McHenry County Blog

A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

THREE DEFENDANTS ARRESTED FOR ALLEGEDLY TRANSPORTING MINOR GIRLS FROM IOWA TO CHICAGO TO ENGAGE IN PROSTITUTION

CHICAGO — Three defendants have been arrested in Iowa and Ohio on federal charges filed in Chicago for allegedly engaging in sex-trafficking of three minor girls they transported earlier this year from Iowa City to Chicago for prostitution, federal law enforcement officials announced today.

The defendants were each charged with one count of conspiracy to transport minors across state lines to engage in prostitution in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

The charges allege that the defendants knew that coercion, force, and the threat of force would be used to cause the victims to engage in commercial sex acts.

Defendant MALIK McKEE, 19, and his sister, SHUNTINA McKEE, 23, both of Iowa City and formerly of suburban Country Club Hills, Ill., were arrested yesterday in Iowa City.

The third defendant, WILLIE WOODS, 41, of Toledo, Ohio, and formerly of Iowa City, was arrested Friday in Toledo.

The government is seeking to have all three defendants transferred to Chicago in custody to face the charges here.

The arrests and charges were announced by Gary S. Shapiro, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; William C. Monroe, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Garry F. McCarthy, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department. The FBI and CPD conducted the investigation, in coordination with the Cook County Human Trafficking Task Force. Federal prosecutors and law enforcement authorities in the Southern District of Iowa and the Northern District of Ohio also provided assistance.

According to the complaint, the investigation began on April 25, 2012, when one of the victims – Minor A, who was 14 at the time – snuck out of a room at a hotel in the 9100 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue in Chicago after others were asleep and called her mother in Iowa.

The girl’s mother called the Chicago Police and officers responded to the hotel and contacted federal authorities.

The complaint states that

• online advertisements posted on various Internet sites in Chicago and elsewhere,
• hotel records,
• bus records, and
• other evidence

show that the defendants acted as pimps and posted online ads promoting prostitution of the three victims – Minors A, B, and C, all from Iowa and ages 14, 16 and 16, respectively, at the time.

In April this year, Malik McKee and Woods allegedly purchased bus tickets for the victims and transported them from Iowa City to Chicago to engage in prostitution.

All three defendants allegedly benefitted financially from the charged conspiracy.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Megan Church and Bethany Biesenthal.

Sex-trafficking of minors carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum of life in prison and a $250,000 fine. If convicted, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

The public is reminded that a complaint contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt. The defendants are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

NEW BREEDS GANG LEADER DANA BOSTIC SENTENCED TO 38 YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR CONTROLLING VIOLENT HEROIN TRAFFICKING

CHICAGO — A leader of the New Breeds street gang who controlled heroin trafficking in a 12-square block area on the west side near Pulaski Road and Van Buren Street for nearly a decade was sentenced to 38 years in federal prison following a two-day sentencing hearing in Federal Court.

The defendant, Dana Bostic, controlled a faction of the New Breeds, which intertwined lucrative heroin trafficking with acts of violence and was regularly “at war” with rival gangs, including the Undertaker Vice Lords and Four Corner Hustlers.

Bostic, 33, also known as “Bird” and “Mello,” had a reputation for violence since he was arrested for the murder of a rival gang member in 2002, and his willingness to “green light” violence and murder solidified his authority in his territory.

Yet, even as those closest to him were killed or went to prison, Bostic remained on the street and in control of a criminal organization that earned thousands of dollars a day in heroin sales.

Bostic “was involved in an organization that used violence from time to time to accomplish whatever goals it thought were appropriate,” U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly said in imposing the 456-month prison term on Friday in U.S. District Court.

Bostic, who was arrested in August 2010, admitted being the leader of a heroin trafficking organization when he pleaded guilty in February this year, but he denied committing or directing acts of violence and murder.

Bostic was held responsible for distributing up to 30 kilograms of heroin from 2009 until he was arrested in 2010, but Judge Kennelly noted that the amount was actually far greater over the course of a decade.

The government argued at sentencing that Bostic authorized shootings and a murder in retaliation for being shot himself and the murder of his brother, Curtis Ellis, on Aug. 18, 2008, outside a River North nightclub and fast food restaurant.

Three days later, Davon Taylor was killed because of his association with people who were perceived to have been involved in shooting Bostic and killing Ellis.

