension death benefit after the death of her father – a Conductor with New York City Transit – not BUDREAU.

District Attorney Bragg thanked the NYC Department of Investigation for its work on the matter, including Confidential Investigator Wendy Huang, Auditor Yanyan Wang, Assistant Inspector General Jeffrey Freeman, Deputy Inspector General Aleksandro Tilka, and Inspector General Ann Petterson.  

Attorney General James Joins Bipartisan Coalition Opposing Federal Legislation that Would Weaken State Protections for Children Online

AG James and 44 Other Attorneys General Urge Congress to Reject the Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act

New York Attorney General Letitia James joined a bipartisan coalition of 44 other attorneys general in urging Congress to reject the Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act (KIDS Act), arguing the bill would weaken states’ ability to protect children online and shield big tech companies from accountability. In a letter to Congressional leadership, Attorney General James and the coalition warn that the KIDS Act would prevent states from addressing online threats to minors, including from social media, social gaming platforms, and artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots. The coalition is calling on Congress to reject the KIDS Act and instead pass the Senate version of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA).

“Online platforms are fueling a mental health crisis among young people, and New York has led the way to enact new measures to protect our kids,” said Attorney General James. “The KIDS Act would strip states of their ability to protect our children online. I am proud to join a bipartisan coalition of my fellow attorneys general in sending a clear message to Congress: the KIDS Act should not become law.” 

In 2024, New York enacted nation-leading legislation championed by Attorney General James to combat addictive social media feeds and protect kids online. The Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) For Kids Act requires social media companies to restrict addictive feeds on their platforms for users under 18. The New York Child Data Protection Act prohibits online sites from collecting, using, sharing, or selling the personal data of anyone under the age of 18, unless they receive informed consent or unless doing so is strictly necessary for the purpose of the website.

Attorney General James and the coalition argue that the KIDS Act would preempt state laws that address critical safety measures concerning online obscenity, online harms to children, social gaming platforms, and AI chatbots. This sweeping federal preemption would also severely restrict states’ abilities to pass new laws to protect children online and limit the power of attorneys general to enforce state laws. The coalition instead urges Congress to pass KOSA, which includes a key provision requiring online platforms to act in the best interests of minors while preserving states’ authority to enforce stronger protections for children and teens.

Joining Attorney General James in sending the letter are the attorneys general of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, the District of Columbia, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

BRONX MAN INDICTED FOR AGGRAVATED ANIMAL CRUELTY FOR ALLEGEDLY THROWING CAT FROM 15TH FLOOR WINDOW TO ITS DEATH

 

Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced that a Bronx man has been indicted for causing the death of his family’s cat by allegedly throwing the animal out of his 15th floor apartment window. 

District Attorney Clark said, “We are supposed to love and care for our companion animals. Allegedly, in a fit of rage, this defendant tossed the family’s cat out of his apartment window, causing the animal’s death. The abuse of animals will not be tolerated.” 

District Attorney Clark said the defendant, Miguel Perez, 32, of Alexander Avenue, Mitchell Housing Complex, the Bronx, was arraigned on May 21, 2026, on Aggravated Cruelty to Animals and Torturing and Injuring Animals before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Timothy Lewis. He is due back in court on July 21, 2026.

According to the investigation, on March 4, 2026, at approximately 10:20 a.m., the defendant became upset after Shadow, his family’s small black cat, scratched his hand. The defendant allegedly threw the cat out of a window of the 15th floor apartment, causing its death when it hit the pavement below.

District Attorney Clark thanked Shawn Perry and Veronica Rodriguez from the New York City Housing Authority for their assistance in the investigation.

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

Owner of Multinational Investment Company Sentenced in $2B Fraud, Money Laundering, and Bribery Schemes

Greg Lindberg, 56, of Tampa, Florida, and the founder and chairman of Eli Global LLC and owner of Global Bankers Insurance Group (GBIG) was sentenced today to a combined 12 years in prison for his role in a bribery conspiracy and multibillion-dollar fraud conspiracy that bankrupted multiple insurance companies with thousands of unpaid policyholder victims. 

According to court documents and evidence presented in court, from at least 2016 through at least 2019, Lindberg conspired with others to defraud various insurance companies, other third parties and hundreds of thousands of insurance policyholders. Lindberg and others conspired to deceive the North Carolina Department of Insurance (NCDOI) and other regulators, evaded regulatory requirements meant to protect policyholders, concealed the true financial condition of his companies and improperly used insurance company funds for his personal benefit. Lindberg and his co-conspirators caused companies he controlled in North Carolina, Bermuda, Malta, and elsewhere to invest more than $2 billion in loans and other securities with his own affiliated companies and laundered the proceeds of the scheme. Lindberg directed the scheme and personally benefitted from the fraud in part by “forgiving” more than $125 million in loans to himself from the insurance companies that he controlled. Lindberg used his ill-gotten gains to fund a lavish lifestyle, buying private jets, mansions and a 200-foot luxury yacht.

