District Not Recorded

Former Tuskegee Police Department Lieutenant Alex Huntley, 54, was convicted late Friday for beating a handcuffed and compliant arrestee, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney Louis V. Franklin, Sr., of the Middle District of Alabama, and FBI Special Agent in charge James Jewell.

Evidence presented at trial established that, on Dec. 24, 2014, Huntley arrested a man who scuffled with police near the Tuskegee town square and directed a fellow police officer to transport him back to the Tuskegee Police Department for booking. Once there, Huntley sprayed pepper spray in the arrestee’s face, even though the arrestee was handcuffed and following police instructions. Huntley then took the arrestee inside the police station, where Huntley knocked the still-handcuffed arrestee to the ground, stomped on him, and repeatedly kicked and punched him. In between blows, Huntley stood over the arrestee and yelled threats at him as the arrestee screamed in pain. A police officer recruit who witnessed the beating was so horrified that he surreptitiously audio-recorded the assault on his cell phone.

Former Tuskegee Lieutenant Darian Locure, 45, was also charged with a civil rights offense and obstruction of justice. He was acquitted on all charges.

“Illegal conduct by officers who abuse their power and violate the civil rights of those in their custody will not be tolerated,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore. “The Department will continue to vigorously enforce our nation’s laws and hold officers who break the law accountable.”

“The majority of our police officers are dedicated to protecting and serving the public with strength, courage, and valor. Unfortunately, Mr. Huntley was not so dedicated,” said U.S. Attorney Franklin.  “Police officers walk a tough, yet honorable line every day.  This office is committed to prosecuting any law enforcement officer who abandons their oath to protect and serve and, instead, chooses to engage in criminal conduct that they are sworn so oppose.”

“Lady Justice wears a blindfold for a reason, and a violation of someone's civil rights by a sworn law enforcement officer cannot be tolerated,” stated FBI Special Agent in charge James Jewell.

Following this conviction, Huntley is facing up to 10 years in prison, substantial fines, and three years of supervised release after his sentenced is served.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Alabama State Bureau of Investigation also assisted in the investigation. It is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Samantha Trepel of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and Assistant United States Attorney Denise O. Simpson of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Alabama.

          SHAWN N. ANDERSON, United States Attorney for the Districts of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, announced that defendants AMELIA M. TEDTAOTAO, age 31, and ANN MARIE C. PANGILINAN, age 41, were sentenced in District Court today by Chief Judge Frances Tydingco- Gatewood. The Court ordered terms of imprisonment as a result of the defendants’ convictions for Conspiracy to Commit Bank Fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1349. TEDTAOTAO was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment, three years of supervised release, ordered to pay $9,005.53 restitution, a $100 assessment fee and to perform 50 hours of community service. PANGILINAN was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment, the last six months of which can be served in home detention during a two year period of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,850 restitution, a $100 assessment fee and to perform 50 hours of community service.

          From May 2014 to July 2014, TEDTAOTAO, PANGILINAN and others participated in an ATM debit-fraud and check-fraud scheme involving Bank of Guam (BOG) funds and checks drawn from Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. As part of the conspiracy, the defendants deposited fraudulent checks into third party BOG accounts via ATM transactions, and then withdrew funds based upon those checks. For the entire period of the conspiracy, the defendants and their co-conspirators attempted to obtain over $70,000 from BOG by depositing 101 fraudulent checks drawn from a closed and insufficiently funded account at Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.

          This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Guam Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Marivic P. David, Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Guam.

The Department of Justice today filed a Statement of Interest in Speech First, Inc., v. Schlissel in the Eastern District of Michigan. The plaintiff, Speech First, a nationwide organization dedicated to defending civil liberties, alleges that the University of Michigan has adopted policies prohibiting and punishing speech protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments.  Speech First alleges that the University of Michigan’s policies on “harassment,” “bullying,” and “bias” are so vague and overbroad as to prompt students to limit their speech out of fear that they might be subject to disciplinary sanction, including “individual education” or “restorative justice” at the hands of the University’s Bias Response Team. 

The United States’ Statement of Interest argues that the University of Michigan’s Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities, which prohibits “harassment,” “bullying,” and “bias,” is unconstitutional because it offers no clear, objective definitions of the violations.  Instead, the Statement refers students to a wide array of “examples of various interpretations that exist for the terms,” many of which depend on a listener’s subjective reaction to speech. 

The United States also argues that the University’s Bias Response Policy chills protected speech through its Bias Response Team.  The Bias Response Team, which consists of University administrators and law enforcement officers, has the authority to subject students to discipline and sanction.  It encourages students to report any suspected instances of bias, advising them: “[t]he most important indication of bias is your own feelings.”  According to the plaintiff, the Bias Response Team has responded to more than 150 alleged incidents of bias in the last year.  

In filing the Statement of Interest, Acting Associate Attorney General Jesse Panuccio provided the following statement:

“Freedom of speech and expression on the American campus are under attack. This Justice Department, under the leadership of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, is committed to promoting and defending Americans’ first freedom at public universities." 

This is the fourth Statement of Interest filed by the Department of Justice in a First Amendment case under Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The first was filed on Sept. 26, 2017 in Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski, the second was filed on Oct. 24, 2017 in Shaw v. Burke, and the third was filed on January 25 in Young America’s Foundation and Berkeley College Republicans v. Janet Napolitano.

The Justice Department today announced that former Georgia prison guard Edgar Daniel Johnson, 51, was sentenced to 51 months in prison for sexually assaulting three female inmates at the Emanuel Women’s Facility in Swainsboro, Georgia; for coercing the women to help him cover up the assaults; and for making a bomb threat at Elba Island on a separate occasion, in May, 2017. The Court will determine the amount of restitution owed to the victims at a later hearing.

In Oct. 2017, Johnson pleaded guilty in the Southern District of Georgia to three counts of willfully depriving the inmates of their Eighth Amendment rights under color of law, three counts of obstruction for coercing the women to cover up the assaults, and one count of maliciously conveying false information about explosive materials.  During the plea hearing, Johnson admitted that, between Nov. 1, 2012, and Sept. 30, 2013, while he was working as a Georgia Department of Corrections prison guard at the Emanuel Women’s Facility, he engaged in non-consensual vaginal intercourse, on more than one occasion, with female inmates S.A., M.A., and M.P.  Johnson further admitted that each act of intercourse was against the inmate’s will and violated the inmate’s right under the Eighth Amendment to be free from cruel and unusual punishment, which includes the right to be free from unwanted sexual assaults.  Johnson further admitted that he coerced each of the inmates to cover up the assaults.

Johnson also admitted that on May 3, 2017, in an unrelated matter, he used a cellular telephone to call Southside Fire in Chatham County, Georgia, and falsely report a bomb threat at Elba Island.  Johnson admitted that at the time he called in the bomb threat, he maliciously conveyed the threat even though he knew the threat to be false.

“This defendant abused his legal authority to prey on vulnerable women who had been entrusted to his care,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore. “The Civil Rights Division is committed to protecting the rights of all individuals, and will hold law enforcement officers who violate the law accountable.”

“No one is above the law, and the criminal actions of this former prison guard compel a strong rebuke. Anyone who chooses to prey on others under color of official right should expect federal prosecution and jail,” said United States Attorney Bobby L. Christine.

“Corrections officials have a difficult and important job, but we cannot allow them to abuse their authority and assault the very people they are charged with supervising," said J.C. Hacker, Acting Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. "The FBI will not allow the actions of a few to tarnish the many corrections officials who do their job every day, maintaining order and respecting the law."

This case was investigated by the FBI’s Augusta Resident Agency with assistance from the Georgia Department of Corrections and the District Attorney’s Office for Swainsboro, Georgia.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tara Lyons and Matthew Josephson of the Southern District of Georgia and Trial Attorney Risa Berkower of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore, U.S. Attorney Benjamin G. Greenberg for the Southern District of Florida, Robert F. Lasky, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office, and Troy Walker, Special Agent in Charge, Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), today announced federal charges against former Biscayne Park Police Chief Raimundo Atesiano and former Officers Charlie Dayoub and Raul Fernandez for their roles in conspiring to falsely arrest a 16-year-old juvenile, T.D., for four unsolved burglaries.

Atesiano, Dayoub, and Fernandez were charged with conspiracy to violate civil rights under color of law, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 241; and deprivation of T.D.’s civil rights, under color of law, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 242.  If convicted, Atesiano, Dayoub, and Fernandez each face a maximum statutory sentence of 11 years in prison. An initial hearing for Atesiano will be held at 1:30 p.m. today, in Miami, before U.S. Magistrate Judge John J. O’Sullivan.

The indictment alleges that Atesiano, as the Biscyane Park Police Chief, caused and encouraged officers to knowingly arrest T.D. without a legitimate basis in order to maintain a fictitious 100 percent clearance rate of reported burglaries. Atesiano directed Dayoub and Fernandez to arrest T.D. on June 13, 2013, and falsely charge him with unsolved burglaries knowing that there was no evidence and no lawful basis to support such charges. The indictment further alleges that following Atesiano’s instruction, Dayoub and Fernandez gathered information for four unsolved burglary cases, completed four arrest affidavits for the burglaries, and included a false narrative that an investigation revealed that T.D. had committed the four burglaries of unoccupied dwellings. Atesiano, Dayoub and Fernandez knew there was no evidence and no lawful basis to arrest and charge T.D. with those crimes. On July 9, 2013, at a meeting of the City Council for The Village of Biscayne Park, Atesiano announced that his department had a 100 percent clearance rate for burglaries.

An indictment merely contains allegations and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

This case is being investigated by the Miami Field Office of the Federal Bureau Investigation including the FBI Miami Area Corruption Task Force and FDLE. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Harry Wallace and Special Assistant United States Attorney Trent Reichling of the Southern District of Florida, Katherine Fernandez Rundle, Miami-Dade State Attorney, and Trial Attorney D.W. Tunnage of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.   

Federal authorities announced today a significant coordinated effort to disrupt Business Email Compromise (BEC) schemes that are designed to intercept and hijack wire transfers from businesses and individuals, including many senior citizens.  Operation Wire Wire, a coordinated law enforcement effort by the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of the Treasury and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, was conducted over a six month period, culminating in over two weeks of intensified law enforcement activity resulting in 74 arrests in the United States and overseas, including 29 in Nigeria, and three in Canada, Mauritius and Poland.  The operation also resulted in the seizure of nearly $2.4 million, and the disruption and recovery of approximately $14 million in fraudulent wire transfers.

BEC, also known as “cyber-enabled financial fraud,” is a sophisticated scam often targeting employees with access to company finances and businesses working with foreign suppliers and/or businesses that regularly perform wire transfer payments.  The same criminal organizations that perpetrate BEC also exploit individual victims, often real estate purchasers, the elderly, and others, by convincing them to make wire transfers to bank accounts controlled by the criminals. This is often accomplished by impersonating a key employee or business partner after obtaining access to that person’s email account or sometimes done through romance and lottery scams.  BEC scams may involve fraudulent requests for checks rather than wire transfers; they may target sensitive information such as personally identifiable information (PII) or employee tax records instead of, or in addition to, money; and they may not involve an actual “compromise” of an email account or computer network.  Foreign citizens perpetrate many BEC scams.  Those individuals are often members of transnational criminal organizations, which originated in Nigeria but have spread throughout the world. 

“Fraudsters can rob people of their life's savings in a matter of minutes,” said Attorney General Sessions. “These are malicious and morally repugnant crimes. The Department of Justice has taken aggressive action against fraudsters in recent months, conducting the largest sweep of fraud against American seniors in history back in February. Now, in this operation alone, we have arrested 42 people in the United States and 29 others have been arrested in Nigeria for alleged financial fraud. And so I want to thank the FBI, nearly a dozen U.S. Attorneys' Offices, the Secret Service, Postal Inspection Services, Homeland Security Investigations, the Treasury Department, our partners in Nigeria, Poland, Canada, Mauritius, Indonesia, and Malaysia, and our state and local law enforcement partners for all of their hard work. We will continue to go on offense against fraudsters so that the American people can have safety and peace of mind.”

“This operation demonstrates the FBI’s commitment to disrupt and dismantle criminal enterprises that target American citizens and their businesses,” said FBI Director Christopher A. Wray. “We will continue to work together with our law enforcement partners around the world to end these fraud schemes and protect the hard-earned assets of our citizens. The public we serve deserves nothing less.”

“The Secret Service remains committed to aggressively investigating and pursuing those responsible for cyber-enabled financial crimes,” said U.S. Secret Service Director Randolph “Tex” Alles.  “Although the explosive expansion of the cyber domain has forced us to develop innovative ways of conducting these types of investigations, our proven model remains the same.”

“FinCEN has been a leader in the fight against BEC and other cyber-enabled crime,” said FinCEN Director Kenneth A. Blanco. “Since 2014, working with our domestic and international partners, our Rapid Response Program has helped recover over $350 million stolen from innocent Americans.  We must continue to be smarter, quicker, and better than the criminals that we face every day.  Today’s action is a victory, but it will take vigilance, time, and resources to take this fight into the future.  In defense of the victims of these crimes, we are ready for the challenge.”

“The U.S. Postal Inspection Service has a long history of successfully investigating complex fraud and corruption cases,” said Chief Postal Inspector Guy Cottrell. “We are proud to work alongside our fellow law enforcement partners in major efforts, such as Operation Wire Wire, to target those individuals who take advantage of the American public for illegal profits. Anyone who engages in deceptive practices like this should know they will not go undetected and will be held accountable, regardless of where they are. Postal Inspectors will continue to work tirelessly to protect our customers from fraud.” 

