The Investigative Journal’s daily review of federal enforcement activity. All items below are drawn from official Justice Department releases and court records linked in each section. Where a case is at the indictment stage, the charges are allegations only, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.
The Justice Department closed out the first week of August with a burst of enforcement activity spanning nearly every major litigating division. Announcements made August 5 and 6 include a foreign-bribery trial conviction of a former Goldman Sachs banker, a guilty plea in one of the largest data-theft extortion campaigns on record, a $95 million Medicare fraud indictment in Nevada, and criminal charges against four coal mine managers accused of keeping miners underground during an active fire. Below, TIJ reviews eight actions that merit attention — what the records show, and what to watch next.
Jury Convicts Former Goldman Sachs Banker in Ghana Power Plant Bribery Scheme
A federal jury in the Eastern District of New York on August 6 convicted Asante Kwako Berko, 52, a dual U.S.-Ghanaian citizen and former executive director in Goldman Sachs’ investment banking division, of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a substantive FCPA violation, and money laundering conspiracy, according to the Justice Department’s release.
According to court documents and trial evidence described by the department, Berko conspired to pay more than $1 million in bribes to Ghanaian officials to secure a power plant deal for Aksa Enerji, a Turkish energy company and Goldman client, beginning in December 2014 amid Ghana’s national energy crisis. Trial evidence showed the conspirators discussed a $1 million payment to Ghana’s Minister of Power and paid $5,000 apiece to five Ghanaian officials during an all-expenses-paid equipment-viewing trip to Turkey. Prosecutors said Berko concealed the scheme by lying to Goldman’s compliance team and routing communications through a personal email account, while payments were laundered through shell companies, sham invoices, and nominee accounts. Goldman ultimately withdrew from the deal over corruption concerns, per the release.
The case is notable for its international reach: the UK’s National Extradition Unit and the Crown Prosecution Service assisted in Berko’s arrest and extradition, and Ghana’s Office of the Special Prosecutor cooperated with the FBI. Sentencing is set for November 10; Berko faces a maximum of 30 years in prison, with the actual sentence to be determined under the federal guidelines.
Canadian Hacker Pleads Guilty in Breach That Touched 165 Companies and 100 Million People
Connor Riley Moucka, 26, of Kitchener, Ontario, pleaded guilty August 5 in the Western District of Washington to computer fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and a related conspiracy, the Justice Department announced. According to court documents, between February and October 2024 Moucka and co-conspirators used stolen login credentials to compromise cloud-hosted data belonging to at least 165 customers of a U.S.-based software-as-a-service company, stealing billions of records — call and text histories, banking data, payroll records, Social Security numbers, and passport numbers among them.
The conspirators extorted victims by threatening to publish the stolen data, collecting more than $2.5 million in ransom payments; Moucka personally obtained at least $495,000, records state. In at least one instance, the department said, Moucka re-extorted a victim using the stolen data of a government officer and the family of a former government officer. Victim companies suffered more than $9.5 million in direct losses, a figure that excludes harm to roughly 100 million affected individuals whose data was advertised for sale on forums including BreachForums, Exploit.in, and XSS.is.
Moucka was extradited from Canada in July 2025 — an arrest the department notes came just six months after the breaches began — with assistance from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Australian Federal Police, Spain’s Guardia Civil, Ukraine’s Security Service, and the Turkish National Police. Sentencing is set for October 27. The prosecution falls under Operation Riptide, the FBI’s enforcement campaign against cybercrime, which the bureau says cost Americans more than $20 billion in reported losses last year, a 26 percent single-year increase.
Nevada Physician Indicted in Alleged $95 Million Medicare Wound-Care Scheme
A federal grand jury in Nevada returned an indictment charging Stephen Dubin, M.D., 74, of Henderson, with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and five counts of health care fraud in connection with an alleged $95 million scheme built on medically unnecessary amniotic wound allografts, the department announced August 5. Medicare allegedly paid more than $54 million on the claims.
The indictment alleges that Dubin, sole owner of Dubin Medical Consultants (doing business as Wound MD), procured allografts through illegal kickbacks disguised as “Rebate Agreements” and a pass-through shell-company bank account, then billed Medicare at sham full-price invoice rates while pocketing the spread. Filings allege the grafts were applied to elderly patients — including hospice patients — without medical necessity: on infected wounds, on wounds not responding to treatment, and in quantities far exceeding wound size. Prosecutors further allege Dubin falsified medical records to paper over the scheme and used proceeds to fund a lavish lifestyle, including custom-built multi-million-dollar yachts.
These are the National Fraud Enforcement Division’s first announced charges in Nevada since the West Coast Health Care Fraud Strike Force was formed on April 30. Dubin faces up to 10 years per count if convicted. The indictment is an allegation only, and Dubin is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Four Illinois Mine Managers Charged Over 2021 Underground Fire and Alleged Cover-Up
An indictment returned in the Southern District of Illinois charges four managers and supervisors of the MC#1 Mine in Franklin County — Ronald Dale Koontz, 69; Demitrios George Macropoulos, 38; Randy L. Nowland, 67; and Cory Taylor Humphrey, 37 — with conspiring to defraud the Mine Safety and Health Administration in connection with an August 2021 underground fire, the department announced August 6.
