Department of Justice Files Largest Ever Forfeiture Action Against Approximately $15B in Bitcoin Currently in U.S. Custody
An indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, charging UK and Cambodian national Chen Zhi, also known as Vincent, 37, the founder and chairman of Prince Holding Group (Prince Group), a multinational business conglomerate based in Cambodia, with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy for directing Prince Group’s operation of forced-labor scam compounds across Cambodia. Individuals held against their will in the compounds engaged in cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes, known as “pig butchering” scams, that stole billions of dollars from victims in the United States and around the world. The defendant is at large.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the Justice Department’s National Security Division also filed today a civil forfeiture complaint against approximately 127,271 Bitcoin, currently worth approximately $15 billion, that are proceeds and instrumentalities of the defendant’s fraud and money laundering schemes, and were previously stored in unhosted cryptocurrency wallets whose private keys the defendant had in his possession. Those funds (the Defendant Cryptocurrency) are presently in the custody of the U.S. government. The complaint is the largest forfeiture action in the history of the Department of Justice.
“Today’s action represents one of the most significant strikes ever against the global scourge of human trafficking and cyber-enabled financial fraud,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. “By dismantling a criminal empire built on forced labor and deception, we are sending a clear message that the United States will use every tool at its disposal to defend victims, recover stolen assets, and bring to justice those who exploit the vulnerable for profit. We are grateful for the hard work of Director Patel and the men and women of the FBI.”
“Today the FBI and partners executed one of the largest financial fraud takedowns in history,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “This is an individual who allegedly operated a vast criminal network across multiple continents involving forced labor, money laundering, investment schemes, and stolen assets — targeting millions of innocent victims in the process. Justice will be done and I’m proud of the men and women of the FBI who executed the mission faithfully.”
“As alleged, the defendant was the mastermind behind a sprawling cyber-fraud empire operating under the Prince Group umbrella, a criminal enterprise built on human suffering. Trafficked workers were confined in prison-like compounds and forced to carry out online scams on an industrial scale, preying on thousands worldwide, including many here in the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. “This indictment and historic forfeiture, the largest in Department history, reflect our commitment to using every tool at our disposal to ensure such crimes do not pay.”
“As alleged, the defendant directed one of the largest investment fraud operations in history, fueling an illicit industry that is reaching epidemic proportions,” said U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. for the Eastern District of New York. “Prince Group’s investment scams have caused billions of dollars in losses and untold misery to victims around the world, including here in New York, on the backs of individuals who have been trafficked and forced to work against their will. This historic indictment and forfeiture complaint send a strong message to fraudsters everywhere that we will pursue you no matter where you are, no matter who you are, and no matter your insidious methods, and we will never stop fighting for victims.”
As alleged in the indictment and forfeiture complaint, since approximately 2015, the defendant has been the founder and chairman of Prince Group, a Cambodian corporate conglomerate that operates dozens of business entities in more than 30 countries. Prince Group is ostensibly focused on real estate development, financial services, and consumer services. However, in secret, the defendant and his top executives grew Prince Group into one of Asia’s largest transnational criminal organizations. Under the defendant’s direction, Prince Group made enormous profits operating scam compounds across Cambodia that perpetrated fraudulent cryptocurrency investment schemes.
To perpetrate these schemes, malicious actors contacted unwitting victims through messaging or social media applications and convinced them to transfer cryptocurrency to specified accounts based on false promises that the funds would be invested and generate profits. In reality, the funds were stolen from the victims and laundered for the benefit of the perpetrators. The scam perpetrators often built relationships with their victims over time, earning their trust before stealing their funds.
Prince Group’s schemes targeted victims around the world, including in the United States, with assistance from local networks working on Prince Group’s behalf. One such network operated in Brooklyn, New York, and facilitated the fraudulent transfer and laundering of millions of dollars on behalf of Prince Group from over 250 victims in New York and across the country.
Prince Group carried out these schemes by trafficking hundreds of workers and forcing them to work in compounds in Cambodia and execute the scams, often under the threat of violence. The compounds housed vast dormitories surrounded by high walls and barbed wire, and functioned as violent forced labor camps. The defendant was directly involved in managing the scam compounds and maintained records associated with each one, including ledgers tracking profits and which fraudulent schemes were run out of which rooms. The defendant also maintained documents describing and depicting “phone farms” at the compounds: automated call centers that used thousands of phones and millions of mobile telephone numbers to facilitate the various fraudulent schemes. The defendant was directly involved in using violence against the individuals within the forced labor camps and possessed images of Prince Group’s violent methods, including photographs depicting beatings and other methods of torture. The defendant communicated directly with his subordinates about beating individuals who “caused trouble,” in one case specifying that the victims should not be “beaten to death.”
In furtherance of these schemes, the defendant and a close network of Prince Group’s top executives used their political influence in multiple foreign countries to protect their criminal enterprise and paid bribes to public officials to avoid disruption by law enforcement. They subsequently laundered the proceeds of the fraudulent schemes through professional money laundering operations and through Prince Group’s own network of ostensibly legal business enterprises, including its online gambling and cryptocurrency mining operations.
At the defendant’s direction, Prince Group associates used sophisticated cryptocurrency laundering techniques to obscure the source of fraudulent Prince Group profits, including “spraying” and “funneling” techniques in which large volumes of cryptocurrency were repeatedly disaggregated across scores of virtual currency addresses and then re-consolidated into fewer addresses to obscure the source of the funds. Some of these criminal proceeds were ultimately held in wallets at cryptocurrency exchanges or exchanged for traditional currency and stored in traditional bank accounts. Other criminal proceeds included the Defendant Cryptocurrency, which was stored in unhosted cryptocurrency wallets whose private keys the defendant personally held. The defendant maintained diagrams recording the process by which some of the Defendant Cryptocurrency was laundered. The defendant boasted to others of Prince Group’s mining businesses that “the profit is considerable because there is no cost” — that is, unlike legitimate enterprises, the operating capital for the cryptocurrency mining businesses comprised money stolen from Prince Group’s many victims.