A number of cases involved international criminal organizations that defrauded small to large sized businesses, while others involved individual victims who transferred high dollar funds or sensitive records in the course of business.  The devastating effects these cases have on victims and victim companies, affect not only the individual business but also the global economy.  Since the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) began keeping track of BEC and its variant, Email Account Compromise (EAC), as a complaint category, there has been a loss of over $3.7 billion reported to the IC3.  BEC and EAC is a prevalent scam and the Justice Department along with our partners will continue to aggressively pursue and prosecute the perpetrators, including money mules, regardless of where they are located. 

Money mules may be witting or unwitting accomplices who receive ill-gotten funds from the victims and then transfer the funds as directed by the fraudsters.  The money is wired or sent by check to the money mule who then deposits it in his or her own bank account.  Usually the mules keep a fraction for “their trouble” and then wire the money as directed by the fraudster.  The fraudsters enlist and manipulate the money mules through romance scams or “work-at-home” scams.

Starting in January 2018, this coordinated enforcement action targeted hundreds of BEC scammers.  In addition, law enforcement agents executed over 51 domestic actions including search warrants, money mule warning letters, and asset seizure warrants totaling nearly $1 million.  Local and state law enforcement partners on FBI task forces across the country, with the assistance of multiple District Attorney’s Offices, charged 15 alleged money mules for their role in defrauding victims.  These money mules were employed by the fraudsters to launder their ill-gotten gains by draining the funds into other accounts that are difficult to trace.

Among those arrested on federal charges in BEC schemes include:

• Following an investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service, 23 individuals were charged in the Southern District of Florida with laundering at least $10 million from proceeds of BEC scams, including eight people charged in an indictment unsealed last week in Miami. These eight defendants are alleged to have conspired to launder proceeds from numerous BEC scams, totaling at least approximately $5 million, including approximately $1.4 million from a victim corporation in Seattle, as well as various title companies and a law firm.
• Following an investigation led by the FBI with the assistance of the IRS Criminal Investigation, Gloria Okolie and Paul Aisosa, both Nigerian nationals residing in Dallas, Texas, were charged in an indictment filed on June 6 in the Southern District of Georgia.  According to the indictment, they are alleged to have victimized a real estate closing attorney by sending the lawyer a spoofing email posing as the seller and requesting that proceeds of a real estate sale in the amount of $246,000 be wired to Okolie’s account.  They are charged with laundering approximately $665,000 in illicit funds.  The attorney experienced $130,000 in losses after the bank was notified of the fraud and froze $116,000.
• Adeyemi Odufuye aka “Micky,” “Micky Bricks,” “Yemi,” “GMB,” “Bawz” and “Jefe,” 32, and Stanley Hugochukwu Nwoke, aka Stanley Banks,” “Banks,” “Hugo Banks,” “Banky,” and “Jose Calderon,” 27, were charged in a seven-count indictment in the District of Connecticut in a BEC scheme involving an attempted loss to victims of approximately $2.6 million, including at least $440,000 in actual losses to one victim in Connecticut.  A third co-conspirator Olumuyiwa Yahtrip Adejumo, aka “Ade,” “Slimwaco,” “Waco,” “Waco Jamon,” “Hade,” and “Hadey,” 32, of Toledo, Ohio, pleaded guilty on April 20 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.  Odufuye was extradited from the United Kingdom to the United States and on Jan. 3, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. Nwoke was extradited to the United States from Mauritius on May 25, marking the first extradition in over 15 years from Mauritius.  His case is pending.
• Richard Emem Jackson, aka Auwire, 23, of Lagos, Nigeria, was charged in an indictment filed on May 17 in the District of Massachusetts with two counts of unlawful possession of a means of identification as part of a larger fraud scheme. According to the indictment, on two occasions in 2017, Jackson is alleged to have possessed the identifications of two victims with the intent to commit wire fraud conspiracy.  In another case being prosecuted in the District of Massachusetts, a 25-year-old Fort Lauderdale, Florida man was indicted in federal court in Boston on June 6 on one count of money laundering conspiracy. According to the indictment, the individual was part of a conspiracy that engaged in wire fraud. It is alleged that in early 2018, the defendant’s co-conspirators gained access to email accounts belonging to a Massachusetts real estate attorney and sent emails to recipients in Massachusetts that “spoofed” the real estate attorney’s account in an attempt to cause the email recipient to transfer nearly $500,000, which was intended to be used for payment in connection with a real estate transaction, to a shell account belonging to a money mule recruited and controlled by the defendant.

The BEC scam is related to other forms of fraud such as:

• “Romance scams,” which lull victims to believe that their online paramour needs funds for an international business transaction, a U.S. visit or some other purpose;
• “Employment opportunities scams,” which recruits prospective employees for work-from-home employment opportunities where employees are required to provide their PII as new “hires” and then are significantly overpaid by check whereby the employees wire the overpayment to the employers’ bank;
• “Fraudulent online vehicle sales scams,” which convinces intended buyers to purchase prepaid gift cards in the amount of the agreed upon sale price and are instructed to share the prepaid card codes with the “sellers” who ignore future communications and do not deliver the goods;
• “Rental scams” occur when renters forward a check in excess of the agreed upon deposit for the rental property to the victims and request the remainder be returned via wire or check and back out of the rental agreements and ask for a refund; and
• “Lottery scams,” which involves persons randomly contacting email addresses advising them they have been selected as the winner of an international lottery.

The cases were investigated by the FBI, U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Department of the Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and IRS Criminal Investigation.  U.S. Attorney’s Offices in the Districts of Central California, Connecticut, Eastern Virginia, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Southern Florida, Southern Georgia, Southern Texas, Eastern Pennsylvania, Eastern Washington, Western Pennsylvania, Western Tennessee, Western Washington, Utah, and elsewhere have ongoing investigations some of which have resulted in arrests in Nigeria.  The Justice Department’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section and Office of International Affairs of the Criminal Division provided assistance. District Attorney’s Offices of Caddo Parrish in Shreveport, Louisiana; Harris County, Texas and Los Angeles are handling state prosecutions. Additionally, private sector partners and the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Canadian law enforcement including the Toronto Police Service, the Mauritian Attorney-General and the Commissioner of Police, Polish Police Central Bureau of Investigation, Indonesian National Police Cyber Crimes Unit, and the Royal Malaysia Police provided significant assistance.  

This operation, which was funded and coordinated by the FBI, serves as a model for international cooperation against specific threats that endanger the financial well-being of each member country’s residents.  Attorney General Sessions expressed gratitude for the outstanding efforts of the participating countries, including law enforcement actions that were coordinated and executed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Nigeria to curb business email compromise schemes that defraud businesses and individuals alike.

Victims are encouraged to file a complaint online with the IC3 at bec.ic3.gov. The IC3 staff reviews complaints, looking for patterns or other indicators of significant criminal activity, and refers investigative packages of complaints to the appropriate law enforcement authorities in a particular city or region. The FBI provides a variety of resources relating to BEC through the IC3, which can be reached at www.ic3.gov.

For more information on BEC scams, visit: www.ic3.gov/media/2018/180611.aspx

John Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, announced today the public release of the advisory opinions issued by the Department of Justice’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) Registration Unit since January 1, 2010.  See https://www.justice.gov/nsd-fara/advisory-opinions.

“Eighty years ago, Congress passed and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) to combat the spread of hidden foreign influence in American politics,” Assistant Attorney General Demers said.  “Today is the law’s 80th anniversary, and it remains a vital tool to combat this threat.  To enhance compliance, we are making these advisory opinions available publicly and online for the first time. By posting these advisory opinions, the Department of Justice is making clearer how we interpret some of FARA’s key provisions.”

FARA, as amended, 22 U.S.C. § 611 et seq., requires persons in the United States who engage in specified activities as agents of foreign principals to register with the Department of Justice (the “Department”) unless they are exempt.  Disclosures under FARA help to ensure transparency in the activities of foreign principals and make it more difficult for those principals to maintain secret their role in activities occurring in the United States.  Within the Department’s National Security Division (NSD), responsibility for the administration and enforcement of FARA resides with the FARA Registration Unit, which is part of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.

Pursuant to regulations that the Department has issued implementing FARA, potential registrants or their counsel may ask the FARA Registration Unit how the Department interprets and applies FARA.  See 28 C.F.R. § 5.2.  Such inquiries must be in writing, must pertain to an actual, as opposed to hypothetical situation, and must disclose the identities of the parties involved. Written materials submitted pursuant to such a request are treated as confidential.

The FARA Registration Unit has issued 49 advisory opinions since January 1, 2010, which are being posted on the FARA.gov website together with three other letters sent in response to requests for general information.  The opinions and letters will be organized on the website by topic of inquiry or the aspects of the statute they discuss.  Any proprietary information, including any information that would identify the parties who made the requests has been redacted. The FARA Unit will post future advisory opinions in a similar manner on a periodic basis.

In its September 2016 Audit of NSD’s Enforcement and Administration of FARA, the Department’s Inspector General recommended that NSD consider the value of making advisory opinions publicly available.  NSD agreed with that recommendation and posted summaries of a few opinions on the website.  With the public posting of a more comprehensive repository of correspondence, the Department has demonstrated its commitment to improving the public’s understanding of FARA.

A U.S. citizen was sentenced to 72 months in prison for paying a 14-year-old girl for sex on multiple occasions in 2007.

Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Special Agent in Charge Patrick J. Lechleitner of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C., Special Agent in Charge Tracy Corimer of HSI St. Paul, Minnesota and Attaché Ransom J. Avilla of HSI Manila, Philippines made the announcement.

On April 19, James Marvin Reed, 62, pleaded guilty to engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place. According to court documents, from in or about September 2007 until in or about December 2007,  Reed, then 52 years old, engaged in commercial sexual intercourse on multiple occasions with the then 14-year-old victim, and impregnated her, while he was working in the Philippines as a contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense. In 2016, he was arrested by Philippine authorities and returned to the United States for prosecution.

Senior U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank for the District of Minnesota sentenced Reed to serve 72 months in prison followed by 15 years of supervised release, and ordered Reed to pay $6,000 in restitution to the victim in the case.

The case was investigated by HSI. Trial Attorneys Ralph Paradiso and James E. Burke IV of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) are prosecuting the case. CEOS Trial Attorney Kathryn Furtado also served as a vital member of the prosecution team at earlier stages of the litigation.  The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota also provided substantial assistance in this prosecution.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.  Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

President Trump’s Executive Order on Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to collect relevant data and provide quarterly reports on data collection efforts. On June 7, 2018 DOJ and DHS released the FY 2018 1st Quarter Alien Incarceration Report, complying with this order.[1] The report found that more than one-in-five of all persons in Bureau of Prisons custody were known or suspected aliens, and 93 percent of confirmed aliens in DOJ custody were in the United States unlawfully.

"The illegal immigrant crime rate in this country should be zero," said Attorney General Sessions. "Every crime committed by an illegal alien is, by definition, a crime that should have been prevented. It is outrageous that tens of thousands of Americans are dying every year because of the drugs and violence brought over our borders illegally and that taxpayers have been forced, year after year, to pay millions of dollars to incarcerate tens of thousands of illegal aliens. That is another reason why the Department of Justice under President Trump's leadership has instituted a zero tolerance policy for illegal entry on our Southwest border. Today's report is yet another reminder that we must continue this policy and help fulfill President Trump's goals of restoring lawfulness to our immigration system and ensure that immigration serves the good of this country."

“Bad actors know well our legal loopholes which act as a magnet for illegal immigration,” said Secretary Nielsen. “As DHS continues to carry out President Trump’s immigration priorities to keep America safe, Congress must urgently act to close dangerous loopholes that attract criminal aliens and also inhibit our ability to remove them.”

Section 16 of the Executive Order directs the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Attorney General to collect relevant data and provide quarterly reports regarding: (a) the immigration status of all aliens incarcerated under the supervision of the Federal Bureau of Prisons; (b) the immigration status of all aliens incarcerated as federal pretrial detainees under the supervision of the United States Marshals Service; and (c) the immigration status of all convicted aliens in state prisons and local detention centers throughout the United States. 

A total of 57,820 known or suspected aliens were in in DOJ custody at the end of FY 2018 Q1, including 38,132 persons in BOP custody and 19,688 in USMS custody. Of this total, 42,284 people had been confirmed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be aliens (i.e., non-citizens and non-nationals), while 15,536 aliens were still under investigation by ICE to determine alienage and/or removability.

Among the 42,284 confirmed aliens, 39,413 people (93 percent) were unlawfully present. These numbers include a 62 percent unlawful rate among 38,132 known or suspected aliens in BOP custody and a 78 percent unlawful rate among 19,688 confirmed aliens in USMS custody.

Approximately 16,233 aliens in USMS custody required housing in state, local, and private facilities, which cost $1,458,372.72 a day.

