District Not Recorded

Four defendants, including a Detroit-area physician, were charged in a superseding indictment with a $7 million health care fraud conspiracy.  Fifteen defendants have now been charged in this case, including seven who have pleaded guilty for their conduct. 

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade of the Eastern District of Michigan, Special Agent in Charge Paul M. Abbate of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office and Special Agent in Charge Lamont Pugh III of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) Chicago Regional Office made the announcement.

The eight-count superseding indictment, unsealed today, charges defendants Dr. Kutub Mesiwala, 63, of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Jaweed Mohammed, 34, of Orland Park, Illinois, Mohammad Zubair Khan, 27, of West Bloomfield, Michigan, and Tousif Khan, 42, of Ypsilanti, Michigan, in connection with Medicare fraud involving unnecessary home health care and therapy services. 

According to allegations in the indictment, Advance Home Health Care Services Inc. (Advance Home Health) and Perfect Home Health Care LLP (Perfect Home Health) purported to provide home health care and physical therapy services to eligible Medicare beneficiaries in the Detroit metropolitan area.   

Dr. Mesiwala allegedly received kickbacks to refer Medicare beneficiaries to Advance Home Health and to falsely certify that the beneficiaries required home health care.  Patient recruiters and office staff, including Tousif Khan, allegedly paid cash kickbacks to Medicare beneficiaries in exchange for their signing blank physical therapy records.  Jaweed Mohammed, Mohammed Zubair Khan, and other co-conspirators then allegedly used those pre-signed blank physical therapy records to fabricate patient records for Advance Home Health and Perfect Home Health.  Those records were used to support claims to Medicare when, in fact, no services were rendered.  

The superseding indictment charges all four defendants with conspiracy to commit health care fraud, and charges Dr. Mesiwala and Tousif Khan with conspiracy to pay or receive health care kickbacks.  It also charges Mohammad Zubair Khan, Jaweed Mohammed, and Tousif Khan with destruction of documents with the intent to obstruct the investigation.  Additionally, Dr. Mesiwala was charged with two counts of health care fraud in relation to claims for reimbursement submitted to Medicare for visiting physician services that he purportedly rendered to patients in their Michigan homes while he was allegedly out of the country. 

Between February 2009 and November 2013, Medicare paid Advance Home Health and Perfect Home Health more than $7 million as a result of these allegedly false and fraudulent claims.  Fifteen defendants have been charged with participating in the health care fraud and kickback conspiracies, and seven of those defendants have entered guilty pleas.  One of those defendants, Dr. Adelina Herrero, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Paul D. Borman of the Eastern District of Michigan on Aug. 18, 2014, to three years in prison and ordered to pay $1,321,372 in restitution. 

An indictment is merely an allegation, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

This case is being investigated by the FBI and HHS-OIG and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, under the supervision of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.  This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Patrick J. Hurford and Katharine A. Wagner and Special Trial Attorney Katie R. Fink of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.

Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, now operating in nine cities across the country, has charged nearly 2,000 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $6 billion.  In addition, the HHS Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.

To learn more about the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Team (HEAT), go to: www.stopmedicarefraud.gov.

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The Justice Department today announced five settlement agreements under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to make businesses in upstate New York and Corpus Christi, Texas, accessible to people with disabilities.

The settlements are with Hamilton Initiative in Hamilton, New York; Glenwood Plaza in Oneida, New York; Alliance NY in Cazenovia, New York, Subway of Cazenovia in Cazenovia, New York, and Water Street Seafood Company in Corpus Christi, Texas.  These businesses, including a strip mall and several restaurants, were investigated in conjunction with the department’s Project Civic Access, a Civil Rights Division initiative to ensure that cities, towns and counties throughout the country comply with the ADA.  The investigation revealed that each business had made alterations after the effective date of the ADA, but had failed to make the altered areas accessible.

At each business, certain architectural elements were inaccessible to people with disabilities.  All five businesses worked cooperatively with the department after architectural barriers to access were identified.  The department and each business agreed to remedy the barriers in compliance with the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design (2010 Standards) within certain timelines.  Details on each settlement follow: 

• Hamilton Initiative owns and leases property to an eatery called the No. 10 Tavern.Under the agreement, the exterior entrance and restrooms will be modified to comply with the 2010 standards.

• Glenwood Plaza is a strip mall in Oneida, New York.Under the agreement, the parking lot at the strip mall will be modified to include the required accessible parking spaces, compliant signage and access aisles.

• Two settlement agreements were entered regarding Subway of Cazenovia sandwich shop. Alliance NY owns and leases property to Subway of Cazenovia and has agreed to renovate the exterior entrance to the restaurant to make it accessible to persons with mobility impairments.Subway of Cazenovia is the operator of the sandwich shop and has agreed to make modifications to the restroom in compliance with the 2010 Standards.

• Water Street Seafood Company is a restaurant that has already started correcting accessibility barriers at its exterior entrance and restrooms.Under the agreement, the restaurant will continue its modifications to make the restaurant compliant with the 2010 standards.

“The Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department is committed to the full and fair enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Molly Moran for the Civil Rights Division.  “While it is important to have equal access to larger venues such as hospitals and stadiums, it is equally important that people with disabilities be able to enjoy all types of goods and services in their own neighborhood.  When a business alters its space, it is critical that those alterations be made accessible so that people with disabilities can enjoy access to restaurants and businesses and be fully integrated in their communities.”

The ADA protects individuals with disabilities from discrimination by public accommodations, such as restaurants and shopping malls, and requires that when such entities make alterations, they must do so accessibly to the maximum extent feasible.  In addition, businesses have an ongoing obligation to remove architectural barriers to make their businesses accessible to persons with disabilities to the extent it is readily achievable to do so.  It is “readily achievable” to remove an accessibility barrier if it is easily accomplishable without much difficulty or expense.  The Department of Justice and Small Business Administration have provided an ADA Guide for Small Businesses describing these obligations, as well as tax credits and deductions available, at http://www.ada.gov//smbustxt.htm.  People interested in finding out more about the ADA or this agreement can call the Justice Department’s toll-free ADA Information Line at 1-800-514-0301 or 1-800-514-0383 (TTY), or access its ADA Web site at www.ada.gov.

Toyoda Gosei Co. Ltd., an automotive parts manufacturer based in Aichi, Japan, has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $26 million criminal fine for its role in conspiracies to fix prices and rig bids for automotive hoses, airbags and steering wheels sold to automobile manufacturers, the Department of Justice announced today. 

According to a two-count felony charge filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in Toledo, Toyoda Gosei conspired to fix the prices of certain automotive hoses sold to Toyota Motor Corp. and certain of its subsidiaries, affiliates and suppliers (collectively Toyota), in the United States; and conspired to fix the prices of automotive airbags and steering wheels sold to Toyota and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. and certain of its subsidiaries, affiliates and suppliers, and certain of their subsidiaries, affiliates and suppliers (collectively Subaru), in the United States and elsewhere.  In addition to the criminal fine, Toyoda Gosei has agreed to cooperate in the department’s ongoing investigation.  The plea agreement will be subject to court approval.

“When purchasing an automobile, American consumers should feel confident that the sticker price is based on fair market costs to manufacture the vehicle,” said Brent Snyder, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement program.  “The Antitrust Division will continue to prosecute cases in the auto parts industry to ensure fair and competitive prices are maintained.”

Toyoda Gosei and its co–conspirators, according to the charges, conspired through meetings and conversations in which they discussed and agreed upon bids and price quotations to be submitted to certain automakers and to allocate the supply of the products to those automakers.  In furtherance of the agreements, Toyoda Gosei sold certain automotive hoses at noncompetitive prices to Toyota in the United States, and sold airbags and steering wheels at noncompetitive prices to Toyota and Subaru in the United States and elsewhere.  Toyoda Gosei’s involvement in the automotive hoses conspiracy lasted from at least as early as February 2004 until at least September 2010 and its involvement in the automotive airbags and steering wheels conspiracy lasted from at least as early as September 2003 until at least September 2010.

Toyoda Gosei manufactures and sells a variety of automotive parts, including certain automotive hoses, airbags and steering wheels.  The charges against Toyoda Gosei are the latest in the department’s ongoing investigation into anticompetitive conduct in the automotive parts industry.  These are the first charges filed relating to automotive hoses sold to automobile manufacturers.

To date, 43 individuals have been charged in the government’s ongoing investigation into price fixing and bid rigging in the auto parts industry.  Twenty-nine companies, including Toyoda Gosei, have pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty and have agreed to pay a total of nearly $2.4 billion in fines.

Toyoda Gosei is charged with price fixing and bid rigging in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum penalty for corporations of $100 million for each violation.  The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.

Today’s charge is the result of an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into price fixing, bid rigging and other anticompetitive conduct in the automotive parts industry, which is being conducted by the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement sections and the FBI.  Today’s charge was brought by the Antitrust Division’s Chicago Office and the FBI’s Cleveland Field Office, Lima Resident Agency, with the assistance of the FBI headquarters’ International Corruption Unit and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio.  Anyone with information on price fixing, bid rigging and other anticompetitive conduct related to other products in the automotive parts industry 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 Cleveland Field Office at 216-522-1400.

A Pakistani man has been indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia for allegedly conspiring to advertise and sell StealthGenie, a spyware application (app) that could monitor calls, texts, videos and other communications on mobile phones without detection.  This marks the first-ever criminal case concerning the advertisement and sale of a mobile device spyware app.   

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Dana J. Boente of the Eastern District of Virginia and Assistant Director in Charge Andrew McCabe of the FBI’s Washington Field Office made the announcement.

“Selling spyware is not just reprehensible, it’s a crime,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell.  “Apps like StealthGenie are expressly designed for use by stalkers and domestic abusers who want to know every detail of a victim’s personal life – all without the victim’s knowledge.  The Criminal Division is committed to cracking down on those who seek to profit from technology designed and used to commit brazen invasions of individual privacy.”

“StealthGenie has little use beyond invading a victim’s privacy” said U.S. Attorney Boente.  “Advertising and selling spyware technology is a criminal offense, and such conduct will be aggressively pursued by this office and our law enforcement partners.”    

“This application allegedly equips potential stalkers and criminals with a means to invade an individual’s confidential communications,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge McCabe.  “They do this not by breaking into their homes or offices, but by physically installing spyware on unwitting victim’s phones and illegally tracking an individual’s every move.  As technology continues to evolve, the FBI will investigate and bring to justice those who use illegal means to monitor and track individuals without their knowledge.”

According to allegations in the indictment, Hammad Akbar, 31, of Lahore, Pakistan, is the chief executive officer of InvoCode Pvt Ltd, the company that advertises and sells StealthGenie online.  Akbar and his co-conspirators allegedly created the spyware, which could intercept communications to and from mobile phones, including Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android, and Blackberry Limited’s Blackberry.  StealthGenie was undetectable by most users and was advertised as being untraceable. 

Akbar was charged in the indictment with conspiracy, sale of a surreptitious interception device, advertisement of a known interception device and advertising a device as a surreptitious interception device.  He was arrested in Los Angeles on Sept. 27, 2014, and is expected to appear before a magistrate judge in the Central District of California later today. 

StealthGenie was hosted at a data center in Ashburn, Virginia.  On Sept. 26, 2014, a federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia issued a temporary restraining order authorizing the FBI to temporarily disable the website hosting StealthGenie.

The indictment alleges that StealthGenie’s capabilities included the following: it recorded all incoming/outgoing voice calls; it intercepted calls on the phone to be monitored while they take place; it allowed the purchaser to call the phone and activate it at any time to monitor all surrounding conversations within a 15-foot radius; and it allowed the purchaser to monitor the user’s incoming and outgoing e-mail messages and SMS messages, incoming voicemail messages, address book, calendar, photographs, and videos.  All of these functions were enabled without the knowledge of the user of the phone.

Akbar and his co-conspirators allegedly programmed StealthGenie to synchronize communications intercepted by the app with the customer’s account so that the customer could review intercepted communications almost immediately from any computer with access to the Internet.  To install the app, a purchaser needed to obtain physical control over the phone to be monitored for only a few minutes.  The purchaser could then review communications intercepted from the monitored phone without ever again having physical control over the phone.  Akbar and others alleged designed SteathGenie to be undetectable to users of the phone. 