The defendant and his co-conspirators subsequently used some of the criminal proceeds for luxury travel and entertainment and to make extravagant purchases such as watches, yachts, private jets, vacation homes, high-end collectables, and rare artwork, including a Picasso painting purchased through an auction house in New York City.
If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison.
In parallel with today’s actions by the Department of Justice, the Department of the Treasury today designated Prince Group as a transnational criminal organization and announced sanctions against the defendant and multiple associated individuals and entities, for their roles in illicit activity. The United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office also announced sanctions.
The FBI New York Joint Asian Criminal Enterprise Task Force is investigating the case, with assistance from the FBI’s Virtual Asset Unit.
If you have information about Chen Zhi or Prince Group, please contact the FBI at PrinceGroupTips@fbi.gov. According to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center’s 2024 Internet Crime Report, cryptocurrency investment fraud caused more than $5.8 billion in reported losses in 2024 alone. You can learn more about cryptocurrency investment fraud here. Members of the public who believe they are victims of cryptocurrency investment fraud and other cyber-enabled crime should contact the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alexander F. Mindlin, Andrew D. Reich, Benjamin Weintraub and Rebecca M. Schuman for the Eastern District of New York are prosecuting the case in partnership with Deputy Chief Christopher B. Brown of the National Security Division’s NatSec Cyber Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanisha Payne for the Eastern District of New York’s Asset Recovery Section is handling forfeiture matters.
The Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs provided valuable assistance duringthe investigation. The Government also thanks the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency, the Isle of Man Constabulary’s Proactive International Money-Laundering Investigations Team and the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, which also announced sanctions today against entities related to Prince Group.
An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced an $8.5 million pilot, CRIB—Creating Real Impact at Birth—to move more than 300 pregnant New Yorkers into stable housing before delivery using CityFHEPS vouchers or Pathway Home subsidies, part of a broader $650 million homelessness and mental-health plan. The initiative targets a persistent problem—over 2,000 babies were born in city shelters in 2024—while building on CityFHEPS, now aiding 60,000 households. Adams also introduced “New York City Baby Boxes,” $200 kits of essentials for about 7,000 families delivering at Kings County, Elmhurst, Lincoln and Jacobi hospitals. Officials said the paired measures aim to cut red tape, prevent shelter entry, and improve early health and bonding outcomes for parents and infants.
Mayor Adams Launches Two Signature Programs to Make Life More Affordable for New Mothers and Families, Avoid Shelter and Poverty
Mayor Eric Adams: Really really proud and happy to be here today. This is something that Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom joined us and we continued this important initiative, our CRIB program. It’s unimaginable when you think about it, in the city for far too long, mothers were giving birth to babies and then returning back to shelters. And we were clear under this administration that we were not going to continue that system of just systemic poverty and just a way of stating that we as New Yorkers and the government, we are not concerned about breaking the clear cycles of poverty.
You know Archbishop Desmond Tutu had a quote that I always remember, “We spend a lifetime pulling people out of the river, no one goes upstream and prevents them from falling in the first place.” And we have professionalized pulling people out of the river. Today, this announcement of CRIB is how we’re going to prevent them from falling in the first place.
Having a child should be the greatest day of one’s life. I remember watching Jordan when he was born and how proud I was and I knew the awesome responsibility of being a dad. But it was a proud moment for me and it’s definitely the way a million of New Yorkers should feel when they give birth to a child. And on that day, you should not have to worry about where you’re going to take your baby to. You should not have to worry about [whether] you’re going to return to an environment that’s not conducive to a child upbringing.
You should not have to worry about whether your child will grow up on the verge of homelessness or in a home. Nothing is more important to our city’s future than making sure every young person, they’re ready for the future that’s ahead of them. And that starts with a place for them to live the moment they’re born. And that’s what we’re delivering with the launch of our new pilot project CRIB, an initiative that aims to create real impact at birth by putting pregnant New Yorkers on a path to permanent housing.
This is an $8.5 million program that will provide pregnant New Yorkers with housing vouchers so they can quickly move into stable homes before the child is born. And earlier this year, in our State of the City address, we made a commitment that no child should ever be born into our shelter system. And that is what CRIB is all about. It’s part of the $650 million plan to tackle homelessness and severe mental illness and to ensure New Yorkers have a safe, clean place to come home to.
In fact, by ensuring mothers and babies do not enter a shelter after leaving the hospital, we are breaking the cycle of poverty and housing instability before it starts. In 2024 alone, over 2,000 babies were born in New York City shelters. Just think about that for a moment. Over 2,000. That’s 2,000 too many. And with every housing voucher that this CRIB program will give to families, it will connect New Yorkers while diverting pregnant parents from shelter and improving their health services and outcomes.
So that our most vulnerable New Yorkers can find the affordable housing they need and get the start in life that they deserve. With CRIB, we are ensuring that families are supported and are able to live in a city that is safe and affordable. This is also another example of how this administration is cutting through the red tape of bureaucracy to give the resources to families when they need it. And that often prevents people from getting government services in a timely manner.
CRIB doesn’t just further our mission to make our city the best place to raise a family. It builds on a record of doing so. Since coming to office, when you think about it, how we have moved people out of homelessness into permanent housing, and a record number of individuals in shelters, with nearly 37,500 New Yorkers moving into subsidized units last fiscal year alone.
