Jacob Bogatin, 78, charged with murder and arson in the October 2025 house fire that killed a Sterling, Virginia, neighbor, was expected in a Leesburg courtroom later this month for a preliminary hearing. But WTOP has learned Bogatin has been ordered to be transferred to Pennsylvania to face new federal charges.
Bogatin was arrested on Oct. 28, 2025, by the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and charged with felony murder and burning an occupied dwelling after investigators determined he purposely set fire to a townhome in the 20000 block of Riptide Square, in which 36-year-old Madelaine Samantha Akers was killed.
The day after the fire, Bogatin filed an insurance claim for more than double of what is owed on the recently foreclosed-upon home, according to charging documents in Loudoun County. He was identified as a suspect by surveillance footage and a bomb-sniffing dog. A bottle of a flammable liquid and a grill lighter were found in his vehicle, according to prosecutors.
In new charging documents obtained by WTOP, Bogatin was charged last week by federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania with four counts of theft of government money.
This is not Bogatin’s first time facing federal charges in Pennsylvania.
According to filings, in 2002, Bogatin and three other men were indicted in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on charges of mail fraud, money laundering, false filings with the Securities Exchange Commission, as well as racketeer influenced and corrupt organization conspiracy counts, which are often used in organized crime prosecutions.
The case in Pennsylvania never went to trial because Bogatin’s three co-defendants fled and have been declared fugitives to this day.
One co-defendant, Semion Mogilevich, has been identified by the U.S. Department of State as “a transnational organized crime boss operating from Russia” and other countries.
“In 1995, the Russian Ministry of the Interior identified Mogilevich as the boss of more than 300 criminal associates operating in more than thirty countries in Europe, Asia, and North America,” according to the State Department.
Mogilevich was on the FBI’s list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives from 2009 through 2015, but was removed from the list in 2015, when it became known he was living freely in Moscow.
However, in 2022, the FBI and U.S. State Department released updated images of Mogilevich, and offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
New charges against Jacob Bogatin
Last week the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania filed a new Information against Bogatin, charging him with four counts of theft of government money. Unlike an indictment, which is issued by a grand jury, an Information is filed solely by a prosecutor.
According to prosecutors, during the COVID pandemic, Bogatin repeatedly filed false and misleading applications for the government program that provided low-rate emergency loan options for struggling businesses for amounts up to $500,000.
The Economic Injury Disaster Loan, or EIDL, program was administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Between May and November 2020, prosecutors say Bogatin completed four applications that “contained purported income data and documentation regarding that business that, if true and accurate, would have supported the requested loan.”
However, in each case, prosecutors say Bogatin signed the application under the name of people, who are unidentified at this point, “and falsely certified that the application was true and accurate.”
In at least one case, prosecutors allege Bogatin signed the application under the name of a former business partner.
Prosecutors are seeking to have Bogatin forfeit $962,400 that the SBA deposited in his personal bank account in 2020.
Based upon recently filed charging documents, it’s unclear whether prosecutors believe the scheme involved people with alleged ties to Russian organized crime.
A 2003 superseding indictment in Pennsylvania said the group had formed a company, YBM Magnex International, which claimed to produce industrial magnets at its plant in Budapest, selling to the U.S. and other countries.
However, the business was allegedly a front.
At the time, federal prosecutors said the group “created fraudulent books and records that were designed to conceal YBM’s fraudulent operations from securities regulators, auditors and the investing public.”
The group is also charged with “generating false bank statements, invoices, customer lists and shipping documentation,” as well as “funneling proceeds from the sale of YBM stock to closely related parties and entities to create the false appearance of commercial transactions, on YBM’s books and records.”
What happened in past few weeks
On March 20, as federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania lodged the new theft of government money charges against Bogatin, a magistrate judge ordered Bogatin be released from the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center into the custody of the FBI, for an initial hearing in Philadelphia on Thursday.
The order specifies that “said prisoner shall remain in federal custody until the final disposition of federal charges.”
It’s unclear when Bogatin will stand trial for murder and arson in Loudoun County.
In a scheduled April 20 preliminary hearing, a District Court judge would have determined whether there was probable cause that a crime occurred and that Bogatin committed it, and the case would have been sent to the next available grand jury.
If the grand jury issues an indictment, the case would move to Circuit Court, and a trial date would be set.
Contacted by WTOP, a spokesman for Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney Bob Anderson said the office won’t make any public statements that “could interfere with a defendant’s right to a fair trial by jury.”
Bogatin’s attorney in the Pennsylvania federal case, Eric Sitarchuk, declined to comment.
A spokesperson for the federal prosecutor in Philadelphia said the U.S. Attorney’s Office doesn’t have a comment beyond the filings on the public docket.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
© 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