According to allegations in the indictment, the business plan for the development, sale and advertisement of StealthGenie stated that the target population for the marketing of the app was “[s]pousal cheat: Husband/Wife of (sic) boyfriend/girlfriend suspecting their other half of cheating or any other suspicious behaviour or if they just want to monitor them.”  Language and testimonials on the StealthGenie website focused significantly on potential purchasers who did not have any ownership interest in the mobile phone to be monitored, including those suspecting a spouse or romantic partner of infidelity.  The indictment alleges that Akbar and his co-conspirators fabricated the testimonials.    

An indictment is merely an allegation, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

This case is being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, and prosecuted by Trial Attorneys William A. Hall Jr. and Peter V. Roman of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay V. Prabhu of the Eastern District of Virginia.

The FBI has made available a document for individuals with questions concerning StealthGenie.  It may be found at http://www.ic3.gov/media/2014/140930.aspx.

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The Justice Department announced today that it has reached an agreement with Milwaukee Montessori School, a private day school serving over 400 children from 18 months old through eighth grade, to remedy alleged violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  The agreement resolves allegations by the department that the school failed to accommodate and then impermissibly disenrolled a young child whose disability caused him to stumble and fall more frequently than his peers.  The agreement is being filed as a consent decree along with a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, and must be approved by the court.

Under the agreement, the school will adopt a disability nondiscrimination policy, including procedures for prompt handling of requests to reasonably modify school policies for children with disabilities.  The school will train teachers, administrators, and board members on ADA requirements and report to the department on its compliance with the agreement.  In addition, the school will pay $50,000 in compensatory damages to the child identified in the complaint and his parents, and will pay a civil penalty of $5,000 to the United States. 

“It is illegal under the ADA to discriminate against children with disabilities,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Molly Moran for the Civil Rights Division.  “Just like public schools, private schools must make reasonable modifications of policies to permit children with disabilities to participate fully in their programs.  This agreement ensures that children will not be denied quality educational opportunities based on their disabilities.”

“This is a most important, meaningful, and effective action by the leadership of the Milwaukee Montessori School to ensure compliance with the ADA,” said James L. Santelle, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.  “The agreement that we are announcing today reflects the school’s commitment and that of the Justice Department to ensure the full accessibility and opportunity promises of the law in the private educational setting.”

Title III of the ADA requires public accommodations, including private schools such as Milwaukee Montessori School, to provide individuals with disabilities equal access to goods, services, privileges, accommodations, facilities, advantages and accommodations.  For more information about the ADA, call the Department’s toll-free ADA Information Line at 800-514-0301 (TDD 800-514-0383) or access the ADA website at www.ada.gov.

Attorney General Eric Holder and Assistant Attorney General Karol V. Mason for the Office of Justice Programs today launched the Violence Reduction Network (VRN), a national comprehensive approach to reduce violent crime in communities around the country.  The Justice Department’s ability to provide intensive training and cutting-edge technical assistance will give local officials and law enforcement executives in each of the partner communities the support they need to advance anti-violence strategies. 

“This new ‘all-hands’ approach to curbing endemic violence is founded on the recognition that our efforts are most effective when all criminal justice leaders stand united,” said Attorney General Holder.  “It’s predicated on the notion that – although violent crime is in some ways a fundamentally local problem – it is not one that any community can meet in isolation.”

The Violence Reduction Network will help localities access a broad spectrum of Justice Department resources – empowering the federal government to strengthen partnerships and collaboratively tackle persistent challenges caused by violent crime.  The partnering cities announced today are Camden, New Jersey; Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; Oakland/Richmond, California; and Wilmington, Delaware. 

The VRN summit’s agenda is dedicated to collaborative working sessions analyzing each city’s violence challenges and discussing the variety of department resources available to address the issues.  Following the summit, the department will work with police chiefs and city leaders, along with leading criminal justice researchers and practitioners, to develop effective approaches to accomplishing each city’s violence reduction strategies.

“Through our partnerships with local leaders and practitioners and the wide range of resources we have available to address America’s public safety challenges, the Department of Justice is putting its full support behind violence reduction efforts in these five cities,” said Assistant Attorney General Mason.  “I am eager to begin working with each of the sites and to help define a way forward to safer, healthier communities.”  

Even with reports of national violent crime decreasing, in too many communities, crime rates have remained unacceptably high, particularly in areas where social ills like poverty, unemployment, and a lack of opportunity lead to tragic circumstances in which systemic violence can easily take root.

The launch of VRN is a result of the Obama administration’s continuing efforts to address violence in communities across the country.  Nearly a year ago, President Obama convened a meeting at the White House with 18 mayors to discuss strategies for reducing youth violence.  Following that meeting, Attorney General Holder sat down with mayors and police chiefs to talk about how the federal government can better support local efforts. 

Representatives from VRN partner federal agencies include the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the United States Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Executive Office of the United States Attorneys, the Community Oriented Policing Services Office, the Office on Violence Against Women and the Office of Justice Programs. 

Attorney General Eric Holder and Director Ron Davis of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) today announced the department's latest effort to strengthen community policing through hiring grants that will fund nearly 950 officers at 215 law enforcement agencies in cities and communities across the country.  This year’s $124 million in awards place a special emphasis on increasing community policing, bolstering crime reduction, and making the streets of America safer.

“These targeted investments will help to address acute needs – such as high rates of violent crime – funding 75 percent of the salary and benefits of every newly-hired or re-hired officer for three full years,” said Attorney General Holder.  “The impact of this critical support will extend far beyond the creation and preservation of law enforcement jobs.  It will strengthen relationships between these officers and the communities they serve, improve public safety and keep law enforcement officers on the beat.”

“The COPS Office is pleased to assist local law enforcement agencies throughout the country in addressing their most critical public safety issues,” said Director Davis.  “Funding from this year’s program will allow many cities and counties to focus newly sworn personnel on issues related to violent crime, property crime and school safety.”

The COPS Hiring Program offers grants to state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies to hire or rehire community policing officers.  The program provides up to 75 percent of the approved entry-level salaries and fringe benefits of full-time officers for a 36-month grant period, with a minimum 25 percent local cash match requirement and a maximum federal share of $125,000 per officer position.

Grantees for the 2014 hiring program were selected based on their proposed community policing strategies, fiscal need and violent crime rates.

To date, the COPS Office has funded more than 125,000 officers serving over 13,000 state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies, in jurisdictions both large and small.  More than 700,000 people – including government leaders, community members and police officials – have received training through COPS-funded organizations.  Since its inception in 1994, the COPS Office has provided roughly $14 billion to put additional officers on the streets, to provide technical assistance and training, to enhance crime fighting technology and to support cutting-edge crime prevention initiatives.

For the entire list of grantees and additional information about the 2014 COPS Hiring Program, visit the COPS website at www.cops.usdoj.gov.  

An administrator of a Miami home health care company, Professional Medical Home Health LLC, was sentenced to serve 68 months in prison and ordered to pay $6,257,142 million in restitution today for her participation in a $6 million health care fraud scheme.    

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer of the Southern District of Florida, Special Agent in Charge George L. Piro of the FBI’s Miami Field Office and Acting Special Agent in Charge Derrick Jackson of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Miami Regional Office made the announcement.  U.S. District Judge Federico A. Moreno of the Southern District of Florida imposed the sentence.

According to court documents, Annilet Dominguez, 28, of Hialeah, Florida, was an administrator at Professional Home Health.  Dominguez and her co-conspirators paid kickbacks to patient recruiters in return for providing patients to Professional Home Health.  Dominguez and her co-conspirators falsified patient documentation to make it appear that beneficiaries qualified for and received home health care services, when, in fact, many of the beneficiaries did not actually qualify for or receive such services.  Dominguez and her co-conspirators then caused the submission of false claims to Medicare for services that were not medically necessary or not provided.    

From December 2008 through February 2014, Medicare paid Professional Home Health approximately $6.25 million for fraudulent claims for home health care services.

On June 25, 2014, Dominguez pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and three counts of making false statements related to health care matters.  On Aug. 26, 2014, co-defendant Annarella Garcia was sentenced to serve 70 months in prison and ordered to pay $6,257,142 million in restitution.

The case was investigated by the FBI and HHS-OIG and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, under the supervision of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.  This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Anne P. McNamara and A. Brendan Stewart of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.

Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, now operating in nine cities across the country, has charged nearly 2,000 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $6 billion.  In addition, the HHS Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.

To learn more about the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), go to: www.stopmedicarefraud.gov. 

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Two campaign workers pleaded guilty this week in the Southern District of Texas for paying voters to vote in two 2012 elections in Hidalgo County, Texas, announced Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson of the Southern District of Texas.

Veronica Saldivar, 42, of Donna, Texas, pleaded guilty today to one count of vote-buying before U.S. District Judge Randy Crane of the Southern District of Texas and is scheduled for sentencing on Dec. 8, 2014.  Belinda Solis, 39, also of Donna, pleaded guilty on Sept. 25, 2014, to one count of vote-buying before U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez of the Southern District of Texas and is scheduled for sentencing on Dec. 11, 2014.

According to Saldivar’s plea agreement, a primary election was held on May 29, 2012, in Donna for the presidential election, and various state, county, and local offices, including the office of a county commissioner for Hidalgo County.  Saldivar assisted in the campaign to elect a candidate to the office of county commissioner.  In the course of that work, she paid voters with cash and cocaine for voting in this primary election and for voting for a specific candidate for a county commissioner position.

According to Solis’s plea agreement, a general election was held on Nov. 6, 2012, in Donna, for the presidential election and various state, county, and local offices, including the Donna School Board.  Solis assisted in the campaign to elect a slate of four candidates to the Donna School Board.  In the course of that work, she paid voters cash for voting in the election and for voting for specific Donna School Board candidates.

This case was investigated by the FBI and is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Monique Abrishami and Jennifer Blackwell of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Leo J. Leo of the Southern District of Texas.

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Nathan R. Garber, 45, of Kalispell, Montana, pleaded guilty in federal court in Bismarck to eleven felony charges stemming from the operation of a saltwater disposal well near Dickinson, in Stark County, North Dakota, the Justice Department announced. 

Garber pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Safe Drinking Water Act and defraud the United States.  He also pleaded guilty to five counts of violating the Safe Drinking Water Act, two counts of making false statements, two counts of falsification of records and one count of concealment or cover up of a tangible object.

The well, named the Halek 5-22, received “produced water” constituting “brine and other wastes” commonly and generically referred to as “saltwater.”  “Saltwater” in this context covers a wide array of drilling waste fluids, including hydraulic fracturing fluid, which is water combined with chemical additives such as biocides, polymers and “weak acids.”  The EPA has stressed that this water is often saltier than seawater and can “contain toxic metals and radioactive substances.”

“Every aspect of domestic energy extraction, including the disposal of wastewater, must accord with the nation’s environmental laws that protect air, water and soil from contamination,” said Sam Hirsch, the Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.  “The American people expect nothing less than safe, responsible and legal behavior from those involved in oil and gas development in the Bakken and elsewhere.  The Justice Department will vigorously prosecute those who violate this trust and the law.”

“The convictions secured today on 11 felony counts underscores the seriousness of the conduct here,” said U.S. Attorney Timothy Purdon of the District of North Dakota.  “Any time anyone in the Bakken oil boom region puts our water supplies at risk for contamination by intentionally breaking the laws in place to protect that water, the North Dakota U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Department of Justice and our partners at Environmental Protection Criminal Investigation Division will use every tool at our disposal to ensure that these offenders are brought to justice.  I want to particularly commend the Environmental Protection Agents based in Helena, Montana who worked this case.  Their commitment to this investigation, despite the fact that it being an eight hour one-way drive from their office, never  wavered.  Their commitment to make sure that this complex investigation was handled with the professionalism and skill it needed deserves special recognition and underscores the importance of ensuring that the Bakken region has access to these skilled Agents on a permanent basis.”

“As oil and natural gas development continues, it must be done in a way that ensures drilling byproducts are disposed of safely and legally,” said Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Martinez of EPA’s criminal enforcement program in North Dakota.  “The defendant’s disregard of environmental regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act put human health and the environment at serious risk.  Today’s plea demonstrates that EPA and its law enforcement partners are committed to protecting North Dakota’s precious water sources and the communities that rely upon them.”

According to an agreed-upon factual statement filed in court, Garber admitted to conspiring with others in a number of coordinated and illegal acts.  For instance, Garber injected saltwater into the well without first having the state of North Dakota witness a test of the well’s integrity, causing a regulator to determine that there was no assurance as to the integrity of the well and that “the fluid could be going anywhere.”  Garber also violated a February 2012 order from the state to stop injecting until a well integrity test was done.  When questioned by the state about these injections, Garber made false statements in a March 6, 2012 email where he denied that these injections occurred.