An awesome job and responsibility of Commissioner Wasow Park and her team. They have really leaned into breaking this record of getting people into permanent housing. Even when we were facing an asylum seeker and a migrant crisis with 237,000 migrants and asylum seekers, over 90 percent have gone on to the next step of their journey. Not one child or family slept on the streets of the City of New York, and history is going to be kind to that record when we start reflecting on how great this administration has done when it came down to people in need
Starting a family is one of the greatest joys one should have. But barriers and negative reactions have prevented that joy from being what it should be. So we are not just ensuring that pregnant mothers have housing, we’re making sure that families have the support they need. And earlier this year, we launched our New York City Baby Boxes, which sends families home from hospital with vital supplies and resources, including diapers and wipes, clothing, games and guys, and what to expect after giving birth.
These items that we see here, trust me when I tell you, it goes a long way when you don’t have to determine what you will put on your table to eat and buy the supplies for your babies. This is a great way to start off with your child and the support and information that they need. New York City Baby Boxes will reach approximately 7,000 families across our public hospital system. 7,000 New York families will be leaving the hospital with diapers and clothing and other supplies.
7,000 that can have peace of mind, that they have the resources they need to get an early start. And when you add this with what Deputy Commissioner Mark Stewart and Community Affairs and the Police Department with his various baby supplies that he has given out to over 20,000 families in the city. It is how every agency is on board for doing what is right for the children and families of the city. We’re helping ease the financial stress of new families and making New York City more affordable for them.
Our children are the next generation and our next generation starts now. Many times and far too often we look at these stats and create them as just numbers on the pieces of paper. But it’s not. It’s individuals and far too often we have denied those individuals the access to government that they deserve. And nothing personifies that more than our next speaker, Tytiana Mitchell. She’s a queer participant and her baby is going to have the early start in life that they deserve. I’m going to bring in Tytiana.
Tytiana Mitchell: My name is Tytiana Mitchell. I’m 25 years old. I am a lifelong New Yorker. I live in Queens, New York. And I recently fell through rough times and had to go into the shelter in mid-September. I am currently three months pregnant and I am excited to start my new chapter in my life. But I know I also need stable housing to care for my baby. When I went into the PATH Intake Center run by the Department of Homeless Services, I was immediately greeted by people who wanted to help.
They told me that because I am pregnant, I am eligible for a new program called CRIB that specializes in helping pregnant women like me. They let me know that I could move in with a family member who received support to house me and my growing family or get a CityFHEPS voucher so I can afford my own housing.
The program has been great in moving to help me quickly and really showed me that they care about me. I work a seasonal job and I am currently on interviews to get full-time work. With the support of the city and the Adams Administration, I am excited [about] what my future will hold for me and my baby and my partner, Jhevon, who is here with me today. And now we’ll be introducing Commissioner Wasow Park.
Mayor Adams: Hold on, hold on. That’s your boo? Come on up here, man. You should be up here with us. Come on. Love it. Go ahead, say a few words, man. Always trying to leave the men out.
Jhevon Higgins: What I would like to say is thank you to the Adams [administration], [Mayor] Adams, [and] commissioner because the steps that we take and the life that we live in this New York City, we know it’s not always easy. It’s a rough path that we have to deal with, but with the help of everybody that’s a part of the system, I think that we have a better chance of getting there.
Mayor Adams: Good luck to you. Thank you. Boy or girl?
Higgins: [Inaudible.]
Commissioner Molly Wasow Park, Department of Social Services: Good morning. Having a baby is both a wonderful life moment and immensely challenging. My baby is now twenty, but I still remember very distinctly both the joys and the stresses of those first few months. That time is profoundly important, both for the family and for the baby. The instability and, frankly, trauma of homelessness can have lasting impacts on an infant.
And with over 2,000 babies born in shelters in 2024, there’s no bigger way to impact a child’s first days on this earth than to ensure the child is born into a stable home. With CRIB creating real impact at birth, we’re working creatively and strategically to break the cycle of infant homelessness. Our goal is to identify the best tools to connect parents facing homelessness to permanent housing in real time so that their babies will be born into stability.
CRIB is a pilot to study the impact of housing stability on the newest of New Yorkers by providing expecting mothers housing support to avoid entering shelter. Through the pilot program, DSS will identify more than 300 pregnant people who are applying for shelter and assign them to a housing subsidy, either the rental assistance program CityFHEPS or Pathway Home, which pays people to stay with friends or family. This will allow them to more quickly move into stable homes before their children are born.
The pilot builds off our experience serving families over many years. For example, during COVID, the number of families with children entering the shelter system dropped significantly. One of the reasons for this is that substantial federal income support meant that families could afford to stay together. We know that the city has a historically low vacancy rate, and it’s hard to go out and find an apartment.
So we’re looking to see if we can support people to stay with their friends and families in a moment of great change for them with Pathway Home. And as for CityFHEPS, DSS helped nearly 32,000 individuals obtain permanent homes or stay stably housed through CityFHEPS in 2025, reflecting a threefold increase in the number of new households using the voucher since the launch of the program.
Today, more than 60,000 households or more than 136,000 New Yorkers are using CityFHEPS for their housing. This reflects a more than 200 percent growth in the program since its launch and makes CityFHEPS the second largest rental assistance program in the country. Through CRIB, we are looking to evaluate these two different models to see which one best helps pregnant people either avoid shelter altogether or have very short shelter stays so that we minimize the number of babies born in shelters.
Thanks to Mayor Adams, this is an innovative program that we anticipate will lead to improved outcomes for families and babies during a transformative and precious, yet also deeply vulnerable time in their lives. I want to say a big thank you to the DSS staff who took my crazy idea and turned it into reality, and particularly to the two deputy mayors who are here who have championed the work from the very beginning. And now it is my great pleasure to introduce New York City Health + Hospitals Chief Women’s Health Officer, Dr. Wendy Wilcox. Thank you.
