Office of Investigations Press Releases
Stay up-to-date with the latest press releases from the NASA OIG.
Friday, March 7, 2025 NEW BERN, N.C. – A Snow Hill man was sentenced to 50 months in prison for Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud related to Covid-19 loans. In March of 2024, TYREEK RASHEED EXUM, 26, was charged in…
Thursday, February 13, 2025 Orlando, Florida – United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces the filing of a criminal information charging Xiao Guang Pan (71, Canada) with three counts of using an unmanned aircraft to photograph vital defense installations and equipment without authorization.…
Thursday, February 6, 2025 Sacramento, Calif. — Anton Andreyevich Iagounov, 38, of South Lake Tahoe, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Daniel J. Calabretta to two years and three months in prison for four counts of impersonating a federal…
Monday, December 16, 2024 Wilmington, Del. – David C. Weiss, U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware, announced today that the University of Delaware (UD), located in Newark, Delaware, has agreed to pay $715,580 to resolve civil allegations that it…
Monday, November 25, 2024 CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Christopher Grant, 41, of Buckhannon, was sentenced today to five years of federal probation, including four months on home detention, and ordered to pay $35,168 in restitution for conspiracy to steal public money,…
Tuesday, November 19, 2024 CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Gary Lomax, 62, of Hurricane, was sentenced today to five years of federal probation, including four months on home detention, and ordered to pay $29,592 in restitution for theft of public money, property…
Tuesday, November 19, 2024 Dell Technologies Inc. and Dell Federal Systems L.P. (collectively Dell), located in Austin, Texas, have agreed to pay $2,300,000 to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by submitting and causing the submission of…
Monday, October 28, 2024 BECKLEY, W.Va. – Mark William Bailey, 51, of Beckley, was sentenced on Friday, October 25, 2024, to five years of federal probation, including one year on home detention, and ordered to pay $451,237.51 in restitution for…
Tuesday, October 22, 2024 The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), located in University Park, Pennsylvania, has agreed to pay $1,250,000 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by failing to comply with cybersecurity requirements in fifteen contracts…
Monday, September 16, 2024 ATLANTA, GA – Song Wu, a Chinese national, has been indicted on charges for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft arising from his efforts to fraudulently obtain computer software and source code created by the National…
Thursday, September 12, 2024 ALBANY, NEW YORK – The Research Foundation of the State University of New York (RFSUNY) has paid $313,574 to resolve civil allegations that a research scientist at the State University of University at Albany (UAlbany) failed…
Tuesday, August 6, 2024 CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Gary Lomax, 62, of Hurricane, pleaded guilty today to theft of public money, property or records. Lomax admitted that he fraudulently obtained approximately $8,760 in unemployment benefits, including COVID-19 supplementary funds, and a…
Monday, August 5, 2024 CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Christopher Grant, 41, of Buckhannon, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to steal public money, property or records. Grant admitted that he fraudulently obtained approximately $14,336 in unemployment benefits, including COVID-19 supplementary funds, and…
Thursday, July 25, 2024 A grand jury in Kansas City, Kansas, returned an indictment on Wednesday charging North Korean national Rim Jong Hyok for his involvement in a conspiracy to hack and extort U.S. hospitals and other health care providers,…
Thursday, July 11, 2024 SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After a three-day trial, a federal jury found Anton Andreyevich Iagounov, 38, of South Lake Tahoe, guilty of four counts of impersonating a federal officer, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.
February 29, 2024 Orlando, FL – United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces that Steven Lukens (54, Port Charlotte) has pleaded guilty to wire fraud. Lukens faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison and has agreed to…
December 27, 2023 HOUSTON – A Missouri City couple has been indicted for orchestrating a fraudulent financing and refinancing mortgage loan scheme, announced U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani.
October 12, 2023 RICHMOND, Va. – A Marne, Michigan, man pleaded guilty today to a wire fraud charge arising from his participation in an investment fraud scheme.
October 2, 2023 Stanford University, located in Palo Alto, California, has agreed to pay $1.9 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by submitting proposals for federal research grants that failed to disclose current and pending…
September 8, 2023 BECKLEY, W.Va. – Mark William Bailey, 50, of Beckley, pleaded guilty today to theft of government monies, admitting he stole approximately $451,237.51 in COVID-19 relief loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid,…
June 29, 2023 HX5 LLC and its owner and Chief Executive Officer, Margarita Howard, located in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, and an affiliated joint venture HX5 Sierra LLC, located in Cleveland, Ohio, have agreed to pay the United States $7,759,693.92…
May 19, 2023 PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero announced that Ardavan Alamoutinia, 33, of Hummelstown, PA, and Aryanah Davison, 23, of Harrisburg, PA, were charged by Indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail…
May 04, 2023 James Jeremy Barbera Defrauded Investors Out of More than $7 Million by Falsely Claiming His Company Developed a Breathalyzer Device to Detect Cancer.