The well failed a pressure test on Feb. 2, 2012, and Garber continued to inject saltwater even though he knew that the well did not have integrity and thus posed an increased risk of contaminating ground water.  

Further, Garber moved a device called a “packer” up the wellbore in violation of the well’s permit, without first getting approval from the state.  A properly placed packer is an essential device to maintaining integrity of the well and ensuring wastewater does not escape into surrounding soil and groundwater.

Then, Garber gave false information to a state inspector regarding the depth of the packer. 

A search warrant was executed at the well on Nov. 20, 2013, and it was confirmed that the packer had been moved up in the wellbore and was significantly higher than the depth that had been initially represented by Garber.  Despite illegally moving the packer on Feb. 14, 2012, Garber continued to inject saltwater into the well until on or about March 5, 2012, when a state employee shut the well in.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigation Division.  Significant cooperation was provided by the North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC).  The case is being prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of North Dakota and the Environmental Crimes Section of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.

A Detroit-area physician who made fraudulent referrals for home health care in a $1.3 million Medicare fraud scheme pleaded guilty today.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade of the Eastern District of Michigan, Special Agent in Charge Paul M. Abbate of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office, and Special Agent in Charge Lamont Pugh III of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) Chicago Regional Office made the announcement.

Dr. Vicha Janviriya, 77, of Southfield, Michigan, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Tarnow in the Eastern District of Michigan to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.  Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 21, 2015.

According to court documents, Janviriya admitted that from February 2006 through September 2012, he falsified medical documentation and falsely certified Medicare beneficiaries as homebound or requiring home health care services.  In many cases, he had never met those beneficiaries.  Janviriya admitted that he knew the false home health certifications would be used to support false claims to Medicare for services that were never rendered or not medically necessary, or where the Medicare beneficiary referrals were obtained through the payment of kickbacks. 

Between February 2006 and September 2012, Janviriya caused Medicare to pay approximately $1,366,496 based on his false home health certifications.

This case was investigated by the FBI and HHS-OIG and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, under the supervision of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.  This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Niall M. O’Donnell and Matthew Thuesen of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. 

Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, now operating in nine cities across the country, has charged nearly 2,000 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $6 billion.  In addition, the HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.

To learn more about the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Team (HEAT), go to: www.stopmedicarefraud.gov.

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The Justice Department announced today that it reached a settlement with Autobuses Ejecutivos LLC, doing business as Omnibus Express, a bus company based in Houston, Texas.  The settlement resolves a lawsuit filed in August 2013 by the department under the Immigration and Nationality Act’s (INA) antidiscrimination provision.  The lawsuit alleged that the company discriminated against U.S. workers by preferring to hire workers on temporary H-2B visas for its bus driver positions.

Under the settlement agreement, Omnibus Express will establish a $208,000 fund to compensate victims of its discriminatory practices, pay $37,800 in civil penalties to the United States and be subject to monitoring of its hiring and recruiting practices for a two-year period.  Individuals who sought bus driver positions with Omnibus Express between August 2012 and February 2013, but were not hired, should contact Joann Sazama at (202) 307-3092, or Ryan Thompson at (202) 616-5557. 

“Federal law prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of citizenship status in hiring and recruiting,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Molly Moran for the Civil Rights Division.  “The department is committed to investigating and prosecuting discriminatory hiring preferences that impede the ability of U.S. citizens and other work-authorized individuals to compete equally for employment.”

The Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices (OSC) is responsible for enforcing the anti-discrimination provision of the INA.  Among other things, the statute prohibits citizenship status and national origin discrimination in hiring, firing or recruitment or referral for a fee; unfair documentary practices; retaliation; and intimidation.  For more information about protections against employment discrimination under immigration laws, call OSC’s worker hotline at 1-800-255-7688 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); call OSC’s employer hotline at 1-800-255-8155 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); sign up for a free webinar at www.justice.gov/crt/about/osc/webinars.php; email [email protected]; or visit the website at www.justice.gov/crt/about/osc.  

Applicants or employees who believe they were subjected to different documentary requirements based on their citizenship status, immigration status, or national origin; or discrimination based on their citizenship status, immigration status, or national origin in hiring, firing, or recruitment or referral for a fee, should contact OSC’s worker hotline for assistance. 

The Justice Department announced today that the United States has filed a civil injunction suit against a Dayton, Ohio, man to enjoin him from preparing tax returns which understate his customer’s tax liabilities.

Rodger S. Thomas Sr. is alleged to have prepared tax returns for customers that claimed false business deductions on their Schedule C (profit and loss from business) and fictitious deductions on their Schedule A (itemized deductions) from 2006 through 2009 in a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.  According to the complaint, Thomas also prepared false Forms 1099 in order to inflate customers’ income and maximize their Earned Income Tax Credits.  The government alleged that Thomas would then report these payments on the Schedule C of his own income tax returns as expenses incurred by his business Ramjet Express.  The complaint also alleged that Thomas failed to sign or affix a Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) to many of the returns that he prepared.

In 2012, Thomas pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement on an income tax return and one count of aiding and assisting in the filing of a false income tax return.  He was subsequently sentenced to 24 months in prison.  Thomas was released from prison in March 2014 and, according to the government’s complaint, has indicated that he intends to continue preparing tax returns.  The United States seeks, among other things, that the court bar Thomas from preparing or assisting others in the preparation of a tax form that understates a tax liability.  Additionally, the government is requesting that Thomas be required to identify himself on returns using his name and PTIN, keep a list of the names of individuals for whom he prepares federal tax returns, and provide the list of customers to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for inspection upon demand.

Return preparer fraud is one of the IRS' Dirty Dozen Tax Scams for 2014.  The IRS has some tips on their website for choosing a tax preparer.  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 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.

Related Materials:

United States v. Rodger S. Thomas Sr.
Complaint for Preliminary and Permanent Injunction

A federal jury in the Western District of Louisiana today returned a verdict imposing the death penalty on a Las Vegas man for the brutal kidnapping and murder of a 12-year-old girl.  This case represents the first time the death penalty has been imposed in federal court in the Western District of Louisiana.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Stephanie A. Finley and Special Agent in Charge Michael J. Anderson of the FBI’s New Orleans Division made the announcement. 

Thomas Sanders, 57, was convicted on Sept. 8, 2014, of one count of kidnapping resulting in death and one count of using a firearm during a crime of violence resulting in death, for the kidnap and murder of Lexis Roberts in the fall of 2010. 

“This is a heartbreaking case,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell.  “A young girl witnessed the murder of her mother, was held captive for days, and had her life cut tragically short by a senseless, brutal murder.  We hope today’s verdict will help Lexis’s family as they continue to struggle with the loss of their loved ones.”

“These types of cases are never easy, but today we remember the victims, their families and their loved ones,” said U.S. Attorney Finley.  “The nature of the crime and the level of violence involved are something that we never get used to no matter how long we have done this.  The severity of the sentence imposed against Sanders underscores the senseless brutality of his acts against an innocent 12-year-old girl.  Lexis Roberts was needlessly taken from a family that loved her, and she was denied the most fundamental right of life, and they were denied the joy of knowing what that life could have been.  Still, we do not lose sight of the fact that this trial and sentencing also represent the right of due process that was extended to Sanders, and a jury of his peers has rendered justice.  Nothing, no trial or sentence, can ever bring Lexis or her mother back, but we hope that the verdict brings some measure of closure to Lexis’s family.  The prosecutors and the law enforcement agencies that assisted in this case are to be commended for their hard work.  The importance of their collective efforts cannot be overstated.”

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the victims who have endured unimaginable grief while awaiting the just verdict and sentence for such horrific crimes,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Anderson.

Evidence admitted during trial established that Sanders met Suellen Roberts, 31, in the summer of 2010 when Roberts rented a storage unit at a warehouse in Las Vegas where Sanders worked.  Roberts and Sanders began dating, and approximately two months later Roberts agreed that she and her 12-year-old daughter, Lexis, would go on a trip with Sanders over the Labor Day weekend to a wildlife park near the Grand Canyon.  As they were returning to Nevada after three days of traveling, Sanders pulled off Interstate 40 in a remote location in the Arizona desert and shot Suellen Roberts in the head and forced Lexis Roberts into the car, keeping her captive.

Sanders drove several days across the country before he murdered Lexis Roberts in a wooded area in Catahoula Parish, Louisiana.  Evidence at trial established that Sanders shot Lexis Roberts four times, cut her throat and left her body in the woods, where a hunter found her body on Oct. 8, 2010.  A nationwide manhunt ensued, and Sanders was arrested on Nov. 14, 2010, at a truck stop in Gulfport, Mississippi, by FBI agents and a Harrison County Sheriff’s Deputy.

At trial, the jury heard a recorded confession in which Sanders admitted killing the mother and daughter.   

This case was investigated by the FBI’s New Orleans Division, Central Louisiana Safe Streets Task Force, Catahoula Parish Sheriff’s Office, Harrison County Sheriff’s Office, Yavapai County Arizona Sheriff’s Office, Coconino County Arizona Sheriff’s Office, and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.  Trial Attorney Julie Mosley of the Criminal Division’s Capital Case Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys William J. Flanagan and Brandon B. Brown prosecuted the case.

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Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. (K-Line), a Japanese corporation, has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $67.7 million criminal fine for its involvement in a conspiracy to fix prices, allocate customers, and rig bids of international ocean shipping services for roll-on, roll-off cargo, such as cars and trucks, to and from the United States and elsewhere, the Department of Justice announced today.

According to a one-count felony charge filed today in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in Baltimore, K-Line conspired to suppress and eliminate competition by allocating customers and routes, rigging bids and fixing prices for the sale of international ocean shipments of roll-on, roll-off cargo to and from the United States and elsewhere, including the Port of Baltimore.  K-Line participated in the conspiracy from at least as early as February 1997 until at least September 2012.  K-Line has agreed to cooperate with the Department’s ongoing antitrust investigation.  The plea agreement is subject to court approval.

Roll-on, roll-off cargo is non-containerized cargo that can be both rolled onto and rolled off of an ocean-going vessel.  Examples of this cargo include new and used cars and trucks and construction and agricultural equipment.

“Our efforts exposed a long-running global conspiracy that operated globally, affecting the shipping costs of staggering numbers of cars, into and out of the Port of Baltimore, and other ports in the United States and across the globe.  Today’s announcement demonstrates our continuing resolve to bring the members of this conspiracy to justice. ” said Bill Baer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.  “We are continuing our efforts to ensure that both the corporations and individuals involved in this cartel are held accountable for their acts and the harm they inflicted on American consumers.” 

According to the charge, K-Line and its co-conspirators conspired by, among other things, agreeing – during meetings and communications – on prices, allocating customers, agreeing to refrain from bidding against one another and exchanging customer pricing information.  The department said the companies then charged rates in accordance with those agreements for international ocean shipping services for certain roll-on, roll-off cargo to and from the United States and elsewhere at collusive and non-competitive prices.

K-Line is charged with price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum penalty of a $100 million criminal fine for corporations.  The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.

Today’s charge is the result of an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into price fixing, bid rigging, and other anticompetitive conduct in the international roll-on, roll-off ocean shipping industry, which is being conducted by the Antitrust Division’s Washington Criminal I Section and the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office, along with assistance from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Internal Affairs, Washington Field Office/Special Investigations Unit.  Anyone with information in connection with this investigation is urged to call the Antitrust Division’s Washington Criminal I Section at 202-307-6694, visit www.justice.gov/atr/contact/newcase.html, or call the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office at 410-265-8080.

A Miami man was arrested today on health care fraud and money laundering charges in connection with an alleged $24 million scheme to defraud Medicare.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer of the Southern District of Florida; Special Agent in Charge George L. Piro of the FBI’s Miami Field Office; Special Agent in Charge Paul Wysopal of the FBI’s Tampa Field Office; Special Agent in Charge Perrye K. Turner of the FBI’s Houston Field Office; Special Agent in Charge Derrick Jackson of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Miami Regional Office; and Special Agent in Charge Mike Fields of HHS-OIG’s Dallas Regional Office made the announcement.

Angel M. Mirabal, 61, of Miami, was arrested on a previously sealed indictment returned by a grand jury in the Southern District of Florida charging him with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering of health care fraud proceeds, as well as 10 substantive money laundering counts.