Dr. Wendy Wilcox, Chief Women’s Health Officer, New York City Health + Hospitals: Good morning and thank you. Mr. Mayor, deputy mayors, thank you all who are here for joining us at New York City Health + Hospitals Kings County today for this special announcement. My name is Dr. Wendy Wilcox. I’m the inaugural Chief Women’s Health Officer for New York City Health + Hospitals. I also was previously chief of service here at OBGYN because I am an obstetrician gynecologist. So in case you need anything, I know it’s too early, but we’ll see.
We know that the first few months of parents and babies’ lives together are extremely important. The less that they have to worry about some of the essentials, the more time they have together to bond. That bonding is incredibly important for the lifetime health of both the baby and the mother. Relieving this stress is so necessary for a future of health and for the health of the entire family. That’s why these baby boxes are so important to birthing families. Not only do they take the burden off of new parents, allowing the time to care and bond with their newborn, but also to take stress out of their lives.
The baby boxes, along with the CRIB program that you just heard about, are to make sure that all of those outside stressors will be relieved. These baby boxes are going to be available for all birthing families. You heard me. All birthing families who deliver at our four sites that have the most deliveries within the system. These would be Kings County, Elmhurst, Lincoln, and Jacoby. I want to thank the mayor and the deputy mayors for their commitment to New York City Health + Hospitals and the families of New York City.
I also want to thank Welcome Baby and the United Way, as well as both the City Hall teams and the central office women’s health and communications teams for really making this become a reality. We know that New York City loves babies, and just in case you had any doubt, New York City loves babies. We know that this will program the baby boxes and the CRIB program will make a difference. And now, I will introduce Deputy Mayor Suzanne Miles-Gustave.
Deputy Mayor Suzanne Miles-Gustave, Health and Human Services: Thank you so much. Good morning. It is such a pleasure to be here with all of our Health + Hospital heroes. Wonderful room to be in. But from day one, I think you heard the mayor say, the Adams administration has made supporting children and families a core focus, not just a policy priority, but as a reflection of our values. Project CRIB is a powerful example of what it looks like when we bring our health and social services systems into alignment, treating housing not as separate from health, but as essential to it.
We know that the conditions into which a child is born shapes everything that follows. Development, health, family stability, even long-term opportunities. When a newborn enters the world into shelter, that child and their parents are already facing trauma, stress, and barriers to care. With CRIB, our Creating Real Impact at Birth, we are piloting an approach that meets families at the exact moment when coordinated support can make the greatest difference. It’s smart government, but it’s also deeply human government.
This initiative reflects our administration’s belief that early intervention works, that prevention is powerful, and that health and housing outcomes improve when we connect people to the right services and resources at the right time, before [a] crisis hits. It also reflects a broader shift we’re leading across city government, and that’s integrating care, moving away from fragmented systems toward ones that see families holistically, not as cases or numbers, but as New Yorkers who deserve to thrive.
A thanks to our partners at DSS, to our healthcare providers here at H + H, and to Mayor Adams for working to give every child a strong, stable start at life. This is really what it means to put families first. And I have to give a huge, huge, huge shout-out to my predecessor, for whom this would not be possible without her vision and commitment. And I want to bring former Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom up to say a few words.
Former Deputy Mayor Anne Williams‑Isom: Good afternoon, everyone. Yes, my title was former deputy mayor, but ten weeks ago I got a new title. The title is Gigi Anne. We had our first grandchild, ten weeks ago. My whole life I have been a child advocate, so I know all the research. I have seen the data. I have three children of my own. But I will tell you that seeing my daughter and her son-in-law these past two months, months right before giving birth, has given me a refresher course that I didn’t realize I needed, about how vulnerable you are, how fragile, and frankly, how sacred this time is.
And so it has been so important for me to come from my Gigi duty, to come and to tell you, I spent so much time talking about adverse childhood experiences. And we study all the negative stuff. We study what happens if a child has a death in the family, or if they experience homelessness. But we know what works. We act like we’re on Mars. Was it surprising [to] you to hear that if a child is born into [a] shelter that that is traumatic?
I saw my daughter and my husband and I picked her up with flowers and all kinds of stuff, and I saw that glaze in her eyes because of what she was going through. And she was going through a beautiful apartment on the Upper West Side with people to help her. And the child, a 33 years old lawyer, looked like she [was a] deer in the headlights. What is it that we don’t understand? She had complications with breastfeeding. And I didn’t know what to do, but I called my 95-year-old mom and I was like, “Mom, how do we do this?”
And people that we could call. I don’t even want to call it a service. I want to call it support because it is something that we all need, no? Yes? And so we sit up here and we act like this is an amazing thing. But to say something so profoundly like no child should be born in a shelter, when the mayor said that, we all kind of went like, “Hh yeah, that’s nice.” You guys should clap for that. That is a bold vision of saying that this is the way the world is, but we can do something different. Yes? And we can do it together.
We talked about commitment. We talked about what the science says, which is why I love this so much. But we need to say the word love. If we loved all children like I love Noel, we would make sure that they have all of this and more. And it is possible for us to do that. Noel’s middle name is Ijeoma, which means safe journey. Her dad is from Nigeria. And Ijeoma’s safe journey doesn’t mean when she goes to school or when she gets a good early childhood program or when she goes into a good college. It means from the moment she’s born. I’m going to say one last thing.
When I go into the room and she hears my voice, she’s ten weeks old. She doesn’t know me from a hole in the wall. But she knows that someone is coming to help her, that when she cries, someone will be there for her to pick her up to comfort her, to give her a bottle that’s the right temperature, to hand it to her mom. You guys, we can do this. We can support moms and these fabulous dads that are here to do better for our children if we want a better world. I want to say thank you to all of the folks at the Department of Social Services, Health + Hospitals, Department of Health, all of you, because it’s a crazy time.
