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Cholo Abdi Abdullah Obtained Pilot Training and Researched How to Hijack Aircraft in Order to Conduct a 9/11-Style Attack at the Direction of al ShabaabThe Department of Justice announced the unsealing of an indictment charging Cholo Abdi Abdullah with six counts of terrorism-related offenses arising from his activities as an operative of the foreign terrorist organization al Shabaab, including conspiring to hijack aircraft in order to conduct a 9/11-style attack in the United States. Abdullah was arrested in July 2019 in the Philippines on local charges, and was subsequently transferred on Dec. 15, 2020 in connection with his deportation from...

Audrey Strauss, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and William F. Sweeney Jr., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced today the filing of an Information charging DAVID HU, a managing partner and the chief investment officer of the New York-based investment advisory firm International Investment Group (“IIG”), with investment adviser fraud, securities fraud, and wire fraud offenses.  As alleged, over a period of more than 10 years, HU perpetrated an over $100 million scheme to defraud investors in IIG’s funds, including by creating...

Ilan T. Graff, Attorney for the United States, Acting Under Authority Conferred by 28 U.S.C. § 515, announced that SOHRAB SHARMA, a/k/a “Sam Sharma,” pled guilty today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lehrburger to conspiring to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, and mail fraud in connection with a scheme to induce victims to invest more than $25 million dollars’ worth of digital funds in Centra Tech, Inc. (“Centra Tech”), a Miami-based company he co-founded and which purported to offer cryptocurrency-related financial products.  SHARMA, a leader of the scheme, and his co-conspirators used material misrepresentations and omissions to solicit...