According to the indictment, Mirabal operated Quick Solutions Medical Supplies Inc., a durable medical equipment (DME) supply company located in Houston, Texas.  From April 2010 through July 2013, Mirabal allegedly conspired with individuals who operated other DME companies to submit approximately $24 million in fraudulent claims for reimbursement to Medicare.  These claims represented that Quick Solutions and others provided DME, such as wound care supplies, to Medicare beneficiaries when, in fact, these items were not medically necessary and were not actually provided.  Many of the Medicare beneficiaries who supposedly received DME from Quick Solutions resided hundreds of miles away in Miami.  Mirabal and his co-conspirators allegedly used fraudulent shell companies to launder and disburse the proceeds from the health care fraud scheme.

An indictment is only an accusation, and a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

This case is being investigated by the FBI and HHS-OIG and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, under the supervision of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.  This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Timothy P. Loper of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.

Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, now operating in nine cities across the country, has charged nearly 2,000 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $6 billion.  In addition, the HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.

To learn more about the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Team (HEAT), go to: www.stopmedicarefraud.gov.

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WASHINGTON – El Departamento de Justicia anunció hoy que llegó a un acuerdo con Autobuses Ejecutivos, LLC, operando como Omnibus Express, una compañía de autobuses con sede en Houston, Texas.  El acuerdo resuelve una demanda presentada en agosto del 2013 por el departamento bajo la provisiόn antidiscriminatoria de la Ley de Inmigración y Nacionalidad (INA por sus siglas en inglés).  La demanda alegό que la compañía discriminaba en contra de trabajadores en los Estados Unidos ya que prefería contratar a trabajadores con visas temporales H-2B para las posiciones de operadores.

Según el acuerdo, Omnibus Express establecerá un fondo de $208,000 para compensar a los individuos que fueron víctimas de sus prácticas discriminatorias, le pagará $37,800 a los Estados Unidos en forma de sanciones civiles, y también estará sujeto a un período de monitoreo de sus prácticas de contratación y reclutamiento por el departamento por dos años.  Los individuos que solicitaron una posición de operador con Omnibus Express entre Agosto del 2012 y Febrero del 2013 y no fueron contratados deben comunicarse con Joann Sazama al (202) 307-3092, o con Ryan Thompson al (202) 616-5557.

            “La ley federal prohíbe que  los empleadores discriminen durante la contratación y reclutamiento por motivo de estatus de ciudadanía,” dijo Molly Moran, Sub-Procuradora General Interina para la Divisiόn de Derechos Civiles.  “El departamento se compromete a investigar y combatir las preferencias discriminatorias durante la contratación que impiden que los ciudadanos estadounidenses y los individuos con autorización de trabajo compitan igualmente por el empleo.”

La Oficina del Consejero Especial para Prácticas Injustas en el Empleo Relacionadas a la Inmigración es la oficina responsable por hacer cumplir con la provisión antidiscriminatoria de la INA.  Entre otras cosas, la ley prohíbe discriminación por estatus de ciudadanía o del origen nacional durante la contrataciόn, el despido, el reclutamiento o la referencia por comisiόn, las prácticas injustas de documentación, represalias, e intimidación.  Para más información sobre las protecciones contra discriminación en el empleo según las leyes migratorias, llame a la línea directa de OSC para trabajadores al 1-800-255-7688 (1-800-237-2515, TTY para personas con discapacidad auditiva), llame a la línea directa de OSC para empleadores al 1-800-255-8155 (1-800-237-2515, TTY para personas con discapacidad auditiva), o para registrarse para un seminario gratis ofrecido a través del internet visite www.justice.gov/crt/about/osc/webinars.php, envíe un correo electrónico al [email protected], o visite el sitio de Internet www.justice.gov/crt/about/osc.

Los solicitantes o empleados que consideren que fueron sujetos a (1) diferentes requisitos de verificación por su estatus de ciudadanía, estatus migratorio u origen nacional, o (2) discriminación por estatus de ciudadanía, estatus migratorio, u origen nacional con relación a la contratación, el despido y el reclutamiento o la referencia por comisión, deberán comunicarse a la línea dedicada a los trabajadores anteriormente citada para poderlos ayudar.

Caremark L.L.C., a pharmacy benefit management company (PBM), will pay the United States $6 million to settle allegations that Caremark knowingly failed to reimburse Medicaid for prescription drug costs paid on behalf of Medicaid beneficiaries who also were eligible for drug benefits under Caremark-administered private health plans, the Justice Department announced today.  Caremark is operated by CVS Caremark Corporation, one of the largest PBMs and retail pharmacies in the country. 

“It is vitally important that cash-strapped Medicaid programs receive reimbursement for the costs they incur that should properly have been paid for by other insurers,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Joyce R. Branda for the Justice Department’s Civil Division.  “We are committed to protecting the integrity of state Medicaid programs.”

When an individual is covered by both Medicaid and a private health plan, the individual is called a “dual eligible.”  Under the law, the private insurer, rather than the government, must assume the costs of health care for dual eligibles.  If Medicaid erroneously pays for the prescription claim of a dual eligible, Medicaid is entitled to seek reimbursement from the private insurer or its PBM.  A PBM administers and manages the drug benefits for clients who offer drug benefits under a health insurance plan. 

Caremark served as the PBM for private health plans who insured a number of individuals receiving prescription drug benefits under both a Caremark-administered plan and Medicaid.  According to the government, Caremark’s RxCLAIM computer platform allegedly failed to pay the full amount due on certain claims because it improperly deducted certain co-payment or deductible amounts when calculating payments.  The government alleged that Caremark’s actions caused Medicaid to incur prescription drug costs for dual eligibles that should have been paid for by the Caremark-administered private health plans rather than Medicaid.     

The allegations settled today arose from a lawsuit filed by Donald Well, a former Caremark employee, under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the False Claims Act.  The United States may intervene in the lawsuit, as it did here.  Under the False Claims Act, private citizens can bring suit on behalf of the government for false claims and share in any recovery.  Well will receive $1.02 million plus interest.

This settlement illustrates the government’s emphasis on combating health care fraud and marks another achievement for the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) initiative, which was announced in May 2009 by the Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services.  The partnership between the two departments has focused efforts to reduce and prevent Medicare and Medicaid financial fraud through enhanced cooperation.  One of the most powerful tools in this effort is the False Claims Act.  Since January 2009, the Justice Department has recovered a total of more than $22.4 billion through False Claims Act cases, with more than $14.2 billion of that amount recovered in cases involving fraud against federal health care programs.

This case was jointly handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of

Texas, the Justice Department’s Civil Division, and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.

The case is captioned United States ex rel. Well v. CVS Caremark, Inc., Civil Action No. SA:11-CV-00747 (W.D. Tex.).  The claims settled by this agreement are allegations only; there has been no determination of liability.

Attorney General Eric Holder and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today announced the settlement of a lawsuit filed by the Navajo Nation regarding the U.S. government’s management of funds and natural resources that it holds in trust for the Navajo Nation.  The settlement resolves a long-standing dispute, with some of the claims dating back more than 50 years, and brings to an end protracted litigation that has burdened both the Navajo Nation and the United States. 

Secretary Jewell joined Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly, Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resource Division Sam Hirsch, and numerous tribal officials at a commemorative signing ceremony held in Window Rock, Arizona today.

“This historic agreement resolves a longstanding dispute between the United States and the Navajo Nation, including some claims that have been sources of tension for generations,” said Attorney General Holder.  “The Department of Justice has made it a top priority to honor and foster the trust relationship between the United States and American Indian tribes.  This landmark resolution ends protracted and burdensome litigation. It will provide important resources to the Navajo Nation.  And it fairly and honorably resolves a legal conflict over the accounting and management of tribal resources.  This demonstrates the Justice Department’s firm commitment to strengthening our partnerships with tribal nations -- so we can expand cooperation, empower sovereign tribes, and keep moving forward together with mutual respect and shared purpose.”

 “This settlement reflects our continuing commitment to upholding the federal trust responsibility to Indian Country and to building strong, prosperous and resilient tribal communities,” said Secretary Jewell.  “The historic agreement strengthens the government-to-government relationship between the United States and the Navajo Nation, helps restore a positive working relationship with the Nation’s leaders and empowers Navajo communities. The landmark Cobell settlement and resolution of 80 other tribal trust management lawsuits under President Obama has opened a new chapter in federal trust relations with tribes and individual Indian beneficiaries.”

The Navajo Nation is the largest Indian tribe in the United States, with over 300,000 members.  The Nation has the largest reservation in the United States, encompassing over 27,000 square miles of land in the states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.  The reservation includes more than 14 million acres of trust lands, which are leased for various productive uses, including farming; grazing; oil, gas, and other mineral development; businesses; rights-of-way; timber harvesting; and housing.  The Navajo Nation also owns or has ownership interests in over 100 trust accounts.

Under the agreement, the United States will pay the Navajo Nation $554 million in settlement of its claims.  In return, the Navajo Nation will dismiss its current lawsuit and forego further litigation regarding the United States’ historic management or accounting of Navajo funds or resources held in the trust by the United States.  The Navajo Nation and the United States will undertake prospectively information-sharing procedures that will lead to improved communication concerning the management of Navajo’s trust funds and resources, and also the parties will abide by alternative dispute resolution procedures to reduce the likelihood of future litigation.

In addition to the negotiations that led to this historic settlement with the Navajo Nation, the Departments of Justice, the Interior, and the Treasury have been diligently engaged in settlement conversations involving other litigating tribes.  On April 11, 2012, the United States announced settlements with 41 tribes for about $1 billion.  Since that time, the federal government has focused considerable dedicated effort on the remaining tribal trust accounting and trust mismanagement cases and has been able to resolve “breach of trust” claims, without the need for further extended litigation, of almost 40 additional tribes, for over $1.5 billion.

The United States will continue settlement discussions in numerous other cases that are still pending and is committed to resolving the litigating tribes’ trust accounting and trust mismanagement claims in a manner that is fair and reasonable to the tribes and the United States.

“From his first days in office, President Obama has worked to honor the government-to-government relationships between the United States and tribal governments," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Sam Hirsch.  "This settlement is yet another example of the Administration’s promise to strengthen the ties between the United States and the Navajo Nation.  And it reflects my personal commitment to resolving long-standing lawsuits rather than wasting the time and resources of both the United States and Indian tribes in contentious litigation.”

STATEMENT FROM ETHEL KENNEDY REGARDING ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER

“Eric Holder has vigilantly defended an ideal Bobby strongly believed -- that the Justice Department must deliver justice for all Americans. Especially our most vulnerable, who live in the very communities where justice can be hardest to find.”

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STATEMENT FROM MYRLIE EVERS REGARDING ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER

“There has been no greater ally in the fight for justice, civil rights, equal rights, and voting rights than Attorney General Holder.  As a fierce consequential defender of the right to vote, the Attorney General has worked tirelessly to ensure that every American has the right, the ability and the opportunity to cast their vote and let their voice be heard.

“Attorney General Holder never shied away from the issues that greatly affect us all.  From lobbying Congress to reduce prison sentences for non-violent drug offenders, to cracking down on abuse by police departments and to working to ease racial tension throughout the United States, the Attorney General was always there ready to correct injustices and offer common sense reforms to better our nation.

“I am honored to call the Attorney General a friend, and have had the distinct pleasure of working very closely with him throughout his tenure as AG and prior to his appointment. Just last year, when we celebrated the life of my husband Medgar, Attorney General Holder was the first to offer his assistance to honor Medgar and vowed to continue his pursuit for justice for all Americans, just as Medgar did.

“I wish AG Holder continued success, and look forward to continuing our work together to ensure that that this country stays on the path to greatness, righteousness and equality that we both have dedicated our lives to.”

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STATEMENT FROM MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL REGARDING ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER

“On behalf of the City of Chicago, I want to thank Attorney General Eric Holder for more than five and a half years of extraordinary service as our nation’s Attorney General. Whether it’s reducing gun violence on our streets or supporting restorative justice in our schools so more children can stay on track to graduate, the City of Chicago has had a strong partner in Attorney General Holder. He has been a great champion for keeping our streets safer, making our communities stronger, and making our criminal justice system fairer. We are a better nation because of Attorney General Holder’s outstanding service.”  

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STATEMENT FROM THE LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE ON CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS CEO WADE HENDERSON REGARDING ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER

“Attorney General Holder has presided over one of the most forward-thinking and visionary Justice Departments in memory. Remembering only his historic confirmation as the first African-American attorney general would not do justice to his tenure over the past six years, which was one of the most successful in modern American history.

