Steve Neavling

City officials in a small Indiana town were served grand jury subpoenas as part of an investigation involving loans and grants since 2007, FOX 19 reports.

The mayor, city council president and treasurer were served in what a city councilman described as illegal bid-awarding deals.

FOX 19 wrote that state police and IRS investigators were on hand.

The news agency was unable to reach the city officials for comment.

Steve Neavling

 A member of the Indianapolis City Council and former police officer cannot argue he was entrapped by the FBI for accepting bribes from an undercover agent, the 7th Circuit has ruled, Courthouse News Service reports.

Lincoln Plowman came under scrutiny after developing a reputation for “questionable use of the power and influence he had acquired,” the court wrote last week.

An FBI agent posing as a strip club owner gave Plowman $5,000 in cash to help push through necessary licenses and a liquor license, the FBI alleges.

The amount was sufficient enough to constitute inducement, the judge said.

Plowman is appealing his 2010 conviction, which landed him a sentence of more than three years in prison, Courthouse News Services reported.

Steve Neavling

Federal, state and local investigators are trying to determine what caused a massive explosion that killed two people, injured seven, damaged or destroyed 31 homes and forced 200 people from their homes late Saturday night, the Indianapolis Star reports.

While the cause is unknown, much of the attention is on natural gas lines that have since been shut down.

Citizens Energy said it wasn’t clear Sunday whether a gas leak could have caused the explosion, the Indianapolis Star reported.

Indiana has a painful past with gas explosions. The deadliest disaster in Indianapolis history was a gas explosion that killed 74 people and injured 400 others after it tore through the State Fairgrounds Coliseum on Halloween 1963, according to the Star.

It’s unclear which federal agencies are involved.

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FBI agents swept across Indiana on Wednesday in search of 43 members of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club to face charges that remain sealed, The Indianapolis Star reports.

Calling it the largest federal bust of alleged gang activity in Indiana, a task force of hundreds of agents helped arrest dozens of bikers.

Earlier in the week, U.S. marshals served arrest warrants to gang members and associates accused of racketeering and mail fraud.

The bike club has a recent history of arrests for assault, racketeering and conspiracy to commit violence.

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A retired FBI agent has been charged with possessing and distributing child pornography, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Indianapolis announced Monday.

Ex-agent Donald J. Sachtleben, 54, of Carmel, Ind., was charged in a criminal complaint, authorities said. He retired in 2008.

“The mission of our Project Safe Childhood initiative is to investigate and prosecute anyone found to engaged in the sexual exploitation of children,” said U.S. Attorney  Joseph Hogsett in a statement. “Today’s announcement underscores this serious commitment and should make clear that no matter who you are, you will be brought to justice if you are found guilty of such criminal behavior.”

The complaint, unsealed Monday, alleged that authorities first became aware that he was trading images of child pornography online in September 2010. He was arrested this past January in Illinois.

Authorities said a forensic examination of his computer equipment and emails showed that he had been actively trading such materials online with numerous other people.

The complaint alleged that an initial forensic examination of Sachtleben’s laptop computer showed about 30 images and video files containing child pornography.

Shoshanna Utchenik

In general, the entrepreneurial spirit should be lauded. Unfortunately, in this case, it was purely criminal.

According to an FBI press release, 15 defendants allegedly registered 80 fake business names in Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota, then used these to file for unemployment insurance benefits to the tune of $8.7 Million. Defendants reportedly received unemployment debit cards for themselves, friends and family members, using false social security numbers and the sham businesses. A federal grand jury indicted the 15 defendants Tuesday in Illinois on 60 counts that include a range of tax, fraud and identity theft charges.

To read more click here.

A missing 9-year-old girl has been found dead, the Associated Press reports, and the girl’s babysitter was arrested on murder charges Monday night. The FBI had been helping in the search.

Aliahna Lemmon’s body was found in northeast Indiana, near her family’s mobile home park, investigators say. They aren’t releasing where exactly the remains were found, sheriff’s spokesman Cpl. Jeremy Tinkel told the AP.

The babysitter, Mike Plumadore, was taken into custody after being interviewed by police late Monday. The 39-year-old, who was watching Lemmon and her sisters’ at the time of the disappearance, faces a murder charge.

“He was a trusted family friend,” the girl’s step-grandfather, David Story, told the AP.

To read more click here.

By Danny Fenster

Huang admitted that he sent  trade secrets to  Germany and the Peoples Republic of China, the Justice Department said.  He and his collaborators then used the information to conduct unauthorized research in an effort to benefit foreign universities serving the Peoples Republic of China.

Authorities said he also  sought to use the trade secrets to establish sites in China from which he could compete directly with Dow in the organic pesticide market.

Court documents show that after his employment with Dow, Huang worked for Cargill beginning in 2008, again disclosing trade secrets, this time to a student at Hunan Normal University in China.

From that company, the Justice Department said, he stole a company trade secret — a key component in the manufacture of a new food product, which he later gave to a student at Hunan Normal University in China.

“Among the various economic espionage and theft of trade secret cases that the FBI has investigated in Indiana, the vast majority involve an inside employee with legitimate access who is stealing in order to benefit another organization or country,” Robert J. Holley, head of the Indianapolis FBI said in a statement.

“This type of threat, which the FBI refers to as the Insider Threat, often causes the most damage. In order to maintain our competitive advantage in these sectors, industry must identify their most important equities, realize that they are a target, implement internal protection mechanisms to protect their intellectual property, and communicate issues of concern immediately to the FBI.”

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST

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• Bloody Gang Fight Breaks out at Richmond City Hall (CBS San Francisco)
• Sheriff Joe to Testify on Failed Investigations (AP)
• Michigan Man Had Daughter, 9, as Designated Driver (AP)
• The High Risk of Cyberwar Revealed in Libya Attack Debate (Spy Talk)
• NC Police Department Sees Benefits of Robotics (Star News Online)
• Justice Dept. to Hire Outside Lawyer for AT&T Case (Reuters)