For the first time, the Quarterly Alien Incarceration Report included examples of newly sentenced or incarcerated aliens in BOP custody. These examples include, but are not limited to:

• Anibel Rondolpho Rodriguez, an illegal alien from Honduras who was residing in Freeport, NY, was sentenced to 45 years in prison after he pled guilty to racketeering charges, two murder conspiracies, two attempted murders, and threatening to commit assault.
• Eduardo Martinez, an illegal alien who was residing in Fort Wayne, Indiana, was sentenced to 324 months in prison after he pled guilty to possession with intent to distribute more than a kilogram of heroin, distribution of over 50 grams of methamphetamine, and possession of a firearm.
• Pedro Quintero-Enriques, an illegal alien from Mexico who was residing in Summerdale, Alabama, was sentenced to 108 months in prison after he pled guilty to illegal reentry after deportation and felon in possession of firearms.

This report does not include data on the alien populations in state prisons and local jails because state and local facilities do not routinely provide DHS or DOJ with comprehensive information about their inmates and detainees—which account for approximately 90 percent of the total U.S. incarcerated population.

Information Regarding Immigration Status of Aliens Incarcerated Under the Supervision of the Federal Bureau of Prisons

The Department of Justice’s Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has an operational process for maintaining data regarding foreign-born inmates in its custody. On a quarterly basis, BOP supplies this information to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE, in turn, analyzes that information to determine the immigration status of each inmate and provides that information back to BOP.

Out of the 183,058 inmates in BOP custody, 38,132 (twenty-one percent) were reported by BOP as known or suspected aliens. Further details regarding these 38,132 known or suspected aliens are as follows: 

•  20,976 (55 percent) were unauthorized aliens who are subject to a final order of removal;

•  11,698 (31 percent) remain under ICE investigation;

•  2,850 (seven percent) were unlawfully present and now in removal proceedings;

•  2,484 (approximately seven percent) were lawfully present aliens but are now in removal proceedings; and

•  124 were aliens who have been granted relief or protection from removal.

Information Regarding the Immigration Status of Aliens Incarcerated as Federal Pretrial Detainees

            USMS identified 19,688 confirmed aliens under ICE investigation detained at USMS facilities. Further details regarding these 19,688 confirmed aliens are as follows:

•  13,858 (70 percent) were aliens who are subject to a final order of removal;

•  3,838 (19 percent) remain under ICE investigation;

•  1,560 (7.9 percent) were unlawfully present and now in removal proceedings;

•  387 (approximately two percent) were lawfully present but are now in removal proceedings; and

•  45 were aliens who have been granted relief or protection from removal.

Pending Charges Against Confirmed Aliens in USMS Custody

Of the 19,688 confirmed aliens in USMS custody, 10,971 (56 percent) were in custody for an immigration related offense. Additionally, 4,665 (nearly 24 percent) aliens were in custody for drug related offenses. Further details regarding the related charges of these inmates are as follows:

• 974 (approximately five percent) were in custody for supervision violations;
• 889 (approximately five percent) were in custody for property offenses;
• 391 (approximately five percent) were in custody for weapons violations;
• 378 (approximately two percent) were in custody for violent crimes;
• 745 (approximately four percent) in custody were material witnesses.

Immigration Status of All Convicted Aliens Incarcerated in State Prisons and Local Detention Centers Throughout the United States

Some state and local jurisdictions already take proactive measures to make this data available to the public. For example, the Texas Department of Public Safety publishes data online regarding criminal alien arrests and convictions. These data do not account for all aliens in the Texas criminal justice system, as they are limited to criminal alien arrestees who have had prior interaction with DHS resulting in the collection of their fingerprints.

As reported by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), 251,000 criminal aliens have been booked into local Texas jails between June 1, 2011 and April 30, 2018, according to DHS status indicators. These criminal aliens were charged with:

• More than 663,000 criminal offenses;
• 1,351 homicides;
• 7,156 sexual assaults;
• 9,938 weapons charges;
• 79,049 assaults;
• 18,685 burglaries;
• 79,900 drug charges;
• 815 kidnappings;
• 44,882 thefts;
• 4,292 robberies.

Additional conviction data can be found in the report.

The Departments continue to progress towards establishing data collection of the immigration status of convicted aliens incarcerated in state prisons and local detention centers through the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Immigration Statistics.

The Drug Enforcement Administration will establish the Omaha Field Division – its 23rd division office in the United States – on July 8, 2018. The division will include Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.  

"In January, DEA reorganized its field divisions for the first time in nearly 20 years. Today, just five months later, we are adding another new field division," said Attorney General Jeff Sessions. "That’s because we are facing a drug threat today the likes of which we have never seen before—but we are rising to the challenge. The Omaha Division will help us address the methamphetamine and opioid threat in Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The people of these states can rest assured that, in the face of an unprecedented crisis, we are taking steps to be more effective and put the traffickers and crooked doctors where they belong—behind bars."

“This action converts the existing Omaha District Office into a division in an effort to enhance DEA enforcement efforts within the Great Plain states region and unify drug trafficking investigations under a single Special Agent in Charge,” said DEA Acting Administrator Robert W. Patterson.

“DEA anticipates that this change will produce more effective investigations on methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl and prescription opioid trafficking, all of which have a significant impact on the region,” said DEA Omaha’s Special Agent in Charge Matthew R. Barden. 

The division will also better align DEA with the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices districts in those areas, similar to current ATF and FBI offices, and also to the Midwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) Program.

The Omaha Division will be led by Special Agent in Charge Matthew R. Barden, who comes from the St. Louis Division where he served as Associate Special Agent in Charge.

A St. George, Utah, financial advisor was sentenced to 72 months in prison on June 4th for his role in selling fraudulent tax-avoidance and investment strategies to his clients, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney John W. Huber for the District of Utah.

According to documents and information provided to the court, Henry Brock, pleaded guilty to tax evasion, securities fraud and wire fraud.  Brock founded a financial services company in 2009 and served as the president from 2009 through 2017.  As President, he marketed and sold a fraudulent tax scheme, called “IRA Exit Strategy,” to potential investors.  Brock promised investors that he could provide a way for them to avoid paying taxes on IRA withdrawals, which would otherwise be subject to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) penalties and taxes.  To implement his scheme, Brock caused his business to issue tax forms to his clients falsely representing that they were investors in his business who incurred losses, which served to offset the clients’ tax liabilities.  As a result, Brock caused clients to file fraudulent income tax returns claiming a total of approximately $3.8 million in bogus business losses and resulting in a tax loss of over $1.1 million.

During this period, Brock fraudulently raised more than $10.8 million in investments by making false representations to investors regarding the “IRA Exit Strategy,” the financial condition of his company and other matters.  On at least one occasion, Brock also transferred $196,323 of a client’s investment funds and used the money for his own personal and business expenses.

In addition to the term of imprisonment, U.S. District Court Judge Ted Stewart ordered Brock to serve three years of supervised release and to pay restitution in the amount of $12 million.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Huber thanked special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation and the Utah Division of Securities, who conducted the investigation, and AUSA Trina Higgins and Trial Attorney Matthew Hoffman of the Tax Division, who are prosecuting this case.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the division’s website.

Fayetteville, Arkansas – Duane (DAK) Kees, United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, announced that Matthew Lee Anglin, age 29, of Springdale, Arkansas, was sentenced today to 96 months in federal prison followed by ten years of supervised release on one count of Receipt of Child Pornography. The Honorable Timothy L. Brooks presided over the sentencing hearing in the United States District Court in Fayetteville.

According to court records, in December 2016, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officers assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force in Northwest Arkansas received information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that a user uploaded 166 images of child pornography onto the Google Drive Cloud Storage. An investigation into the email address and associated phone number revealed that the email address used to upload the images belonged to Anglin. In May of 2017, a local business employee contacted HSI investigators and advised that they recovered a cellphone left behind by a customer that contained suspected child pornography. The cellphone was seized by HSI investigators. In August of 2017, investigators conducted a forensic examination of the cellphone and found that it contained 169 images of child pornography, 82 images of child erotica, and 149 images of suspected child pornography. The cellphone number was associated with Anglin’s email address that uploaded images of child pornography onto the Google Drive cloud storage.

A federal grand jury indicted Anglin in October 2017, and he pleaded guilty in January of 2018. 

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Assistant United States Attorney Denis Dean prosecuted the case for the United States.

The Department of Justice today announced that it has reached a settlement agreement with Syncom Space Services, LLC (S3) that resolves allegations that S3 violated the employment rights of Louisiana Air National Guardsman, Jason Cooper, under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA).  USERRA safeguards the rights of uniformed servicemembers, including National Guardsmen, to all benefits of employment following periods of absence due to military service obligations.  The benefits of employment protected by USERRA include promotional opportunities. 

Cooper worked as a Predictive Testing and Inspection (PT&I) Specialist for S3 at Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, Mississippi.  On June 13, 2016, he was deployed on active duty with the Air National Guard. During his deployment, Cooper applied for a vacant PT&I Shoplead position.  Although Cooper had the most PT&I experience of all applicants, S3 failed to promote him to the position upon his return from deployment.  As a result of the employer’s failure to promote him to a position that he was qualified for, because of his military service, Cooper lost promotional income and benefits. 

“Our nation’s national guard and reservists should not have to worry about losing opportunities for promotion or increased benefits in their civilian jobs after they return from active duty military service to our country,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore of the Civil Rights Division.  “The Department Justice is committed to ensuring that our servicemembers’ employment rights are protected at home while they defend our rights abroad.”

“The tremendous sacrifice of our National Guard members who are called into active duty should never be a detriment to their lives and every day jobs. We in the U.S. Attorney’s Office are committed to ensuring that these men and women are honored, not disadvantaged, for their military service,” said U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst. “We will continue to hold employers who violate the rights of our servicemembers accountable. We appreciate S3’s agreement to fulfilling its legal obligation to Mr. Cooper in this matter.”

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, S3 has agreed to pay Cooper $6,812.59 for lost wages, and to make his promotion effective as of the date on which he returned to work from active duty. He began his new position on June 4, 2018.  The USERRA claims settled by this agreement are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.

Cooper initially filed a complaint with the United States Department of Labor’s  Veterans’ Employment and Training Service, which investigated this matter and then referred it to the Justice Department after attempts at resolution failed. 

The matter was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Candace Mayberry of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi in collaboration with Andrew Braniff, Assistant Director of the Department of Justice’s Servicemembers and Veterans Initiative, and Alicia Johnson, USERRA/USAO Program Coordinator in the Civil Rights Division’s Employment Litigation Section.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division gives high priority to the enforcement of servicemembers’ rights under USERRA.  Additional information about USERRA may be found on the Justice Department’s website at www.usdoj.gov/crt/emp and www.servicemembers.gov, as well as on the Labor Department’s website at www.dol.gov/vets/programs/userra/main.htm.

The Justice Department today announced that it reached an agreement with the Louisiana Department of Health (Louisiana) to resolve its lawsuit alleging that Louisiana fails to serve people with serious mental illness in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The Justice Department’s complaint alleges that Louisiana places undue reliance on providing services in institutionalized settings such as nursing facilities, instead of in the community, for people with serious mental illness. 

Under the agreement, Louisiana will create and implement a plan to expand community-based services like mobile crisis, case management, assertive community treatment, and supported housing to meet people’s needs in the community. In addition, Louisiana will assess all existing nursing facility residents with mental illness and all new referrals for admission to determine whether they can be served appropriately in the community.

“The ADA requires public entities to administer services, programs, and activities in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs of qualified individuals with disabilities,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore of the Civil Rights Division.  “We commend Louisiana for committing to take the steps necessary to ensure that people with serious mental illness have the opportunity to live, work, and thrive in their own communities instead of being unnecessarily segregated in nursing facilities.”   

Additional information about the Civil Rights Division is available on its website at www.justice.gov/crt.

John “Jake” Bell, a resident of Lakeville, Connecticut, pleaded guilty today to illegally trafficking teeth from endangered sperm whales. The guilty plea was announced by Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey H. Wood for the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. 

Bell pleaded guilty today in Boston before U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf, for the District of Massachusetts, to one count of wildlife trafficking in violation of the Lacey Act. As part of his plea, Bell admitted that in November 2004, while in the Ukraine, he sold approximately 34 sperm whale teeth to a co-conspirator who resided in Nantucket, Massachusetts, for $11,600. Bell shipped the 34 teeth in multiple boxes from the Ukraine to an associate in Connecticut, from where his co-conspirator retrieved them. Bell’s co-conspirator was convicted in 2010, after a jury trial, and sentenced to a 33-month term of imprisonment.

According to the indictment, Bell acquired the teeth and smuggled them into the United States. Bell, who was an artist and scrimshander, carved some of the teeth he sold, but also sold uncarved teeth to customers.  According to papers filed in federal court, between July 2005 and June 2006, Bell smuggled in excess of 49 pounds of sperm whale teeth into the United States, valued in excess of $26,000. Also, according to these filings, between June 2007 and April 2008, Bell sold nine carved teeth to customers in the United States, with a total value of $20,300. 

“Sperm whale teeth can weigh over two pounds each and are alluring to many collectors. But gone are the days when people can buy, sell and trade parts harvested from protected creatures like the sperm whale. This amazing creature is safeguarded from exploitation by federal laws like the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act as well as international treaties,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Wood. “Today’s guilty plea demonstrates that those who attempt to profit from the illegal trade of endangered species will face the consequences for their actions under law.”  

“Federal law provides great protection to the marine mammals that live in our waters," said Director James Landon for NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement (OLE). "OLE is dedicated to enforcing those laws and seeing that those who violate them are held accountable for their illegal actions."