To carry out these conspiracies, Lindberg and others engaged in circular transactions among Lindberg’s web of entities using insurance company funds and misled or omitted material information from regulators, various ratings agencies, insurance companies and ultimately policyholders, regarding these transactions. 

As Lindberg’s fraud and money laundering conspiracies were beginning to unravel, from April 2017 to August 2018, Lindberg and others engaged in a bribery scheme for the purpose of causing the Commissioner of Insurance of the NCDOI to take official action favorable to Lindberg’s company, GBIG. Lindberg and others gave the Commissioner millions of dollars in campaign contributions and other things of value in exchange for the removal of NCDOI’s Senior Deputy Commissioner, who was responsible for overseeing the regulation and the periodic examination of GBIG. 

As a result of Lindberg’s conduct, his insurance companies, third-party entities and policyholders suffered substantial financial hardship, and multiple of his insurance companies have been placed in rehabilitation and liquidation. To date, thousands of individual policyholders and other victims are collectively still owed more than $1 billion. A special master was appointed by the court in the fraud case to assist with the restitution process and distribution of funds to victims. A separate restitution hearing will be set at a later date. 

In November 2024, Lindberg pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States and conspiracy to commit money laundering. In May 2024, Lindberg was convicted by a federal jury of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds.  

The FBI Charlotte Field Office investigated both cases.

Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson for the Western District of North Carolina; and Special Agent in Charge Reid Davis of the FBI Charlotte Field Office made the announcement. 

Founder And Managing Director Of Investment Firm Sentenced For Fraud And Money Laundering

 

John Arthur Hanratty, a New York-Licensed Attorney, was Engaged in a Fraudulent Scheme to Defraud a Bank of More Than $20 Million

Sean S. Buckley, Attorney for the United States, Acting under Authority Conferred by 28 U.S.C. § 515, announced today that JOHN ARTHUR HANRATTY, the founder and managing director of a multimillion-dollar municipal tax lien investment firm, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield to 12 months and a day in prison for his role in a fraudulent scheme to steal nearly $20 million from a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”)-insured bank.  In August 2025, HANRATTY was convicted following a jury trial of wire fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering.   

“John Arthur Hanratty scammed his bank by falsely claiming to own millions of dollars of assets to secure more than $20 million in loan advances,” said Attorney for the United States Sean S. Buckley.  “In reality, the bank was left without the promised collateral and suffered millions in losses.  The defendant’s conduct, which occurred over the course of years, jeopardized the bank’s lending ability.  Today’s sentence holds the defendant accountable for his conduct.” 

As reflected in the Indictment, public filings, and the evidence presented at trial:

HANRATTY was the Founder and Managing Director of Ebury Street Capital, LLC (“Ebury Street Capital”), an investment firm with a portfolio primarily comprised of municipal tax liens.  HANRATTY has also been an attorney licensed to practice law in the State of New York since 2002 and held legal and compliance positions at well-known investment firms and financial institutions, including serving as the Chief Compliance Officer and General Counsel for a trading broker-dealer. 

Between 2017 and 2021, HANRATTY participated in a fraudulent scheme to steal money from an FDIC-insured bank (“Victim Bank-1”) by drawing down on commercial lines of credit that had been extended to Ebury Street Capital.  Specifically, HANRATTY made materially false statements about the tax lien collateral pledged to Victim Bank-1, inflating the value of that collateral by millions of dollars by adding supposed assets that Ebury never owned.  As a result of HANRATTY’s misstatements, Victim Bank-1 was defrauded of over $20 million.  In addition, HANRATTY falsely told both his investors and Victim Bank-1 that the tax lien collateral was managed by an independent third-party custodian, when, in reality, that was not true.  HANRATTY fabricated records to hide the truth about Ebury’s actual assets and the independent custodian.  The defendant’s fraud ultimately resulted in nearly $20 million of losses for Victim Bank-1. Ebury investors also lost more than $8 million in investment capital when the defendant’s fraud unraveled and Ebury collapsed.  After fraudulently obtaining money from Victim-1, the defendant laundered that money through his business accounts for his own ends.   

In addition to the prison term, HANRATTY, 51, of Little Silver, New Jersey, was sentenced to two   years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit approximately $17.7 million, with restitution to follow.   

Mr. Buckley praised the outstanding investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and also thanked the FDIC Office of the Inspector General for their assistance.

