Oak Ridge Today

FBI, ORPD, Knox respond to bank robbery, kidnapping report at Y-12 FCU

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Oak Ridge Police Department at Y-12 Federal Credit Union

Oak Ridge Police Department officers were at the Y-12 Federal Credit Union in Oak Ridge on Tuesday morning. The branch will remain closed Wednesday, although the credit union’s headquarters will be open.

 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, and the Oak Ridge Police Department responded to the Y-12 Federal Credit Union at 501 Lafayette Drive on Tuesday on a report of a bank robbery, kidnapping, and extortion.

Preliminary reports indicate that at about 8:15 a.m. Tuesday, an employee of the credit union and the employee’s family were threatened in an attempt to obtain money from the credit union, an FBI press release said. The employee’s family was held for a period of time before being released in the Gettysvue Country Club parking lot in Knoxville at around 9:25 a.m. During the law enforcement response, the suspects fled, and no injuries have been reported, and no money was taken from the credit union. [Read more…]

Police: Calif. man arrested, questioned by feds after demanding tours of New Hope, ORNL

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Rishi Chatterjee Malakar

Rishi Chatterjee Malakar

Note: This story was updated at 12:18 p.m. March 9.

A California man was arrested by police and questioned by federal agents after he demanded tours of the New Hope Center at the Y-12 National Security Complex and Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Friday evening, authorities said.

The Oak Ridge Police Department responded to the call at about 6:22 p.m. Friday. A man had been found trying to get into the New Hope Center at 602 Scarboro Road through a rear door, Oak Ridge Police Chief Jim Akagi said.

An employee at the New Hope Center confronted the man, who demanded a tour of the building, Akagi said.

After he was denied a tour, the man reportedly left the area in a maroon-colored Jeep sport utility vehicle bearing a Texas license plate. [Read more…]

FBI, KPD arrest Kingston suspect in Y-12 Credit Union robbery

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Y-12 Federal Credit Union Robbery on Clinton Highway

A surveillance photo from the alleged robbery at the Y-12 Federal Credit Union on Clinton Highway on Friday, January 23. (Source: FBI)

The FBI and Knoxville Police Department on Saturday arrested a Kingston man suspected of robbing the Y-12 Federal Union on Clinton Highway on Friday.

Bryan Samples, 43, is being held without bail pending trial, said Marshall Stone, supervisory special agent for the FBI in Knoxville.

The robbery of the Y-12 Federal Credit Union at 6640 Clinton Highway was reported at about 4:49 p.m. Friday. A suspect entered the Credit Union and passed a teller a bank robbery demand note, obtained an undisclosed amount of money, and then fled. [Read more…]

Former Wackenhut security officer indicted for theft of public funds

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KNOXVILLE—A federal grand jury in Knoxville has indicted a former security officer at a federal site in Oak Ridge for allegedly stealing U.S. government property and money laundering, officials said Thursday.

Sarah Parker, 52, of Dandridge, Tennessee, was indicted Tuesday, U.S. Attorney William C. Killian said in a press release. Parker was employed as an officer for security contractor Wackenhut Services Inc. at the East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site in Oak Ridge.

She appeared in court on Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge C. Clifford Shirley Jr. and pleaded not guilty to the charges in the three-count indictment, Killian said. She was released pending trial, which has been set for February 17, 2015, in United States District Court in Knoxville. [Read more…]

Y-12 to hold emergency management exercise Wednesday

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New Hope Center

New Hope Center

New Hope Center to be closed to public until noon

Emergency response personnel from the State of Tennessee and the Y-12 National Security Complex—along with other federal, state and local emergency management personnel—will conduct an emergency management exercise on Wednesday, October 15, at Y-12’s New Hope Center.

Because of the activities associated with the exercise, New Hope Center, located on Scarboro Road, will be closed to the public from 8 a.m. to noon the day of the exercise, and so will East Portal Road from Scarboro Road up to and including Portal 13.

The exercise should be completed by late morning or early afternoon, a press release said. [Read more…]

U.S. attorney: Y-12 security compromises will be vigorously prosecuted

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Bill Killian

William C. “Bill” Killian

U.S. Attorney William C. “Bill” Killian commended the sentences given to the three Y-12 protesters on Tuesday, and he said he hoped it would send a strong message.