The Marine Mammal Protection Act and Endangered Species Act protect sperm whales and, among other things, prohibits their parts from being sold in interstate or foreign commerce or imported into the United States without a permit.  In addition, the Lacey Act creates penalties for knowingly trafficking or importing wildlife and parts from wildlife like sperm whales, and United States customs laws prohibit importing merchandise like sperm whale parts knowingly in violation of the law or federal regulations.

The investigation was handled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Law Enforcement and the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section.  The government is represented by Trial Attorneys Erica Pencak and Gary N. Donner of the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section of the Environment and Natural Resources Division.

A Los Angeles resident was sentenced today to 10 years in prison for two child exploitation offenses, including engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places and traveling in foreign commerce for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Special Agent in Charge Joseph Macias of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Los Angeles. 

Paul Alan Shapiro, 71, a retired auto dealership employee, pleaded guilty one day before he was set to go on trial on July 24, 2017. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Shapiro will serve 10 years in federal prison, 20 years of supervised release following his prison sentence, and will pay $20,000 total to two victims, both of whom are citizens of the Kingdom of Thailand.  U.S. District Court Judge Dolly M. Gee of the Central District of California presided over today’s sentencing.  

According to plea documents, Shapiro traveled from Los Angeles to Thailand on numerous occasions over the past 20 years, and engaged in sexual acts with male boys under the age of 16 on multiple occasions. On at least two occasions in September 2012, Shapiro paid minors as young as 13 years old small amounts of local currency in order to engage in various sex acts with them. According to other documents filed in the case, Shapiro photographed these encounters of himself engaging in sexually explicit conduct with the boys.

HSI conducted the investigation.  Trial Attorneys Austin M. Berry and Ralph Paradiso of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.  Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc.

The defendant used violence, threats, isolation, and intimidation to compel victim to work seven days a week without pay at restaurant

Defendant Bobby Paul Edwards, 53, of Conway, South Carolina, pleaded guilty Monday in United States District Court for the District of South Carolina to one count of forced labor, admitting that he used violence, threats, isolation and intimidation to compel a man with an intellectual disability to work for over 100 hours a week without pay, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and United States Attorney Sherri A. Lydon of the District of South Carolina.

According to court documents, between 2009 and 2014, Edwards managed a restaurant in Conway, South Carolina, where the victim, identified in court documents as “JCS,” had worked since he was 12 years old. Once Edwards began managing the restaurant in 2009, he increased JCS’s duties, requiring him to work more than 100 hours per week. The defendant stopped paying JCS and began using violence, threats, isolation, and intimidation to compel victim JCS’s continued service. According to court documents and Edward’s admissions, he subjected JCS to abusive language, racial epithets, threats, and acts of violence that included beating JCS with a belt, punching JCS with his fists, hitting JCS with pots and pans, and burning JCS’s bare neck with hot tongs, in order to compel JCS to work faster or to punish JCS for mistakes.

The defendant compelled JCS to continue working under these conditions until October 2014, when authorities removed victim JCS from the premises after receiving complaints about the abuse.

“Human trafficking through forced labor can happen on farms, in homes, and as today’s case shows – in public places, such as restaurants,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore. “Edwards abused an African-American man with intellectual disabilities by coercing him to work long hours in a restaurant without pay. Combatting human trafficking by forced labor is one of the highest priorities of this Justice Department and today’s guilty plea reflects our commitment to seeking justice on behalf of victims of human trafficking.”

“This defendant abused a vulnerable victim, and today’s guilty plea holds the defendant responsible for his criminal acts,” said U.S. Attorney Sherri Lydon for the District of South Carolina. 

Edwards faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for forced labor, a $250,000 maximum fine, and mandatory restitution to the victim. A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled. According to the terms of the plea agreement, the defendant will also be required to pay restitution to victim JCS in an amount to be determined at the time of sentencing.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. The case is being prosecuted by Special Litigation Counsel Jared Fishman, Trial Attorney Lindsey Roberson of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section and its Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Alyssa Leigh Richardson of the District of South Carolina.

An Avenues gang member who was captured last year after more than a decade on the run was sentenced Monday to 20 years in prison on federal hate crime and firearms charges that were filed against him in 2004, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore of the Civil Rights Division, United States Attorney Nicola T. Hanna of the Central District of California, and FBI Special Agent in Charge Paul D. Delacourt for the Los Angeles Field Office.

Merced Cambero Jr., 39, who used the gang moniker “Shadow,” pleaded guilty in February to participating, along with other gang members, in a conspiracy to use violence against African-Americans to interfere with their right to live in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Cambero also admitted to participating in the 1999 racially-motivated murder of Kenneth Wilson, an African-American man who was shot and killed in furtherance of that conspiracy.  The defendant was sentenced by United States District Judge Percy Anderson, who in 2006 presided over the trial of four co-defendants who were charged along with Cambero in the initial 2004 indictment and a superseding indictment that followed in 2005.

The superseding indictment alleged that Cambero and three of the four co-defendants – Gilbert “Lucky” Saldana, Alejandro “Bird” Martinez, and Fernando “Sneaky” Cazares – shot and killed Mr. Wilson because of his race and because he was using the public streets in Los Angeles, and that they used firearms during and in furtherance of that crime.  These defendants were also charged, along with a fourth co-defendant, Porfirio “Dreamer” Avila, with conspiring to use violence to interfere with the federal housing rights of African Americans in Highland Park, including another African-American man, Christopher Bowser, who was shot and killed in 2000. Saldana, Martinez, Cazares, and Avila stood trial in 2006, were convicted on all charges, and were sentenced to life in prison. Although Cambero was charged in the same indictment, he was never arrested or arraigned until he was captured in Mexico last year.  He was then returned to the United States to face the charges against him.

At the 2006 trial of the co-defendants, a jury heard testimony from two Avenues gang members who participated in the murder of Kenneth Wilson and implicated Cambero and three co-defendants. The gang-member witnesses also testified about an agreement among Avenues gang members to try to preserve the primarily-Latino make-up of Highland Park by engaging in violence against African Americans. Their testimony was corroborated by numerous African-American residents of the Highland Park neighborhood who described acts of racially-motivated violence directed at them by the defendants and their fellow gang members. 

In court filings connected with Cambero’s guilty plea and sentencing, Cambero confirmed the evidence from the earlier trial, admitted that he and his fellow gang members were in a stolen van when they saw Wilson, whom they did not know, and decided to kill him because of his race.  Cambero admitted that he and two other gang members then got out of the van and fired guns at Wilson, who was killed by a single gunshot through the neck.

“This Justice Department will not tolerate any act of violence motivated because of another’s race,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore. “The defendant’s egregious actions were unlawful, and as this sentencing demonstrates, will not go without punishment. The Civil Rights Division will continue to vigorously prosecute those who commit violent acts of hate.”

“This defendant was part of a reprehensible scheme that targeted an entire class of people simply because of skin color,” said U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna. “The Justice Department is committed to preserving and protecting everyone’s civil rights – particularly when violent acts are used to violate those rights. Mr. Cambero attempted to avoid prosecution for many years, but we persisted to bring him to justice and send a message to the entire community that this type of conduct will not be tolerated and will be punished.”

After hearing from the mothers of two African-American men killed by the gang, Judge Anderson on Monday accepted the guilty plea and sentenced Cambero to 20 years in prison.  Among the considerations Judge Anderson cited as influencing his sentence were the defendant’s acceptance of responsibility and the desire of the victims and witnesses to be spared the trauma of another trial.

This case was investigated by the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office and was prosecuted by Deputy Chief Bobbi Bernstein of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jennifer Chou and Daniel O’Brien of the Central District of California.

A federal court in Newnan, Georgia permanently enjoined Lucrezia Finch Henderson from preparing federal income tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today.  The court also ordered Henderson to mail a copy of the injunction order to all customers for whom she prepared a return after January 1, 2015.

According to that complaint, Henderson prepares tax returns at Infinity Tax located at 104 Sage Commercial Drive, Suite B, in Lagrange, Georgia. As alleged in the complaint, Henderson engaged in abusive tax schemes such as reporting fake businesses on her customers’ returns in order to generate losses to lower their tax liabilities.  The Court found that Henderson falsely reported on several of her customers’ returns that each had a business that earned no money and had tens of thousands of dollars in expenses.  According to the complaint, Henderson used the losses from these fake businesses to offset her customers’ income and claim a larger tax refund than they were entitled to receive.

In addition, the Court found that Henderson falsely reported that her customers had education expenses in support of education credits the customers were not eligible to claim.  The complaint alleged that some of these customers did not even attend college that year. According to the complaint, the IRS audited about 110 returns prepared by Henderson for her customers and found that Henderson understated her customers’ tax liabilities by more than $650,000 in the aggregate.

Return preparer fraud was one of the IRS’s Dirty Dozen Tax Scams for 2018 and taxpayers seeking a return preparer should remain vigilant. The IRS has some tips on their website for choosing a return preparer and has launched a free directory of federal tax preparers. 

In the past decade, the Tax Division has obtained injunctions against hundreds of unscrupulous tax preparers. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department’s website. An alphabetical listing of persons enjoined from preparing returns and promoting tax schemes can be found on this page. If you believe that one of the enjoined persons or businesses may be violating an injunction, please contact the Tax Division with details.

A jury in the Northern District of California convicted Jyh-Chau “Henry” Horng, of Saratoga, California and part owner of a home-based international trading business, yesterday on two counts of filing false tax returns and one count of making false statements to an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agent while under audit, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Acting United States Attorney Alex G. Tse for the Northern District of California. The jury acquitted Horng’s wife, Meili Lin, on one count of filing a false tax return and failed to reach a verdict on the second count.

According to court documents and evidence presented during the three-week trial, Horng underreported income on his 2006 and 2007 tax returns.  The returns failed to report profits from selling metal products to China while that country was undergoing its economic and infrastructure boom.  Horng used these business profits to buy millions of dollars of residential properties, invest over $5 million in a Milpitas shopping center, and purchase a Bentley.  Horng also reported annual income of over $1 million on a mortgage application, despite reporting far less than that on the tax returns he filed with the IRS.  During an IRS audit of the returns, Horng made numerous false statements, including that neither he nor his wife had any foreign bank accounts.

Horng faces a statutory maximum sentence of three years in prison for each false tax return.  He could be sentenced to an additional five years for lying to the IRS auditor.  He is also subject to a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties. 

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and Acting United States Attorney Tse thanked IRS Special Agents Maria Martinez and Cheryl Parker for their work on the investigation, Assistant United States Attorney Michael Pitman and Trial Attorney Christopher Magnani for prosecuting the case, and Paralegal Specialist Jonathan Deville for his assistance during the trial. 

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the division’s website.

A federal grand jury sitting in Greensboro, North Carolina returned an indictment, which was unsealed today, charging the operators of a mental health provider with multiple crimes related to the submission of false claims to Medicaid and tax evasion, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Matthew G.T. Martin for the Middle District of North Carolina.

Catinia Farrington and Haydn Thomas, both formerly of Durham, North Carolina, are charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud, health care fraud, aggravated identity theft, and tax evasion. Thomas is also charged with one count of money laundering.

According to the indictment, Farrington owned Durham County Mental Health and Behavioral Health Services LLC (“DCMBHS”) in Durham, North Carolina.  From 2011 through 2015, Farrington, along with Thomas, allegedly submitted thousands of false claims to Medicaid that resulted in Medicaid paying over $4 million to DCMBHS.  During the relevant period, Thomas worked as an office manager for an oral surgeon. Thomas and Farrington allegedly obtained the Medicaid numbers of dental patients and then submitted false claims to Medicaid for mental health services that were not performed without the permission of the patients. 

The indictment further alleges that Farrington and Thomas diverted millions of dollars from DCMBHS for their own personal use and evaded income taxes by, among other things, transferring money to various business bank accounts and paying personal expenses from the business bank accounts.

If convicted, Farrington and Thomas face a statutory maximum of 10 years in prison for each count of health care fraud, 10 years in prison for conspiracy to commit health care fraud, two years in prison for each count of aggravated identity theft, and five years in prison for each count of tax evasion. Farrington and Thomas also face a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties. An indictment is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and United States Attorney Martin commended special agents of the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service, Office of Inspector General, and the Medicaid Investigations Division of the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office (MID), who conducted the investigation, and Assistant United States Attorney Robert Hamilton, Trial Attorney Mara Strier of the Tax Division, and Special United States Attorney Michael Heavner MID, who are prosecuting the case.

Today, on the 500th day of the Trump Administration, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Department of Justice is taking a dramatic step to increase resources to combat violent crime, enforce our immigration laws, and help roll back the devastating opioid crisis. In the largest increase in decades, the Department of Justice is allocating 311 new Assistant United States Attorneys to assist in priority areas. Those allocations are as follows: 190 violent crime prosecutors, 86 civil enforcement prosecutors, and 35 additional immigration prosecutors. Many of the civil enforcement AUSA’s will support the newly created Prescription Interdiction & Litigation Task Force which targets the opioid crisis at every level of the distribution system.

"Under President Trump's strong leadership, the Department of Justice is going on offense against violent crime, illegal immigration, and the opioid crisis—and today we are sending in reinforcements," said Attorney General Jeff Sessions. "We have a saying in my office that a new federal prosecutor is 'the coin of the realm.'  When we can eliminate wasteful spending, one of my first questions to my staff is if we can deploy more prosecutors to where they are needed. I have personally worked to re-purpose existing funds to support this critical mission, and as a former federal prosecutor myself, my expectations could not be higher. These exceptional and talented prosecutors are key leaders in our crime fighting partnership. This addition of new Assistant U.S. Attorney positions represents the largest increase in decades."

