It turns out that Instagram isn’t just for obnoxious selfies.
On Wednesday, the Justice Department announced that Anthony Williams, a resident of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, pleaded guilty to one count of threatening to retaliate against a witness in a federal criminal tax trial. And he did it using Instagram.
Instagram is a service that allows users to take pictures and videos to share them – usually after applying a funky filter or two – on a variety of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The service was acquired by Facebook in April 2012 for $1 billion and now boasts more than 150 million monthly active users including Beyoncé, Neil Patrick Harris, and President Barack Obama. Oh, and Anthony Williams.
Only Williams wasn’t using Instagram to post Halloween pictures. He, together with fellow conspirator Bobby Riley, was accused of threatening a witness in a federal tax trial and making false statements to federal agents. Charges against Riley were eventually dropped when prosecutors indicated they could not meet the burden of proof in his case. The case against Williams, however, did move forward.
The trial that caused all of the drama focused on Angela Myers (U.S. v. Myers, Criminal Action No. 12-9-JJB), who happens to be Williams’ mother. Myers was eventually convicted on twenty-one federal felony counts related to stolen identity tax refund fraud including fraudulent claims, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and filing false income tax returns. Myers electronically filed false claims from her tax preparation business, “Angie’s Tax Service,” using stolen names and Social Security numbers; some of those identities were stolen from nursing home patients. Myers was also accused of lying on her own 2007 and 2008 federal income tax returns.
It only took four days to convict Myers who will now spend 11 years in federal prison. At trial, a witness named Thomas White testified against Myers. The next day, White received an Instagram message, saying:
u a rat but you got your day coming my boy we will see u in the streets soon.
Williams subsequently confirmed that the Instagram account that sent the message was his. Of course, investigators didn’t have to work too hard to prove it. Williams had also Instagrammed this message:
Boy yea this ms Angie son.
Clearly, a bit of a Momma’s boy (in case there was any question).
And those messages weren’t just empty words. After initially denying the threats, Williams finally admitted sending the threat “with the intent to retaliate against the witness for his testimony.”
Williams now faces a potential maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison – longer than the sentence his mother received for the original crime – and a $250,000 fine. As part of the plea, Williams also agreed not to make contact with the witness he was accused of threatening. Just to be safe, he might want to disable his Instagram account. Or at least read the fine print in Instagram’s Terms of Service. #ForReal
