Two Houston Men Plead to Child Pornography Charges

The Department of Justice announced on Thursday that two men, Victor Saavedra and Keith Hernandez, both plead guilty to receipt of child pornography.

The case against Saavedra, 55, of Houston, was initiated when a concerned mother in Pennsylvania reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that her 14-year-old daughter had been asked to send nude pictures of herself to someone. NCMEC and the Texas Attorney General's Office identified the person as Victor Saavedra. A search of his residence and computer revealed the existence of another teenage girl from Canada who had been sending the defendant, at his request, images and movies of her nude and masturbating. Today, Saavedra entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Court Judge Ewing Werlein Jr., admitting he had met minor girls online in a Yahoo! checkers room and that he had asked them to send "regular and pornographic" pictures of themselves to him and they did. Saavedra admitted that on or about Sept. 26, 2006, he possessed a computer containing approximately 1,000 images and movies of child pornography.

Hernandez, 24, of La Marque, also pleaded guilty May 15, 2008. He was charged with possessing a computer that contained 2,044 images and 153 movies of child pornography, including pictures of babies and toddlers being sexually assaulted. A Texas Attorney General’s Office investigator was working undercover in a chatroom and was approached by someone who directed her to look at a Yahoo! profile that contained child pornography. The investigator saw the child pornography and identified the profile as belonging to Keith Hernandez. A search of Hernandez' computer revealed the presence of disturbing images and movies of young children being victimized sexually and physically.

Both men face a maximum 20-year term of imprisonment, a $250,000 fine.

ARTHUR VANMOOR SENTENCED TO 210 MONTHS IN JAIL FOR SELLING FAKE CANCER CURE

The Department of Justice announced on Friday that Arthur Vanmoor was sentenced by United States in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, to a term of 210 months in prison and a term of 3 years of supervised release. This action follows Vanmoor’s conviction on January 18, 2008, by a federal jury sitting in Fort Lauderdale of 19 separate counts that included Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud, Wire Fraud, Misbranding of Drugs and the Introduction of Unapproved New Drugs into Interstate Commerce.

Vanmoor hired individuals to create and write content for web sites with names such as www.cancercure.org and www.migrainemiracle.com to promote his products, “Cancer Control” and “Migraine Miracle,” by falsely claiming, among other things, that the products were FDA approved drugs guaranteed to cure numerous forms of cancer and migraine headaches. Vanmoor further arranged for the web sites to contain fake articles purportedly written by doctors. These fake articles were accompanied by pictures of people dressed like doctors holding the products as well as fictitious patient testimonials recommending the products.

In December of 2005, the United States Attorney’s Office obtained a temporary restraining order against Vanmoor and others prohibiting the continued promotion, advertisement, production, shipment, and/or sale of “Cancer Control,” “Migraine Miracle,” “Flu Fighter,” and any other non-FDA-approved drugs in interstate commerce. Vanmoor nevertheless continued to maintain his web sites and calling lines after the entry of the temporary restraining order. The court in the civil case found Vanmoor to be in civil contempt, and in January 2006 the United States indicted Vanmoor for criminal contempt as well as conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud, misbranding of drugs and the introduction of unapproved new drugs into interstate commerce. In August 2007, Vanmoor was extradited to the United States from the Netherlands to face the charges in this case.

TAX PREPARER GUILTY IN SEVERAL FRAUDULENT SCHEMES

A Chino Hills man who operated several tax preparation businesses pleaded guilty today to a series of federal charges related to a wide-ranging scheme in which he defrauded clients and the Internal Revenue Service, as well as victims who had their identities stolen.

Abdul Wahid, 56, the owner of Global Accounting and Tax Service in Los Angeles, pleaded guilty today before United States District Judge George Wu. Wahid pleaded guilty to three counts of mail fraud, one count of theft of government property, one count of aggravated identity theft and five counts of attempted tax evasion.

As part of his scheme to defraud clients of his tax return preparation business, Wahid formed companies with names like Internal Recovery Systems, Inc. (IRS), along with other DBAs – FTB, EDD and BOE – that were all acronyms for government taxing agencies. After Wahid prepared personal and business tax returns that usually showed thousands of dollars of taxes due, Wahid instructed clients to write checks for the amounts due payable to the appropriate taxing authority or to Wahid personally. But instead of submitting the checks to the appropriate taxing agency, Wahid deposited the checks into bank accounts he controlled, for example, his “ IRS” account.

Wahid also failed to file his personal federal income tax returns for the years 2002 through 2006. By not filing his tax returns, Wahid attempted to evade the payment of nearly $1 million in federal income taxes.

Another aspect of Wahid’ s criminal conduct involved the theft of a tax refund check that was based on a false tax return he filed with the Internal Revenue Service. That tax return was filed under the name of a person whose identity Wahid had stolen.

Judge Wu is scheduled to sentence Wahid on July 24. At sentencing, Wahid faces a maximum statutory sentence of 97 years in federal prison and fines of $1.5 million.