But what you do is you continue to put your head down. In the midst of, like the mayor used to say, “Block out the noise and just do what you need to do.” And we see that and we appreciate it. Lastly, I want to say something about Mayor Adams. We can say a lot about Mayor Adams. What I will say is that what I have always admired is his commitment, his compassion, and his superpower, which is his proximity to pain.
When there was any situation, whether it was a homeless person, a person with severe mental illness, he doesn’t go away from it, he doesn’t lean back from it, he leans into it. Sometimes I was like, we need to lean back, I don’t want to do that, please. He was just talking about the asylum seekers, and I feel like I have a post-traumatic stress system. But he leans in, and so I appreciate you dearly for all that you have done, and especially for the people that we love and the folks that are the most vulnerable in this city. God bless you all and thank you very much.
Mayor Adams: Thank you. I’m looking around the room and I’m seeing the faces of this amazing hospital. Sheldon, thanks so much for allowing us to host this here. As we were walking up the steps, Sheldon was sharing with me, the chief executive officer was sharing with me, you had 102 percent capacity, and you’re seeing the byproducts of COVID. Many of our young people are dealing with severe mental health issues. They’re finally coming out and talking about it. And so I just want to say thank you.
This hospital, I represented you as the state senator, as the borough president. You have always been on the ground, and your staff here is just amazing. Whenever we call on you, you’re always there, and we cannot thank you enough. This is a quality hospital in a community that needs quality care. I’m so glad what the deputy mayor stated. We have just put so many things in place to build on. We are leaving this city in good care, folks.
What this administration has done, whomever comes next, they need to build on what we have done. We’re handing off in this relay of life. No one runs the whole relay. There’s a team behind it. The baton we’re handing off. We’re giving everyone a great lead, a great foundation. We cannot mess this up. We can’t go backwards. We have to continue to lift up children and families in the city. So we’ll ask a few questions before I bounce.
Question: What’s the approximate value of the baby box?
Mayor Adams: H + H, do we have approximate values? You come up to the microphone.
Sarah Gould Steinhardt, Executive Director, Welcome Baby USA: I’m Sarah with Welcome Baby. The city is investing about $200 in each of these boxes for families who need them.
Question: So a few questions. On the baby box, are they customized to the mother? Because every mother is different when they’re pregnant and for their child. I also was wondering about the CityFHEPS voucher. Those people that already have vouchers complain that it’s difficult to get into apartments. So what’s the work being done so that the mother actually gets in before she’s due? And then I heard it’s a pilot program. Does that mean it’s only going to go to the end of this year or it’s going to be able to be funded into the next year?
Steinhardt: I can talk about the first question. These are the core essentials that really every birthing family needs when they bring a baby home from the hospital. So this really does satisfy all of those basic needs of a newborn and a postpartum mother in those first four weeks and, frankly, beyond.
Commissioner Wasow Park: So you’re absolutely right that the tightness of the New York City housing market is an immense challenge for everybody, and that’s one of the reasons why we are really testing two different housing pathways. There’s CityFHEPS vouchers, but we’re also working with Pathway Home, which is a program that helps cover costs when people are staying with friends or family.
We are really structuring this so that we understand what works best for parents when they are on a very specific timeline for getting housing. And I think at least one theory is that Pathway Home may be a good interim solution to help people address the fact that we do have a 1.4 percent vacancy rate in the city. With respect to the pilot, it has been funded over a five-year period.
Mayor Adams: That’s why we have to build more housing. That’s why we zoned the city for 426,000 new units of housing with our City of Yes program, the most comprehensive housing program in the history of the city. That’s why we built more housing in year one, year two, and year three in the history of the city. Our program is more than 12 years of Bloomberg, eight years of de Blasio combined.
We did it in three and a half years. That’s why more people are participating in the FHEPS voucher program, getting housing than any other administration in the history of the city. 3,500 people removed out of street homelessness into permanent housing, 1,000 off our subway system. We did it. And now the next guys have to do it. Thank you. Thank you all.
Vienna Man Arrested, Charged with Unlawfully Retaining National Defense Information
Lindsey Halligan, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, announced today that Ashley Tellis, 64, of Vienna, VA, was arrested over the weekend and charged by criminal complaint with the unlawful retention of national defense information, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 793(e).
“We are fully focused on protecting the American people from all threats, foreign and domestic. The charges as alleged in this case represent a grave risk to the safety and security of our citizens,” said U.S. Attorney Halligan. “The facts and the law in this case are clear, and we will continue following them to ensure that justice is served.”
If convicted, Tellis is subject to a maximum of ten years’ imprisonment, up to a $250,000 fine, a $100 special assessment and forfeiture. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
A criminal complaint is merely an accusation. The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
White House. In this message, President Trump condemns domestic violence as an attack on families and pledges strong action to protect survivors. He highlights support for victims, urging anyone in danger to call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233. The statement outlines efforts to enforce the law, including arrests and prosecutions, strengthening border security, dismantling trafficking networks, and conducting large-scale deportations of violent offenders. It also notes the TAKE IT DOWN Act to protect children and families from online exploitation and deepfakes. The message closes with a promise to build safer homes and communities by holding abusers accountable and standing with survivors.
Presidential Message on National Domestic Violence Awareness Month
The shameful scourge of domestic violence is a direct assault on our Nation’s most sacred and fundamental institution: the family. For a family to be strong, all its members must feel safe. Domestic violence, which particularly affects women, who so often are the backbone of our families, and their vulnerable children, is particularly corrosive This National Domestic Violence Awareness month, my Administration renews its commitment to ending domestic violence by restoring the rule of law, cleaning up our Nation’s streets, and aggressively arresting and prosecuting every criminal who terrorizes our fellow citizens and their families.
