Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard 2006 Annual Report

Criminal Division (continued)
smugglers’ financial underpinnings,
which are vital to the
smuggling operations, the team
has arrested 160 smugglers;
stopped more than 12,400 wire
transfers; seized more than $15
million in funds, $3 million in
vehicles and $5 million in other
property; and seized 11 used car
lots and more than 400 vehicles
in the Phoenix area being used
by smugglers.
• The Drug Unit charged 1,049
criminal defendants. The Unit
was involved in five wiretap
investigations, resulting in 10
indictments of 192 defendants.
The Unit also prosecuted cases
involving the manufacture of
methamphetamine in clandestine
laboratories. A number of those
cases involved the presence of
children, resulting in the filing of
child abuse charges against the
methamphetamine manufacturers.
During this fiscal year,
there were 40 such child abuse
• The Medicaid Fraud Control Unit
received approximately 153
referrals, 57 of which were
abuse/neglect cases. The
Unit recovered $201,034 for
AHCCCS.
• The Tucson Criminal Trials Unit
prosecuted State v. Chisholm.
Tucson resident Maryanne
Chisholm was sentenced to
nearly 32 years in prison
following her conviction on 58
criminal charges. The charges
included 54 counts of selling
unregulated securities, one count
of illegally conducting an
enterprise and three counts of
fraud. Chisholm was also
ordered to pay more than $21
million in restitution. The case
took more than four years to
bring to trial, involved more than
1,100 victims (many were deaf)
and took six weeks of trial. A
Pima County Superior Court jury
found Chisholm guilty.
Significant Prosecutions
• State v. Sharma. Peter Sharma,
a serial identity thief, was
prosecuted in three separate
cases. In the first case, he was
found guilty by a jury for taking
the identity of another, unlawful
possession of an access device
and theft. Sharma used the
identity of another person to
obtain utility services and bank
accounts. He received a
sentence of 10 years in prison.
Sharma then pled guilty to
fraudulent schemes and artifices
in the second case, arising out of
his falsification of deeds to obtain
title to a home in Anthem, which
he then sold. In the third case,
Sharma was convicted after a
bench trial for perjury, arising out
victims.
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Members of the Criminal Litigation Section
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