What investigative steps will you recommend, and what tools will you advocate, in your investigation? 

Law by Geoffrey

Instructions:  This Assignment is an open book, open source exercise.  You may do whatever research you feel is necessary, and you may consult any outside sources.  Please note, though, that research outside the course lectures; materials in Canvas, and the text/supplement is not required.  There are no page requirements or limits, write whatever you feel reasonably answers the questions.  If you feel it necessary to assume any facts not provided, please identify those assumed facts unless they are apparent from the context of your answer.

As noted in the Syllabus, this Assignment will account for 40% of your grade.  It will be scored with a maximum 100 points.  The Assignment is due by class time Oct. 27, 2022.  You may submit your Assignment to me in hard copy, in person, or you may email your work to my Case or personal emails

(noted on the Syllabus).

Part A

 You are a Special Agent in the Cleveland Division, FBI, assigned to the Counterterrorism Squad (CT-1) and the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF).  You receive information from the tip line at the Dept. of Homeland Security about an individual living in Garfield Heights, Ohio.  You open an assessment on this individual.  You learn that he goes by the name Aleksander, and is a naturalized U.S. citizen who entered the U.S. some ten years ago from the Ukraine.  According to the tip information, Aleksander is extremely pro-Russian and has been known to express virulent anti-American sentiments.

 

You do a drive-by on the residence, and see 10-12 males congregating on the porch.  You interview the regular mailperson, who says in plain view through the front window, there appears to be some type of laboratory with test tubes, beakers, tubing, etc., in a room right off the living room.  You and other JTTF agents perform a trash pull, and recover:  1) phone bills from Verizon with as many as 20 phonelines (many have long-distance calls to the Crimean Peninsula, which you know was annexed by Russia from the Ukraine in 2014); 2) PNC Bank records reflecting multiple deposits and withdrawals in excess of $10,000, and also wire transfers to Kyiv, the capital of the Ukraine; 3) Western Union records showing wire transfers from Aleksander to Sevastopol in the Crimean Peninsula; and 4) Tractor Supply records evidencing purchases of steel piping materials and gunpowder.

You get another tip that there is a Ukrainian Orthodox church two blocks from Aleksander’s residence, which church Aleksander attends with others who appear to be coming from the Garfield Hts. residence.  The priest at the church (who is a U.S. citizen) gives fiery pro-Russian and anti-American sermons.  There is a steady stream of apparently-Ukrainian males who arrive at and stay at the church, and the priest has been known to transport some of these males to Aleksander’s residence.

 

In a case-breaking development, an individual appears at your office and says he has information about a terrorist cell in Garfield Heights.  You open him as a confidential human source (informant).  You learn that this same source has worked as a CHS for Cleveland FBI in two previous investigations which resulted in successful prosecutions.  He has no criminal record.  He tells you the following:

 

1) Aleksander has 2 bodyguards (for reference, U-1 and U-2) living with him, and they are armed at all times.  They crossed into the U.S. illegally over the Canadian border about a month ago, and arrived at the Garfield residence through the church;

 

2) your informant met Aleksander through the church, and informant has been to the residence for dinner at least 3 times;

 

3) there is a chemist, known as Dr. Antonova, who lives at the residence and she appears to be working on some type of chemical weapon (she is also a naturalized U.S. citizen);

 

4) two Ukrainians (U-3 and U-4) who are often at Aleksander’s house but do not live there, are in the U.S. on work visas and are employed at Hopkins International Airport as baggage handlers;

 

5) there are multiple gun cabinets at the residence, and informant has seen them opened:  they contain military-style automatic weapons, gun powder, and grenades;

 

6) there is an elderly couple (native-born U.S. citizens), in their late 60s, who attend the Ukrainian church; they come to Aleksander’s house to prepare and serve meals; they are devoted to Aleksander, are adamantly pro-Russian, and have taken an oath of loyalty to Adamovich, who is alleged to be the political leader of a Ukrainian organization fighting to re-unify the Ukraine and Russia; and

 

7) the elderly couple, who are frugal and have apparent means, have been observed handing stacks of American currency, believed to be in the thousands, to Aleksander; in addition, the Orthodox priest diverts amounts in the thousands from church contributions, to Aleksander; finally, some of the Ukrainians living at the residence are conducting “bust-out” schemes against local banks, e.g., they are applying for credit card accounts, taking cash advances, and not making payments (the proceeds are given to Aleksander).

 

Questions 

 

  1. What investigative steps will you recommend, and what tools will you advocate, in your investigation?  You should focus at this point on actions and tools which will keep your investigation covert (i.e., undetected by the targets).

 

  1. In your opinion, short of arrests/complaints/indictments, based on what you have in your investigation at this point, are there overt actions/tools that you would recommend (such as search warrants, witness interviews, grand jury testimony subpoenas, etc.)?

