WILMINGTON, Del. – A Philadelphia man was sentenced yesterday to 20 years in prison for distributing fentanyl that caused the death of Joel Davis, a 29-year-old Newark man. 

According to court documents, Emanuel Jimenez, who is a citizen of the Dominican Republic but was living in the United States under the false identity of “Robin Cintron-Pratts,” was a large-scale heroin dealer.  For several months in 2016-2017, he delivered 13,000 baggies of heroin per week to James Briggs of Wilmington.  In February 2017, the defendant delivered fentanyl-laced heroin to Briggs, who sold some of those drugs to Abdoulaye Diallo, who then sold several baggies to one of Joel Davis’s friends.  The friend gave four of the baggies to Joel Davis, who used them and then died as a result of fentanyl intoxication.  Diallo and Briggs were separately charged.  Briggs was sentenced on September 9, 2019 to ten years incarceration; Diallo was convicted and is pending sentencing.

When the defendant heard that someone had overdosed from his drugs, he explained to a customer: “You know what happens?  People, they do it… they didn’t feel it like that quick, so they think the shit not good so they do it over and over.  And like 20 minutes later… oh shit” “This shit happened like a couple times with me.”

According to United States Attorney David C. Weiss, “Since the introduction of fentanyl, selling heroin is like playing Russian roulette with others’ lives.  As the defendant well knew, people are dying every day using the product he was selling.  Today’s sentence sends an important message to heroin dealers: making a quick profit is simply not worth the prospect of spending decades in prison.  This case was part of the impetus for the First State Overdose Task Force, and we will continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute people whose drugs are killing Delawareans.”

"Jimenez was a drug-trafficker who distributed thousands of bags of heroin and fentanyl weekly across Wilmington," said Jonathan A. Wilson, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) Philadelphia Field Division.   "He was also the source of fentanyl-laced heroin bags that resulted in a fatal overdose.  The DEA will continue to work with our law-enforcement partners to aggressively investigate significant drug-traffickers like Jimenez who pose a great threat to the health and safety of the citizens of Delaware."

The U.S. Attorney made the announcement after sentencing by Chief U.S. District Judge Leonard P. Stark.  Before imposing sentence, the Court said, “The defendant knew that people were overdosing. It’s not a stretch to say that he knew that overdosing could mean death.  And none of that stopped him, nor is there any indication that it bothered him.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer K. Welsh prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Agency’s First State Overdose Task Force in partnership with, among others, the New Castle County Police Department.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware. Related court documents and information is located on the website of the District Court for the District of Delaware or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:17-cr-0022-1(LPS) and 1:17-cr-0023-1(LPS).

WILMINGTON, Del. – The downfall of Wilmington Trust is a tragedy.  It’s a tragedy to the over 700 employees who lost their jobs as a result of the Bank’s fire-sale acquisition by M&T.  It’s a tragedy to those former employees who built the Bank into something to be proud of over the last century.  It’s a tragedy to this Community, which lost what was thought to be a stable employer and a gold-standard financial institution.  And it didn’t have to be.

Banks are entrusted with a fiduciary responsibility to safeguard their depositors’ funds. That is one of the primary reasons they are required to regularly file financial disclosures with the regulators responsible for ensuring the safety and soundness of those banks.  Similarly, a publicly traded company is required to make certain disclosures to the investing public. Regulators and the public look to these filings to make informed decisions. In so doing, they have an absolute right to expect that the financial information disclosed is accurate. To function effectively, both our regulatory system and our free market system demand it.  And the law requires it.

WTC’s 2009 filings with the SEC and the Federal Reserve were false. The Bank’s certified submissions grossly understated the quantity of past due loans on WTC’s books, and thereby misled regulators and the public about the financial health of WTC’s portfolio.  In particular, the 2009 year-end filings failed to disclose that the Bank had waived 300M in loans more than 90 days past due, and had mass extended another 800M in commercial loans without the proper due diligence. At the same time, the Bank went to the market and asked investors for $287MM in additional capital.

Robert Harra, as WTC’s President and Chief Operations Officer, established an aggressive sales culture that ignored sound risk assessment in commercial real estate lending.  As the economy turned, these practices came home to roost.  But rather than acknowledge the inability of these borrowers to repay their loans, Harra embraced the waiver practice as a means of concealing the trouble faced by the Bank.

David Gibson, as the Bank’s Chief Financial Officer, was the ultimate decision maker on financial reporting. He knew about the true condition of the commercial loan portfolio--- the hundreds of millions of dollars in past due loans that were not included in the 2009 filings with the SEC and Federal Reserve.  Nonetheless he certified the Bank’s financials as accurate and overstated the health of the loan portfolio, while marketing the stock offering to the investing public. 

These actions do not define defendants’ lives. As you’ve heard, they were successful and productive both professionally and personally.  They are supported by their family, friends and members of our community whose lives they impacted in positive ways.  But, they did violate the law. They committed serious federal crimes and failed in their responsibilities to the Bank, its employees and shareholders. Justice demands accountability. 

Ultimately, this case, like many other prosecutions is about the human cost of defendants’ actions—the 700 WTC employees who lost their jobs, the shareholders who lost their investments, and in some instances their life savings, the defendants’ families, and a community that lost a bank that had been a proud and successful institution for decades.