"Under his leadership, the Department of Justice has put forth groundbreaking reforms to our broken criminal justice system, championed the right to vote, defended the Affordable Care Act, protected homeowners from predatory lending, defended the federal government from state overreach on immigration laws, and backed the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

"His tenure is even more remarkable considering that he was victim to an unprecedented witch hunt and abuse of power by House Republicans.  Their attempt to stain the office by issuing the only contempt citation against a sitting cabinet member in modern history only validated Attorney General Holder’s effectiveness and commitment to promoting the civil and human rights of all Americans.

"Attorney General Holder came to the job as the one of the most well-prepared nominees ever considered for the post, and he has surpassed even those high expectations. We commend his service to our nation and will work to confirm a successor that will continue Justice’s commitment to the advancement of civil and human rights.”

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STATEMENT FROM THE NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND REGARDING ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. today lauded the stellar leadership of departing Attorney General Eric Holder, who announced his resignation this morning. LDF also emphasized the need for continued vigilance in the protection of civil rights.

“When Attorney General Holder took the helm of the Department of Justice in 2009, he vowed to make the Civil Rights division the department's ‘crown jewel,’ and he has more than fulfilled that mission,” said Sherrilyn A. Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of NAACP LDF. “When the history of his tenure is written, Eric Holder will ultimately be recognized as one of the finest Attorneys General this country has ever known. In the field of civil rights there are few who could even claim to rival this Attorney General's dedication, strategic focus and commitment."

“General Holder's vision for the Civil Rights Division was one of restoration and transformation, from his leadership on voting rights, to legal services for the poor, to criminal justice reforms and, in recent weeks, to his forceful response to the tragic events in Ferguson,” Ifill added.

Ifill expressed particular support for the Attorney General’s forceful and courageous willingness to speak openly about the problem of mass incarceration in this country. “The ‘Smart on Crime’ initiatives he announced last year are a quintessential example of Attorney General Holder’s vision and boldness,” she said.

In 2013, Ifill noted, when the Supreme Court invalidated key portions of the Voting Rights Act in a devastating decision, Attorney General Holder immediately deployed the full litigation strength of the Justice Department in places like Texas and North Carolina to protect voters of color who had been made even more vulnerable to voting discrimination.  Most recently, his Justice Department attorneys stood side-by-side with LDF lawyers in a Texas courtroom to challenge that state’s discriminatory photo ID law.  A decision in that case, United States v. Texas, is expected in the next few weeks.

“It is hard to overstate the impact of General Holder’s tenure – but we are confident that his initiatives will endure, even under new leadership,” said Leslie Proll, Director of LDF’s Washington Office.  “At this critical time for America, we can’t afford to lose momentum on civil rights.  Certainly the next nominee will have big shoes to fill, but we trust and expect that his replacement will be up to the task.”

Attorney General Holder began his storied legal career as an intern at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund while at law school.  Earlier this year, he was the keynote speaker at LDF’s 60th anniversary celebration of the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. View his remarks online here.

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STATEMENT FROM THE HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN REGARDING ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) equality, today praised the distinguished service of Eric Holder upon learning that he will be stepping down as U.S. Attorney General pending confirmation of his successor. HRC believes that the President should use this opportunity to appoint the nation’s first out LGBT cabinet member.

"Some Attorneys General wait for history, others make history happen. Attorney General Holder made history for the LGBT community,” said Chad Griffin, President of HRC. “He was our Robert F. Kennedy, lightening the burden of every American who faces legal discrimination and social oppression. We owe him a profound debt of gratitude for his legacy of advocacy and service."

Attorney General Holder has been a staunch advocate for civil rights for LGBT Americans throughout his career in public life. As U.S. Attorney General for the District of Columbia, he formed the first hate crimes task force, which has become a model for U.S. Attorneys throughout the country. He spearheaded the administration’s decision to not defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) on the grounds that it was unconstitutional. Under his leadership, the FBI and Civil Rights Division began actively investigating and prosecuting hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity with the implementation of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. 

His leadership is without comparison in the swift implementation of the Supreme Court’s Decision in Windsor v. United States. Attorney General Holder declared that the ruling meant that, “Americans in same-sex marriages are entitled to equal protection and equal treatment under the law.” From this historic statement, more than 1,000 federal rights and benefits of marriages have begun to flow to same-sex couples across the country.

HRC continues to advocate for the historic appointment of an openly LGBT cabinet member to the Obama administration.

"President Obama faces a historic opportunity in light of Attorney General Holder's departure,” said Chad Griffin, President of HRC. “The President has expressed a commitment to appointing a cabinet that reflects the full diversity of the American people, and there are many richly-qualified candidates available to serve as the first openly-LGBT cabinet secretary. It would be a natural extension of this administration's enduring commitment to equality to send a message of visibility and inclusion by nominating such a candidate to serve in this historic role."

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STATEMENT FROM U.S. SECRETARY OF EDUCATION ARNE DUNCAN REGARDING ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER

“It has been a true honor to work with Eric Holder, and I know he will remain an ally in the fight for justice and equal opportunity for every student in America. Eric understands - at a very deep, personal level - the costs to families, communities and our country when students do not have equal access to educational opportunities. I am grateful for Eric’s partnership on so many issues, among them: addressing disparities in school discipline, enforcing civil rights laws in education, keeping schools and college campuses safe from violence, and ensuring value and service for students who borrow money for college. I am so grateful to Eric, Sharon and their family for their commitment to equality for all. I look forward to continuing this work with the next Attorney General.”

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STATEMENT FROM U.S. SECRETARY OF LABOR THOMAS E. PEREZ REGARDING ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER

“Eric Holder is a man of extraordinary conscience and competence. It was a unique honor to serve with him at the Justice Department, and I am enormously grateful for his unwavering commitment to the cause of civil rights and to reinvigorating the Civil Rights Division in particular.

“I am confident that when objective historians write about America’s most critical moments, Eric Holder will go down as one of the preeminent attorneys general in our nation’s history – whether it’s his support of LGBT equality and his indispensable role in the president’s decision not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act; or his aggressiveness in ensuring the right to vote; or his commitment to sentencing reform; or his tough crackdown on hate crimes, financial fraud and racial profiling.

“The Justice Department is stronger for his quarter century of service there. The nation is stronger for his lifetime of work on behalf of justice and equal opportunity.”

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STATEMENT FROM SENATOR BILL NELSON REGARDING ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER

“I have found Attorney General Holder to be an outstanding public servant with whom I’ve had the privilege to work with on a number of issues. Among them, he has led the fight to protect the right to vote for all citizens and that includes his recent letter warning Florida’s governor against any future efforts there to suppress the vote.  And he also has been very supportive of scientists’ efforts to unlock the secrets of potential abuse at a now-shuttered reform school in North Florida.  The president will miss his counsel.” 

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STATEMENT FROM REPRESENTATIVE JOHN CONYERS REGARDING ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER

“Attorney General Eric Holder has delivered the utmost distinguished service during his tenure in the Obama Administration.  As the first African American to serve as Attorney General, Mr. Holder has shown vigorous dedication to the American people and advancing civil rights for all. 

“As the fourth longest serving Attorney General in U.S. history, his devotion to the pursuit of justice is unparalleled and has comforted the nation during great times of turmoil. I appreciate that he will remain in his post until a successor is named.  I wish him well in all his future endeavors and thank him for his tireless efforts over the past six years and more.”

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STATEMENT FROM REPRESENTATIVE ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON REGARDING ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER

“It is heartbreaking for me to see the Attorney General leave the administration, but it is understandable that, after six years of outstanding work on domestic and international legal issues, he would desire to return to private life,” Norton said.  “We in the District of Columbia are especially proud and grateful that it was his outstanding record as U.S. Attorney here that first brought Eric to the attention of President Clinton and, ultimately, to President Obama.  This morning, we discussed his exceptional work to avoid the harshness of federal mandatory minimum sentencing in selected cases, when the results would have been particularly unfair, by using the local courts.  This was possible because of the U.S. Attorney’s dual local and federal jurisdiction.  His work influenced the changes now underway with federal mandatory minimums that are reducing the sentences of thousands of low-level drug offenders.”

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STATEMENT FROM REPRESENTATIVE ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS REGARDING ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER

“Over the past six years, Attorney General Holder has worked to improve our nation’s broken justice system, enforce civil rights laws, ban racial profiling, rekindle trust between law enforcement and communities of color, restructure sentencing guidelines, and identify constructive alternatives to incarceration.  In the process, he has improved how our courts and law enforcement officers do their jobs.

“As the first-ever African American to serve in this position, Attorney General Holder has promoted equal protection under the law by building bridges across ideology, race, gender, and class.  His capacity to fight for the rights of every American has been boundless, and his plan to continue many of those battles beyond his tenure at the Department of Justice is a testament to his character.

“In his 26 years of public service, he has built a legacy of which he can be extremely proud, and I wish him the best as he moves on to new endeavors.”

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STATEMENT BY REPRESENTATIVE JOHN LEWIS REGARDING ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER

"I am deeply saddened to learn today that the U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, is stepping down.  His resignation is a great loss for any American seeking justice in our society.  He became the symbol of fairness, an embodiment of the best in the federal government. 

 He has been a persistent and consistent leader in the struggle for civil and human rights.  That legacy is in his bones.  It is written on his heart, and his intelligence and committed leadership will be hard to replace. 

 In my conversation with him today, I thanked the Attorney General for his years of service to this nation.  He and his family have been a blessing, and his leadership will be sorely missed."

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STATEMENT BY SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY REGARDING ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER

“Attorney General Holder has been an extraordinary leader of the Department of Justice, and is to be congratulated for his service.  Under his leadership, the Department has had remarkable success in convicting terrorists and disrupting threats to national security, while upholding the Department’s mission of keeping our communities safe from crime and fighting fraud.  I particularly appreciate how Attorney General Holder has restored the Civil Rights Division to its historical mission.  His dedication to defending Americans’ voting rights, at a time when these constitutional rights are under attack, has been supremely important.  Attorney General Holder has demonstrated his commitment to protecting the civil rights of all Americans with his thoughtful implementation of both the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act.   His recent focus on the need for sentencing reform and programs to reduce recidivism have brought to the fore an important conversation we as a nation must have.  I thank Attorney General Holder for his service, and I wish him and his wife Sharon the very best in the future.”

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STATEMENT BY SENATOR BARBARA A. MIKULSKI REGARDING ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER

“During his six years as Attorney General, Eric Holder Jr., supported our federal law enforcement agents in the fight against criminals and terrorists and was a strong advocate for civil rights and criminal justice reform.

“In the dark days of sequester and shutdown, Attorney General Holder worked closely with me in my role as CJS Chairwoman to keep DOJ and its people on the job and on the case.

“As one of the longest serving members of President Obama’s cabinet, he has served his nation and his President well.

"I thank him for his dedicated service to our country and wish him well in the future.”

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STATEMENT BY SENATOR BILL NELSON REGARDING ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER

“During his six years as Attorney General, Eric Holder Jr., supported our federal law enforcement agents in the fight against criminals and terrorists and was a strong advocate for civil rights and criminal justice reform.

“In the dark days of sequester and shutdown, Attorney General Holder worked closely with me in my role as CJS Chairwoman to keep DOJ and its people on the job and on the case.

“As one of the longest serving members of President Obama’s cabinet, he has served his nation and his President well.

"I thank him for his dedicated service to our country and wish him well in the future.”

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TWEET BY REPRESENTATIVE JOHN LEWIS REGARDING ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER

“I deeply saddened to learn today that the U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, is stepping down.”

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TWEET BY SENATOR SHELDON WHITEHOUSE REGARDING ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER

“Thank you, Attorney General #Holder, for restoring confidence & morale and bringing honor & dignity to @TheJusticeDept for the last 6 years.”

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TWEET BY SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY REGARDING ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER

“Will talk with Andrea Mitchell @mitchellreports @MSNBC in a few minutes, about Eric Holder.”

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TWEET BY SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER REGARDING ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER

“AG Holder was like ‘Horatius at the Bridge’ preventing or slowing down the regressive march to take away people’s hard-earned rights.”

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TWEET BY SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM REGARDING ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER

“I appreciate AG Holder’s service to our country even though we had strong disagreements at times. I wish him well in future endeavors.”

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A New Orleans grand jury today indicted seven defendants for their roles in a $56 million Medicare fraud scheme that operated in New Orleans and surrounding communities.  Thirteen defendants have now been charged in this case, three of whom pleaded guilty to their conduct yesterday. 

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Eastern District of Louisiana, Special Agent in Charge Michael Anderson of the FBI’s New Orleans Field Office and Special Agent in Charge Mike Fields of the Dallas Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) made the announcement.

