Sherri Papini sentenced to 18 months in prison for faking her own kidnapping in 2016
CBSN
A Northern California woman who admitted to faking her own kidnapping has been sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by 36 months of supervised release, the Department of Justice announced on Monday.
Sherri Papini, 40, pleaded guilty earlier this year to two counts of mail fraud and making false statements to federal agents about circumstances surrounding the imagined kidnapping, in a deal that lowered her maximum possible sentence from 25 years and included more than $300,000 in restitution payments.
The money accounted for material losses to the Shasta County Sheriff's Office and Federal Bureau of Investigation — as both law enforcement agencies were involved searching for Papini when she seemingly disappeared, and later, the "abductors" she claimed held her captive — in addition to the California Victim Compensation Board and Social Security Administration, according to the Department of Justice. Papini collected nearly $130,000 in disability payments since the kidnapping hoax and has received psychiatric care for anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder totaling at least $30,000 in value.
Hunter Biden was found guilty of federal felony gun charges Tuesday by a Delaware jury, but the first son still has avenues for appeal to try to overcome his conviction. Before his trial concluded, his attorneys filed three motions for acquittal last Friday on which Judge Maryellen Norieka has yet to rule.
The State Department on Tuesday announced up to $8 million in rewards to target human smugglers operating in the largely ungoverned Darién region between Colombia and Panama. Hundreds of thousands of migrants cross Panama's treacherous Darién Gap jungle on foot each month on their way to the U.S. southern border.