Scott Peterson

Scott Peterson is a convicted murderer whose case met with a large degree of publicity due to the many lurid circumstances involved. He married Laci Rocha in August 1997.  Five years later, he called the police on Christmas Eve of 2002 to report her disappearance. At the time of her disappearance, Laci Peterson was eight months pregnant.

The initial police investigation did not consider Scott Peterson to be a suspect in the case. However, he soon became a target of their investigation as evidence emerged that he had engaged in serial extramarital activities. At the time of Laci Peterson's disappearance, Scott Peterson had been conducting an affair with Amber Frey. Amber Frey did not realize that Scott Peterson was married to a technically missing person when they began their relationship. Upon learning so, she contacted the police.

Remains of a fetus, followed by the body of Laci Peterson, were found in April 2003 in an area where Scott Peterson had taken a boating trip on Christmas Eve. However, due to the amount of time the remains had spent in the water and the attendant decomposition, an autopsy was unable to determine a precise date or cause of death. Subsequently, a piece of hair from the body of Laci Peterson was found on Scott Peterson's boat.

Scott Peterson was arrested three days after the body of his wife was found. His trial commenced in June 2004 in Redwood City rather than his home town of Modesto, since the publicity accorded to the case in the area made it unlikely that an unbiased jury could be convened. His defense attorneys made the lack of direct evidence linking him with the homicide the basis of their argument. Aside from the hair found on his boat, no direct proof could be found of his commission of the crime.

The trial was marred by the replacement of two jurors. The first juror was replaced by an alternate when video footage revealed that the juror had spoken with the older brother of Laci Peterson, thereby creating a conflict of interests. Later, jury foreman Gregory Jackson requested that he be removed from his position, citing threats he had received while serving as a juror. He was also replaced by an alternate.

The trial reached its conclusion on November 12 when the jury found Scott Peterson guilty of both the first-degree murder of his wife and the second-degree murder of her fetus. After an interim of three weeks, the jury reconvened on November 30 to determine what his penalty should be. After another two weeks, the jury concluded that Scott Peterson should be awarded the death penalty.

In March 2005, Scott Peterson was sentenced to death by lethal injection. As of October 2012, Scott Peterson remains in custody on death row. In July of 2012, one of his attorneys filed an appeal with the court, citing a number of legal errors committed during the trial.

Bruce Rappaport

Bruce Rappaport, who died in 2010, was a controversial international banker and philanthropist associated with a number of criminal investigations. He primarily was associated with activities which occurred in Antigua, known as a tax haven for illicit transactions, and was often associated with the nation's controversial prime minister Lester Bird.

in 1983, Bruce Rappaport founded the Swiss American Bank Ltd. in Antigua. This institution was sued in 1999 by the United States government on behalf of John E. Fitzgerald, a financier who had agreed to a plea bargain in return for testifying about laundering $7 million through the bank. The lawsuit alleged that rather than returning the funds to the United States, Swiss American Bank Ltd. distributed the funds between payments to the government of Antigua and Barbados, as well as a sum entered into a privately held account in the Bank of Barbados. This legal action against Bruce Rappaport did not proceed.

In 2006, Bruce Rappaport was sued by the government of Antigua and Barbados for criminal offenses dating back to 1984, when the government contracted with the Japanese company IHI for the construction of a power plant and another desalination plant. Subsequently, the government was unable to maintain its payments for this contract, as well as two separate debts to the companies Foster Wheeler and Credit Suisse.

In response, in March 1990 Bruce Rappaport was placed in charge of making the appropriate payments, and was reauthorized in November 1996 to renegotiate the terms of the loans. It was agreed that Bruce Rappaport's company IHI Debt Settlement Company would would receive a monthly payment of $403,334 for 25 years for the purposes of paying all debts. At this time, another Bruce Rappaport company — the West Indies Oil Company — was granted an extension on its monopoly right to import oil into Antigua and Barbados.

A government investigation which began in 1997 determined that between December 1996 and January 1996, the payments collected by Bruce Rappaport were greatly in excess of what was owed to IHI and other debt payments. A complicated series of financial transfers placed excess sums totaling $14,414,904 were deposited in a number of bank accounts, including one maintained in Miami.

As a result, in 2006 the government of Antigua and Barbados obtained an injunction in Miami court freezing the transfer of all assets from the Miami bank. The lawsuit was dropped when Bruce Rappaport agreed to make a payment of $12 million to the government of Antigua and Barbados in return for immunity from prosecution.