New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and Black Gotham Experience Launch "Battle in the Margins” Theatrical Project

 

New plays and writing workshops will examine Black experiences in New York City during the American Revolution

The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) in partnership with Black Gotham Experience (BGX) today announced the launch of “Battle in the Margins” a new theatrical project exploring Black life in New York City during the American Revolution. Developed through a series of original ten-minute plays, this project centers the African Diaspora’s experience, resistance, and role in shaping early American history, shining a light on stories often left out of the nation’s founding narrative.

The productions will premiere on September 19 at FDR Four Freedoms State Park from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

“Black history is American history,” said New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Acting Commissioner Kathy Moser. “Through the Our Whole History initiative, we are committed to illuminating the experiences of Black New Yorkers on both sides of the American Revolution who lived, fought, and made consequential choices during this defining period of our past. We invite the public to explore this work through these writing workshops, which create a space for meaningful dialogue around one of the Revolution’s most complex and enduring questions: what did freedom mean to those for whom it was not guaranteed?”

OPRHP New York City Regional Director Leslie Wright said, “Battle in the Margins brings to life the stories of Black New Yorkers during the Revolutionary War. While the revolution raged around them, people were engaged in an urgent fight: for autonomy, dignity, and survival in a city transformed by war. Through these performances, audiences will discover how freedom was both deeply personal and a matter of survival. We are excited to partner with Black Gotham Experience, the Four Freedoms Park Conservancy, and many others to bring this important history to light."

Black Gotham Experience Founder and Creative Executive Office Kamau Ware said, “New York City holds some of the most important American Revolutionary history. People of African descent were not only participants on both sides of the conflict, but their very presence and cries for freedom in the Americas, before and after the war, were central to both the British and American story. In true revolutionary fashion, we invite New Yorkers to put pen to paper in consideration of what the Declaration of Independence means in the United States of America 250 years after its initial publication in the summer of 1776.”

The project launches on June 15 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the South Street Seaport Museum. This launch event will introduce the playwrights behind this new Revolutionary-era theatrical project and also kick off a citywide series of writing workshops running through July hosted by Black Gotham Experience and SYNTAX – including at Denny Farrell Riverbank State Park on June 27 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and FDR Four Freedoms State Park on July 15. To learn more about these workshops and registration information, click here.

Open to students, emerging writers, and professionals, this series of workshops invite New Yorkers across all five boroughs to grapple with the Revolution’s contradictions – a fight for liberty in a society where enslavement remained legal. Through thought-provoking prompts and community dialogue, participants will explore themes of freedom, displacement, and identity in Revolutionary-era New York.

South Street Seaport Museum President & CEO Jonathan Boulware said, “Illuminating the role of African-descended people during and after the American Revolution is in the brilliant conception of Black Gotham Experience. 'Battle in the Margins' brings that bright light to founding documents and ideas including those in The Promise of Liberty: Words That Shaped a Nation. The Seaport Museum is honored to be in conversation with New Yorkers about the Declaration of Independence and the people it sought and seeks to represent.”

The launch coincides with the South Street Seaport Museum’s The Promise of Liberty: Words That Shaped a Nation exhibition which examines foundational documents and evolving ideas of liberty in American history. Anchored by the Declaration of Independence’s promise of “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,” the exhibition traces how America’s founding ideals have evolved over time. The exhibition is on view at the A.A. Thomas & Co. Warehouse from May 27 through August 9, 2026.

Through performances, workshops, and public dialogue, “Battle in the Margins” invites New Yorkers to reconsider the American Revolution through the perspectives of the African Diaspora and to engage with the enduring questions of liberty, identity, and belonging that continue to shape the nation today. 

New York State is leading the nation in the commemoration of the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution. Information on commemorative events statewide this year can be found on the I Love New York “Path Through History website, which can be found here. The New York State Park system includes many parks and historic sites associated with the Revolution. More information can be found here.  

OPRHP

The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation oversees more than 250 parks, historic sites, recreational trails, golf courses, boat launches and more, and welcomes over 86 million visitors annually. For more information on any of these recreation areas, visit parks.ny.gov, download the free NY State Parks Explorer app or call (518) 474-0456. Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, the OPRHP Blog or via the OPRHP Newsroom.  

BLACK GOTHAM EXPERIENCE (BGX)

Black Gotham Experience (BGX) is an award-winning creative intervention that elevates the impact of the African Diaspora by establishing space to revisit untold and suppressed stories through a practice that invites people to walk, talk, and reimagine the past to expand public consciousness. BGX was founded in 2010 and in this 16th year, will include national and international activations in addition to citywide programs from May through November. Connect with us at blackgotham.com, LinkedIn, and Instagram.  

SYNTAX 

SYNTAX is a literary archival project that honors the aesthetics and arrangement of the written word. SYNTAX supports the writing process from the inception of marks on a page to programs connecting powerful writing to audiences.  

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