News Article

01/07/2019—The Rocky Ford Police Department (RFPD), with assistance from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI), continues to investigate a shooting occurring at a home in Rocky Ford last month.

01/03/2019—The Bent County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO), with assistance from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI), is investigating the alleged homicide of a Las Animas man on Thursday, January 3, 2019.

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Identity Theft/Fraud Unit encourages victims of scams who may have wired money through Western Union between 2004 and 2017 to visit the,"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2017/11/ftc-alerts-consu…? Federal Trade Commission (FTC), website for information about filing a claim to potentially receive a refund. A news release from the FTC alerted consumers about the settlement and the process to file a claim for reimbursement. CBI agents and victim advocates have identified 500 identity theft victims in Colorado who stated they used Western Union to wire money as part of scams such as bogus online romances, fake lotteries and tax schemes in recent years. We are working extremely hard to contact individual victims who have made reports to the CBI and stated they wired money through Western Union, but we know there are additional victims across the state, said CBI Investigations Deputy Director Ralph Gagliardi. This is an outstanding opportunity for victims to potentially recoup some of their losses from these far-reaching scams. Deputy Director Gagliardi encourages victims to visit the, https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2017/11/ftc-alerts-consu…? FTC website, to learn more about the settlement and the claim process. CBI Identity Theft victim advocates are available to assist victims who may be eligible to file a claim. To reach CBI Identity Theft victim advocates you can call the CBI 24-Hour Hotline at 1-855-443-3489 or the Bureau‚ Victim Advocate Unit at 303-239-4242. The deadline to file a claim is February 12, 2018. The following information is from the FTC's news release about the Western Union claim process."https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2017/11/ftc-alerts-consu…? for the full FTC news release. The Federal Trade Commission is alerting consumers who lost money to scammers who told them to pay via Western Union's money transfer system between January 1, 2004 and January 19, 2017, that they can now file a claim to get their money back by filing a claim to get a refund in the Western Union matter. The refund program follows a settlement with the Western Union Company, which in January 2017 agreed to pay $586 million to resolve charges brought by the FTC and the U. S. Department of Justice. The FTC alleged that fraudsters were able to use Western Union's money transfer system to get payments from their victims, even though the company was aware of the problem and received hundreds of thousands of complaints about fraud-induced money transfers made for fraudulent lottery and prizes, family emergencies, advance-fee loans, online dating and other scams. The company also allegedly failed to promptly discipline problem Western Union agents, and failed to have effective anti-fraud policies and procedures. Affected consumers should go to FTC.gov/WU to file claims, learn more, or get updates on the claims process. Filing a claim is free, so consumers should not pay anyone to file a claim on their behalf. No one associated with the claims process will call to ask for consumer's bank account or credit card number. The FTC's, case was investigated with the assistance of the U. S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Toronto Police Service Financial Crimes Unit, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Spanish National Police, and the Offices of the Attorney General for Arizona, Minnesota, and Vermont.