From the quiet seclusion of our homes and workplaces to the bustling centers of our cities and towns, every year, the violent plague of domestic violence inflicts searing pain, trauma, and heartbreak upon as many as 10 million precious American lives. As President, I am steadfastly devoted to uplifting survivors of domestic violence and ensuring they know they are never alone, and that help and support are always within reach. For immediate and confidential support, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.
To further safeguard American communities and protect families from domestic violence, I am securing our southern border, dismantling human trafficking networks, and conducting the largest mass deportation operation in American history. We are removing dangerous illegal immigrants who have brought bloodshed and mayhem onto our streets—many of whom have been charged heinous crimes, including domestic abuse, against citizens of our Nation. I have also supported our law enforcement officers who so often must respond to and work to prevent domestic violence. And I signed into law the TAKE IT DOWN Act—a landmark step that strengthens protections for children and families against digital exploitation and deepfakes, which are far too often used by abusers to target their victims online.
This month, we affirm that the American Dream should be within reach for our fathers, mothers, daughters, and sons. Under my leadership, violent criminals are once again being deported and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law—and we are once again a Nation committed to the sacred principles of law, order, and justice. Together, we will foster safer homes and stronger communities by striving to eliminate domestic violence in all its horrific forms, holding perpetrators accountable, and empowering survivors with unwavering support.
U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan for the Eastern District of Virginia said a federal grand jury has indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James on bank fraud (18 U.S.C. §1344) and false-statement (18 U.S.C. §1014) charges, calling the alleged conduct a serious breach of public trust. If convicted, Ms. James faces up to 30 years in prison per count, fines of up to $1 million per count, and forfeiture; actual sentences typically fall below statutory maximums and will be set by a federal judge under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James Indicted
Lindsey Halligan, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, announced today that a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging New York State Attorney General Letitia James with Bank Fraud under 18 U.S.C. Section 1344 and False Statements to a Financial Institution under 18 U.S.C. Section 1014.
“No one is above the law. The charges as alleged in this case represent intentional, criminal acts and tremendous breaches of the public’s trust,” said U.S. Attorney Halligan. “The facts and the law in this case are clear, and we will continue following them to ensure that justice is served.”
If convicted, Letitia James faces penalties including up to 30 years in prison per count, up to a $1 million fine on each count, and forfeiture. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
An indictment is merely an accusation. The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
October 9, 2025Share
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Virginia
— New York City joined 73 other local governments in an Oct. 7, 2025 amicus brief backing Oregon in Oregon v. Trump, asking the Ninth Circuit to uphold a district court order blocking the Trump administration’s September deployment of National Guard troops to Portland. The coalition argues Washington overstepped its authority under 10 U.S.C. §12406, saying there was no invasion or rebellion to justify dispatching roughly 200 troops over local objections. City officials warn such deployments disrupt policing, chill commerce and shift costs to taxpayers—citing prior bills of $134 million in Los Angeles and an estimated $10 million in Oregon. The group frames Guard use as a last resort, not a tool for routine civil unrest, while the federal government seeks an immediate stay of the district court’s Oct. 4 temporary restraining order.
City of New York Takes New Action Opposing Federal Government’s Military Deployment in American Cities
– The City of New York — as part of a coalition of 74 localities from around the nation — has filed a new amicus brief supporting Oregon’s ongoing case against the federal government’s unlawful deployment of the National Guard in Portland. In the brief, the coalition urges the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to affirm a district court ruling in Oregon v. Trump, which enjoined the federal government from deploying federal troops in Portland. The coalition warns against the Trump administration’s plans to deploy the National Guard at “anytime, anywhere, for any reason — based on nothing more than sporadic incidents of conflict or being a disfavored jurisdiction.” The coalition highlights the harms to local sovereignty, to local peace and tranquility, and to local economies from the federal government’s deployment of the National Guard to American cities on pretextual and political grounds.
“New York City is proud to — once again — partner with a multitude of localities to assert local control over our own domain: public safety,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams. “Our administration has been unrelenting in driving down crime, rooting out violent criminals, and protecting New Yorkers, and we have had record drops in crime thanks to our commitment to public safety and the precision policing of the NYPD. Collaboration with state and federal law enforcement has always been a key part of our public safety strategy, but we do not need a deployment of the National Guard to our city. Instead, we plan to continue to work with the federal government on areas where collaboration is warranted, such as stopping the flow of illegal guns to our city from the Iron Belt. We remain committed to keeping New Yorkers safe while upholding our constitutional rights.”
“As highlighted in this brief, the president is continuing to treat American cities as military ‘training grounds’ based on pretext and misinformation that is contrary to the facts on the ground,” said New York City Corporation Counsel Muriel Goode-Trufant. “Federalizing and domestically deploying the National Guard can sow chaos in local communities and should be a last resort, not a primary tactic, reserved for exceedingly rare circumstances. The district court ruling enjoining the federal government should be upheld.”
In September 2025, the Trump administration deployed members of the National Guard to Portland, citing protests of immigration enforcement operations. On October 4, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon ruled that the deployment likely violated federal law because plaintiffs submitted evidence that the cited protests were not significantly violent or disruptive in the days or weeks leading up to the president’s directive. The federal government filed an application in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit seeking an immediate stay of the district court’s temporary restraining order.
In the amicus brief, the coalition argues that the federal government has overreached its authority and that the lower court’s injunction should remain in place, based on longstanding federal laws prohibiting the National Guard from engaging in domestic law enforcement. The brief asserts that the federal government has provided no factual basis or legal justification for deploying 200 federal troops in Portland over the objection of local officials. The coalition states that there was no invasion or rebellion directed toward the federal government that would have allowed it to lawfully deploy the National Guard under 10 U.S.C. 12406, and that this pretext dramatically increases the risk of irreparable injury by inflaming community tensions and interfering with local law enforcement personnel which is better trained to manage situations such as protests and crowd control.