According to the indictment, when a fire ignited by cutting torches could not be extinguished within 10 minutes, the defendants allegedly agreed not to evacuate miners or notify MSHA as required, instead directing coal production to continue through portions of three shifts while ad hoc firefighting went on. Two defendants allegedly signed examination records falsely certifying that no hazardous conditions existed. After MSHA received an anonymous tip and ordered the mine evacuated, filings allege conspirators re-entered the mine in violation of the withdrawal order and manipulated underground conditions to fool gas detectors; one co-conspirator allegedly concealed his portable gas detector from investigators. A fifth conspirator, former mine manager Brandon Timothy Parsons, pleaded guilty to the conspiracy count in August 2025. The four newly charged defendants are presumed innocent; the charges are allegations only.
Civil Rights Indictment in Philadelphia Mosque Arson
Vincent Lang, 60, of Philadelphia was indicted August 6 on one count of malicious damage by fire to a building used in interstate commerce and one count of damage to religious real property, in connection with the July 5 arson at the Northeast Philadelphia Islamic Center on Tyson Avenue, per the Justice Department. The indictment alleges Lang targeted the building because it was a mosque.
Lang has been in federal custody since his July 16 arrest on a criminal complaint. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 40 years in prison with a five-year mandatory minimum. ATF, the FBI, and the Philadelphia Police Department investigated. As with all indictments, the charges are allegations, and Lang is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
Houston-Area Pill Mill Doctor Gets 12.5 Years; Five Defendants Now Sentenced
Maryam Qayum, M.D., 68, of Montgomery County, Texas, was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison for running her Kingwood clinic, Recare Health Clinic, as a cash-only pill mill that issued prescriptions for more than 3 million opioid pills between 2022 and 2025, the department announced August 5. Qayum pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to unlawfully distribute controlled substances.
Court documents state Recare sold prescriptions to street-level dealers — internally called “providers” — charging up to $500 for oxycodone 30mg scripts and around $300 for hydrocodone, with staff taking “tips” to fast-track dealers’ orders. Four co-defendants were previously sentenced, including drug dealer Melvin Sampson (210 months), nurse practitioner Tomi-Ko Bowers (96 months), security guard Lester Stokes (63 months), and pharmacist Jared Williams (42 months), whose Surge Rx pharmacy filled the illegitimate prescriptions.
First Guilty Plea in Cattle Auction Bid-Rigging Investigation
Herbert D. Lutz, 56, of Chester, South Carolina, a manager at a bovine artificial insemination firm, pleaded guilty August 6 in federal court in Columbus, Ohio, to conspiring to rig bids at cattle auctions from at least October 2018 through May 2024, the Antitrust Division announced. According to court documents, conspirators agreed in advance which company would win auctions for cattle used in semen production, with the designated loser either sitting out or submitting intentionally losing bids. Lutz’s employer acquired cattle worth more than $1.6 million through the rigged sales.
Lutz is the first defendant charged in what the division describes as an ongoing investigation into the industry — language that typically signals more charges to come. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine under the Sherman Act. The division also flagged its Antitrust Whistleblower Rewards Program, which offers payouts for original information leading to recoveries of $1 million or more.
Florida Man Admits $14 Million Unauthorized Check Scheme
Eri Guzman Ortiz, 69, formerly of Miami-Dade County, pleaded guilty August 6 to wire fraud for creating and depositing roughly $14 million in fraudulent checks into the accounts of sham companies, per the Justice Department. According to court documents, a client in Canada sent Guzman Ortiz lists of thousands of people and businesses who had purportedly authorized debits from their accounts; Guzman Ortiz used the lists to draw unauthorized checks against victims’ accounts, knowing no such authorization existed. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service and FDIC’s Office of Inspector General investigated. Sentencing is set for November 5, with a maximum penalty of 20 years.
What TIJ Is Watching
Several threads from this week’s actions warrant deeper reporting. First, the bovine genetics bid-rigging case: the Antitrust Division’s designation of Lutz as “the first defendant” in an ongoing probe suggests additional charges against individuals — and potentially corporations, which face fines up to $100 million — in a concentrated industry that touches food prices. Second, the Dubin indictment is the latest in a string of amniotic-allograft fraud cases nationally; the billing mechanics alleged here, with sham rebate agreements inflating Medicare reimbursements, mirror a pattern TIJ intends to examine across other districts. Third, the Moucka plea references co-conspirators who are not named in the release; related prosecutions and the fate of the extorted ransom funds remain open questions. Finally, the MC#1 Mine indictment charges individual managers — records suggest the corporate operator’s role and any parallel civil exposure deserve scrutiny.
Sources and Notes
This digest is compiled exclusively from Justice Department press releases and court records cited above: the Berko conviction release, the Moucka plea release, the Dubin indictment release, the MC#1 Mine indictment release, the Lang indictment release, the Qayum sentencing release, the Lutz plea release, and the Guzman Ortiz plea release. The full DOJ newsroom is at justice.gov/news.
Right of reply: defendants and their counsel in the pending matters described above are invited to submit statements or corrections to The Investigative Journal; responses received will be published as updates to this article. Charges in the Dubin, MC#1 Mine, and Lang cases are allegations only, and those defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.