To see more information on the locations of the 311 Assistant United States Attorney positions click here. 

The Justice Department today announced that it reached an agreement with the City of Ville Platte and a separate agreement with the Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s Office (Louisiana) to end the pattern or practice by the Ville Platte Police Department (VPPD) and the Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s Office (EPSO) of conducting arrests in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. After a thorough investigation, the United States concluded that it had reasonable cause to believe that these agencies had  arrested and held people in jail—sometimes without obtaining a warrant and without probable cause to believe that the detained individuals had committed a crime—in violation of the Fourth Amendment. VPPD and EPSO sometimes used these arrests, called “investigative holds,” as a regular part of their criminal investigations, inducing people to provide information to officers under threat of continued wrongful incarceration. 

Under the agreement, VPPD and EPSO will develop policies and provide training and adequate supervision to officers to ensure the pattern or practice of unlawful seizures does not continue. The agencies also will increase transparency by collecting and reporting data on its Fourth Amendment activities. 

The Department’s investigation into EPSO and VPPD began in April 2015 and concluded in an investigative findings report, released on Dec. 19, 2016. The Department determined through interviews with command staff, detectives, officers, and a cross-section of community members, as well as review of documents including jail logs, arrest records, and more, that the investigative hold practice was routine at EPSO and VPPD.  Both agencies acknowledged that they sometimes used holds to investigate criminal activity for as long as anyone at the agency can remember.  Because these “investigative holds” were conducted without probable cause, they violated the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.

“Police officers across the country are called upon to protect and safeguard members of their communities by investigating criminal activity.  Officers are afforded the authority needed to do so, including the power to arrest and detain individuals when there is proper legal justification,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore of the Civil Rights Division. “It is imperative that officers use that authority within the boundaries of the law. Both agencies cooperated fully throughout this matter, and we are eager to continue to work together with the Ville Platte Police Department, the Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s Office, and the local municipalities to help ensure that their officers can protect the public and investigate crime without violating the civil rights of members of the public.”

The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 prohibits state and local governments from engaging in a pattern or practice of misconduct by law enforcement officers that deprives individuals of federally-protected rights.  The Act also allows the Justice Department to remedy such misconduct through civil litigation.  The Special Litigation Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in Washington, D.C. enforces the Act.

To read the report of the investigation, please click here. Additional information about the Civil Rights Division is available on its website at www.justice.gov/crt.

A former fugitive and social security disability lawyer pleaded guilty in federal court today for his role in scheming to defraud the Social Security Administration (SSA) of more than $550 million, retaliating against an informant and fleeing from the United States.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Special Agent in Charge Michael McGill of the Social Security Administration-Office of Inspector General’s (SSA-OIG) Philadelphia Field Division; Special Agent in Charge Amy S. Hess of the FBI’s Louisville, Kentucky Field Division; Special Agent in Charge Tracey D. Montaño of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Nashville, Tennessee Field Office and Special Agent in Charge Derrick L. Jackson of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Atlanta Regional Office made the announcement.

Eric Christopher Conn, 58, of Pikeville, Kentucky, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves of the Eastern District of Kentucky to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, one count of conspiracy to escape and one count of conspiracy to retaliate against an informant.  Sentencing is set for Sept. 7 at 1 p.m. ET. 

“At the Department of Justice, a key mission is protecting the federal treasury on behalf of the American people,” said Attorney General Sessions.  “In this case, the defendant’s scheme fraudulently obligated the Social Security Administration to pay over half a billion dollars in lifetime disability benefits, and then he fled the country.  Thanks to the hard work of the FBI, DOJ lawyers, and our partners with the Social Security Administration, the IRS-CI, HHS-OIG, and our allies in Honduras, this criminal plot did not fully succeed. This case shows yet again that to track down criminals and hold them to account, this Department will cross continents and work with authorities around the globe.”

“The SSA-OIG thanks all of our law enforcement partners for their assistance during the investigation of Mr. Conn’s fraud scheme and subsequent efforts to locate and apprehend Mr. Conn,” said SSA-OIG Special Agent in Charge McGill. “Despite his best efforts to escape justice, Mr. Conn is ultimately being held accountable for defrauding SSA and U.S. taxpayers.”

“Eric Conn preyed upon the sick and vulnerable for his personal gain,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Hess.  “Rather than face the consequences of his crimes, he chose to flee and attempted to hide from those he had betrayed.  Today’s plea will ensure he is now held accountable.”

“When individuals are approved for certain social security benefits, they automatically became entitled to Medicare and Medicaid,” said HHS-OIG Special Agent in Charge Jackson.  “As a result, a large portion of Conn’s fraudulent scheme drained federal health care plans and cheated needy patients out of the limited dollars available for these vital taxpayer-funded programs.”

According to the plea, from October 2004 to December 2017, Conn participated in a scheme with former SSA administrative law judge David Black Daugherty, multiple doctors, including clinical psychologist Alfred Bradley Adkins, and others to submit thousands of falsified medical documents to the SSA to fraudulently obtain disability benefits totaling more than $550 million for thousands of individuals. According to the plea, upon a former SSA employee discovering and providing information about the scheme to federal agents, Conn and former SSA administrative law judge Charlie Paul Andrus conspired and acted to have the former SSA employee terminated in an effort to discredit the employee.  Finally, Conn admitted that after pleading guilty in March 2017, and prior to being sentenced on June 2, 2017, he fled the country with the help of Curtis Lee Wyatt by severing the electronic monitoring device from his ankle and fleeing across the Mexican border.    

Conn was originally charged in April 2016, along with Daugherty and Adkins, in an 18-count indictment with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and other related offenses in connection with the disability fraud scheme.  Conn subsequently pleaded guilty on March 24, 2017, to a two-count information charging him with theft of government money and paying illegal gratuities, and he was sentenced in absentia on July 14, 2017 to 12 years in prison on those charges.  After his flight from the United States, Conn was charged, along with Wyatt, in September 2017, in a seven-count indictment with conspiracy to escape, escape and other related offenses.  On Dec. 5, 2017, Conn was returned to the United States from Honduras after being apprehended by Honduran authorities.  Conn’s plea today is expected to resolve the outstanding charges against him.  In addition to the 12 years in prison Conn is currently serving, he now faces an additional 15 years in prison.  As part of the plea agreement, Conn agreed to recommend to the Court at sentencing that the Court sentence him to the maximum possible sentence, a 15-year sentence, and run that sentence consecutive to the 12-year sentence previously imposed, for a total of 27 years in prison.

Andrus pleaded guilty in June 2016 to a one-count information charging him with conspiracy to retaliate against an informant, and was sentenced Aug. 7, 2017 to six months in prison.  Daugherty pleaded guilty in May 2017 to a two-count information charging him with receiving illegal gratuities, and was sentenced on Aug. 25, 2017, to four years in prison.  Adkins was found guilty following a six-day trial in June 2017 of one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, one count of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud and one count of making false statements, and was sentenced on Sept. 22, 2017, to 25 years in prison.  Wyatt pleaded guilty in March 2018, and is scheduled to be sentenced on June 29.

The SSA-OIG, FBI, IRS-CI and HHS-OIG are investigating the case. Trial Attorneys Dustin M. Davis of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Ann Marie Blaylock and Rebecca Caruso of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section are prosecuting the case, with previous co-counsel including Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elizabeth G. Wright of the District of Maryland and Trey Alford of the Western District of Missouri as well as Investigative Counsel Kristen M. Warden of the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General.

A federal grand jury has returned an indictment, which was unsealed today, charging a Winston-Salem resident with conspiring to file false tax returns, aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns, and filing a false personal tax return, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Matthew G. T. Martin for the Middle District of North Carolina.

According to the indictment, Claudia Lynette Shivers conspired with others to defraud the government by preparing false tax returns.  Shivers allegedly co-owned and operated two tax return preparation businesses: Fast Tax of Winston-Salem, Inc. in Winston-Salem and Quick Taxes LLC in Greensboro.  The indictment alleges Shivers falsified items on her clients’ tax returns, such as dependents and Schedule A deductions,  in order to fraudulently maximize their refunds and allegedly directed her clients to hand-write false information on tax forms and other documents used in the preparation of their returns.  The indictment further charges Shivers with aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns for several clients, as well as filing a false 2014 tax return for herself on which she is alleged to have failed to report all of her income.

If convicted, Shivers faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison for conspiracy, three years in prison for each count of preparing false tax returns, and three years in prison for the count related to her own tax return.  She also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.  An indictment is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Martin thanked special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, Tax Division and Trial Attorney Robert J. Boudreau and Criminal Division Chief Clifton T. Barrett of the Middle District of North Carolina, who are prosecuting the case.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the division’s website.

A Holcomb, Kansas tax return preparer was sentenced yesterday to 21 months in prison for filing a fraudulent income tax return and aiding and assisting in the preparation of fraudulent tax returns, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Stephen R. McAllister for the District of Kansas.

According to documents and information provided to the court, Marcelino Almaraz owned Accounting Services, a business that provided tax preparation services.  Almaraz fraudulently sought to obtain refunds for individuals by including false filing statuses such as head of household and adding phony dependents in an effort to trigger and inflate child tax credits.  Almaraz also falsified his own income tax returns for 2010 and 2011 by underreporting his income. 

In addition to the term of imprisonment, Chief U.S. District Court Judge Julie A. Robinson ordered Almaraz to serve one year of supervised release and to pay $397,552 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney McAllister commended special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Tax Division Trial Attorney John T. Mulcahy and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jabari Wamble, who prosecuted the case.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the division’s website.

A husband and wife pleaded guilty yesterday to two counts of willfully failing to pay their income taxes, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder for the District of Alaska.

According to court documents, Archie W. Demmert III, 57, and Roseann L. Demmert, 60, both of Klawock, Alaska, held commercial fishing permits and earned six-figure incomes in 2013 and 2014 from commercial fishing, on which they failed to timely pay the required income taxes due.  In addition, from 2006 to 2012, the Demmerts also did not timely pay in full the taxes they owed to the Internal Revenue Service.  As a result, the total tax loss to the IRS arising from their conduct is more than $300,000.

Chief U.S. District Judge Timothy M. Burgess scheduled sentencing for October 4, 2018.  The Demmerts each face a statutory maximum sentence of two years in prison, as well as a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Schroder thanked special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Tax Division Trial Attorney Lori Hendrickson and Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Steward who are prosecuting the case.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts can be found on the division’s website.  

Please find the link to the Special Counsel’s Office Statement of Expenditures, October 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018 HERE.  This statement has also been provided to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary and the House Committee on the Judiciary, and the Senate and House Appropriations Committees.

Today’s statement reflects the Special Counsel’s spending within the approved budget.  The Justice Management Division will conduct a similar review every six months. The next Statement of Expenditures will be released after September 30, 2018.

WASHINGTON – Maruyasu Industries Co. Ltd., an automotive parts manufacturer headquartered in the Aichi Prefecture in Japan, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to pay a $12 million criminal fine for its role in a criminal conspiracy to fix prices, rig bids, and allocate customers for automotive steel tubes incorporated into vehicles sold in the United States and elsewhere, the Department of Justice announced today.  

Automotive steel tubes are used in fuel distribution, braking and other automotive systems and are sometimes divided into two categories – chassis tubes and engine parts. Chassis tubes, such as brake and fuel tubes, tend to be located in the body of a vehicle while engine parts, such as fuel injection rails, oil level tubes and oil strainer tubes, are associated with the function of a vehicle’s engine.

Maruyasu pleaded guilty to a charge contained in an Indictment returned by a grand jury on June 15, 2016, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.  According to the plea agreement, Maruyasu participated in a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition by agreeing to fix prices, allocate customers, and rig bids for automotive steel tubes sold to automobile manufacturers in Japan and incorporated into vehicles sold in the United States, in violation of the Sherman Act.

The Indictment also charged Maruyasu’s wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary, Curtis-Maruyasu America Inc., and sales executives Tadao Hirade, Kazunori Kobayashi, Satoru Murai, and Yoshihiro Shigematsu.  Concurrent with the Court’s imposition of the sentence against Maruyasu, the United States moved to dismiss the Indictment as to Curtis-Maruyasu America Inc., Hirade, Kobayashi, and Shigematsu.  The sales executives will be required to cooperate with the government in any future prosecutions related to the charged conspiracy.

“The Antitrust Division’s prosecution of widespread collusion in the auto parts industry has yielded more than $2.9 billion in fines and convictions of 46 corporations and 32 executives,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “The Division and its law enforcement partners will continue to protect American consumers and the free markets by aggressively prosecuting antitrust crimes.”

“Bid rigging, price fixing and other schemes hurt consumers and undermine our economic system,” said Special Agent in Charge Amy S. Hess of the FBI’s Louisville Field Office. “We will continue our work with the Department of Justice Antitrust Division to uncover schemes aimed at creating an unfair competitive advantage.”

“This plea represents another victory for U.S. consumers and we greatly appreciate the opportunity to partner with the FBI and Department of Justice Antitrust Division in this endeavor,” said Special Agent in Charge Duane Townsend of the Department of Commerce Office of Inspector General.  

