A federal court sentenced a Phoenix man previously convicted of a felony to 10 years in prison for stealing nearly $2.2 million in COVID-19 relief funding.
Mohammed Maio, 44, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, bank fraud, and felon in possession of a firearm.
Between May 2020 and May 2024, Maio fraudulently obtained and misused loans from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) relief loans, claiming the relief funds for multiple businesses without employees.
Maio’s mother, Souzan El-Sayed, and father, Abukar Maio, were also convicted for participating in the COVID fraud scheme. The trio submitted 18 PPP and EIDL applications.
Maio’s mother was associated with Magna Detail, Global Connection Plus, GEGE LLC, Reign Transportation, AFGOYE LLC, and Arcadia Adult Home Care. Maio’s father was associated with Magna Detail, Arcadia Adult Home Care, AFGOYE LLC, and Reign Transportation.
Maio associated himself with the following businesses: Magna Detail, AZ Jumpstart, AZMBK, Apyulent, MMM Consulting, and Reign Transportation.
Court documents reflect that the Maio family used the fraudulently obtained funds to purchase properties.
Maio also arranged for his mother to purchase a firearm for him in 2021, since he was a convicted felon who couldn’t purchase it for himself.
Arizona Department of Corrections records reflect that Maio served two years in prison from June 2016 to August 2018 for drug and fraud violations, and served six months in 2006 for drug and attempted weapons misconduct violations. During his two prison stints, Maio received three major infractions for threats or intimidation, fighting, and unauthorized conduct.
U.S. Attorney Timothy Courchaine said in the press release announcing Maio’s conviction that Maio exploited a system meant to provide relief to legitimate business owners during an unprecedented public health emergency.
“Maio’s actions resulted in significant financial loss to the U.S. government and exploited a program intended to provide relief to small businesses during a national crisis,” said Courchaine. “Fraud of this nature weakens the effectiveness of federal assistance programs and places an additional burden on taxpayers who ultimately bear the cost of these crimes.”
Scott Brown, acting special agent in charge of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) CI Phoenix Field Office, said his agency is committed to finding each and every individual who defrauded the COVID-19 relief programs.
“While business owners and families were struggling during the COVID pandemic, Maio was scheming to defraud the government relief programs for personal gain,” said Brown. “This case demonstrates IRS CI’s ongoing commitment to pursuing individuals who abused these pandemic relief programs and ensuring they are held accountable.”
A.J. Gibes, special agent in charge for the ATF Phoenix Field Division, pointed out that Maio decided to take violent measures to continue his fraud scheme.
“This significant sentence is part of a multi-agency effort to hold those who took advantage of COVID-era programs accountable,” said Gibes. “Not only did Mr. Maio commit fraud against the United States government, he illegally armed himself to protect his multi-million-dollar scheme. We are proud to work with our IRS partners to bring those who would defraud the American people to justice.”
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Federal authorities arrested a third grade teacher in Phoenix on child pornography charges last week.
Gabriel “Gabe” Lorenzo Chacon, 32, taught at Encanto Elementary School in the Osborn School District. Chacon was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and charged with two counts of distributing, possessing, and accessing child pornography.
Investigators report that Chacon was a member of The Ganymedean Brotherhood, a group chat in which users shared child pornography and sexual abuse material, with a focus on babies and infants.
The FBI’s Child Exploitation Operation Unit learned of Chacon after receiving a tip from an undercover law enforcement officer in Australia monitoring The Ganymedean Brotherhood.
In the complaint against Chacon filed with the Arizona District Court, Chacon admitted to authorities that he was in a child pornography group chat and had saved child pornography to a website, but denied ever acting on what he described as his “fantasy.” The illicit files connected to Chacon contained visuals of victims that ranged in age from infants to teenagers.
Messages included in court documents reflect that Chacon appeared to have considered acting on his fantasies. In one message, Chacon asked his group chat what they would do alone in their classrooms if they were teachers. Chacon reportedly sent the message under his handle, “ND Dom,” during parent teacher conferences earlier this month.
“Hey friends, let’s say hypothetically you were a teacher and you had 3 hours to kill alone in your classroom afterschool [sic], what would you do [3 devil emojis],” asked Chacon.
The complaint reported that the undercover officer saw Chacon’s message and began to converse with him in a direct message. Chacon admitted to the officer that he was interested in children 10 years old and younger, mostly boys; revealed that he was a third grade teacher in Phoenix; and divulged that he would give “bj’s” between classes if he could.
Chacon also said he was into “brutal” sex acts with children. Between messaging nude pictures of himself and describing his pedophilic fantasies, Chacon repeatedly expressed his allegiance to Satan.
“Hail satan,” wrote Chacon.