 

  1. Can you get information at this stage of your investigation from the intelligence community?

 

 

 

Part B

 

You receive information from the intelligence community as follows:

 

  1. there is an international organization headquartered in the Ukraine which is committed to the re-unification of Russia and the entirety of Ukraine;

 

  1. the organization is known as the Donetsk Peoples Republic of Russia, or DPR Russia;

 

  1. DPR Russia is headed by its military and political leader, Adamovich (the same individual referenced by your informant as the person to whom the elderly couple have taken an oath of loyalty);

 

  1. the IC has captured cell phone conversations between Adamovich and Aleksander, discussing among other matters the needs of DPR Russia for funds, and directions to Aleksander to undertake attacks against Americans within the United States;

 

  1. DPR Russia is committed to the use of terror against the U.S. and its citizens, and other western nations (including the U.K., France, and Germany, among others), to punish those governments and citizens for the imposition of sanctions against Russia for Russian actions, including the seizure of Crimea; attempts to seize the whole of Ukraine; and covert military action by Russia in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine; DPR Russia also seeks to retaliate against the U.S. and other western nations for the provision of military assistance and arms to Ukraine to resist Russian efforts; and

 

  1. the IC has also intercepted communications between Adamovich, and Aleksander, and the Orthodox priest, about assisting Ukrainians who are crossing the Canadian border into the U.S. and arriving at the church; these individuals plan to help Aleksander carry out attacks against U.S. citizens, buildings, and institutions.

 

The Office of the U.S. Secretary of State has confirmed that DPR Russia has been designated a foreign terror organization (FTO) under the Immigration and Nationality Act.  FINCEN advises that Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) have been filed by banks and Western Union documenting $1.5 million in funds transferred by Aleksander and associates to Adamovich and affiliates of DPR Russia.

 

One month after you have opened your case, on the same day, the following events occur:

 

  1. U-3 and U-4 are interrupted and detained attempting to load pipe bombs loaded with explosives into the luggage holds of ten flights leaving Hopkins International Airport (five are domestic and five are international flights);

 

  1. Dr. Antonova and two Ukrainians (U-5 and U-6) are being held at gunpoint by U.S. Marshals at the Federal Building in downtown Cleveland after being interrupted in the process of trying to insert and discharge a sarin gas bomb in the ventilation system at the Building; the Building has offices with civilian agencies but also military (Navy and Coast Guard) and law enforcement (FBI, Secret Service, and various OIG offices) personnel;

 

  1. Five Ukrainians are engaged in a firefight, using automatic weapons and explosives, with building security and local police at Tower City Center in downtown Cleveland; a team of JTTF agents respond, and three attackers, three local police (working with the JTTF), and ten civilians are killed; the surviving Ukrainians (U-7 and U-8) are disarmed and are detained on site;

 

  1. Aleksander and the two bodyguards are apprehended at the Canadian border trying to leave the U.S.; together, they have $150,000 in U.S. currency which they have not declared; Aleksander is stopped trying to destroy a) a schedule of the planned attacks, including those at the Airport, the Federal Building, and Tower City; b) a ledger of all funds transferred to Adamovich, and c) a list of all Ukrainians who have illegally entered the U.S. and were residing at the church, or the Garfield Heights house;

 

  1. Two JTTF agents go to the Aleksander’s Garfield Heights residence and encounter two Ukrainians (U-9 and U-10), who have false identification documents and credit cards tying them to the “bustout scheme;” they claim that they do not know where Aleksander is, and state that all the money they got from the credit cards was given to Aleksander;

 

  1. You send a team of JTTF agents to the church to interview the priest, who denies knowing anything about Ukrainians illegally entering the U.S. and residing at the church; the team recovers at the church fraudulent documentation purporting to entitle numerous Ukrainians to legal status in the U.S; the team also discovers materials detailing DPR Russia attacks in the Ukraine, France, and Germany; and

 

  1. Two JTTF agents interview the elderly couple, who deny knowing Aleksander, deny knowing anyone named Adamovich, have never heard of DPR Russia, and deny having the means to give anyone significant amounts of money (the agents have bank records for the couple which show $200,000 in withdrawals from their bank accounts over the previous 18 months).

 

Questions

 

  1. You are helping the AUSAs on the prosecution team draft complaints and warrants. What charges do you recommend, and against what defendants.  Assume those detained in the commission of criminal acts will be held until your complaints are prepared and filed.  You may use a chart to set out defendants and recommended charges.  If there are significant charges you considered but decided not to bring, you may want to address those in text.  As an example, if you recommend a terrorism charge that carries a death penalty, you may want to cite other offenses you would have brought absent the most serious charge.

 

2)  Will you recommend charges against the priest and/or the elderly couple, and if so, will you seek pretrial detention, i.e., being held without bond?  Reference is to 18 U.S.C. § 3142(g).  Note that if you recommend a terrorism charge (with a maximum penalty of 10 years or more) against these prospective defendants, a rebuttable presumption in favor of detention applies.  If you recommend non-terror-specific charges, the issue of detention will revolve around risk of flight and/or danger to the community.  In these regards, neither the priest nor the couple have criminal records, and they have significant ties to the community (long-term residence, families in area, and civic involvement).