Today’s plea is the result of an investigation conducted by the Antitrust Division’s Chicago Office, the Department of Commerce Office of Inspector General’s Denver Field Office, and the FBI’s Louisville Field Office, Covington Resident Agency, with assistance from the FBI headquarters’ International Corruption Unit and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio.  

Anyone with information on market allocation, price fixing, bid rigging, and other anticompetitive conduct should contact the Antitrust Division’s Citizen Complaint Center at 1-888-647-3258, visit www.justice.gov/atr/contact/newcase.html or call the FBI’s Louisville Field Office at 502-263-6000.

Five men have been charged in New Orleans with crimes related to illegally exporting birds protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) from the United States to Taiwan.  William McGinness, 59, of Buena Park, California; Paul Tallman, 55, of Destreham, Louisiana; Rene Rizal, 62, of La Mirada, California; Wayne Andrews, 46, of Royal Oaks, California and Alex Madriaga, 76, of Buena Park, California; were each indicted in federal court in the eastern District of Louisiana today.

On May 31, 2018, a five-count indictment was returned charging McGinness, Tallman, Rizal, Andrews and Madriaga with conspiracy to smuggle CITES-protected birds from the United States to Taiwan. McGuinness was also charged with smuggling birds to Taiwan and three counts of making and submitting false records under the Lacey Act, and Tallman was charged with smuggling and one count of making and submitting false records under the Lacey Act.

The indictment alleges, among other things, that McGinness, a resident of California, and his co-conspirators created false statements and submitted them to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in order to illegally export CITES-protected birds from the Port of New Orleans to Taiwan. The shipment included 90 CITES-protected birds, including parrots, macaws, cockatoos and corellas. Several of the birds were in crates that were falsely labeled. The USFWS seized 14 of the birds at the airport in Houston, Texas before they were exported.  

The indictments were announced today by Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey H. Wood for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, and Acting Assistant Director Edward Grace of the Office of Law Enforcement for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“These indictments demonstrate our commitment, shared with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to investigate and prosecute those engaged in illegal trade of protected animals,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Wood. “We will continue to collaborate with our partners at the federal, state and local levels to prosecute wildlife smuggling.”

"Today’s indictments were the result of a complex investigation into the wildlife trafficking of protected birds,” said Acting Assistant Director Grace. “Wildlife trafficking is a serious crime that is detrimental to species around the world. I am very proud of our special agents and wildlife inspectors who helped bring these defendants to justice."

The United States and approximately 182 other countries are signatories to CITES, which provides a mechanism for regulating international trade in species whose continued survival is threatened by such trade. Species are listed on “appendices,” based on the level of protection necessary to protect the species.  

The case was investigated by the USFWS and the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section. The government is represented by Environmental Crimes Section Trial Attorney Mary Dee Carraway.

          SHAWN N. ANDERSON, United States Attorney for the Districts of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, announced that defendant RUBY J. NGIRMEKUR, age 38, was sentenced in District Court today by Designated Judge Ramona V. Manglona to 33 months imprisonment and three years of supervised release for conspiracy to commit financial institution fraud. The Court also ordered her to pay $13,090 in restitution and a $100 assessment fee, and to perform 50 hours of community service.

          From May 2014 to July 2014, NGIRMEKUR and others participated in an ATM debit-fraud and check-fraud scheme involving Bank of Guam (BOG) funds and checks drawn from other financial institutions. As part of the conspiracy, the defendant deposited fraudulent checks into third party BOG accounts via ATM transactions, and then withdrew funds based upon those checks. For the entire period of the conspiracy, the defendant and her co-conspirators attempted to obtain $95,100 from BOG by depositing over 120 fraudulent checks drawn from closed and nonsufficient funds accounts at Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Bank of Hawaii, and Navy Federal Credit Union.

          This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Guam Police Department, and prosecuted by Marivic P. David, Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Guam.

A resident of Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana was sentenced today to 24 months in prison for her involvement in a stolen identity tax refund fraud scheme, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans of the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Jackie Chaney, also known as Jackie Scott, pleaded guilty on Dec. 28, 2016 to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to commit theft of public money, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

According to court documents, members of the conspiracy obtained the names and Social Security numbers of individuals for use in filing false tax returns. Chaney and her co-conspirators used this stolen information to prepare false tax returns seeking bogus refunds from the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”).  The IRS issued the refunds in the form of checks or on to prepaid debit cards and Chaney further conspired with others to convert the proceeds into cash.

In addition to the term of imprisonment, U.S. District Court Judge Susie Morgan ordered Chaney to serve two years of supervised release and to pay restitution in the amount of $809,605.00.

Chaney’s co-conspirator, Alicia Washington, previously plead guilty in Feb. 2017 and was sentenced earlier this month to 42 months in prison.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Evans commended special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, who investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Hayden Brockett and Tax Division Trial Attorney Lauren Castaldi, who are prosecuting the case.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the division’s website.

The owner of general contracting business pleaded guilty today to filing a false tax return, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans, for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

According to court documents, Wade Ybarzabal, of Mandeville, Louisiana, owned a general contracting business, Ybarzabal Contractors LLC.  On his 2012 tax return, Ybarzabal underreported his business’s gross receipts by more than $475,000, resulting in an additional tax liability of more than $160,000.  Ybarzabal also underreported his business’ gross receipts on his 2013 and 2014 tax returns.  The total tax loss resulting from Ybarzabal’s fraudulent conduct for is less than $250,000.

Sentencing is scheduled for August 29, 2018.  Ybarzabal faces a statutory maximum sentence of three years in prison.  He also faces a term of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans commended special agents of IRS–Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward J. Rivera and Tax Division Trial Attorney Grace E. Albinson, who are prosecuting the case.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the division’s website.  

The former chief executive officer of FutureNet Group Inc., an information technology company, pleaded guilty today for his role in orchestrating a scheme to bribe an official from the City of Detroit to obtain benefits for FutureNet, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

Parimal D. Mehta, 54, of Northville, Michigan, pleaded guilty to one count of federal program bribery before U.S. District Judge Robert H. Cleland of the Eastern District of Michigan.  Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 27. 

According to admissions made in connection with his plea, from 2009 through August 2016, Mehta hand-delivered more than $6,500 to Charles L. Dodd, the former Director of Detroit’s Office of Departmental Technology Services, including two cash bribes paid in the restroom of a Detroit-area restaurant in 2016.  Dodd previously pleaded guilty to bribery on Sept. 27, 2016.

According to the plea agreement, Mehta sought preferential treatment for FutureNet in exchange for the bribes he paid to Dodd.  Among other things, Mehta asked Dodd to cause FutureNet to be selected to fill open positions for contract personnel and to implement particular technological projects in various city departments.  Mehta also asked Dodd to supply him with confidential information regarding Detroit’s internal operations, including information regarding Detroit’s internal budgets for particular technology projects and personnel, which would benefit FutureNet in its dealings with Detroit.

The FBI’s Detroit Division investigated the case.  Trial Attorneys Robert J. Heberle and James I. Pearce of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section are prosecuting the case. 

A federal court enjoined Michel G. Blanchet of Los Angeles, California, from preparing, processing, and distributing adulterated fish or fishery products without first taking required remedial action, the Department of Justice announced today.

The injunction ordered by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California requires Blanchet to implement various consumer safety measures before resuming the preparation, processing or distribution of fish or fishery products.  The injunction stems from a complaint the Department filed on Oct. 3, 2017, at the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Blanchet was the owner and President of a business in Los Angeles, California, that processed and distributed fish or fishery products, including salmon, trout, and sturgeon.

Blanchet agreed to settle the litigation and be bound by a consent decree of permanent injunction.  As part of the settlement, Blanchet represented that he is not engaged in receiving, preparing, processing, holding or distributing fish or fishery products.  Under the permanent injunction, if Blanchet intends to resume such activity, he must notify FDA in writing in advance, comply with specific remedial measures set forth in the injunction, and allow his facility to be subject to FDA inspection.

“The Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that processors and distributors of seafood products comply with laws designed to protect consumers,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Chad A. Readler of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.  “The Department of Justice continues to work with the FDA to ensure that consumers are protected from potentially unsafe food.”  

According to the complaint, FDA inspected Blanchet’s business on numerous occasions, including two times in 2016.  The complaint alleged that Blanchet failed to comply with federal regulations by failing to adequately control the risk of Listeria monocytogenes (L. mono) and Clostridium botulinum (C bot.) toxin formation in vacuum-packed fish or fishery products.  The regulations require every fish and fishery product processor to conduct, or have conducted for it, a hazard analysis to determine whether there are food safety hazards that are reasonably likely to occur during the processing of each kind of fish or fishery product that it processes.

According to the complaint, FDA’s analysis of environmental samples collected during its January-February 2016 inspection revealed the presence of L. mono contamination in multiple locations throughout Blanchet’s business.  The complaint also alleged that FDA’s analysis of environmental samples collected during its subsequent inspection in July-August 2016 also revealed the presence of L. mono contamination in multiple locations throughout the business. 

The government is represented by Trial Attorney Monica Groat of the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch, with the assistance of Associate General Counsel for Enforcement Roselle Oberstein of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of General Counsel’s Food and Drug Division.

Additional information about the Consumer Protection Branch and its enforcement efforts may be found at http://www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch.  

WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice announced today that it is requiring Bayer AG to divest businesses and assets collectively worth approximately $9 billion in order to proceed with its proposed $66 billion acquisition of Monsanto Company.  The proposed divestiture to BASF, an experienced chemical company with a substantial crop protection business, will fully resolve all horizontal and vertical competition concerns.  As a result, American farmers and consumers will continue to benefit from competition in this industry.  

“This comprehensive structural solution to significant horizontal and vertical competition concerns—the largest negotiated merger divestiture ever required by the United States—preserves competition in the sale of these critical agricultural products and protects American farmers and consumers,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Antitrust Division.  “We commend the parties for working with the Antitrust Division to resolve our concerns on behalf of American consumers.” 

The Department’s Antitrust Division today filed a civil antitrust lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block the proposed transaction while simultaneously filing a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, would resolve the Department’s competitive concerns.  

Bayer, based in Leverkusen, Germany, and Monsanto, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, are two of the largest agricultural companies in the world.  They compete to provide farmers with a broad range of seed and crop protection products.  Bayer and Monsanto also have been leaders in developing technologies that have allowed farmers to increase significantly crop yields and improve efficiency.  Without the agreed-to divestitures, the proposed merger would likely result in higher prices, lower quality, and fewer choices across a wide array of seed and crop protection products.  The merger also threatened to stifle the innovation in agricultural technologies that has delivered significant benefits to American farmers and consumers.

Under the terms of the proposed settlement, Bayer must divest those Bayer businesses that compete with Monsanto today.  These include Bayer’s cotton, canola, soybean, and vegetable seed businesses, as well as Bayer’s Liberty herbicide business, a key competitor of Monsanto’s well-known Roundup herbicide.  

The settlement also requires structural divestitures to remedy the competitive harm that would result from the vertical integration of certain significant Bayer seed treatment businesses with Monsanto’s leading seed businesses.  Additionally, because Bayer and Monsanto currently compete to develop new products and services, the settlement requires the divestiture of certain intellectual property and research capabilities, including “pipeline” R&D projects.  Finally, in order to fully prevent competitive harm from the merger, the settlement requires the divestiture of additional complementary assets that are needed to ensure that BASF has the same innovation incentives, capabilities and scale that Bayer would have as an independent competitor including, most notably, Bayer’s nascent “digital agriculture” business. 

The settlement also includes, consistent with other settlements in this Administration, several provisions designed to improve the effectiveness of the decree and the Division’s future ability to enforce it.  

The Department expressed thanks to its enforcement partners around the world, especially its counterparts at the European Commission, the Canadian Competition Bureau, and the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) of Brazil, for their close and constructive collaboration on this matter.  

As required by the Tunney Act, the proposed settlement, along with the Department’s competitive impact statement, will be published in the Federal Register.  Any person may submit written comments concerning the proposed settlement within 60 days of its publication to Kathleen S. O’Neill, Chief, Transportation, Energy & Agriculture Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 8000, Washington, D.C.  20530.  At the conclusion of the 60-day comment period, the court may enter the final judgment upon a finding that it serves the public interest.

NOTE: The original version of this release inadvertently did not include the term 'negotiated' in the title of the release or the Assistant Attorney General's quote. 

A Department of Justice official released the following statement at the conclusion of Attorney General Jeff Sessions ' meetings with Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović:

"Attorney General Sessions today met with Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović. The Attorney General thanked President Grabar-Kitarović for Croatia's participation in NATO missions and logistical support in the fight against ISIS. Attorney General Sessions also committed to building the U.S.-Croatia relationship, including through increased law enforcement cooperation. On other defense issues, Attorney General Sessions encouraged President Grabar-Kitarović to announce a credible plan to meet the full intent of the Wales Pledge by 2024, which includes 2 percent of GDP spending on defense and 20 percent of defense spending on major new equipment. The Attorney General expressed the Trump Administration’s support for Croatia’s intended completion of the Croatian Liquefied Natural Gas terminal off the Adriatic Coast, which the Attorney General urged the Prime Minister and President to push forward on, in order to increase regional energy security."

A federal grand jury sitting in the Western District of Virginia returned an indictment today charging a Collinsville, Virginia pharmacist with failing to account for and pay over employment taxes, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Thomas T. Cullen for the Western District of Virginia.