06/23/2017‚ From our partners at the Colorado Attorney General's Office...an update on an investigation by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation ID Theft/Fraud Unit. DENVER ‚Today, Attorney General Cynthia H. Coffman announced that Eddie Raymond Tipton of Flatonia, Texas, has pled guilty to theft by fraud, and computer crime charges related to his role in defrauding state lotteries in Colorado, Wisconsin and Iowa. Tipton was prosecuted in Wisconsin, as part of a multi-year, multi-state fraud case, and faces a total maximum penalty in Wisconsin of 13.5 years of incarceration. As part of the multi-state plea agreement Eddie Tipton further agreed to pay $1,137,980.00 in restitution to Colorado for the ill-gotten gains from his fraud. His brother, Tommy Tipton, has agreed to pay restitution to Colorado in an amount of $568,990.00. The Tiptons have also agreed to pay restitution to Oklahoma and Kansas for similar fraudulent lottery wins. Mr. Tipton and his cohorts took their criminal activities on the road, defrauding several states, and rigging the system to steal from Colorado, said Attorney General Coffman. His devious gamble has finally caught up with him, and he will now face the consequences for his actions. In 2015 the Colorado Lottery was informed by officials from Iowa that a 2005 Colorado winning lottery drawing involving Tommy Tipton, the brother of Eddie Tipton, and another man, Alexander Hicks, may have been part of a larger multi-state lottery fraud scheme. At the time, Eddie Tipton was being prosecuted in Iowa for a fraud which targeted Iowa's lottery in 2010 with a $16.5 million winning drawing. After conducting an initial investigation, The Colorado Lottery and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation developed evidence indicating that two manual draw winning tickets from a November 23, 2005 drawing were suspicious. The first of these two suspicious tickets had been purchased in Colorado on November 21, 2005 in Commerce City and the second purchased on November 22, 2005 in Lamar with specifically selected numbers being manually chosen by the respective purchasers instead of the quick pick option being used., Evidence was ultimately acquired showing that Tommy Tipton bought one of the two ‚winning Colorado tickets in Lamar and then solicited Alexander Hicks to claim the winning funds in Colorado in exchange for Hicks receiving 10% of the proceeds. The second suspicious winning ticket was claimed by a newly formed Nevada LLC whose registered agent was also a Texas resident. As a result of these findings, Colorado joined the multi-state investigation. The Colorado Lottery, a division of the Colorado Department of Revenue, would like to recognize the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the Colorado Attorney General's Office, the 10th Judicial District Attorney's Office, and their law enforcement counterparts in Iowa and Wisconsin for ensuring this crime, perpetrated against the Colorado Lottery game "Lotto‚ more than 11 years ago, will not go unpunished said Laura Solano, Colorado Lottery Director. The Colorado Lottery is committed to ensuring the highest standard of security and integrity of all lottery games of chance for our players. To ensure Lottery games meet these high industry standards, the Lottery utilizes Random Number Generators for all in-State Draw Games, which have been purchased from an independent third party vendor, and certified by two gaming test labs and forensic auditing firms. For more information please visit,"https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp,q=http://www.coloradolottery.com/p…" href="http://www.coloradolottery.com/protect-yourself coloradolottery.com/protect During the course of the investigation it was determined that Eddie Tipton, a key employee of the Iowa based Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), was responsible for programming the software used in the random number generator (RNG) machines that picked the winning numbers in lotteries such as Colorado's. Wisconsin's forensic investigation determined that Tipton programmed a modified code in the RNG software that, when certain conditions were met, produced a predictable set of winning numbers that were then used by Eddie Tipton or shared with other family members or associates, so that manual lottery tickets could be purchased using these numbers. The Colorado Lottery headquarters are located in Pueblo, Colorado, and the Attorney General's Office worked with the 10th ,Judicial District Attorney's Office on this case. The successful prosecution of this case is the result of the strong collaborative efforts of all of the agencies involved, said 10th ,Judicial District Attorney Jeff Chostner. My office looks forward to continuing to partner with state and local agencies as we work together to protect Coloradans. Eddie Tipton is currently scheduled for sentencing in Wisconsin on, September 21, 2017. Eddie Tipton and Tommy Tipton are also expected to be in court in Iowa on, June 29, 2017,for disposition hearings.

From our partners at the Colorado Attorney General's Office 11/08/2016‚ Colorado Attorney General Cynthia H. Coffman announced today that Jose Ricardo Sarabia-Martinez, of Denver was sentenced to 24 years in prison after being found guilty of multiple counts including felony violations of the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act (COCCA), COCCA-Conspiracy, forgery, theft, and criminal impersonation. Sarabia-Martinez is expected to also be ordered to pay restitution of nearly $1million. Mr. Sarabia-Martinez was the mastermind of a fraudulent scheme that stole millions of dollars from his victims, said Attorney General Coffman. This lengthy sentence will keep him off the streets and prevent him from harming any other innocent people. Sarabia-Martinez, along with his fellow co-conspirators used their status as professionals in the real estate industry to execute a long-term diverse fraud for profit scheme. The scheme primarily centered on mortgage fraud including the manipulation of multiple real estate transactions through the use of fraudulent statements, material omissions, acquiring false identification and notary commissions, as well using straw buyers‚ to buy and sell real estate properties that ultimately resulted in foreseeable foreclosures. When these straw buyers‚ properties were foreclosed, Sarabia-Martinez and his partners had already been able to fraudulently acquire money through fees, commissions, and by diverting the excess profit that was obtained from facilitating these fraudulent loans from the deceived lenders. The criminal activity took place in various jurisdictions, including the City and County of Denver, Adams County and Arapahoe County. The investigation and successful prosecution of this case resulted from collaboration between several state and federal agencies including the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Office of Inspector General. The exceptional collaboration between our state and federal partners made a tremendous difference in this case by helping to bring some justice to those impacted by this pervasive crime and preventing additional victims from being targeted by Mr. Sarabia-Martinez in the future said CBI Director Mike Rankin. In addition to Sarabia-Martinez, five other co-conspirators have pled guilty to various charges related to the scheme, including his then wife, mother, father and brothers. Sarabia-Martinez was previously convicted of felony offenses related to domestic violence, for which he also received a 24-year sentence. Both 24-year sentences will run consecutively, for a total of 48 years in prison.,

