U.S. Federal
Victims of the State

Not Listed in State Indexes
11 Cases

U.S. Federal Case (AR) 

Susan McDougal

1980s

Susan McDougal was the former wife of Jim McDougal, a man involved in the Whitewater affair. This affair involved associates of the then President Clinton. Susan talked freely at first to investigators working for Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr. But then she realized she was being put in a perjury trap for her testimony contradicted that of her ex-husband and that of former judge David Hale, both of whom had been given special deals for their testimony. Rather than be coerced into lying, or face perjury charges for telling the truth, she refused to testify. Her refusal resulted in her being imprisoned 21 months for civil contempt. Susan has written a book about her experience entitled The Woman Who Wouldn't Talk.  (TruthInJustice)  [11/05]

U.S. Federal Case (CA) 

Richard J. Adamson

2000

Richard J. Adamson was convicted of wire fraud and money laundering. He was judicially exonerated in 2002.  (FJDB) (U.S. v. Adamson)  [7/05]

U.S. Federal Case (FL) 

Nino Lyons

Convicted 2001

Antonino Lyons, a Cocoa, Florida businessman, owned a chain of clothing stores. He was convicted of drug trafficking, carjacking, and distributing counterfeit clothing. The prosecution relied on the testimony of 26 felons convicted of federal drug law violations. These witnesses testified that Lyons sold them more than $6 million of cocaine. There was no independent evidence – no drugs, no non-felon witnesses, no wiretaps, no tape recordings – supporting the claims of the witnesses. Lyons received letters from prisoners who said they were approached by the prosecution, but refused to perjure themselves in exchange for sentence reductions.

At trial, the prosecution withheld numerous exculpatory documents that were belatedly turned over on appeal. The documents supported Lyons's contention that the prosecution's case against him was not just evidentially insufficient, but had the appearance of being contrived out of whole cloth. In 2004, a judge vacated Lyons's convictions and dismissed all charges against him. It is unknown why federal prosecutors targeted Lyons.  (Justice: Denied) (U.S. v. Lyons)  [2/07]

U.S. Federal Case (GA) 

GFI Five

2001

David Cawthon and four codefendants sold financial instruments for Global Financial Investments (GFI). Unknown to the defendants, GFI's financial soundness was backed by phony documents. Virgil Womack, who turned out to be a major con man, ran the company. After Womack split with much of the company's assets, the five were convicted of numerous financial crimes in federal court. There is evidence that they acted to protect investors. However at trial, the judge acted as a second prosecutor. He refused to allow two key witnesses to testify, one because he was another judge. He also barred defense arguments regarding the defendants' innocent state of mind.  (JD) (Fraud Digest) (ANG)  [12/06]

U.S. Federal Case (IN) 

Percy B. Sullivan

1896

Percy B. Sullivan was convicted of passing counterfeit money after being identified by eyewitnesses from Evansville, Vincennes, and Terre Haute, IN. He was sentenced to four years of imprisonment. Some time later, another man named Tyler was arrested who admitted passing counterfeit money in the same cities about the time charged against Sullivan. When the identifying witnesses from these cities were shown Tyler's and Sullivan's pictures and asked to pick out the culprit, all promptly picked Tyler, even though Tyler bore little resemblance to Sullivan. U.S. President McKinley pardoned Sullivan on May 12, 1898.  (CTI)  [11/07]

U.S. Federal Case (NJ) 

Luigi Zambino

Dec 8, 1905

Luigi Zambino was convicted of counterfeiting after a man named Frank Manfra identified him as his accomplice in order to shield his own brother. Zambino was sentenced to 6 years in prison, but in Nov. 1909, U.S. President Taft granted Zambino a full pardon.  (CTI)

U.S. Federal Case (NJ) 

Hany Kiareldeen

1990s

Hany Kiareldeen, a Gaza native who married an American citizen, was caught in a dispute between Immigration Court, which wants to free him, and Federal authorities who want to keep him imprisoned based on secret evidence. The authorities' most specific allegation was that Kiareldeen met with the 1993 World Trade Center bombers one week before the bombing, at his residence in Nutley. However, an Immigration judge found that Kiareldeen was not even living in Nutley at the time. Kiareldeen's attorneys strongly suspect his former wife, who is in a bitter custody dispute with him, is the source of the allegations. She had previously brought domestic charges against him on at least six occasions, and all of them were dismissed.  (NJ Law Journal)  [3/05]

U.S. Federal Case (NY) 

Duarnis Perez

Convicted 2000

Duarnis Perez became a U.S. citizen in 1988. He was later convicted of a drug related offense and sentenced to prison. On his release in 1994 he was deported to the Dominican Republic. In 2000, he was arrested in the U.S. for illegally entering the country following his deportation. He was convicted and served a three and a half year sentence. On his release in 2004 the Immigration Service again attempted to deport him. Perez contested the deportation and won. A federal judge overturned his illegal entry conviction in 2006.  (FJDB)  [10/07]

U.S. Federal Case (NY) 

Martha Stewart

Dec 2001

Martha Stewart, a well-known domestic diva, was investigated for insider trading because she sold her shares of ImClone stock the day before the company announced that its cancer drug, Erbitux, was not approved by the FDA. The investigation revealed that Stewart did not engage in insider trading, but had sold them because her broker observed that the ImClone stock price was declining and that the company CEO was selling his shares. To protect themselves from a vague and undefined insider trading laws, Stewart and her broker doctored their story. Stewart was convicted of obstruction of justice for lying. For this offense to have any meaning, there must be a crime that she lied about and obstructed. The prosecutors presented no such crime. Stewart served five months of jail time and five months of house arrest. She suffered no apparent loss of reputation with the public.  (TruthInJustice)

U.S. Federal Case (VA) 

Ben Lacy

1991-93

Ben Lacy was an apple juice producer in northern Virginia who made a few mistakes filling out environmental forms over the course of several years. Federal prosecutors chose to interpret the few mistakes as comprising a conspiracy to hide the pollution of a stream behind his plant. As the stream tested pristine, the prosecutors did not accuse him of polluting the stream. Prosecutors had to let go of Lacy but only after they ruined him financially.  (American Spectator) (Examiner)  [7/05]

U.S. Federal Case (WA) 

Jeffrey Jenkins

1988

After police physically beat him and threatened to kill him, Jeffrey Jenkins confessed to possessing a sawed off shotgun. Jenkins was convicted, but his conviction reversed in 1991.  (FJDB)  [7/05]