According to the indictment, Jerry R. Harper, Jr., owned and operated Family Discount Pharmacy, Inc. (FDP) in Stanleytown, Virginia, with multiple locations in Stuart, Rocky Mount, Chatham, and Brosville, Virginia.  As owner of FDP, Harper was allegedly responsible for collecting and paying over FDP’s employment taxes.  The indictment charges that during 2011 to 2014, FDP accrued employment tax liabilities of more than $1.2 million and that Harper withheld those taxes from FDP employees’ wages.  He then allegedly failed to fully pay over the amounts withheld to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Instead of providing the employment taxes to the IRS, Harper allegedly caused FDP to pay his personal expenses, including investments in the stock market, payments for his son’s pharmacy school tuition, purchases of real property in Virginia and North Carolina, and purchases of automobiles.  The indictment further alleges that in over 15 years Harper only filed one employment tax return with the IRS.   

If convicted, Harper faces a statutory maximum of five years in prison on each charge.  In addition, he faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.  An indictment is an accusation.  A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Cullen commended special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Tax Division Trial Attorney Daniel McGraw and Assistant U.S. Attorney Charlene Day, who are prosecuting the case.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the division’s website.

A Department of Justice official released the following statement at the conclusion of Attorney General Jeff Sessions' meetings with Croatian Interior Minister Davor Božinović and Justice Minister Dražen Bošnjaković: "Attorney General Sessions had productive meetings with Interior Minister Božinović and Justice Minister Bošnjaković, and the Attorney General reiterated his commitment to build on the strong U.S.-Croatia relationship. The Attorney General recognized Croatia's support for the regional Rule of Law training programs in the Western Balkans, for which the ministers have provided more than five years of expertise. Attorney General Sessions also thanked the ministers for their continued collaboration with the Justice Department's Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development Assistance and Training (OPDAT) and International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP), programs that help police, prosecutors, and judges in the region fight corruption and transnational organized crime. Finally, Attorney General Sessions expressed his support for an updated bilateral extradition treaty to enhance cooperation and reflect the increasingly transnational nature of crime."

Please find Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ remarks from the U.S.-Croatia press availability here.

A resident of Queens, New York, pleaded guilty today to failing to collect and pay over employment tax, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

According to court documents, Kae Wook Lee was the sole owner and chief executive officer of Mona Lisa 7 Corporation, through which he operated a karaoke bar in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens.  Between 2011 and 2013, Lee diverted part of his karaoke business’s receipts to bank accounts in the names of shell corporations he created.  Lee then withdrew funds from those bank accounts to pay employees’ wages in cash without collecting or paying over employment taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).  Lee concealed the cash payroll from his accountant and signed and filed false tax returns that underreported employee wages.  The tax loss to the IRS caused by the defendant’s conduct was $612,500.

U.S. District Judge I. Leo Glasser scheduled sentencing for September 6, 2018.  Lee faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison, as well as a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman thanked special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Tax Division Trial Attorneys Mark Kotila and Sean Green, who are prosecuting the case.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts can be found on the division’s website.

The Department of Justice today honored Detective George R. Higgs of the Charles County Sheriff’s Office in La Plata, Maryland, for his investigation that resulted in the arrest of a sexual predator and the identification of 42 adolescent victims.

Acting Associate Attorney General Jesse Panuccio presented Higgs with the Missing Children’s Child Protection Award during the Justice Department’s National Missing Children’s Day ceremony. The award recognizes the extraordinary efforts of law enforcement officers who make a significant investigative or program contribution to protect children from abuse or victimization.

“Investigative and preventive law enforcement efforts are critical in the fight to stop child exploitation,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Jesse Panuccio. “The Justice Department proudly commends Detective Higgs for his dedication to preventing child victimization and bringing this sex offender to justice.”

Higgs began to investigate in November 2016 after a 16-year-old student complained about receiving sexually suggestive text messages. Higgs determined the messages were coming from an employee for the Charles County Board of Education. A search of the suspect’s home led to the discovery of computers and cell phones containing photos and videos of the suspect sexually assaulting local children in both his residence and at local schools. Interviews with students identified 42 victims—including the original complainant—between the ages of 13 and 17. Higgs’ work with prosecutors resulted in 219 charges of sexual assault, production of child pornography and other charges against the suspect, who was sentenced in federal court in March and in the Circuit Court of Charles County, Maryland, in April.

In addition to Higgs, the Department also recognized other law enforcement officers for their investigative efforts in sexual exploitation of children cases and a private citizen who intervened to rescue an abducted baby. Panuccio also recognized Eden Hoffmann, a fifth grader at Huron Elementary School in Clinton Township, Michigan, as the 19th winner of the National Missing Children’s Day poster contest.    

Additional information about National Missing Children’s Day is available online. 

The Office of Justice Programs, headed by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Alan R. Hanson, provides federal leadership in developing the nation’s capacity to prevent and control crime, administer justice and assist victims. OJP has six bureaus and offices: the Bureau of Justice Assistance; the Bureau of Justice Statistics; the National Institute of Justice; the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; the Office for Victims of Crime; and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking (SMART). More information about OJP and its components can be found at www.ojp.gov.

The Department of Justice today honored Detective John Witherspoon of the Montgomery County Police Department in Rockville, Maryland, for his investigation into the disappearance of a 15-year-old Gaithersburg girl and his support of Fairfax County, Virginia, police in their efforts to identify and arrest 10 gang members who were charged in the girl’s murder.

Acting Associate Attorney General Jesse Panuccio presented Witherspoon with the Missing Children’s Law Enforcement Award during the Justice Department’s National Missing Children’s Day ceremony. This award recognizes law enforcement officers’ efforts for significant investigative or program contributions to child safety.

Additionally, Witherspoon successfully recovered 166 missing children last year.

“Detective Witherspoon demonstrated unusual tenacity in tracking down the vicious murderers of a teenage girl, and also showed extraordinary compassion in supporting her family through the investigation,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Jesse Panuccio. “The Department commends Detective Witherspoon for his remarkable combination of personal and professional commitment in this case.”

For eight weeks, Witherspoon searched throughout the Washington metropolitan region for sightings of the missing girl. He also combed social media sites and accounts and interviewed the girl’s friends and family members. The remains of the girl were found near an industrial area in Fairfax County, and the medical examiner ruled the case a homicide. Witherspoon worked with Fairfax County police to locate 10 members of a local gang who played a role in the girl’s murder. He then helped the victim’s mother arrange a community memorial service, and later coordinated her witness relocation after she received death threats from gang members.

In addition to Witherspoon, the Department also honored the efforts of law enforcement officers in other jurisdictions who investigated crimes against children and arrested the suspects and a private citizen who rescued a missing and abducted child. Panuccio also recognized Eden Hoffmann, a fifth grader at Huron Elementary School in Clinton Township, Michigan, as the 19th winner of the National Missing Children’s Day poster contest.    

Additional information about National Missing Children’s Day is available online. 

The Office of Justice Programs, headed by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Alan R. Hanson, provides federal leadership in developing the nation’s capacity to prevent and control crime, administer justice and assist victims. OJP has six bureaus and offices: the Bureau of Justice Assistance; the Bureau of Justice Statistics; the National Institute of Justice; the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; the Office for Victims of Crime; and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking (SMART). More information about OJP and its components can be found at www.ojp.gov.

The Department of Justice today honored Colin Blevin, a Santa Clara, California, resident, for his actions that led to the recovery of an abducted one-year-old girl and the apprehension of the child’s kidnapper.

Acting Associate Attorney General Jesse Panuccio presented Blevin with the Missing Children’s Citizen Award during the Justice Department’s National Missing Children’s Day ceremony. This award recognizes private citizens for extraordinary acts that lead to the safe recovery of missing or abducted children.

Blevin received his award for preventing a suspect from escaping with a one-year-old girl in a stolen car and keeping the child safe until police arrived. The offender was sentenced to more than five years in prison for felony child abuse and theft of a vehicle.

“Blevin’s quick actions epitomize courage, selflessness, and vigilance, and brought an innocent child home to safety,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Jesse Panuccio. “The Department of Justice commends Blevin for making his community safer, through his successful rescue of the child and assist to law enforcement.”

In addition to Blevin, the Department also honored several law enforcement officers for their investigative efforts in sexual exploitation cases involving children and youth. Panuccio also recognized Eden Hoffmann, a fifth grader at Huron Elementary School in Clinton Township, Michigan, as the 19th winner of the National Missing Children’s Day poster contest.    

Additional information about National Missing Children’s Day is available online. 

The Office of Justice Programs, headed by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Alan R. Hanson, provides federal leadership in developing the nation’s capacity to prevent and control crime, administer justice and assist victims. OJP has six bureaus and offices: the Bureau of Justice Assistance; the Bureau of Justice Statistics; the National Institute of Justice; the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; the Office for Victims of Crime; and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking (SMART). More information about OJP and its components can be found at www.ojp.gov.

Department Honors Law Enforcement Officers, Citizen, for Efforts to Rescue Missing and Exploited Children; Poster Contest Winner Announced

The Department of Justice today recognized the Maryland Internet Crimes Against Children task force, Detective George R. Higgs of the Charles County Sheriff’s Office in La Plata, Maryland, Detective John Witherspoon of the Montgomery County Police Department in Rockville, Maryland, and Colin Blevin, a private citizen from Santa Clara, California, for their efforts to help children.

Acting Associate Attorney General Jesse Panuccio presented the awards during the Department’s National Missing Children’s Day ceremony. The annual awards ceremony is hosted by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in the Office of Justice Programs (OJP).

“The exceptional individuals we recognize today remind us of our responsibility to be vigilant about the safety of our children and to hold accountable those who seek to harm them,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Jesse Panuccio. “Because of the diligence, courageousness, and selflessness of the awardees, as well as their commitment to protect the most vulnerable among us, children all over the country are safer in their communities. The Department of Justice is proud to honor these heroes, and I am proud to stand with them today.”

The ceremony included recognition of Eden Hoffmann, a fifth grader at Huron Elementary School in Clinton Township, Michigan, whose poster illustrating the theme, “Bringing Our Missing Children Home,” was chosen as this year’s National Missing Children’s Day poster contest winner.    

Acting Associate Attorney General Panuccio presented the following awards:

Attorney General’s Special Commendation: This commendation recognizes the extraordinary efforts of an Internet Crimes Against Children task force or affiliate agency for making significant investigative or program contributions.

Recipients: The Maryland Internet Crimes Against Children task force for their investigation resulting in the arrest of a sexual predator who assaulted at least 26 victims, some dating back to the 1970s, and recorded the sexual abuse. The suspect was charged with multiple sex offenses involving the abuse of a child.

Missing Children’s Law Enforcement Award: This award recognizes the extraordinary efforts of a law enforcement officer who made a significant investigative or program contribution to the safety of children. 

Recipient: Detective John Witherspoon of the Montgomery County Police Department in Rockville, Maryland, who tirelessly investigated a runaway child case that ended with the discovery of the child’s murder. Witherspoon worked with local police in another jurisdiction to identify and arrest 10 gang members for their role in the murder. He then coordinated witness relocation for the victim’s mother after she received death threats from gang members.

Missing Children’s Child Protection Award: This award honors the extraordinary efforts of a law enforcement officer who made a significant investigative or program contribution on behalf of missing, abused or victimized children. 

Recipient: Detective George R. Higgs of the Charles County Sheriff’s Office in La Plata, Maryland, who led an investigation that resulted in the arrest of a suspected sexual predator and the identification of 42 adolescent victims. He also helped prosecutors bring three indictments against the suspect, which led to 219 charges of sexual assault, production of child pornography, and other charges.

Missing Children’s Citizen Award: This award honors the extraordinary efforts of private citizens for their unselfish acts to safely recover missing or abducted children.  

Recipient: Colin Blevin, a Santa Clara, California, resident, for his actions to recover an abducted infant and help police apprehend the child’s kidnapper. Blevin prevented the suspect from escaping with a one-year-old child in a stolen car and protected the child until police arrived. The offender was sentenced to more than five years in prison for felony child abuse and vehicle theft.

President Ronald Reagan proclaimed May 25, 1983, the first National Missing Children’s Day in memory of Etan Patz, a six-year-old boy who disappeared from a New York City street corner on May 25, 1979.  Missing Children’s Day honors his memory and the memories of children still missing. Although Etan’s killer was convicted in February 2017 for the 1979 murder, his case remains active with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children because his body was never found.

In 2017, there were 464,324 missing children entries in the FBI’s National Crime Information Center. Additional information about National Missing Children’s Day is available online. 

The Office of Justice Programs, headed by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Alan R. Hanson, provides federal leadership in developing the nation’s capacity to prevent and control crime, administer justice and assist victims. OJP has six bureaus and offices: the Bureau of Justice Assistance; the Bureau of Justice Statistics; the National Institute of Justice; the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; the Office for Victims of Crime; and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking (SMART). More information about OJP and its components can be found at www.ojp.gov.

The Department of Justice today recognized the Maryland Internet Crimes Against Children task force for its investigation and subsequent arrest of a suspected sexual predator who abused local children since the 1970s and created child pornography from those encounters.

Acting Associate Attorney General Jesse Panuccio presented the Attorney General’s Special Commendation to representatives of the task force during the Department’s National Missing Children’s Day ceremony. The special commendation recognizes Internet Crimes Against Children task forces or affiliate agencies for making significant investigative or program contributions.