Paige Okpalobi, 57, of Slidell, Louisiana; Joe Ann Murthil, 57, of New Orleans; Latausha Dannel, 34, of Laplace, Louisiana; Dr. Winston Murray, 62, of Hammond, Louisiana; Dr. Divini Luccioni, 53, of Kenner, Louisiana; Christopher White, 48, of Destrehan, Louisiana; and Beverly Breaux, 66, of New Orleans, were charged in connection with their roles in a home health care fraud scheme involving thousands of Medicare recipients.  Mark Morad, 51, of Slidell; Dr. Barbara Smith, 65, of Metairie, Louisiana; and Dr. Roy Berkowitz, 68, of Slidell, had been previously charged for their participation in the scheme, and today’s indictment added new charges against them.

The second superseding indictment comes one day after Dr. Alvin Darby, 58, of Slidell; Demetrius Temple, 54, of New Orleans; and Nicole Oliver, 44, of Napoleonville, Louisiana, each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud for their roles in the scheme.  Sentencing for each is scheduled for Jan. 7, 2015 before U.S. District Judge Sarah S. Vance of the Eastern District of Louisiana.

The indictment alleges that the defendants operated a number of companies in and around New Orleans that purported to offer home health services and durable medical equipment to Medicare beneficiaries.  The companies, Interlink Health Care Services Inc., Memorial Home Health Inc., Lakeland Health Care Services Inc., Lexmark Health Care LLC, Med Rite Pharmacy Inc. and Medical Specialists of New Orleans, billed Medicare claiming that they provided home health services and durable medical equipment to Medicare beneficiaries, but the vast majority of these services and equipment were not medically necessary or not provided. 

The indictment further alleges that Morad and Okpalobi owned and directed operations at these companies.  Morad allegedly paid kickbacks to patient recruiters, including Temple and Oliver, to provide Medicare beneficiary numbers that were then used to bill Medicare.  To conceal these kickbacks, Morad allegedly laundered Medicare money through a separate company he owned. 

Court documents also allege that Okpalobi instructed doctors, including Smith, Berkowitz, Murray, Luccioni, and Darby, to falsely certify that beneficiaries were qualified for home health services, and to prescribe durable medical equipment that was not medically needed.  These false certifications and prescriptions were then used to bill Medicare for the unnecessary services and equipment. 

Murthil and Dannel were office managers who allegedly oversaw daily operations at the home health companies.  White allegedly performed accounting services for these companies, and helped conceal the scheme by fabricating false tax and employee records.  Breaux was a registered nurse who is alleged to have falsely certified that home health clients were homebound, and that she had provided home health care services when she had not.

From 2007 through 2014, the companies allegedly involved in the scheme submitted more than $56 million in claims to Medicare, the majority of which are allegedly fraudulent.  Medicare paid approximately $50.7 million on those claims.

The charges contained in this indictment are merely accusations, and the defendants are innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The case is being investigated by HHS-OIG and the FBI and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, under the supervision of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana.  The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney William G. Kanellis of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrice Harris Sullivan of the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, now operating in nine cities across the country, has charged nearly 2,000 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $6 billion.  In addition, the HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.

To learn more about the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Team (HEAT), go to: www.stopmedicarefraud.gov.

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The owner of a home health services company was sentenced to serve five years in prison for his leading role in a conspiracy to structure over $1.8 million in bank withdrawals to conceal a $4.5 million healthcare fraud scheme.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson of the Southern District of Texas, Special Agent in Charge Perrye K. Turner of the FBI’s Houston Field Office, Special Agent in Charge Lucy Cruz of the Houston Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI), Special Agent in Charge William Fergus of the Chicago Regional Office of the United States Railroad Retirement Board, Office of Inspector General (RRB-OIG), Special Agent in Charge Mike Fields of the Dallas Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG), and the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) made the announcement.  U.S. District Judge Sim Lake of the Southern District of Texas imposed the sentence.

On April 16, 2014, Felix Maduka, 59, of Richmond, Texas, pleaded guilty to conspiring to structure more than $1.8 million in cash withdrawals and eight counts of structuring cash withdrawals from bank accounts where his company, Joystar Home Health Services LLC, received fraudulent payments from Medicare.  His wife and co-defendant, Stella Maduka, 49, was Joystar’s Director of Nursing.  In addition to the structuring charges, she also pleaded guilty to one count of healthcare fraud and one count of making false statements.

According court documents, Felix and Stella Maduka withdrew just under $10,000 in cash from Joystar bank accounts on nearly 300 occasions to avoid the bank’s mandatory reporting requirements of cash transactions involving more than $10,000 in cash.  They engaged in this structuring scheme to conceal the monies used to pay illegal kickbacks to recruiters in exchange for referring Medicare beneficiaries to Joystar and to doctors for authorizing home health services that were not medically necessary nor provided.  To further conceal the scheme, Felix and Stella Maduka fabricated patient records to support the fraudulent Medicare billing.

The case is being investigated by HHS-OIG, IRS-CI, RRB-OIG and the FBI and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, under the supervision of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District Texas.  The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney William S.W. Chang of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristine Rollinson of the Southern District Texas.

Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, now operating in nine cities across the country, has charged nearly 2,000 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $6 billion.  In addition, the HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.

To learn more about the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Team (HEAT), go to: www.stopmedicarefraud.gov.

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The Justice Department today announced that it has reached an agreement with the city of North Las Vegas under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  The agreement, filed as a consent decree along with a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, resolves allegations that the city violated the ADA by failing to accommodate, and forcing out, a Parks Department maintenance crew leader with monocular vision.  The Justice Department alleged that the city revoked the employee’s long standing reasonable accommodation, which exempted him from obtaining a commercial driver’s license, even though the employee was able to perform the essential functions of the job with the reasonable accommodation and the accommodation did not impose an undue hardship on the city.

“Revoking a reasonable accommodation is a clear violation of the ADA, absent undue hardship on the employer,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Molly Moran for the Civil Rights Division.  “The Justice Department is committed to knocking down barriers to equal employment opportunities for people with disabilities.  We applaud the city for working cooperatively with the department to promptly resolve this matter.”

The consent decree, which must be approved by the court, requires the city to pay the employee $38,229 for monetary and compensatory damages, provide training to city staff on Title I of the ADA, and file periodic reports with the department.

Title I of the ADA prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals on the basis of disability in various aspects of employment.  These prohibitions include using qualification standards that screen out individuals with disabilities and that are not job-related and consistent with business necessity.  The ADA requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities, where such an accommodation does not pose an undue hardship.

Those interested in finding out more about the ADA may call the Justice Department’s toll-free ADA information line at 800-514-0301 (TDD 800-514-0383) or visit www.ada.gov.

The Department of Justice today filed a statement of interest with the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Albany County in Hurrell-Harring v. State of New York.  In this class action litigation, the plaintiffs allege that, due to systemic failures in four New York counties, indigent criminal defendants have been constructively denied the right to counsel. 

In Hurrell-Harring the plaintiffs allege that a lack of funding for indigent defense deprives public defenders of the time or resources to prepare cases or meaningfully represent their clients and amounts to the denial of counsel in violation of Gideon v. Wainwright and the Sixth Amendment.  In its statement of interest, the department advised the court that under resourcing public defense may force even otherwise competent and well-intentioned public defenders into a position where they are, in effect, a lawyer in name only.  The statement of interest added that if the court finds that the plaintiffs have been constructively denied the right to counsel on a systemic basis, the court has broad injunctive authority to remedy those constitutional violations. 

“To truly guarantee adequate representation for low-income defendants, we must ensure that public defenders’ caseloads allow them to do an effective job,” said Attorney General Eric Holder.  “The Department of Justice is committed to addressing the inequalities that unfold every day in America’s courtrooms, and to fulfilling the Supreme Court’s historic decision in Gideon v. Wainwright.  America’s indigent defense systems exist in a state of crisis, and over 50 years after it was made, the promise of Gideon is not being met.”

“This case is emblematic of a national crisis in indigent criminal defense,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Molly Moran of the Civil Rights Division.  “The right to counsel is one of the core guarantees of the Bill of Rights, and yet, as countless cases and studies show, indigent defense systems across the country are facing significant challenges in meeting their Sixth Amendment obligations.”

The purpose of the statement of interest is to provide the court with a framework to assess the plaintiffs’ claim of constructive denial of counsel.  As the department explained in the statement of interest, “An analysis of Gideon cases informs the United States’ position that constructive denial of counsel may occur when: (1) on a systemic basis, counsel for indigent defendants face severe structural limitations, such as a lack of resources, high workloads, and understaffing of public defender offices; and/or (2) indigent defenders are unable or are significantly compromised in their ability to provide the traditional markers of representation for their clients, such as timely and confidential consultation, appropriate investigation, and meaningful adversarial testing of the prosecution’s case.”

The Hurrell-Harring case was filed in 2007 and brought by former indigent defendants who faced criminal charges in five New York counties.  The plaintiffs seek systemic reform to prevent future violations of the right to counsel. The state court trial is scheduled to begin on Oct. 7, 2014.

A third Colombian man extradited to the Eastern District of Virginia pleaded guilty today for his involvement in the kidnapping and murder of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent James Terry Watson in Bogotá, Colombia, on June 20, 2013.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Dana J. Boente of the Eastern District of Virginia, Special Agent in Charge George L. Piro of the FBI’s Miami Field Office, DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart and Director Bill A. Miller of the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) made the announcement.

“This development marks yet another significant step forward in our effort to achieve justice for Special Agent Terry Watson, who gave his life in the service of his country,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “This nation owes Special Agent Watson, and all of our fallen law enforcement personnel, a debt of gratitude we can never hope to repay. But we will never rest in our commitment to hold accountable all those responsible for his murder. That effort will continue. And his example will continue to guide and inspire us.”

Héctor Leonardo López, 34, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee of the Eastern District of Virginia to aiding and abetting the murder of an internationally protected person and conspiracy to kidnap an internationally protected person.  Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 12, 2014.

In a statement of facts filed with the plea agreement, López admitted that he and his conspirators agreed to conduct a “paseo milionario” or “millionaire’s ride” in which victims who were perceived as wealthy were lured into taxi cabs, kidnapped and then robbed.  López admitted that he was part of the group of individuals that targeted and picked up Special Agent Watson, outside of a restaurant in Bogotá.  Soon after, two conspirators entered the taxi carrying Special Agent Watson, and one used a stun gun to shock Special Agent Watson and the other stabbed him.  Special Agent Watson was able to escape from the taxi, but he later collapsed and died from his injuries.  López admitted that he drove the second taxi, which carried the two individuals who attacked Special Agent Watson.  López also admitted that part of his role in the robbery crew was to receive stolen bank cards and use them at various banks to take out money.

Six other defendants were charged in this case for their alleged involvement in the murder of Special Agent Watson.  Gerardo Figueroa Sepúlveda, 39; Omar Fabián Valdes Gualtero, 27; and Édgar Javier Bello Murillo, 27, are each charged by indictment with second degree murder, kidnapping and conspiracy to kidnap.  Wilson Daniel Peralta Bocachica, 31, was charged for his alleged efforts to destroy evidence associated with the murder of Special Agent Watson. 

On Sept. 3, 2014, Julio Estiven Gracia Ramírez, 31, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the murder of an internationally protected person and conspiracy to kidnap an internationally protected person.  Sentencing for Gracia Ramírez is scheduled for Dec. 5, 2014.  On Sept. 17, 2014, Andrés Álvaro Oviedo García, 22, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the murder of an internationally protected person and conspiracy to kidnap an internationally protected person.  Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 12, 2014.

Trial for the remaining defendants is set for Jan. 12, 2015.

The charges in the indictment against the other defendants are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

This case was investigated by the FBI, DEA and DSS, in close cooperation with Colombian authorities and with assistance from Interpol and the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs.  The case is being prosecuted by Special Counsel Stacey Luck of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael P. Ben’Ary of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The Department of Justice gratefully acknowledges the Colombian Attorney General’s Office, Colombian National Police, Colombian Directorate of Criminal Investigation and Interpol (DIJIN), DIJIN Special Investigative Unit, Bogotá Metropolitan Police, Bogotá Police Intelligence Body (CIPOL) Unit and Colombian Technical Investigation Team for their extraordinary efforts, support and professionalism in responding to this incident.

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Pharmaceutical company Shire Pharmaceuticals LLC will pay $56.5 million to resolve civil allegations that it violated the False Claims Act as a result of its marketing and promotion of several drugs, the Justice Department announced today.  Shire, located in Wayne, Pennsylvania, manufactures and sells pharmaceuticals, including Adderall XR, Vyvanse and Daytrana, which are approved for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and Pentasa and Lialda, which are approved for the treatment of mild to moderate active ulcerative colitis.

