2024-12-05 DOJ SDNY pdf 49,904 chars

United States v. FRED MASTROIANNI; and DOREEN MASTROIANNI, Southern District of New York (Dec. 5, 2024)

raw: U.s. V. Mastroianni Complaint

U.s. V. Mastroianni Complaint (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 5, 2024)

Caption: United States v. Fred Mastroianni, et al.

Exhibit of Federal Inmate And His Sister Charged With Cyberstalking And Conspiring To Extort Victims By Threatening To Release Sexually Explicit Materials

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summary

paragraph

The charges stem from their use of email and other means to threaten a victim with the distribution of sexually explicit images unless the victim agreed to fund an insurance policy for Fred Mastroianni. The investigation revealed that Fred and Doreen discussed various financial transactions and legal agreements, including the sale of property, loans, and business ventures. They also planned to extort Victim-1 and Victim-2 by sending them details of a life insurance scheme and using videos of Victim-2 to extort him.

narrative

The United States has filed a complaint against Fred Mastroianni and Doreen Mastroianni for cyberstalking, interstate extortion, and conspiracy to commit interstate extortion. The charges stem from their use of email and other means to threaten a victim with the distribution of sexually explicit images unless the victim agreed to fund an insurance policy for Fred Mastroianni. The investigation revealed that Fred and Doreen discussed various financial transactions and legal agreements, including the sale of property, loans, and business ventures. They also planned to extort Victim-1 and Victim-2 by sending them details of a life insurance scheme and using videos of Victim-2 to extort him. The document includes a request for a warrant to arrest Doreen and imprison both Fred and Doreen. Fred Mastroianni is currently serving a thirty-five-year sentence imposed by the Hon. Philip M. Halpern, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York, on August 15, 2024, for receiving and distributing child pornography and for the sexual exploitation of a minor. Doreen Mastroianni is Fred's sister and lives in Westchester County, New York.

Enriched metadata

Scheme: cyber-fraud (100%)
Court: Southern District of New York

Classified cyber-fraud(confidence 100%). No EDGAR filing fingerprint (criminal/DOJ-side scheme). detection rule →

Extracted insights

Dollar amounts 5

$240K $240,000 $100K–$1M
$240K $240,000 $100K–$1M
$1K $1080 <$10K
$360 $360 <$10K
$105 $105 <$10K

Entities 9

person Erica Buonocore ×2
person Fred Mastroianni ×2
person Doreen Mastroianni
person doren mastroianni
agency Federal Bureau of Investigation
person interstate extortion
person Margaret N. Vasu
person Ryan W. Allison
person Victim-1

Triples 5

Fred Mastroianni sent an email containing an extortionate threat to forward to Doren Mastroianni
Doren Mastroianni emailed the extortionate threat drafted by Fred Mastroianni to Victim-1
Erica Buonocore is a Special Agent with FBI
Fred Mastroianni and Doren Mastroianni used telephones, computers, internet storage websites, and email accounts to threaten Victim-1 with distribution of sexually explicit images
Fred Mastroianni and Doren Mastroianni conspired to commit interstate extortion

PDF

U.s. V. Mastroianni Complaint · Source

Text layers

Extracted body text (49,904c)

AUSAs: Ryan W. Allison, Margaret N. Vasu

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v.

FRED MASTROIANNI, and DOREEN MASTROIANNI, Defendants.

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK, ss.:

24 mj 4187

SEALED COMPLAINT

Violations of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2, 371, 875(d), 2261(b)(5), and 2261A(2)(B)

COUNTIES OF OFFENSES: WESTCHESTER, ORANGE

Erica Buonocore, being duly sworn, deposes and says that she is a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), and charges as follows:

COUNT ONE (Cyberstalking)

1. From at least in or about October 2024 through the present, in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, FRED MASTROIANNI and DOREEN MASTROIANNI, the defendants, and others known and unknown, with the intent to injure, harass, intimidate, and place under surveillance with intent to injure, harass, and intimidate another person, used an interactive computer service and electronic communication service and electronic communication system of interstate commerce, and another facility of interstate and foreign commerce, to engage in a course of conduct that caused, attempted to cause, and would be reasonably expected to cause substantial emotional distress to a person, and aided and abetted the same, to wit, FRED MASTROIANNI and DOREEN MASTROIANNI used telephones, computers, internet storage websites, and email accounts, among other means, repeatedly to threaten Victim-1 with the distribution of sexually explicit images of Victim-1 unless Victim-1 agreed to fund the purchase of an insurance policy against the life of DOREEN MASTROIANNI for the benefit of FRED MASTROIANNI.

(Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2261A(2)(B), 2261(b)(5), and 2.)

