Russ Ferguson

The owner of a now-closed Union County wedding venue has pleaded guilty to defrauding customers and investors. The case involves court documents and a plea agreement as detailed by the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.

Two Romanian nationals, Marian and Catalin Dumitru, stole $760,000 from SNAP benefits by installing skimming devices on ATMs and EBT cards in the Charlotte area. They used stolen funds to purchase goods in Gastonia and Pineville before being arrested and pleading guilty to wire fraud.

Ronnie Lorenzo Robinson Jr., a Charlotte man, faces federal charges for allegedly defrauding Medicaid of $735,000 by submitting false claims for mental health services through his company, The Fisher of Men Project, LLC. Prosecutors allege he used stolen personal information to file unauthorized reimbursement claims, resulting in $440,000 in payments to his company for services that were never provided.

A South Carolina man was charged with a federal hate crime after allegedly defacing a Charlotte Jewish community complex with antisemitic flyers containing a swastika, noose, and Nazi-associated symbols. Authorities arrested Dalton Mullis in June 2025 for the January 2025 incident and linked him to related antisemitic social media posts.

Decarlos Brown Jr., a homeless man charged with murdering Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail, was declared incompetent by a federal judge. Brown will be hospitalized for up to four months to assess if he can be restored to competency for his federal trial.