February 27, 2023 A 3D printing company has agreed to pay the United States up to $4.54 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by improperly transmitting export-controlled technical data to China in violation of the…
February 13, 2023 DENVER – Vescent Photonics, Inc., a laser technology company located in Golden, Colorado, agreed to pay $402,621 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by using contractors located outside of the United States in…
November 10, 2023 The Ohio State University (OSU), a public university in Columbus, Ohio, has paid $875,689 to resolve civil allegations that it failed to disclose an OSU professor’s affiliations with and support from a foreign government in connection with…
September 26, 2022 Aman Khan, also known as Amanullah Khan, was sentenced to 46 months in prison and ordered to pay $1,538,054 in restitution for illegally selling counterfeit aircraft parts and falsifying supporting documentation. Khan’s intentional marketing of fraudulent and…
September 14, 2022 Miami, Florida – Juan Guillermo Gonzalez and his companies, Accelogic LLC and Intellectual Property Systems LLC (Intellep) have been sentenced by U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon for their roles in obtaining information from U.S. departments and…
September 07, 2022 DENVER – The Department of Justice announced today that Instec, Inc., located in Boulder, Colorado, and Dr. Zhong Zou, Instec’s owner and president, have agreed to pay $625,000 to resolve allegations that the company and Zou violated…
July 19, 2022 Mihai Ionut Paunescu, also known as “Virus,” was extradited to the United States from Colombia for allegedly running a “bulletproof hosting” service that enabled cyber criminals to distribute the Gozi Virus, one of the most financially destructive…
February 23, 2022 Corporate representatives of Anahuac Transport Inc., Gary Monteau and Brant Charpiot, admitted their guilt on behalf of the company to intentionally selling potentially tainted rocket fuel to NASA, the Department of Defense (DoD), and SpaceX. The company…
February 17, 2022 James Barbera, the former founder and CEO of a nanotechnology company in New York was found guilty of securities fraud and wire fraud due to a scheme to defraud the company’s investors out of millions of dollars.…
January 21, 2022 University of Arkansas Professor, Simon Saw-Teong Ang, pled guilty to making a false statement to the FBI regarding the existence of patents for his inventions in the People’s Republic of China. Despite University disclosure requirements, Ang did…
December 21, 2021 United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron and Assistant Inspector General for Investigations Robert Steinau of NASA’s OIG announced a civil settlement with Telophase Corporation in which the company agreed to pay $1,389,509…
December 20, 2021 Jessica D. Aber, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, announced an update on the Eastern District of Virginia’s criminal and civil enforcement efforts to combat COVID-19 related fraud, including schemes targeting the Paycheck Protection…
November 30, 2021 Stacy R. Caruvana (47, Rockledge, Florida) was sentenced to six months in federal prison for falsifying records with intent to obstruct and influence a federal investigation.
Ocotber 21, 2021 DENVER –The Center for Severe Weather Research (CSWR), a nonprofit organization in Boulder, Colorado, has paid over $2.4 million to resolve allegations that it engaged in fraud related to grants it received from three federal agencies: the…
August 04, 2021 ALEXANDRIA, Va. – On Tuesday, a federal jury convicted a former government subcontractor who completed work at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center of fraud charges relating to the Small Business Administration’s women-owned small business program.
July 15, 2021 Andrew Tezna, a senior National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) employee, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for submitting fraudulent applications for over $350,000 in COVID-19 economic relief loans and benefits.
June 16, 2021 Meyya Meyyappan, a senior National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientist, was sentenced to 30 days in prison for making false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, NASA’s Office of Inspector General, and the United States…
April 19, 2021 A Senior Executive Service employee of NASA pleaded guilty to submitting fraudulent applications for over $350,000 in COVID-19 economic relief loans and benefits.
April 19, 2021 Combustion Research and Flow Technology, Inc., based in Pipersville, PA, agreed to pay $192,586 and implement enhanced compliance measures to resolve claims arising from its administration of Small Business Innovation and Research contracts funded through the Department…
January 13, 2021 Meyya Meyyappan, a senior NASA scientist, pled guilty to making false statements by failing to disclose his participation in a Chinese government recruitment program. He subsequently lied about it to NASA investigators, FBI agents, and the USAO.
December 09, 2020 James Jeremy Barbera, former founder and chief executive officer of a nanotechnology company based in New York, was arrested and charged with securities and wire fraud in connection with an alleged scheme to obtain financial investments in…
November 03, 2020 KalScott Engineering, Inc., and its president, Thomas Sherwood, and Vice President Suman Saripalli, have agreed to pay the federal government $672,352 to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act that the company submitted false claims to obtain…
August 24, 2020 Texas A&M University Professor Zhengdong Cheng, 53, was arrested and charged in a criminal complaint for conspiracy, making false statements, and wire fraud. The complaint charged that Cheng willfully took steps to obscure his affiliations and collaboration…
July 29, 2020 The Department of Justice announced today that Simon Saw-Teong Ang, 63, of Fayetteville, Arkansas, was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Western District of Arkansas on 42 counts of wire fraud and two counts of…
May 11, 2020 Simon Saw-Teong Ang, 63, of Fayetteville, Arkansas, was arrested and charged in a federal complaint with one count of wire fraud. The complaint charged that Ang had close ties with the Chinese government and Chinese companies and…
May 11, 2020 Pennsylvania State University has agreed to pay the federal government $151,000 to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act that the University mischarged grants and contracts from various federal agencies, including NASA.
April 06, 2020 On February 27, 2020, a Houston federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment against Summer Worden, Wichita, Kansas, for making false statements to federal authorities from NASA’s Office of Inspector General and the Federal Trade Commission. Worden…