COUNT TWO (Interstate Extortion)COUNT THREE

(Conspiracy to Commit Interstate Extortion)

3. From at least in or about October 2024 through the present, in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, FRED MASTROIANNI and DOREEN MASTROIANNI, the defendants, and others known and unknown, willfully and knowingly combined, conspired, confederated, and agreed together and with each other to commit an offense against the United States, to wit, interstate extortion, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 875(d).

4. It was a part and object of the conspiracy that FRED MASTROIANNI and DOREEN MASTROIANNI, the defendants, and others known and unknown, with the intent to extort from any person, firm, association, and corporation, any money and other thing of value, would and did willfully and knowingly transmit in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to injure the property and reputation of the addressee and of another and the reputation of a deceased person and any threat to accuse the addressee and any other person of a crime, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 875(d).

Overt Acts

5. In furtherance of the conspiracy and to effect the illegal object thereof, the following overt acts, among others, were committed in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere:

a. On or about November 3, 2024, from Orange County, New York, FRED MASTROIANNI sent DOREEN MASTROIANNI an email containing an extortionate threat to forward to Victim-1.

b. On or about November 16, 2024, DOREEN MASTROIANNI emailed to Victim-1 the extortionate threat FRED MASTROIANNI had drafted on or about November 3, 2024.

(Title 18, United States Code, Section 371.)

The bases for my knowledge and for the foregoing charges are, in part, as follows:

6. This Complaint is based upon my personal knowledge, my review of documents and other evidence, and my conversations with other law enforcement officers, as well as my training and experience concerning the use of email in criminal activity. Because this Complaint is being submitted for the limited purpose of establishing probable cause, it does not include all the facts I have learned during my investigation. Where the contents of documents and the actions, statements, and conversations of others are reported herein, they are reported in substance and in part, except where otherwise indicated.7. FRED MASTROIANNI (“FRED”), the defendant, is currently serving a thirty-five-year sentence imposed by the Hon. Philip M. Halpern, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York, on August 15, 2024, for receiving and distributing child pornography and for the sexual exploitation of a minor. See United States v. Fred Mastroianni, 20 Cr. 575 (PMH). FRED is currently housed at FCI Otisville in Orange County. Based on my participation in the investigation and prosecution of FRED in the prior Mastroianni case before Judge Halpern, I know that the prior Mastroianni case involved FRED’s possessing many thousands of CSAM images and videos, sharing those images with others over the internet, and for years extorting another person (“Individual-1”) to force Individual-1 repeatedly to capture and send to FRED sexually explicit images and videos of Individual-1’s prepubescent son.

8. DOREEN MASTROIANNI (“DOREEN”), the defendant, is FRED’s sister. DOREEN lives in Westchester County, New York.

9. As described below, FRED and DOREEN have recently engaged in a plot to extort Victim-1 by threatening to release sexually explicit images of Victim-1 that FRED took of Victim-1. The purpose of the extortion is to attempt to compel Victim-1 to fund the purchase of an insurance policy against DOREEN’s life for the benefit of FRED.

10. Based on my review of emails sent and received on systems maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, recorded prison phone calls involving FRED, and other evidence obtained in this investigation, I am aware of the following exchanges between FRED, DOREEN, and others in furtherance of this extortion scheme:

a. On or about October 19, 2024, a person who identified himself as “Fred M” (whose voice I recognize as FRED’s based on, among other things, my participation in the prior Mastroianni case) made a call on a recorded prison line to a person I believe to be DOREEN. In this conversation, FRED and DOREEN discussed the following, among other things:

1. FRED and DOREEN discussed the following, among other things:

1. FRED and DORENE discussed the following, among other things:

1. FRED and Di. FRED directed DOREEN to set up an account that would allow him to send text messages from prison. FRED explained, in substance and in part, that he wanted to use this text message application to “get [Victim-1] to pay this fucking health insurance—I mean life insurance.”

ii. FRED and DOREEN discussed sending Victim-1 additional details about the insurance plan in writing, which FRED said they needed to do before Victim-1 would agree to participate in the insurance scheme. DOREEN later suggested that FRED should send her the additional details, and she would cut and paste FRED’s writing and email it herself to Victim-1. FRED agreed.

iii. FRED explained to DOREEN that he wanted her to retrieve certain “cassettes” from “the federal government” (i.e., electronic evidence seized by the Government during the prior Mastroiani case) that contain “very very bad” videos of another person (“Victim-2”). FRED stated, in substance and in part, that Victim-2 is going to pay FRED for those videos, although Victim-2 did not know that Victim-2 was going to do that yet, indicating that FRED planned to extort Victim-2 using the videos. After FRED explained this scheme to DOREEN, she responded, “I’m glad you just said that on the machine.” FRED replied, “It doesn’t matter. Listen, he earned money for it. He got himself a motorcycle doing that shit twenty years ago.”