In a sentencing memo, federal prosecutors wrote:

“For those in the territory under his control, Bostic decided what was right and what was wrong, who was rewarded and who was punished, without regard to the law or the justice system. [. . .] Kilogram after kilogram of Bostic’s heroin made its way into the veins of addicts year after year as dollar after dollar returned to Bostic and his organization.”

Bostic and more than two dozen other members, associates and suppliers of his New Breeds faction were arrested in August 2010, following an investigation that was part of a sustained, coordinated effort by local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to dismantle the leadership of Chicago’s highly-organized, and often violent, drug trafficking street gangs.

The investigation employed wiretaps, cooperating witnesses, undercover surveillance and drug transactions, and a steady progression of searches and seizures of evidence.

All of the other co-defendants were also convicted and most were sentenced previously.

Bostic and his co-defendants controlled “an open air drug market” in the area bordered by Pulaski, Kostner, Jackson and Congress Parkway. A gas station and a grocery store were among the alleged drug “spots” in the vicinity where Bostic’s organization sold heroin.

Members of Bostic’s drug organization met customers near busy city transit stations, providing a lucrative market with all of the drug spots together taking in as much as $10,000 per day.

The sales consisted primarily of “dime bags,” or small plastic bags or tinfoil wrappers that contained approximately 0.1 gram of heroin each and sold for $10 per unit.

The New Breeds street gang originated in the late 1980s and early 1990s, initially as a splinter group from the Black Gangsters (one of the three factions of the original Black Gangster Disciples, the other two being the Gangster Disciples and the Black Disciples.)

The New Breeds ultimately absorbed the Black Gangsters back into the gang, operating under the new name.

The sentence was announced by Gary S. Shapiro, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, together with Jack Riley, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the DEA; Garry F. McCarthy, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department; and Anita Alvarez, Cook County State’s Attorney. The investigation was conducted under the umbrella of U.S. Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), and with assistance from the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force (HIDTA).

The government is being represented by Assistant United States Attorneys Megan Church, Bethany Biesenthal and Yasmin Best.

A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

FORMER SOUTH HOLLAND MAN SENTENCED TO 17½ YEARS IN PRISON FOR DIRECTING $35 MILLION MORTGAGE FRAUD SCHEME INVOLVING MORE THAN 120 RESIDENCES IN THE CHICAGO AREA

CHICAGO — A former South Holland man was sentenced to 17½ years in federal prison for directing a $35 million mortgage fraud scheme involving more than 120 residences on the city’s south side.

The scheme caused various lenders and financial institutions to lose approximately $16 million on mortgage loans that were not repaid by the borrowers or fully recovered through subsequent foreclosure sales.

The sentence imposed yesterday on Kenneth Steward is one of the longest ever given to a mortgage fraud defendant in Federal Court in Chicago, federal law enforcement officials announced today.

Steward, 45, who was arrested and charged in July 2010, pleaded guilty in June to

• nine counts of wire fraud,
• four counts of bank fraud and
• three counts of mail fraud.

During nearly four years between 2004 and 2008, Steward personally orchestrated the fraudulent purchase and resale of dozens of residences, and he was responsible for approximately 109 fraudulent transactions, causing lenders to issue nearly $27.8 million in loans and lose more than $14.5 million against those mortgages.
Of the 109 residences in sprinkled through the city’s south side in neighborhoods like

• Englewood,
• Back of the Yards and
• Roseland,

at least 74 fell into foreclosure.

Steward pocketed undisclosed payments and kickbacks from each transaction and Steward controlled approximately $3.1 million in post-closing funds during the course of the scheme, according to court records. Steward directed a larger scheme that overall involved a total of 122 residences and caused losses totaling approximately $16 million.

Despite almost no prospect of recovery, Senior U.S. District Judge George Lindberg yesterday ordered Steward to pay more than $13.1 million in mandatory restitution and indicated he will enter a preliminary forfeiture judgment of $35 million.

“Steward accomplished a wide-ranging fraud scheme that caused massive losses to lenders and blighted communities because many of the properties … have been abandoned or are in poor condition,” the government told Judge Lindberg in urging a sentence within the advisory guideline range of 210 to 260 months.

Peter Fitzgerald

Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, announced the sentence today with Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Thomas P. Brady, Inspector-in-Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Chicago.

Charges remain pending against six co-defendants. The charges contain merely allegations and are not evidence of guilt. These defendants are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Megan Church and Kenneth Yeadon.

The case is part of a continuing effort to investigate and prosecute mortgage fraud in northern Illinois and nationwide under the umbrella of the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, which was established to lead an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. For more information on the task force, visit: www.StopFraud.gov.