“Patients and health care providers must receive accurate information about available prescription drugs so that they can make safe and informed treatment decisions,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Joyce R. Branda for the Justice Department’s Civil Division.  “The Department of Justice will be vigilant to hold accountable pharmaceutical companies that provide misleading information regarding a drug’s safety or efficacy.”

The settlement resolves allegations that, between January 2004 and December 2007, Shire promoted Adderall XR for certain uses despite a lack of clinical data to support such claims and overstated the efficacy of Adderall XR, particularly relative to other ADHD drugs.  Among the allegedly unsupported claims was that Adderall XR was clinically superior to other ADHD drugs because it would “normalize” its recipients, rendering them indistinguishable from their non-ADHD peers.  Shire allegedly stated that its competitors’ products could not achieve similar results, which the government contended was not shown in the clinical data that Shire collected.  Shire also allegedly marketed Adderall XR based on unsupported claims that Adderall XR would prevent poor academic performance, loss of employment, criminal behavior, traffic accidents and sexually transmitted disease.  In addition, Shire allegedly promoted Adderall XR for the treatment of conduct disorder without approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The settlement further resolves allegations that, between February 2007 and September 2010, Shire sales representatives and other agents allegedly made false and misleading statements about the efficacy and “abuseability” of Vyvanse to state Medicaid formulary committees and to individual physicians.  For example, one Shire medical science liaison allegedly told a state formulary board that Vyvanse “provides less abuse liability” than “every other long-acting release mechanism” on the market.  However, the government contended that no study Shire conducted had concluded that Vyvanse was not abuseable, and, as an amphetamine product, the Vyvanse label included an FDA-mandated black box warning for its potential for misuse and abuse.  Shire also made allegedly unsupported claims that treatment with Vyvanse would prevent car accidents, divorce, arrests and unemployment. 

Additionally, the settlement resolves allegations that from April 2006 to September 2010, Shire representatives improperly marketed Daytrana, administered through a patch, as less abuseable than traditional, pill-based medications, and, for part of this period, improperly made phone calls and drafted letters to state Medicaid authorities to assist physicians with the prior authorization process for prescriptions to induce these physicians to prescribe Daytrana and Vyvanse. 

Finally, the settlement resolves allegations that between January 2006 and June 2010, Shire sales representatives promoted Lialda and Pentasa for off-label uses not approved by the FDA and not covered by federal healthcare programs.  Specifically, the government alleged that Shire promoted Lialda off-label for the prevention of colorectal cancer.

"Marketing efforts that influence a doctor’s independent judgment can undermine the doctor-patient relationship and short-change the patient,” said U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.  “Where children’s medication is concerned, it can interfere with a parent’s right to clear information regarding the risks to the safety and health of their child.  Shire cooperated throughout this investigation and, in advance of this settlement, began to correct its marketing activities.”

"This settlement represents another important step in our fight against fraud in federally-funded healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid,” said U.S. Attorney Zachary T. Fardon for the Northern District of Illinois.  “The Shire settlement returns funds not only to the U.S. government but also to the individual states whose health care programs rely in part on the efficacy of jointly-funded programs like Medicaid.  We will continue doing everything in our power to combat fraud and ensure the integrity of our healthcare programs.”

As a result of today’s $56.5 million settlement, the federal government will receive $35,713,965, and state Medicaid programs will receive $20,786,034.  The Medicaid program is funded jointly by the federal and state governments.  In addition, Shire has separately reached agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG) on a corporate integrity agreement, which will address the company’s future marketing efforts.

“Our agency will continue to hold drug companies responsible for seeking to boost profits using false and misleading claims about products, such as the powerful medications prescribed to children and other drugs at issue in this settlement,” said Chief Counsel to the HHS Inspector General Gregory E. Demske.  “We entered into a corporate integrity agreement with Shire that requires comprehensive compliance safeguards, oversight of Shire promotional activities, and compliance certifications from Shire’s board of directors and management.”

The allegations resolved by the settlement arose from a lawsuit filed by Dr. Gerardo Torres, a former Shire executive, and a separate lawsuit filed by Anita Hsieh, Kara Harris and Ian Clark, former Shire sales representatives.  The lawsuits were filed under the False Claims Act’s whistleblower provisions, which permit private parties to sue for false claims on behalf of the government and to share in any recovery.  Torres will receive $5.9 million.   

This settlement illustrates the government’s emphasis on combating health care fraud and marks another achievement for the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) initiative, which was announced in May 2009 by the Attorney General and the Secretary of HHS.  The partnership between the two departments has focused efforts to reduce and prevent Medicare and Medicaid financial fraud through enhanced cooperation.  One of the most powerful tools in this effort is the False Claims Act.  Since January 2009, the Justice Department has recovered a total of more than $22.4 billion through False Claims Act cases, with more than $14.2 billion of that amount recovered in cases involving fraud against federal health care programs.

This case was a cooperative effort among the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the Northern District of Illinois, the Justice Department’s Civil Division, Office of the Inspector General for the Office of Personnel Management, HHS-OIG and the FDA.  The HHS Office of the General Counsel-CMS Division and the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units also provided assistance. 

The lawsuits are captioned United States ex rel. Torres v. Shire Specialty Pharmaceuticals, et al., No. 08-4795 (E.D. Pa.) and United States ex rel. Hsieh, Harris, and Clark v. Shire PLC, et al., No. 09-6994 (N.D. Ill.).  The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only; there has been no determination of liability.

Joseph Arigo, 47, a sergeant with the Fulton Police Department in Fulton, New York, pleaded guilty today in federal court to one count of deprivation of rights under color of law for beating a handcuffed man inside the Fulton police station.      

According to court documents filed in connection with his guilty plea, Arigo was sitting at the sergeant’s desk on June 28, 2014, when a handcuffed man, G.B., was brought into the police station.  G.B. was yelling, but was not physically threatening any officers or himself.  Arigo pulled the video camera out of the wall to stop it from recording, walked into the room where G.B. was being held, shoved his head into the bench, and punched him in the head multiple times.  G.B. suffered cuts and bruising, lost consciousness, and required seven stitches. After the incident, Arigo lied to his supervisors as well as in two official reports in an attempt to conceal his actions.

Sentencing is set for Jan. 23, 2015, and Arigo faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. 

This case was investigated by the Syracuse Resident Agency of the Albany Division of the FBI and is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Dana Mulhauser of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.

The United States filed eight civil injunction suits in Florida to bar Walner G. Gachette, the founder of Orlando-based tax preparation company LBS Tax Services, seven LBS Tax Services franchisees, and three LBS Tax Services managers from owning, operating, or franchising a tax return preparation business and preparing tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today.

The seven franchisees and three managers sued are Douglas Mesadieu, Jean R. Demesmin, Kerny Pierre-Louis, Demetrius Scott, Jason Stinson, Wilfrid Antoine, Jacqueline Nunez, Tonya Chambers, Jehoakim Victor and Lauri Rodriguez.

According to the complaints, in 2013, LBS Tax Services operated at least 239 stores (192 owned by the named defendants) in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi. The government also asserts that LBS Tax Services prepared more than 55,000 federal income tax returns in 2013.  The complaints allege that, in 2014, some of the defendants’ LBS Tax Services stores began doing business using the names Milestone Tax Services, Tax Giant, AWA Tax, Tax Master Xpress, BPTS Tax Services and Nation Tax Services.

“The public should be able to rely on federal income tax preparers to prepare honest and complete returns,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General David A. Hubbert for the Justice Department’s Tax Division.  “The Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Justice have made it a priority to sue and enjoin tax return preparers who prepare fraudulent returns.”

The suits allege that the defendants target primarily low-income customers with deceptive and misleading advertisements, prepared and filed fraudulent tax returns to falsely increase their customers’ refunds and profit through unconscionable and exorbitant fees — all at the expense of their customers and the U.S. Treasury.  One case highlighted in the complaints erroneously suggests that potential customers will receive a tax refund of more than $3,000 “per child.”

            According to the complaints, the defendants directed return preparers for LBS Tax Services to, among other things:

            •           Falsely claim or increase the amount of the Earned Income Tax Credit;

            •           Claim improper filing status (i.e., head of household for married individuals);

            •           Fabricate businesses and related business income and expenses;

            •           Fabricate Schedule A deductions, particularly for unreimbursed employee business expenses; and

            •           Charge deceptive and unconscionable fees.

Among the many examples cited in the eight complaints are:

A customer in Tampa, Florida, was allegedly waiting at a bus station when he was approached by an LBS Tax Services employee, who offered to drive the customer to an LBS Tax Services store to have his tax return prepared.  According to the complaint, despite knowing that the customer did not have a car, LBS Tax Services reported on the customer’s tax return that he had driven his personal vehicle 30,256 miles for business purposes, resulting in a bogus $17,589 unreimbursed employee business expense claimed on the customer’s tax return.

A customer was allegedly approached at a flea market by an LBS Tax Services preparer who told her that she had to file a tax return, showed her a badge, and said that he was a police officer and would not do anything that was wrong.  That preparer allegedly prepared the customer’s tax return, on which the preparer falsely claimed that the customer had more than $10,000 in income in order to claim an Earned Income Tax Credit and bogus refund.

Another customer in Houston, Texas, won $250,000 in the lottery in 2012.  The LBS Tax Services preparer allegedly claimed several phony deductions to offset that income, including $30,141 in charitable contributions and $10,279 in unreimbursed employee business expenses. The customer’s tax return allegedly claimed a bogus refund in the amount of $8,247.

On the tax return of one Jacksonville, Florida customer, LBS Tax Services allegedly reported that the customer had a mechanic business through which he earned income, when he did not.  Allegedly, the customer did not work in 2012, and when he applied for social security disability benefits in 2013, he was denied because based on the income that LBS Tax Services falsely reported on his tax return, he had shown an ability to work.

"Tax return preparers play an important and integral role in our tax system," said IRS Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement John M. Dalrymple. "The IRS and Justice Department are committed to protecting taxpayers and pursuing return preparers engaged in fraud. We encourage taxpayers to carefully select their tax preparer and be careful about misleading promises about refunds."

According to the complaints, the IRS estimates that the tax loss from the defendants’ stores for the 2012 tax year alone is in the tens of millions of dollars.  The complaints also requests that the court order the defendants to disgorge the fees that they obtained through their alleged fraudulent tax return preparation.

Return preparer fraud is one of the IRS' Dirty Dozen Tax Scams for 2014.  The IRS has some tips on their website for choosing a tax preparer.  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 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.

Antoine Filed Complaint

Demesmin Filed Complaint

Gachette Filed Complaint

Mesadieu Filed Complaint

Nunez Filed Complaint

Pierre Louis Filed Complaint

Scott Filed Complaint

Stinson Filed Complaint

The United States has asked a federal court in Philadelphia to permanently bar Denise Miller Almanza and her business, Denise’s Centro de Servicios, PC, from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today.  According to the complaint, Almanza inappropriately reduces her customers’ income or wrongly claims tax credits on their returns, causing the customers to receive tax refunds or increased refund amounts to which they are not entitled.  Almanza and her business have prepared more than 14,000 federal tax returns since 2010, according to the complaint.

The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, alleges that Almanza improperly claims the additional child tax credit on customers’ income tax returns, which allow her customers to receive, on average, over $2,900 in improper benefits per tax return.  In total, the complaint alleges that Almanza’s activities over the last four years have potentially cost the U.S. Treasury millions of dollars in lost tax revenue.  

Return preparer fraud is one of the IRS’ Dirty Dozen Tax Scams for 2014.  The IRS has some tips on their website for choosing a tax preparer.  In the past decade, the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained injunctions against hundreds of unscrupulous tax preparers.  Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website.

Related Materials:

United States v. Denise Miller Almanza
Complaint

WASHINGTON—Interpol Washington today announced the formation of a dedicated Interpol Foreign Terrorist Fighter (FTF) program in partnership with the National Security Council (NSC), the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The program leverages the unique resources Interpol utilizes to combat transnational crime, including its secure, encrypted communications system, its criminal and analytical databases and its system of advisory notices.  Through this program, Interpol will provide an unparalleled mechanism for addressing the threat from FTFs by helping to monitor and deter their international movement and interdict them at strategic entry points, where possible.  Composed of the National Central Bureaus (NCB) of more than 30 member countries, the program was established in response to the need for a forum for sharing intelligence and best practices on a global scale to combat the threat of foreign terrorist fighters traveling to Iraq and Syria.