When the undercover officer asked if Chacon had any sexual experience with children, Chacon claimed that he had while he was “babysitting back in high school.”
Chacon also told the officer that education was the perfect employment for alleged child predators such as himself, and that Phoenix was big enough to find “like minded [sic] friends.” Chacon went on to send the officer five videos of pre-pubescent boys being sexually abused by adult men.
“It’s a great gig for brothers like us,” wrote Chacon.
Chacon’s public social media activity indicated that he was a supporter of progressive causes and Democratic candidates, and that he practiced witchcraft.
In one X post, Chacon said he was “vaguely associated with the occult.” On the Reddit forum r/witchcraft, Chacon advised a user that hyacinth, a plant, was “great for curse breaking and love spells” in his practice.
Chacon received his master’s degree in education from Northern Arizona University last year while teaching. Prior to settling in Phoenix, Chacon’s Facebook page reflects that he resided in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The Osborn School District issued a statement denying any knowledge of Chacon’s illegal activities. This semester marked Chacon’s third year teaching at Encanto Elementary School. Chacon previously taught at Solano Elementary School.
“We were assured that law enforcement had no information that any Osborn Elementary School students were connected in any way to the reported criminal behavior,” read the statement. “The District is fully cooperating with law enforcement in its investigation. Immediately upon learning of Mr. Chacon’s arrest, the District placed him on administrative leave, restricted his access to district technology and buildings, and reported the information to the Arizona State Board of Education.”
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The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Kari Lake’s lawyer to overturn sanctions that arose from a lawsuit challenging Arizona’s voting machines.
Lake’s attorney, Andrew Parker, appealed a lower court ruling that ordered him to pay $122,000 in legal costs.
The sanctions were the result of a lawsuit to bar Arizona from using electronic voting machines, filed by Lake in April 2022 while she was a gubernatorial candidate. Lake was joined by Mark Finchem, who was a candidate for secretary of state. The pair sued the secretary of state at the time, now-Gov. Katie Hobbs, and the boards of supervisors for Maricopa and Pima counties.
Their complaint demanded that electronic voting machines not be used without making the system open to the public and subjecting it to security vetting.
Arizona District Court Judge John Tuchi dismissed the case several months later in August 2022, then fined Parker and the rest of Lake’s legal team for frivolous claims in 2023. Tuchi accused Parker and the rest of Lake’s legal team of acting recklessly. Tuchi said in the latter ruling that non-excessive sanctions were necessary consequences to deter claims lacking adequate factual or legal basis.
“Failing to impose meaningful sanctions here might very well encourage others to follow suit by lending their credibility to documents filed in court without facing any real consequence if their certifications prove hollow or incomplete,” said Tuchi. “Further, any monetary sanction imposed should not be so significant as to dissuade other legal experts from providing advice or assistance in litigation out of fear of sanctions, provided they abide by the requirements of the rules in signing filings and entering appearances in those matters.”
Lake and Finchem continued fighting for the case through the appeals system; it went all the way to the Supreme Court, but they declined to take up the case.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the sanctions last year.
Lake’s attorney argued in filings that the sanctions were punishment for “politically disfavored litigation” and would stymie “creative, aggressive, or novel claims and arguments,” especially in cases where the judge may have opposing political views.
An opposition brief filed by counsel for Maricopa County rejected that argument.
“The district court sanctioned Petitioners because they lied to the court,” stated the county’s counsel. “Their filings made ‘false, misleading, and unsupported factual assertions’; ‘their claims for relief did not have an adequate factual or legal basis grounded in a reasonable prefiling inquiry’ in violation of Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure; and, they ‘acted at least recklessly in unreasonably and vexatiously multiplying the proceedings by seeking a preliminary injunction based on Plaintiffs’ frivolous claims, in violation of 28 U.S.C. §1927.’”
Thomas Galvin, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, said the Supreme Court’s decision was good news for voters.
“The Supreme Court declined certiorari in the sanctions case from Lake/Finchem,” said Galvin. “The BOS continues to stand up for election integrity.”
Another win for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors on behalf of YOU, the voter. Per @Law360, the BOS got a win at SCOTUS today. The Supreme Court declined certiorari in the sanctions case from Lake/Finchem. The BOS continues to stand up for election integrity. pic.twitter.com/ecF01FRYtQ
— Thomas Galvin: Maricopa County Brd of Supervisors (@ThomasGalvin) October 13, 2026
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On the 85th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, federal officials will initiate the identification and return of remains belonging to World War II service members killed aboard the USS Arizona.
The Department of Defense (DOD) will begin exhuming 277 of the sailors and Marines who lost their lives during the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. As part of the disinterment, the DOD will undertake forensic efforts to identify 86 of the service members whose identities remain unknown to this day.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) will use DNA analysis to match the remains to family members. DPAA will disinter eight caskets to start, then proceed at a pace of around eight caskets every two to three weeks until all the remains of the 86 unknown service members are disinterred.