Bruce Rappaport was a subject of interest in a number of other investigations concerning corruption and misappropriation of funds. For example, in 1999 a lawsuit was filed against the Bank of New York-InterMaritime as part of a larger investigation regarding the money laundering of some $10 billion, primarily in money obtained by Russian criminal enterprises.

Abul Manzoor

Abul Manzoor was a member of the Bangladeshi military who was part of a group of rebels responsible for the assassination of Bangladeshi president Ziaur Rahman in 1981.

Abul Manzoor was a career military officer whose friendship with Ziaur Rahman dating back to 1971. At that time, both men were involved in the 9-month Liberation war of Bangladesh, which was then known as East Pakistan. Subsequently, Ziaur Rahman was the founder of the Bangladesh National Party. In the wake of the formation of Bangladesh, a series of power struggles ensued.

A dispute emerged in 1977 over who should be appointed to the position of Cheif of Staff of the Bangladeshi army. While Abul Manzoor felt that he should be appointed to this position, Mir Shawkat Ali had seniority over him. Ziaur Rahman grew disgusted with both men's actions and instead appointed Hussain Muhammed Ershad to the position in 1978,

Subsequently, Ershad transferred Abul Manzoor to Dhaka. As a result, the infuriated Abul Manzoor decided to lead a coup attempt and led a group of rebel soldiers in the assassination of Ziaur Rahman, which occurred on May 30, 1981. The actual execution of the president was committed by another soldier, Matiur Rahman.

In response, Ershad ordered that the army apprehend the killers and arrest them. Abul Manzoor attempted to escape but was apprehended by the police. Upon his capture, he requested that he be put in police custody pending a trial, fearing that members of the army would otherwise kill him. The army caught up with Abul Manzoor after he had been put into a police van. Though the exact circumstances of his death are unclear, it is generally agreed that Abul Manzoor was shot by military members.

On November 15, 2012, the Department of Justice announced that a Dutch national was indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of New Hampshire after he conspired to hack into and disable servers belonging to Rampid Interactive.  The company is based out of New Hampshire, and it hosts an online game called “Outwar.”

The defendant’s name is Anil Kheda, and he is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and one count of extortionate interstate threats.  

According to the indictment, Kheda and other members of the conspiracy hacked into the computer systems of Rampid without authorization from November 2007 to August 2008.  The conspirators caused the game to become unplayable for several days at a time.  They were able to gain access to user accounts, restore accounts for suspended players, and obtain a copy of the computer code for “Outwar.”  

From the computer code, the conspirators were then able to create an online game called “Outcraft” that competed with “Outwar.”  Throughout the infiltration into Rampid’s system, the conspirators also sent messages that stated they would continue to hack into the systems unless Rampid paid them money and provided other benefits.  

Rampid could not operate “Outwar” for a total of two weeks because of the hacking.  They lost $100,000 in the process after it had invested $1.5 million to create the game in the first place.  Kheda was able to make $10,000 off the “Outcraft,” and he had about 10,000 players worldwide participating in the game.  

He now faces up to five years in prison for the conspiracy charge and two years in prison for the threats.  The Justice Department has not released any information about the maximum amount of fines.  

The FBI investigated the case against Kheda.  

Source: Department of Justice

The days of armed bank robberies by husband and wife are far from over.  On November 7, 2012, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico reported that Robert O’Dell Neihart and his wife, Denise Myrick, were charged for armed bank robbery.  They were indicted on October 23, 2012.  

The indictment indicates that Neihart and Myrick robbed the Wells Fargo Bank on 4601 Main Street in Farmington, New Mexico on September 21, 2012.  The indictment also specifies that Neihart used a firearm, pointed the firearm at a bank customer, and discharged the weapon after the robbery.  

Around 4:00 p.m. on September 21, 2012, Neihart entered the bank and gave a note to the bank teller demanding cash.  Neihart proceeded to place the cash in a bag and left the bank with the bag.  A bank customer followed Neihart into the parking lot, and Neihart pointed the gun at him.  

He then climbed into a black truck with Myrick at the wheel.  Neihart eventually climbed into the driver’s seat a short distance away, and a high-speed chase started around Aztec, New Mexico.  The chase continued all the way into Colorado.  Neihart fired shots at a San Juan County Sheriff’s Department vehicle, but nobody was injured.  The two defendants were arrested when they arrived to their residence in Ignacio.  

Each of the defendants now faces up to 25 years in prison for the bank robbery charge.  The charge for using a firearm during the crime comes with a mandatory 10 years in prison, and the sentence will be served consecutively with the bank robbery charge.  

The investigation was led by the FBI, the Farmington Police Department, the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office, the La Plata County Sheriff’s Department, and the U.S. Marshals Service.  

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation