What all this Military Investigation Services and Law Enforcement Agencies at Dept of Corrections Press Conf. could entail. Operation Surprise Party and info on Kingmaker from S.C.
What this article covers,
The Kingmaker in South Carolina indicted along with 4 others on criminal charges
Lance Crick, assistant U.S. attorney S.C. featured in Operation Real Time in which Jeff Sessions was the speaker.
Remember the role Sessions would be allowed to resume concerning Military Law as he was a commander in the Army Reserves while an attorney.
Assistant US Attorneys From South Carolina Recipients of National ATF Honor Award
Some of the prison employees involved in Operation Surprise Party and a link to see others
Fully sourced
Remember when consultant Richard Quinn Sr., for years a kingmaker in S.C. politics, was indicted Wednesday by the State Grand Jury on a felony charge of criminal conspiracy, as well as a charge of illegal lobbying for failing to register as a lobbyist back in July of last year?
Could there be more to the unsealing of Operation Surprise Party, in which inmates at South and North Carolina prisons created a ‘sextortion’ ring to take advantage of U.S. military servicemembers and used contraband cellphones to do so?
I ask this where we look later at who all is involved in the Press Meeting this morning of November 28, 2018.
First let's look closer at this Operation Surprise Party and what was involved.
The two-year, multi-state investigation, dubbed “Operation: Surprise Party” alleges that 15 people inside and outside of the Department of Corrections used contraband cellphones to extort more than 400 service members through online dating websites posing as young women.
When the inmate would begin an online relationship with the servicemember, Lydon says inmates would send nude photos of a woman and ask for nudes in return.
Once the servicemember sent their nude photos, the inmate would pose as the young woman’s father and demand money in exchange for not being reported to officers for having nude photos of an underaged woman.
NCIS has been investigating the ring for nearly two years. All arrests were made without incident, according to the U.S. Marshal’s office. It is “one of many” criminal organizations taking place in our prisons, officials said.
The victims range in rank and are stationed at bases and posts across the country. In all, more than 440 servicemembers have had more than $560,000 in financial losses due to this scheme.
Once they received the money, inmates would use family members and friends outside of the prison to put the money in bank accounts and online banking services to deposit and use the money.
Now let's look at what was going on in South Carolina last year.
According to The State,
COLUMBIA, SC
FBI agents are busy interviewing Columbia-area politicians and their associates as part of the state’s ongoing investigation into alleged corruption in the S.C. General Assembly, according to multiple sources familiar with the probe.
FBI agents have been working alongside State Law Enforcement Division agents in interviewing subjects, the sources said.
Two veteran federal prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Greenville office, Lance Crick and William Watkins, have been assigned to the case, the sources said.
Note Lance Crick, the First Assistant U.S. Attorney is the contact for the media on this Release,
Military Investigation Services along with State and Federal Law Enforcement Agencies to Hold Press Conference at the Department of Corrections in Columbia on Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Now in August of last year (2017) we had Crick featured here for Operation Real Time,
Assistant US Attorneys From South Carolina Recipients of National ATF Honor Award
More later on this, back to. . .
Which states,
The press conference will be held at 10:30 a.m. at the South Carolina Department of Corrections, located at 4460 Broad River Road, Columbia, SC 29210
Columbia, South Carolina --- United States Attorney Sherri Lydon announced that a press conference will be held on Wednesday, November 28, 2018, at 10:30 a.m. at the Department of Corrections, located at 4460 Broad River Road, Columbia, SC 29210.
Represented at the press conference will be members of the Naval Criminal Investigative Services (NCIS), U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Command (CID), Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI), Department of Defense Criminal Investigative Services (DCIS), Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI), United States Marshals Service (USMS), the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC), the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
NOTE: Press inquiries regarding logistics should be directed to Lance Crick, 864-282-2105. All media must present a government-issued photo ID (such as a driver’s license). Members of the media wishing to attend should gather at the media staging area at 10:00 a.m., 30 minutes in advance. Media Staging Area: South Carolina Department of Corrections Recruitment and Employment Services Center parking lot located at 4444 Broad River Road, Columbia, SC.