03/07/2016, On February 29, 2016, Michael David Hopkins, age 50, of Westminster was arrested on charges of forgery, impersonating a public servant, gathering identity information by deception and criminal possession of a forged instrument. Hopkins has allegedly been soliciting individuals who were unable to lawfully obtain a driver license due to being under restraint, lack of qualifications or inability to demonstrate lawful presence in the U.S. for the past two years. Hopkins would allegedly impersonate a DMV employee while meeting with individuals and provide them with counterfeit temporary driver licenses in exchange for money. The Colorado DMV investigations unit is urging any individuals who may have been contacted by or used the services of this individual to contact the DMV hotline at 1-855-778-2368 This case is being investigated by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Colorado Department of Revenue, Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV), Motor Vehicle Investigations Unit and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Colorado Department of Revenue records show that Hopkins has never been employed with the Colorado DMV. This investigation is not related to other current DMV investigations. As this is an ongoing investigation, we are unable to provide further information.

09/18/2015‚ The Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Identity Theft/Fraud Unit has seen a surge of imposter Internal Revenue Service (IRS) calls in recent weeks and offers tips related to this far-reaching scam. The scam works when the caller states the IRS is filing a lawsuit against the person for unpaid taxes, and that the person will be arrested if the taxes are not paid immediately. The caller demands the person wire the money or pay via pre-paid debit/credit cards. What you need to know: Most importantly: this is SCAM! The IRS will not make threatening phone calls about alleged owed taxes and demand that a person use a pre-paid debit/credit card to settle a debt. If you receive a call, simply hang up the phone. DO NOT engage in a conversation with the person claiming to represent the IRS or US Treasury. DO NOT return a call if a person leaves you a message. The goal is to ignore the calls completely. Visit the IRS website and report these instances or to learn more about this scam: "http://www.irs.gov/uac/Report-Phishing" target="_blank">http://www.irs.gov/uac/Report-Phishing

10/4/2014, The Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Identity Theft/Fraud Unit has joined the social media conversation by launching a Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/CBI.IDTheft https://www.facebook.com/CBI.IDTheft to share important information and to help reduce the impact of identity theft and fraud.
Those who &lsquo,like&rsquo, the CBI Identity Theft page will obtain details about current identity theft scams and other fraud-related information prevalent in Colorado and across the nation.

&ldquo,Our goal is to share timely and meaningful awareness information to minimize the impact of identity theft and fraud,&rdquo, said Agent in Charge Ralph Gagliardi who oversees the CBI Identity Theft/Fraud Unit. &ldquo,We want friends, families and neighbors to relay critical awareness information, whether through the Facebook page or daily conversation, to help reduce the impact identity theft.&rdquo,

Have you been impacted by identity theft or fraud? The CBI offers a toll free hotline (1-855-443-3489) that is staffed 24/7 to help victims take the critical first steps in recovering from these prolific crimes.

&ldquo,Whether it&rsquo,s through social media, or engaging the community through presentations or participation in community events, the CBI is committed to not only helping victims impacted by identity and fraud, but also working to prevent victimization,&rdquo, said CBI Director Ron Sloan.,