More than 700 family members of the USS Arizona’s fallen are anticipated to be present for a ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam following the first disinterment on December 7 at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii, per reporting from the Stars and Stripes.
The disinterment almost didn’t happen. A report by the Navy submitted to Congress in 2022 advised that it would take about a decade and $2.7 million to obtain familial DNA for identification efforts. The federal government determined such an undertaking would be too costly and require too much manpower.
DPAA needed a 60% threshold of DNA Family Reference Samples — family representation for 643 crew members — to proceed with the disinterment and identification process.
Kevin Kline, whose great-uncle Robert Edward Kline was among the service members killed aboard the USS Arizona, launched Operation 85 in 2023 to collect those samples. Kline reportedly spent nearly $150,000 of his own money to fund the costs to obtain them, and successfully made the organization an official partner of DPAA.
In April, DPAA announced that Kline and Operation 85 successfully reached the required 60% threshold, having obtained 653 DNA kits.
The 277 buried in Hawaii outside the ship represent nearly a quarter of the lives lost on the ship that day.
Just before 8 a.m. on Dec. 7, 1941, Japan attacked the Pearl Harbor naval base. More than 350 Japanese aircraft bombed U.S. vessels, the USS Arizona among them. The battleship exploded and sank, then burned for more than two days. The USS Arizona had 334 survivors: 319 from the Navy, and 15 from the Marines.
1,177 from the USS Arizona perished, representing nearly half of the 2,403 service members killed at Pearl Harbor. More than 900 of the 1,177 have the sunken battleship at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial as their final resting place.
DPAA recently reached a record milestone of 250 identifications of unaccounted-for service members. The 250th service member to be identified was U.S. Army Captain Albert Wilcox, a prisoner of war killed aboard a Japanese troop and prisoner transport ship that was sunk by Allied aircraft in the final months of World War II.
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The city of Phoenix is operating a program to investigate federal agencies under President Donald Trump, according to public records.
The city publicly promotes its Community Transparency Initiative (CTI) as a complaint intake system and informational resource for the public on immigration matters.
However, records obtained by Judicial Watch reflect that the city of Phoenix tasks its employees and law enforcement with documenting, reporting, and investigating more than just federal immigration officials.
CTI, developed through the Office of Transparency and Accountability (OAT), was initially developed to take in reports and complaints concerning Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel.
The city’s employee training materials reveal that CTI has a much larger scope of oversight beyond ICE to include more federal agencies. City employees are trained to document and report all encounters involving federal law enforcement personnel. They are also trained to maintain records of time and resources devoted to work done concerning CTI.
Agencies under city of Phoenix employees’ purview were indicated to include the Federal Bureau of Investigation; United States Secret Service; Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; United States Postal Inspection Service; Border Patrol; Drug Enforcement Agency; United States Marshals Service; Federal Air Marshal Service; Federal Protective Service; Capitol Police; and the Transportation Security Administration.
Under CTI, the Phoenix Police Department uses its Special Investigations Division to review CTI complaints, investigate for criminal or civil rights violations, and pass along findings to Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes. Both the police and fire departments have been involved in implementing CTI.
The initiative also connects residents with multiple progressive nonprofit organizations: the national and Arizona chapter of the ACLU, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, National Immigration Law Center, Informed Immigrant, Florence Project, International Rescue Committee, Phoenix Legal Action Network, and the Immigrant Advocacy Network.
CTI also refers residents to its Office of Refugee and Immigrant Support, established in March 2023 amid the height of the illegal immigration crisis under former President Joe Biden. The office provides refugees and asylum seekers with integration services, including access to healthcare, housing, childcare, education, and employment.
Around the same time in 2023, Gov. Katie Hobbs’ administration allocated $60 million to house, feed, and provide other resources to the homeless and illegal immigrants. $13 million went to the city of Phoenix.
In recent years, the city spent around $8 million of its $396 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds on refugee and immigrant services.
In early March of this year, the city authorized spending up to $500,000 through June 2028 for legal counsel through Coppersmith Brockelman PLC, a favorite law firm among top Democrats such as Gov. Katie Hobbs, though the CTI website and later reporting stated that the city spent $1 million to hire the firm. Sam Coppersmith, a managing partner to the firm, was formerly a Democratic congressman for the 1st Congressional District and a chairman of the Arizona Democratic Party.
Judicial Watch didn’t receive any records confirming that the city formally considered any other law firms to provide outside legal counsel for CTI.
Following this authorization for outside legal counsel, the city passed a policy banning ICE enforcement operations from city-owned property. Mayes later issued a defense of the city’s action.
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