Last year Crick stated,
“As a matter of policy, the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s office make it a practice to neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.”
Interesting!
In October 2014, former S.C. House Speaker Bobby Harrell pleaded guilty to misusing campaign money. In a plea agreement, he promised to cooperate in any future state or federal criminal investigations. It was not clear at that time that the FBI was seriously involved.
Harrell was the first person to be indicted by Pascoe in what has turned into a three-year investigation into public corruption in the Legislature. Pascoe’s investigation has been stalled several times by legal actions designed to shut him down or limit his scope. But he has prevailed and kept going.
Pascoe’s investigation is now believed to focus on South Carolina’s pre-eminent political consultant firm, Richard Quinn & Associates, and its relationships with lawmakers, lobbyists, state agencies and private corporations. Last month, Pascoe won a court decision to keep and study a trove of electronic and paper data obtained from a surprise March raid on Quinn’s offices.
Debbie Barbier, Richard Quinn’s lawyer, had this to say Monday when asked about FBI involvement: “Richard Quinn has not broken any state or federal law.”
Barbier added, “My client and his family are victims of state politicians seeking to further their own political careers and agendas. As a former (federal) prosecutor, it is outrageous to me that a confidential statewide grand jury is constantly being illegally leaked to the public.” She would not elaborate.
Since last December, three other lawmakers have been indicted on various misconduct charges: Rep. James Merrill, R-Berkeley; Sen. John Courson, R-Richland; and Rep. Rick Quinn, R-Lexington.
John Crangle, a lawyer who wrote a book about Lost Trust, a major legislative public corruption scandal of the 1990s, said Monday federal involvement may signify important developments in the works.
“This is a very significant development,” Crangle said.
That’s because when it comes to potential corruption, federal authorities have more resources and much stronger and varied laws to work with than the relatively weak and limited patchwork of state laws, Crangle said.
Those federal assets include:
▪ More agents. Up to now, Pascoe is believed to have at most about nine State Law Enforcement Division agents working for him. At the time of Lost Trust, Crangle said, the FBI deployed more than 70 agents to South Carolina.
▪ Laws such as racketeering statutes that allow the federal government to prosecute certain criminal conspiracies, and the Hobbs Act, which prohibits the use of one’s public office for personal gain. The feds used the Hobbs Act extensively in the 1990s Lost Trust probe in which 17 lawmakers were ultimately convicted, Crangle said.
▪ Money laundering statutes as well as laws designed to detect and monitor bank deposits of $10,000 or more.
▪ Mail and wire fraud statutes, which cover any Internet or U.S. mail communications in which a crime is discussed.
▪ Federal income tax laws.
Once again, this was last summer (2017)
This past wast weekend, The Charleston Post & Courier wrote that the FBI has been investigating the firing of former S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control executive Catherine Templeton from the S.C. Ports Authority. She was quoted by the newspaper as saying that her firing was connected to her raising questions about the approximately $1 million per year Quinn and other consultants were getting paid by the Ports Authority.
Once again, Crick was presented an award in August of 2017.
The awards were presented at the 21st Annual ATF Awards Ceremony yesterday at ATF National Headquarters in Washington, D.C. United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions was the featured speaker for the event and NBC News Justice Department Correspondent Pete Williams presented the awards.
United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) Acting Director Thomas E. Brandon presented the ATF Honor Award to Assistant US Attorney Jamie Schoen, Assistant US Attorney Max Cauthen, and First Assistant US Attorney Lance Crick for their collective and ongoing efforts to partner with local, state, and federal law enforcement to secure communities through the expedited federal arrest, detention, and prosecution of violent, repeat gun offenders in upstate South Carolina, an initiative known as “Operation Real Time.”
Crick's U.S. Attorney's office was an integral part of this operation.
In addition to the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), Real Time’s core partners include the Greenville Police Department, the Anderson Police Department, the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services; the South Carolina Highway Patrol, United States Probation, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the 13th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, and the United States Attorney’s Office.