“The vigilance exhibited by this task force exemplifies the positive results that cooperation among federal, state, and local authorities can have in bringing perpetrators of these heinous crimes to justice,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Jesse Panuccio. “The Department applauds their efforts and stands with them as we continue working to improve public safety for America’s children.”

The task force’s investigation also led to the identification of 26 of the suspect’s victims, some of whom were sexually abused as far back as the 1970s. The suspect was charged with multiple counts of sex offenses involving the abuse of a child. The investigation and subsequent warrant on the suspect’s residence was coordinated between the Maryland State Police, the Talbot County, Maryland, Sheriff’s Office and Homeland Security Investigations.

The Department also recognized two law enforcement officers for their investigations of sexual predators who sexually assaulted local children and youth and a private citizen who intervened to rescue an abducted baby. Panuccio also recognized Eden Hoffmann, a fifth grader at Huron Elementary School in Clinton Township, Michigan, as the 19th winner of the National Missing Children’s Day poster contest.    

Additional information about National Missing Children’s Day is available online.

The Office of Justice Programs, headed by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Alan R. Hanson, provides federal leadership in developing the nation’s capacity to prevent and control crime, administer justice and assist victims. OJP has six bureaus and offices: the Bureau of Justice Assistance; the Bureau of Justice Statistics; the National Institute of Justice; the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; the Office for Victims of Crime; and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking (SMART). More information about OJP and its components can be found at www.ojp.gov.

The Justice Department today announced an effort to disrupt a global botnet of hundreds of thousands of infected home and office (SOHO) routers and other networked devices under the control of a group of actors known as the “Sofacy Group” (also known as “apt28,” “sandworm,” “x-agent,” “pawn storm,” “fancy bear” and “sednit”).  The group, which has been operating since at least in or about 2007, targets government, military, security organizations, and other targets of perceived intelligence value.

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney Scott W. Brady for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Assistant Director Scott Smith for the FBI’s Cyber Division, FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Johnson of the Pittsburgh Division and FBI Special Agent in Charge David J. LeValley of the Atlanta Division made the announcement.

“The Department of Justice is committed to disrupting, not just watching, national security cyber threats using every tool at our disposal, and today’s effort is another example of our commitment to do that,” said Assistant Attorney General Demers.  “This operation is the first step in the disruption of a botnet that provides the Sofacy actors with an array of capabilities that could be used for a variety of malicious purposes, including intelligence gathering, theft of valuable information, destructive or disruptive attacks, and the misattribution of such activities.”

“The United States Attorney’s Office will continue to aggressively fight against threats to our national security by criminals, no matter who they work for” said U.S. Attorney Brady.  “This court-ordered seizure will assist in the identification of victim devices and disrupts the ability of these hackers to steal personal and other sensitive information and carry out disruptive cyber attacks.  We will be relentless in protecting the people of Western Pennsylvania - from international corporations to local businesses to the elderly - from these threats.”

“Today's announcement highlights the FBI's ability to take swift action in the fight against cybercrime and our commitment to protecting the American people and their devices,” said Assistant Director Scott Smith. “By seizing a domain used by malicious cyber actors in their botnet campaign, the FBI has taken a critical step in minimizing the impact of the malware attack. While this is an important first step, the FBI's work is not done. The FBI, along with our domestic and international partners, will continue our efforts to identify and expose those responsible for this wave of malware.”

“The FBI will not allow malicious cyber actors, regardless of whether they are state-sponsored, to operate freely,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Bob Johnson. “These hackers are exploiting vulnerabilities and putting every American’s privacy and network security at risk. Although there is still much to be learned about how this particular threat initially compromises infected routers and other devices, we encourage citizens and businesses to keep their network equipment updated and to change default passwords.”

“This action by the FBI, DOJ, and our partners should send a clear message to our adversaries that the U.S. Government will take action to mitigate the threats posed by them and to protect our citizens and our allies even when the possibility of arrest and prosecution may not be readily available,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge David J. LeValley. “As our adversaries’ technical capabilities evolve, the FBI and its partners will continue to rise to the challenge, placing themselves between the adversaries and their intended victims.”

The botnet, referred to by the FBI and cyber security researchers as “VPNFilter,” targets SOHO routers and network-access storage (NAS) devices, which are hardware devices made up of several hard drives used to store data in a single location that can be accessed by multiple users.  The VPNFilter botnet uses several stages of malware. Although the second stage of malware, which has the malicious capabilities described above, can be cleared from a device by rebooting it, the first stage of malware persists through a reboot, making it difficult to prevent reinfection by the second stage.

In order to identify infected devices and facilitate their remediation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania applied for and obtained court orders, authorizing the FBI to seize a domain that is part of the malware’s command-and-control infrastructure.  This will redirect attempts by stage one of the malware to reinfect the device to an FBI-controlled server, which will capture the Internet Protocol (IP) address of infected devices, pursuant to legal process. A non-profit partner organization, The Shadowserver Foundation, will disseminate the IP addresses to those who can assist with remediating the VPNFilter botnet, including foreign CERTs and internet service providers (ISPs).  

Owners of SOHO and NAS devices that may be infected should reboot their devices as soon as possible,  temporarily eliminating the second stage malware and causing the first stage malware on their device to call out for instructions.  Although devices will remain vulnerable to reinfection with the second stage malware while connected to the Internet, these efforts maximize opportunities to identify and remediate the infection worldwide in the time available before Sofacy actors learn of the vulnerability in their command-and-control infrastructure.

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have also jointly notified trusted ISPs.  The Department and the FBI also encourage users and administrators to review the Cisco blog post on VPNFilter, available HERE, for recommendations and to ensure that their devices are updated with the latest patches.

The efforts to disrupt the VPNFilter botnet were led by the FBI’s Pittsburgh and Atlanta Offices; FBI Cyber Division;  Trial Attorney Matthew Chang of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section; and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Charles Eberle and Soo C. Song of the Western District Pennsylvania.  Critical assistance was also provided by Richard Green of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and The Shadowserver Foundation.


Note: The documents filed by the Government as well as the court orders entered in this case are available as attachments below.

On May 22 and 23, 2018, the EU-U.S. Ministerial Meeting on Justice and Home Affairs was hosted by the Bulgarian Presidency of the EU Council in Sofia, Bulgaria. The meeting reaffirmed the long-standing, fruitful cooperation between the United States of America and the European Union in the areas of justice and home affairs, as well as the importance of jointly addressing common security threats.

The United States was represented by the U.S. Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, and the Acting Deputy Secretary for Homeland Security, Claire Grady.

The European Union, hosting the meeting, was represented by the Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos, the Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Věra Jourová, the Commissioner for the Security Union Julian King, as well as Bulgarian Minister of Interior Valentin Radev and Minister of Justice Tsetska Tsacheva, together with Austrian Federal Minister for the Interior Herbert Kickl and Federal Minister for Constitutional Affairs, Reforms, Deregulation and Justice Josef Moser, on behalf of the current and incoming Presidencies of the Council of the European Union.

The European Union and the United States discussed their shared efforts to combat terrorism, focusing on effective information sharing, preventing radicalization, use of the internet for terrorist purposes, and vigilance with respect to aviation security, and chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats, and explosives, especially in relation to the evolving chemical threats to aviation and in public spaces. With regard to EU-U.S. information sharing on Passenger Name Records (PNR), participants of the meeting emphasized the importance of such sharing, and noted impending developments in the separate EU-Canada PNR discussions. The participants agreed to continue the discussion of PNR, at the next EU-U.S. Ministerial, which will take place in Washington, D.C., in the second half of 2018.

Participants also discussed security and law enforcement cooperation in cyber-space, affirming the importance of allowing swift access to electronic evidence by law enforcement and judicial authorities, while also protecting privacy and civil liberties. Similarly, they stressed the need to maintain a safe, open, and secure cyberspace for the promotion of economic and social development, and exchanged views on how to best address this growing challenge.

The European Union and the United States also exchanged information on developments in the area of migration, border management, and their respective visa policies.  The European Union provided an update on migration trends in Europe and ongoing initiatives to enhance the management of its external borders; the European Union and the United States took stock of the continuing progress by the European Union and the United States, including that of the five concerned EU Member States, towards meeting the statutory requirements of the Visa Waiver Program, in order to be considered for designation. Both sides also acknowledged the need for strengthening operational cooperation to effectively prevent and eradicate migrant smuggling and trafficking in human beings, and also discussed the importance of secure and lawful immigration systems.

Finally, the United States and European Union discussed the importance of ensuring swift exchange of financial information and improving the effectiveness of financial investigations. The European Union and the United States discussed the latest developments in these areas and shared best practices in an effort to step up their common fight against anti-money laundering and terrorism financing.

Underlining the progress made in these vital areas of common interest, and re-emphasizing the fact that common solutions are necessary in order to address global security threats, the European Union and the United States committed to meet again in the second half of 2018 in Washington, D.C.

Following a two-week trial, a federal jury in Denver, Colorado, has convicted a California man of multiple charges for his role in an investment scheme in which he falsely told investors that he was a billionaire who could access certain financing, including hundreds of millions in cash in an overseas bank account, in exchange for up-front fees.

Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Inspector in Charge Craig Goldberg of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Denver Division and Acting Inspector in Charge Bill Hedrick of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Chicago Division, made the announcement.

Kenneth Brewington, 55, of Corona, California, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, one count of mail fraud, five counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, one count of laundering monetary instruments, and two counts of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity.

“Kenneth Brewington and his coconspirators deceived investors by falsely claiming to have hundreds of millions of dollars in cash in an overseas bank account as part of a criminal scheme to steal the investors’ hard earned money,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Cronan.  “The Department of Justice is dedicated to working with our law enforcement partners to identify and prosecute people who are involved in fraudulent investment schemes, and to pursuing justice for the victims of those crimes.”

“Fraudsters believe they can maintain this lifestyle on the backs of unsuspecting victims, but this arrest should be a warning to all that law enforcement will not stand for these schemes,” said Acting Inspector in Charge Nicole Davis of U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Criminal Investigations Group.  “Postal Inspectors have made it our mission to protect our customers from exploitation and fraud and we will continue to actively investigate these schemes and pursue convictions of these fraudsters.”

According to evidence presented by the government at trial, beginning in approximately 2009, the defendant told victims that he required millions of dollars in supposed fees in order to access his extraordinary wealth abroad, which in turn could be used for financing.  During the scheme, the defendant and his coconspirators sold promissory notes to victims, including through a financial-services marketing company based in Denver called Compass Financial Solutions (CFS).  The defendant and his coconspirators falsely represented to their victims that their money would be used to pay for, among other things, bank transaction fees and tax penalties to the IRS.  To conceal the nature of their scheme, the defendant and his coconspirators told victims to wire their funds into an attorney-trust account.  The funds from that account, however, were then sent to the defendant and his coconspirators and spent on, among other things, repayments to other investors and personal expenses.  The evidence presented at trial showed that the defendant was not, in fact, wealthy and instead struggling to pay his personal debts.  The defendant’s victims lost over $3 million to his fraud scheme.

The defendant’s sentencing is set for Aug. 17, before U.S. District Court Judge Philip A. Brimmer, who presided over the trial of the case.

The former corporate counsel for CFS, William E. Dawn, 80, of Denver, Colorado, and the former CEO of CFS, Brian G. Elrod, 61, of Lakewood, Colorado, previously pleaded guilty for their roles in the scheme.  Sentencing hearings are scheduled for June 19 and June 20, respectively. 

The investigation was led by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado and the Securities and Exchange Commission also provided substantial assistance in this matter.  Trial Attorneys Anna G. Kaminska, Kyle C. Hankey, and Jennifer G. Ballantyne and Assistant Chief Henry P. Van Dyck of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case.  

A grand jury sitting in the Eastern District of Michigan returned an indictment yesterday charging a former healthcare consultant with wire fraud, mail fraud, corruptly endeavoring to obstruct the internal revenue laws, and tax evasion, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

According to the indictment, from 2011 through August 2014, Sonja Emery falsely represented her professional status, educational background, and work experience to secure and maintain highly paid consulting positions in the health-care industry. Emery allegedly falsely represented to her employers that she was a registered nurse, had worked in health-care management positions, and had various degrees, including a bachelor of science in nursing, master’s degrees in health administration, and a doctor of philosophy degree.  The indictment further alleges that, from 2011 to 2014, Emery earned six-figure salaries, failed to file timely tax returns and failed to pay the substantial income tax due and owing on her income.

If convicted, Emery faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each mail and wire fraud count, five years in prison for each tax evasion count, and three years in prison for corruptly endeavoring to obstruct the Internal Revenue Service. Emery also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.  An indictment is an accusation.  A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman commended special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation and Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, who conducted the investigation, and Trial Attorneys Jeff McLellan and Jack Morgan of the Tax Division, who are prosecuting the case.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the division’s website.

A Department of Justice official released the following statement at the conclusion of Attorney General Jeff Sessions' meeting with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov:

"On Tuesday, May 22, 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions met with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov at the Prime Minister's office at the Council of Ministers in Sofia, Bulgaria. The dialogue focused on the nations' shared commitment to fighting international terrorism, cybersecurity, drug trafficking, and human trafficking. The Attorney General and Prime Minister also discussed other areas of law enforcement cooperation between the two countries, including extradition and mutual legal assistance.”