“The Y-12 National Security Complex plays a critical role in our country’s national defense,” Killian said in a Wednesday statement. “People cannot take the law into their own hands and unlawfully intrude upon sensitive government facilities. Those who violate the law and compromise the security of the Y-12 National Security Complex will be vigorously prosecuted.”

The three anti-nuclear weapons activists were convicted of sabotage in May 2013 for breaking into Y-12 on July 28, 2012, cutting through high-security fences, and splashing blood and spray-painting slogans on the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility. The fortress-like HEUMF stores most of the nation’s bomb-grade uranium. [Read more…]

Two orthopedic clinics to pay $1.85 million over Medicare billing allegations

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Two orthopedic clinics in East Tennessee have agreed to pay a combined $1.85 million to resolve state and federal False Claims Act allegations that they knowingly billed state and federal health care programs for reimported osteoarthritis medications, known as viscosupplements, federal authorities said.

Tennessee Orthopaedic Clinics, P.C., with headquarters in Knoxville and nine locations in East Tennessee, will pay $1.3 million and Appalachian Orthopaedic Clinics, P.C., with headquarters in Kingsport and three locations in the Tri-Cities area, will pay $550,000, according to a press release from  the U.S. Attorney William C. Killian said in a press release. Killian is U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Tennessee.

The press release said viscosupplements, such as Synvisc and Orthovisc, are injections approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of osteoarthritis pain in the knee. Viscosupplements are reimbursed by Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health care programs at a set rate based on the average sales price of the domestic product. [Read more…]

Former TVA executive pleads guilty to unlawful investments in Iran, filing false tax returns

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A former Tennessee Valley Authority executive pleaded guilty Wednesday to unlawful financial investments in Iran and filing false tax returns, federal officials said.

Former TVA Vice President Masoud Bajestani, 58, formerly of Chattanooga, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, and Iranian Transactions Regulations, and two counts of filing false income tax returns, said U.S. Attorney William C. Killian of the Eastern District of Tennessee. Bajestani also agreed to forfeit $600,000 in U.S. currency, representing the funds used to promote the specified unlawful activity, Killian said.

[Read more…]

FBI investigating report of possible trespassing at ETTP

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East Tennessee Technology Park

The East Tennessee Technology Park is pictured above as it looked before most of the U-shaped K-25 building, center left, was demolished. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy)

The FBI is investigating a report of a man possibly trespassing at the East Tennessee Technology Park on Thursday evening, but so far, they said, it doesn’t appear he posed any danger to the former uranium-enriching site.

“I can tell you right now that there is no indication that this incident involves any kind of threat to the facility or to national security,” said Marshall Stone, supervisory special agent in the Knoxville office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. [Read more…]

Motive unknown for Sunday shooting at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant; suspect could be male

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Watts Bar Nuclear Plant

Watts Bar Nuclear Plant

A Tennessee Valley Authority spokesman declined to speculate on a motive for a Sunday morning shooting at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in Rhea County, but he said the suspect could be a male wearing a dark-colored sweatshirt with a hood.

Other than that, officials have little information on the suspect, who appears to have fled in a small boat, TVA spokesman Jim Hopson said Monday.

“It was difficult to provide any kind of description,” he said.

The unidentified man was spotted by a nuclear security officer at about 2 a.m. Sunday. The guard was on a routine patrol in a pickup truck on the perimeter of the 1,700-acre plant. As the officer came around a curve, the truck’s headlights illuminated a person on the shore of the Tennessee River, on the eastern side of the plant and near its southern boundary. [Read more…]

Stufano named Roane State police chief

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Roane State Community College Police Chief

Roane State President Dr. Chris Whaley, right, swears in Tom Stufano as the college’s police chief. (Submitted photo)

Tom Stufano has been named chief of police for Roane State Community College.

Stufano has more than 30 years in law enforcement, emergency management, and crisis management planning. Most recently, he served for more than six years as the chief of staff/deputy federal coordinating officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the Southeast region.

[Read more…]

Alleged serial bank robber apprehended

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Information from WYSH Radio

Law enforcement officials announced Thursday that a suspected serial bank robber was apprehended minutes after allegedly holding up a bank in Alcoa.

Gerald Hytken of Lenoir City, 79, is suspected of robbing four banks in the past two years and is facing federal charges for, among other things, allegedly robbing an Oak Ridge bank last year.

[Read more…]