b. On or about October 23, 2024, a person who identified himself as “Fred M” (whose voice I recognize as FRED’s) made a call on a recorded prison line to a person I believe to be DOREEN. In this conversation, FRED and DOREEN discussed the following regarding DOREEN’s maintenance of FRED’s cache of pornography, among other things:

i. During a discussion about DOREEN sending FRED photographs from FRED’s belongings, DOREEN stated, in substance and in part, that she had spoken to her son about a Dropbox folder that belonged to FRED.3 According to DOREEN, her son said that, in FRED’s Dropbox folder, DOREEN’s son “saw things [he] never wanted to see.” FRED replied, “My miscellaneous folder has nothing in it. It’s all my personal shit.”

ii. DOREEN then explained that her son had seen more than just the “miscellaneous folder” on FRED’s Dropbox, and that the Dropbox contained FRED’s “entire computer.” FRED said, “I know what’s on the computer, Doreen. I’m telling you ‘miscellaneous’ there’s nothing in it.” DOREEN again explained that the “miscellaneous folder” was only a small portion of the data from FRED’s Dropbox and that her son had cautioned her against putting all of “that shit” from FRED’s files on her computer. FRED explained, at that time, he only wanted materials from the “miscellaneous folder,” which would not include “any of the porn shit.”

c. On or about October 24, 2024, a person who identified himself as “Fred M” (whose voice I recognize as FRED’s) made a call on a recorded prison line to a person I believe to be DOREEN. In this conversation, DOREEN reminded FRED about a time long ago when he had

the conversations described in this Complaint is the phone number for DOREEN that is listed on her Realtor.com contact page.

3 Based on my training and experience, I know that Dropbox is an internet data storage website that permits customers to save materials onto their private cloud drives.

4asked her son to copy his entire computer and save it onto Dropbox. DOREEN explained that she had all of FRED’s files saved to an electronic device that was currently in her possession.

d. Later on October 24, 2024, FRED sent DOREEN an email titled “Fred Ins” in which FRED wrote, “I need to get [Victim-1] on board. I’ll send you an email with the number breakdown to forward to him so he can see how much it will be. I’m not holding out much hope though.”

e. On October 31, 2024, a person who identified himself as “Fred M” (whose voice I recognize as FRED’s) made a call on a recorded prison line to a person I believe to be DOREEN. In this conversation, FRED and DOREEN again discussed the return of certain materials that the Government had seized during the prior Mastroianni case. FRED said, in relevant part, “I need those fucking cassettes back so I can fucking give them to [Victim-2] in exchange for what I want.”

f. On or about November 1, 2024, FRED sent DOREEN an email titled “please send to [Victim-1].” The body of this email, which appears to be a draft email that FRED wanted DOREEN to send to Victim-1 to request that Victim-1 participate in the life insurance scheme, is reproduced below in relevant part:

Hey,

Here is a breakdown of how much the life insurance policy and the money I would need on my commissary account. The highest payout that New York Life will do on my sister due to her age (69 & 8 months) and her health is $240,000. The monthly payment is $1080 a month. IDK if you have an insurance guy who would do a better plan. If you do, then that would be amazing because the way this works out is after year 12 I would have no more money coming to me for my commissary account and will have to live off what little money I can earn working (the lowest pay per month is $19 and the highest pay is $105 a month) I’ll also be 66 years old by that point and my health is not the greatest. For all I know I’ll be gone before my sister. That would be a huge benefit to everyone involved in this.

here is a breakdown of how much you would spend over the course of the policy before the policy pays off.

[FRED included a financial chart here. In essence, the chart proposed that Victim-1 would make regular premium payments for a life insurance policy for DOREEN and also contribute $360 per month to FRED’s commissary account for twelve years. FRED appears to have been offering to allow Victim-1 to keep the “profit,” which FRED described as the $240,000 payout from the insurance policy upon DOREEN’s death less the combined total of the premium payments Victim-1 had madeI know it's not the greatest deal and I know I am asking a lot from you, but you are the only person I know who has the financial resources to do anything like this. My sister is currently in the process of selling her house because she can't afford it anymore, and that means she has no money to put on my commissary account. Spending the rest of my life in prison (I will be eligible for parole when I am 80) for something that took a total of less than 30 minutes to produce is something I have come to accept. The thing I am having a difficult time accepting is that I will have no one there for me once my sister is gone. My nephew wants nothing to do with me, and that's all the family I have (my oldest sister is 74 and has advanced dementia). I'm sorry to put this burden on you, but you are the only person I can depend on to help me. Please do this for me [Victim-1]. I promise I will not bother you with anything else.