Further, the brief cites the chilling effect that National Guard deployments have on the local economy and taxpayers — as more customers stay inside and local businesses lose customers. Also, taxpayers are stuck paying the bill for these deployments: $134 million for Los Angeles alone and, potentially, at least $10 million for Oregon.
Joining the City of New York and Portland, Oregon are the cities of Tucson, Arizona; Alameda, Anaheim, Berkeley, Culver, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, San José, San Leandro, Santa Ana, Santa Monica, San Francisco, and West Hollywood, California; Denver and Ridgway, Colorado; New Haven, Connecticut; Tallahassee, Florida; Bloomington, Chicago, and Evanston, Illinois; Indianapolis, Indiana; Baltimore, Maryland; Boston, Cambridge, and Lawrence, Massachusetts; Ann Arbor, Bellevue, and Exeter, Michigan; Hopkins, Minneapolis, and St. Paul, Minnesota; Hoboken and Newark, New Jersey, Albuquerque, New Mexico; Hudson, Rochester, and Brighton, New York; Cleveland, Ohio; Pittsburgh and Norristown, Pennsylvania; Providence, Rhode Island; Knoxville and Nashville, Tennessee; Austin, El Paso, Iowa Colony, and San Marcos, Texas; Burlington, Vermont; Alexandria and Norfolk, Virginia; Tacoma, Washington; Madison and Exeter, Wisconsin; as well as the counties of Pima, Arizona; Alameda, Los Angeles, Monterey, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Sonoma, California; Denver and Ouray, Colorado; Montgomery, Maryland; Ingham and Bellevue, Michigan; Columbia, Cortland, and Monroe, New York; Multnomah, Oregon; Allegheny, Bucks, Clarion, Dauphin, and Montgomery, Pennsylvania; Davidson and Shelby, Tennessee; Harris and Travis, Texas; Kings and Pierce, Washington; Dan and Exeter, Wisconsin.
NEW YORK—Oct. 5, 2025—Mayor Eric Adams signed Emergency Executive Order 867, extending a key provision of Order 865 for five days to address persistent crises in the city’s Department of Correction, including at Rikers Island. The move prioritizes compliance with the federal Nunez use-of-force case and the 2022 Nunez Action Plan, citing ongoing attrition-driven staffing shortages that threaten sanitation, showers, meals, visitation, religious services, commissary, and recreation. The jail system’s state of emergency, first declared in 2021, remains in effect; the extension is effective immediately and may be modified or terminated earlier.
Emergency Executive Order 867
WHEREAS, on September 2, 2021, the federal monitor in the Nunez use-of-force class action stated that steps must be taken immediately to address the conditions in the New York City jails; and
WHEREAS, on June 14, 2022, the federal court in Nunez approved the Nunez Action Plan, which “represents a way to move forward with concrete measures now to address the ongoing crisis at Rikers Island”; and
WHEREAS, although there has been improvement in excessive staff absenteeism, extraordinarily high rates of attrition due to staff retirements and other departures continue to seriously affect the Department of Correction’s (DOC’s) staffing levels and create a serious risk to DOC’s ability to carry out the safety and security measures required for the maintenance of sanitary conditions; and access to basic services, including showers, meals, visitation, religious services, commissary, and recreation; and
WHEREAS, this Order is given to prioritize compliance with the Nunez Action Plan and to address the effects of DOC’s staffing levels, the conditions at DOC facilities, and health operations; and
WHEREAS, additional reasons for requiring the measures continued in this Order are set forth in Emergency Executive Order No. 140 of 2022, Emergency Executive Order No. 579 of 2024, and Emergency Executive Order 623 of 2024; and
WHEREAS, the state of emergency existing within DOC facilities, first declared in Emergency Executive Order No. 241, dated September 15, 2021, and extended by subsequent orders, remains in effect;
NOW, THEREFORE, pursuant to the powers vested in me by the laws of the State of New York and the City of New York, including but not limited to the New York Executive Law, the New York City Charter and the Administrative Code of the City of New York, and the common law authority to protect the public in the event of an emergency:
Section 1. I hereby direct that section 1 of Emergency Executive Order No. 865, dated September 30, 2025, is extended for five (5) days.
§ 2. This Emergency Executive Order shall take effect immediately and shall remain in effect for five (5) days unless it is terminated or modified at an earlier date.
The chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees sent letters Wednesday to two consulting firms — along with the College Board, Oracle and a company called Ellucian — seeking information about any tuition pricing algorithms they have built and the college applicants’ data that feeds them.
The consulting companies, with names like EAB and Ruffalo Noel Levitz, may be unfamiliar to college applicants and their families. But colleges know the consultants well, since most schools hire one of the two firms, or smaller consulting companies, to help them attract students and plot financial aid offers.
“Colleges that agree to use a common pricing formula or algorithm, or knowingly do so through a third-party company, are likely violating the antitrust laws,” said the letters, which were signed by Representatives Jim Jordan and Scott Fitzgerald and Senators Charles Grassley and Mike Lee, all Republicans. The demands cite reporting in The New York Times in May, which pointed to past comments by an EAB executive who had described its work as “a form of arbitrage” and added that its financial aid optimization strategies were “like working in the financial markets.”
EAB boasts of up to 200 variables that colleges and universities can use when setting an individual admitted student’s price, drawing from data on over 350 clients and 1.5 billion “student interactions.” Ruffalo Noel Levitz has over 1,900 clients feeding its software models for everything from financial aid to fund-raising.