This story from WRDW news,
U.S. Attorney Beth Drake commended the work of Schoen, Cauthen, and Crick in praising the Real Time partnership. “We work best when we work together. This ‘real time’ identification of high risk offenders is smart policing and we welcome the opportunity to work alongside our state chiefs, sheriffs, and solicitors in taking violent repeat offenders out of our communities.”
See more here,
Just yesterday this came out,
Former Fifth Circuit Solicitor Indicted for Additional Federal Charges | USAO-SC
Columbia, South Carolina —- United States Attorney Sherri A. Lydon announced today that Daniel Edward Johnson, 47, Former Fifth Circuit Solicitor and resident of Blythewood, South Carolina, was charged in a 36-count Superseding Indictment by a federal Grand Jury in Columbia for Wire Fraud, Mail Fraud, Theft of Federal Funds, False Statements, Conversion of Federal Funds, and Obstruction of Justice.
Johnson faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison on the Wire Fraud, Mail Fraud, and Obstruction of Justice charges; a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison on the Theft of Federal Funds and Conversion of Federal Funds charges; and a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison for the False Statements charge.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) investigated the case. Assistant United States Attorneys Winston D. Holliday, Jr., Alyssa Leigh Richardson, and William C. Lewis of the Columbia office are prosecuting the case.
The United States Attorney stated that all charges in the indictment are merely accusations and that all defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
Now if we go back to April of this year (2018) we find,
COLUMBIA – After a "long-term and broad" investigation that was begun by the FBI in 2016, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday that 14 former state prison employees had been indicted on federal charges related to bribery and bringing drugs, cellphones and other contraband into South Carolina prisons.
At least some of them previously faced state charges related to contraband, officials said.
The investigation is continuing.
The announcement came a little more than a week after seven inmates died in prison fighting at Lee Correctional Institution.
"The South Carolina Department of Corrections is facing a crisis in contraband," said U.S. Attorney Beth Drake. "It affects the safety and security of our institutions. It affects the safety and security in our community."
While Drake acknowledged the indictments were handed down about 48 hours after the Lee Correctional riots, she said the investigation had been ongoing for three years. She and other officials provided only limited detail about the cases, citing efforts to protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation.
See more here,
Also in April this year,
Eight men and six women who worked in South Carolina's prison system pleaded not guilty Wednesday afternoon to federal charges that include bribery, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and some drug offenses.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Shiva Hodges set bond for 13 of the defendants at $50,000.
Hodges set bond at $100,000 for Sharon Johnson Breeland, who faces the most serious charges of those who appeared in court Wednesday.
Each of the defendants is being held at a detention facility in Lexington County. They will not be eligible to be released until a pre-trial services report is completed, Hodges said.
The eight men and six women had their hands and legs shackled as they entered a second-floor courtroom in the Matthew J. Perry Jr. Federal Courthouse in Columbia. They were dressed in street clothes. Attorneys met briefly with each of them before the hearing began.
The former employees and crimes listed,
Here are some examples,
Sharon Nicole Johnson-Breeland
According to Johnson-Breeland's indictment, she was a correctional officer in June 2016 when she accepted bribes from inmates to smuggle contraband into prisons. Along with bribery and wire fraud conspiracy charges, Johnson-Breeland, 29, of Columbia, is accused of possessing marijuana and 50 grams or more of "a mixture or substance containing methamphetamine," with intent to distribute the drugs. She also faced state charges out of Richland County when she was charged with furnishing contraband to prisoners on June 1, 2016. She pleaded guilty to that charge April 13, 2017, according to online court records.
Darnell Kleckley
Bribes to smuggle contraband to prisoners and wire fraud conspiracy. He is also charged with possessing marijuana and cocaine with intent to distribute the drugs.
Douglas Hawkins
He accepted bribes to smuggle contraband into a prison, according to his indictment.
He is facing bribery and wire fraud conspiracy charges.
See more here as most involve smuggling drugs, cellphones and headphones.
Sources,
https://www.thestate.com/news/local/crime/article163403043.html
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