On or about November 2, 2024, DOREEN forwarded FRED an email from Victim-1 in which Victim-1 wrote, "Please let him know it isn't something I'm interested in."

On or about November 3, 2024, a person who identified himself as "Fred M" (whose voice I recognize as FRED's) made a call on a recorded prison line to a person I believe to be DOREEN. In this conversation, FRED and DOREEN discussed responding to Victim-1's rejection of FRED's insurance policy offer:

FRED began the discussion by noting that Victim-1 did not "waste any time" rejecting FRED's offer.

FRED then said, "Well I guess I'm going to have to send another email for you to forward to him that—."

FRED then said, "I got to talk to Tim. Maybe he can sell my video collection to somebody." DOREEN replied, "That's probably something I don't want to know anything about."

Later on November 3, FRED sent DOREEN an email titled "responses to [Victim-1's] e mail." This email was an extortion threat addressed to Victim-1, which FRED intended for DOREEN to send to Victim-1. The body of this email is reproduced below in relevant part, with emphases added:

I wish you would reconsider. I know I let you down by not being able to pay you back the 25g's. I never expected this nightmare to spiral so out of control. The little money I have invested will hopefully turn into something more in the next 10-20 years. I would be happy to put something in writing leaving you whatever money may come from the couple of investments I have. Maybe you can advise me on something to invest in that will make more money besides Nvidia.I understand your desperation, but I must decline your request. The content of your email is inappropriate and potentially harmful. I will not assist in the distribution of such material. I suggest you seek help from a professional or trusted individual who can guide you through this situation.

I was reading an article in the Wall Street Journal about how in a lot of Middle Eastern/Arab countries homosexuality is illegal. Not only illegal, but in some countries they will put you to death. Isn't that amazing in this day and age that those countries can be so inhumane not only to their own citizens but to visitors from foreign countries that they conduct business with?

I hope you will reconsider doing the insurance to help me out. If you won't, is there anything you can think of that you can do to help me that will hopefully help me be able to pay you back the money I owe you along with helping me with money on my commissary each month. I know you have the money [Victim-1]. I'm begging you to help me.

j. On or about November 5, 2024, DOREEN wrote back to FRED regarding the extortion email, "I don't know [Victim-1] but are you sure you want to pass this along? I find it hard to believe you put it in writing."

k. On or about November 15, 2024, FRED wrote back to DOREEN, "Yes I want you to send the email to [Victim-1]. I didn't spend all the time writing it not to have you send it."DOREEN responded, in relevant part: “I will send that email to [Victim-1] today. I found its content repugnant, and wanted to make sure you wanted it to go.”

i. On or about November 16, 2024, DOREEN emailed Victim-1 the extortionate threat FRED had sent to her on November 3. DOREEN titled this email to Victim-1, “Sorry but Fred asked mme to send this.”

m. Later on November 16, 2024, FRED sent DOREEN an email titled, “send to [Victim-1] please.” This email is reproduced below in relevant part:

My sister said you tried calling her. she won’t have anything to say about what I’m asking. she thinks I’m messed up (we crap in e mail or I would have said FED UP) for what I sent you. I also know you think I’m messed up but I need help. I have NO ONE to help me. I would do anything I could to help you and you know that. You will get back your money it will just take time. I know you don’t feel comfortable because it is a life insurance policy but my sister is ok with it. It was actually her idea. Its the only way I can get someone to help me and be able to pay them back eventually. I’m sorry that I resorted to saying what I said. I’m just very desperate for some kind of help and I don’t have anyone else to turn to. Please think about it.

n. A few hours later, DOREEN wrote back to FRED, “Well [Victim-1] was as offended as I thought he would be. He called and said he was sorry that things were so bad that you would sink so low to write that. He said no worries About the 25000 and he wishes you the best but he’s out.”

11. Based on an interview of Victim-1, I know that Victim-1 met FRED MASTROIANNI, the defendant, when Victim 1 was approximately fifteen years old and FRED was approximately thirty years old. When Victim 1 was fifteen years old, FRED offered Victim-1 money in return for FRED taking photos of Victim 1 while Victim-1 masturbated. Victim-1 fears that those images may be included in the images that FRED is threatening to release.

12. Based on public source information, I believe that the servers that support the aol.com domain are located in New York. I also believe that the servers that support Victim-1’s email account are located in Arizona.WHEREFORE, I respectfully request that a warrant be issued for the arrest of DOREEN MASTROIANNI, the defendant, and that she be arrested, and that FRED MASTROIANNI and DOREEN MASTROIANNI, the defendants, be imprisoned or bailed, as the case may be.

S worn to before me this 4 day of December, 2024.

THE HONORABLE JUDGE C. MCCARTHY United States Magistrate Judge Southern District of New York

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