Ruffalo Noel Levitz did not comment immediately upon receipt of the letter. An EAB spokeswoman said the company was still reviewing it.
In those letters, the lawmakers are seeking descriptions of all products and services and their capabilities; explanations of the purpose of any pricing and financial aid algorithms and the data that the algorithms train on; and the names of the higher education institutions that use each product or service.
Violations of antitrust law could occur, the letters said, even if competitors were not discussing pricing with one another if “they are delegating their decision making to a software or algorithm” that results in the exchange of confidential pricing information. Spokeswomen for both the College Board — which licenses a need-based aid calculation tool called the CSS Profile to colleges — and Ellucian said they were still reviewing the letters. Oracle, which has a higher education technology unit, declined to comment.
The peculiar college pricing system — in which the list price is often not the real price, and different administrators handle need-based aid and merit aid — has drawn much scrutiny from regulators and politicians in recent years.
Earlier this year, this same group of politicians asked for an enormous amount of information from Ivy League schools, citing “apparent collusion to raise tuition prices.” The breadth of the inquiry included communications among the schools and the Common App and U.S. News, which publishes school rankings, as well as information about early decision practices.
In 2019, the Department of Justice announced an antitrust settlement with the National Association for College Admission Counseling. Association rules had effectively prevented schools from poaching students after May 1. Those rules went away, and now schools like Syracuse make six-figure discount offers to teenagers who have already committed to other colleges.
And in 2013, the department investigated discussions between college presidents about whether there was anything school officials could do to stop giving so much merit aid to students who didn’t need it. Later that year, the government dropped the inquiry, but not before scaring many higher education leaders away from discussing the matter.
In the current investigation, lawyers who work on antitrust cases say that crucial questions about the “common pricing formulas” could include the following: If EAB and Ruffalo Noel Levitz have access to dozens of pieces of data from tens of thousands of applicants from several hundred schools (including who responded, how they responded, and to what sort of financial aid offers), how do the firms feed that into the algorithms that help client colleges set prices and discounts?
Another question, lawyers say: Do they do it in real time, on an ongoing basis, in the middle of application season?
And once the algorithms are trained, do clients that compete with one another ultimately end up drawing on collective data to set prices?
“It is about time that policymakers are scrutinizing the enrollment management industry,” said Stephen Burd, a senior writer and editor on education policy at the think tank New America and the editor of a book about enrollment management. “If policymakers have any hope of solving the problems of college access, affordability, equity and indebtedness, they are going to have to finally acknowledge the industry behind the curtain.”
Georgia Nugent, a former president of Kenyon College and Illinois Wesleyan University, was one of the higher education leaders questioned by the Justice Department in 2013. She said the language in Wednesday’s letters presumes that colleges accept advice unquestioningly.
“In my experience, we didn’t just blindly take what the algorithm said,” she said, adding that she had worked at institutions that were clients of both EAB and Ruffalo Noel Levitz.
“An algorithm might have suggested X, Y or Z, and that did not accord with our values and objectives,” said Ms. Nugent, who is now the president in residence at the American Academic Leadership Institute. “To assume that colleges are just automata and do what consultants tell us to do, at least in my experience, would not be true.”
“I’m sending a copy of this letter to the Secretary General, and I demand an immediate investigation. No wonder the United Nations hasn’t been able to do the job that they were put in existence to do…” – President Donald J. Trump
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
A REAL DISGRACE took place at the United Nations yesterday — Not one, not two, but three very sinister events! First, the escalator going up to the Main Speaking Floor came to a screeching halt. It stopped on a dime. It’s amazing that Melania and I didn’t fall forward onto the sharp edges of these steel steps, face first. It was only that we were each holding the handrail tightly or, it would have been a disaster. This was absolutely sabotage, as noted by a day’s earlier “post” in The London Times that said UN workers “joked about turning off an escalator.” The people that did it should be arrested! Then, as I stood before a Television crowd of millions of people all over the World, and important Leaders in the Hall, my teleprompter didn’t work. It was stone cold dark. I immediately thought to myself, “Wow, first the escalator event, and now a bad teleprompter. What kind of a place is this?” I then proceeded to make a Speech without a teleprompter, which kicked in about 15 minutes later. The good news is the Speech has gotten fantastic reviews. Maybe they appreciated the fact that very few people could have done what I did. And third, after making the Speech, I was told that the sound was completely off in the Auditorium where the Speech was made, that World Leaders, unless they used the interpreters’ earpieces, couldn’t hear a thing. The first person I saw at the conclusion of the Speech was Melania, who was sitting right up front. I said, “How did I do?” And she said, “I couldn’t hear a word you said.” This wasn’t a coincidence, this was triple sabotage at the UN. They ought to be ashamed of themselves. I’m sending a copy of this letter to the Secretary General, and I demand an immediate investigation. No wonder the United Nations hasn’t been able to do the job that they were put in existence to do. All security tapes at the escalator should be saved, especially the emergency stop button. The Secret Service is involved. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Two Zuni men were sentenced to 33 months in prison each for a violent armed assault involving four victims.
There is no parole in the federal system.
According to court documents, on April 8, 2023, Kamron Kallestewa, 25, and Kaden Panteah, 20, both enrolled members of the Zuni Pueblo, assaulted four individuals at a residence on the Pueblo using firearms. Kallestewa hit two victims in the head and face with his weapon and pointed it at two of the victims. Panteah, meanwhile, aimed and fired his weapon toward the victims.
Upon their release from prison, Kallestewa will be subject to two years of supervised release and Panteah will be subject to three years of supervised release.
Acting U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison and Justin A. Garris, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Albuquerque Field Office, made the announcement today.
The Gallup Resident Agency of the FBI Albuquerque Field Office investigated this case with assistance from the Zuni Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Jesse Pecoraro is prosecuting the case.