“Interpol provides critical leadership in advancing the Justice Department’s efforts to combat terrorism and ensure the safety of all Americans – offering cutting-edge resources, a structure for international cooperation, and strategic tools like Red, Blue and Green Notices for tracing, targeting and apprehending terror suspects,” said Attorney General Eric Holder.  “In a world that is increasingly interdependent and interconnected, Interpol helps to defend against a range of evolving challenges by disseminating information, combating crime, and identifying potential threats.  And particularly today, with the emergence of groups like ISIL, and the knowledge that some Americans are attempting to travel to countries like Syria and Iraq to take part in ongoing conflicts, Interpol – as the world’s largest international police organization – has a vital role to play in safeguarding our homeland and protecting the American people.”

“The threat posed by foreign fighters is one that is persistent and requires the full cooperation and resources of the international law enforcement community to effectively combat," said Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson.  “We are already working closely with European and other governments to build better information sharing, and we will continue to leverage our partnership with the Interpol, Department of Justice and other international partners to make enhanced and concerted efforts to track foreign fighters who come from or seek to enter the United States.”

The program currently supports a working group that includes Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States, and an international symposia—a multinational database populated with information contributed by and accessible to participating member countries.  The criminal intelligence information contained in the database includes detailed identity particulars that are especially valuable to law enforcement and border control authorities in making determinations of the terrorist threat posed by subjects located in, or attempting to enter, their respective jurisdictions.

Interpol Washington played a critical role in the program’s development and is taking the lead on implementing it in the United States by continuing to strategically use Interpol Red Notices to target and apprehend terrorists for prosecution in U.S. courts and Interpol Blue Notices to trace and locate terrorists and others suspected of terrorism-related activity, including those not charged with a particular offense.  Further, Interpol Washington is extensively utilizing Interpol Green Notices to publish information about hundreds of foreign nationals previously identified in both Iraq and Afghanistan and involved in terrorist activities. Interpol also offers countries the ability to use its information sharing system to send targeted messages to key partners on terrorist subjects.

“Interpol Washington continues to champion international police cooperation by leading U.S. efforts in the Interpol Foreign Terrorist Fighter program,” said Interpol Washington Director Shawn A. Bray.  “Interpol provides a unique set of information sharing solutions for addressing this growing threat.  By applying these solutions via its secure global communications network, Interpol member countries send a strong, unified message of engagement against FTFs and those who support them.”

Regional meetings, meetings of the heads of National Central Bureaus and the annual Interpol General Assembly represent additional opportunities for strengthening the FTF program.  Finally, Interpol works closely with the United Nations, particularly the Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council, to publish Special Notices on individuals listed by the Sanctions Committee as belonging to or associated with al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Interpol Washington, a component of the DOJ and co-managed by the DHS, facilitates the sharing of criminal justice, humanitarian and public safety information among Interpol’s 190 member countries and more than 18,000 local, state, federal and tribal law enforcement agencies in the United States.  In coordinating international investigative efforts, Interpol Washington works to enhance the safety and security of our nation.

For more information about Interpol Washington, visit: www.justice.gov/interpol-washington.

###

Interpol Washington today announced the formation of a dedicated Interpol Foreign Terrorist Fighter (FTF) program in partnership with the National Security Council (NSC), the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The program leverages the unique resources Interpol utilizes to combat transnational crime, including its secure, encrypted communications system, its criminal and analytical databases and its system of advisory notices.  Through this program, Interpol will provide an unparalleled mechanism for addressing the threat from FTFs by helping to monitor and deter their international movement and interdict them at strategic entry points, where possible.  Composed of the National Central Bureaus (NCB) of more than 30 member countries, the program was established in response to the need for a forum for sharing intelligence and best practices on a global scale to combat the threat of foreign terrorist fighters traveling to Iraq and Syria.

“Interpol provides critical leadership in advancing the Justice Department’s efforts to combat terrorism and ensure the safety of all Americans – offering cutting-edge resources, a structure for international cooperation, and strategic tools like Red, Blue and Green Notices for tracing, targeting and apprehending terror suspects,” said Attorney General Eric Holder.  “In a world that is increasingly interdependent and interconnected, Interpol helps to defend against a range of evolving challenges by disseminating information, combating crime, and identifying potential threats.  And particularly today, with the emergence of groups like ISIL, and the knowledge that some Americans are attempting to travel to countries like Syria and Iraq to take part in ongoing conflicts, Interpol – as the world’s largest international police organization – has a vital role to play in safeguarding our homeland and protecting the American people.”

“The threat posed by foreign fighters is one that is persistent and requires the full cooperation and resources of the international law enforcement community to effectively combat," said Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson.  “We are already working closely with European and other governments to build better information sharing, and we will continue to leverage our partnership with the Interpol, Department of Justice and other international partners to make enhanced and concerted efforts to track foreign fighters who come from or seek to enter the United States.”

The program currently supports a working group that includes Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States, and an international symposia—a multinational database populated with information contributed by and accessible to participating member countries.  The criminal intelligence information contained in the database includes detailed identity particulars that are especially valuable to law enforcement and border control authorities in making determinations of the terrorist threat posed by subjects located in, or attempting to enter, their respective jurisdictions.

Interpol Washington played a critical role in the program’s development and is taking the lead on implementing it in the United States by continuing to strategically use Interpol Red Notices to target and apprehend terrorists for prosecution in U.S. courts and Interpol Blue Notices to trace and locate terrorists and others suspected of terrorism-related activity, including those not charged with a particular offense.  Further, Interpol Washington is extensively utilizing Interpol Green Notices to publish information about hundreds of foreign nationals previously identified in both Iraq and Afghanistan and involved in terrorist activities. Interpol also offers countries the ability to use its information sharing system to send targeted messages to key partners on terrorist subjects.

“Interpol Washington continues to champion international police cooperation by leading U.S. efforts in the Interpol Foreign Terrorist Fighter program,” said Interpol Washington Director Shawn A. Bray.  “Interpol provides a unique set of information sharing solutions for addressing this growing threat.  By applying these solutions via its secure global communications network, Interpol member countries send a strong, unified message of engagement against FTFs and those who support them.”  

Regional meetings, meetings of the heads of National Central Bureaus and the annual Interpol General Assembly represent additional opportunities for strengthening the FTF program.  Finally, Interpol works closely with the United Nations, particularly the Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council, to publish Special Notices on individuals listed by the Sanctions Committee as belonging to or associated with al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Interpol Washington, a component of the DOJ and co-managed by the DHS, facilitates the sharing of criminal justice, humanitarian and public safety information among Interpol’s 190 member countries and more than 18,000 local, state, federal and tribal law enforcement agencies in the United States.  In coordinating international investigative efforts, Interpol Washington works to enhance the safety and security of our nation.

For more information about Interpol Washington, visit: www.justice.gove/interpol-washington.

Former Hamilton County Deputy Sheriff Willie Greer, 33, was indicted yesterday by a federal grand jury in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for sexually assaulting a woman while he was on duty on Jan. 5, 2014, the Justice Department announced. 

Greer was charged with a civil rights violation for sexually assaulting the victim, which violated her constitutional due process rights to bodily integrity, kidnapping, carrying a firearm during and in relation to the sexual assault and possessing a firearm in further of the crime. 

If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and a fine of not more than $250,000.  An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence of guilt.  The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

This case was investigated by the FBI and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney James Brooks of the Eastern District of Tennessee and Civil Rights Division Trial Attorney Saeed Mody. 

A national of Eritrea and citizen of the United Kingdom pleaded guilty today to smuggling undocumented immigrants from Eritrea and Ethiopia into the United States.          

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. of the District of Columbia and Special Agent in Charge Clark Settles of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations’ (HSI) Washington, D.C., Field Office made the announcement.

According to his plea agreement, Habtom Merhay, 47, who operated primarily from his residence in Dubai, orchestrated the unlawful smuggling of up to 99 undocumented African immigrants to the United States for profit.  Specifically, Merhay admitted that in exchange for fees up to $14,000, he smuggled immigrants into the United States by providing fraudulent travel documents, purchasing airline tickets for travel to South and Central America, and then coordinating with a network of smugglers to facilitate the travel by air, land and water across Central America and Mexico and into the United States. 

Merhay pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton of the District of Columbia, and is scheduled for sentencing on Dec. 16, 2014.  Merhay was in the custody of Moroccan authorities between his arrest in Marrakech, Morocco, in August 2013 and extradition to the United States on April 25, 2014.    

The investigation was led by HSI’s Washington, D.C., Field Office, with the support of the Human Smuggling Trafficking Center and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s National Targeting Center.  This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Jay Bauer of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Frederick Yette of the District of Columbia.  The extradition was handled by Dan E. Stigall of the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs.  

The Department of Justice and HSI expressed their appreciation for the significant assistance provided by the Moroccan Ministry of Justice. 

# # #

WASHINGTON – Los Estados Unidos le pidieron a un tribunal federal en Filadelfia que prohibiera en forma permanente a Denise Miller Almanza y su empresa, Denise's Centro de Servicios, PC, preparar declaraciones de impuestos federales para terceros, anunció hoy el Departamento de Justicia.  De acuerdo con la demanda, Almanza declaró indebidamente ingresos de sus clientes inferiores a los reales o reclamó indebidamente créditos tributarios en sus declaraciones, haciendo que los clientes recibieran reintegros de impuestos indebidos o reintegros por valores superiores a los que tenían derecho.  Almanza y su empresa prepararon más de 14,000 declaraciones de impuestos federales desde 2010, de acuerdo con la demanda.

La demanda, entablada en el Tribunal Federal de Distrito para el Distrito Este de Pensilvania, alega que Almanza reclamó indebidamente crédito tributario adicional por hijo en las declaraciones de impuesto a la renta de clientes, lo que permitió que sus clientes recibieran, en promedio $2,900 de beneficios indebidos por declaración de impuestos.  En total, la demanda alega que las actividades de Almanza a lo largo de los últimos cuatro años le costaron potencialmente al Tesoro de EE.UU. millones de dólares en ingresos tributarios perdidos.

El fraude de preparación de declaraciones de impuestos es uno de los ardides de la Docena sucia de ardides tributarios de 2014 del Servicio de Impuestos Internos [Internal Revenue Service (IRS)].   El IRS tiene algunos consejos en su portal en Internet para la elección de un preparador de impuestos.   En la última década, la División de Impuestos del Departamento de Justicia ha obtenido interdictos contra cientos de preparadores de impuestos inescrupulosos.  Se puede encontrar información sobre estos casos en el portal del Departamento de Justicia.

Attorney General Eric Holder released the following statement Wednesday on the 225th anniversary of the U.S. Marshals Service:

"Today, we recognize a legacy of achievement by America's oldest federal law enforcement agency, the United States Marshals Service.  For 225 years, the Marshals Service has occupied a unique and valued position in our country's judicial system.  This nation has relied upon U.S. Marshals and their deputies at pivotal moments in our history, and each time, the men and women of this great organization have risen to the challenge.  On this anniversary, we remember their efforts in establishing order in the Wild West, in restoring a divided nation following the Civil War, in desegregating America's schools, and in enforcing civil rights legislation.

"These brave men and women continue their fight for justice today, remaining dedicated to their traditional missions of securing our courts, tracking and apprehending fugitives, detaining and transporting federal prisoners, protecting federal witnesses, and seizing criminal assets.  The agency continues to evolve technologically and strategically to meet current law enforcement challenges, while still holding true to its core values of "justice, integrity and service."  I thank these dedicated professionals for their sacrifice and commitment to justice."

A Kaysville, Utah, man was convicted Friday of three counts of tax evasion and one count of filing a false tax return, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. 

Jon T. McBride, who was indicted on March 27, 2013, was convicted on Friday, Sept. 19, 2014, following a jury verdict.  He faces a statutory maximum sentence of 18 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million at his Dec. 1, 2014 sentencing before U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart.

The evidence at trial also showed that McBride prepared and filed a false U.S. individual income tax return for the year 2005, on which he failed to include approximately $109,785 in gross income received.  According to the indictment and evidence at trial, McBride willfully attempted to evade his federal income taxes for 2006 by filing a false return that failed to report more than $300,000 he received from his company, the sale of his vacation property and early retirement distributions.  McBride also willfully attempted to evade his 2007 federal income taxes by failing to file an individual federal income tax return and filing a false return for one of his nominee partnerships.  McBride again willfully attempted to evade his 2009 taxes by filing a false return that reported zero income.  Additionally, for tax years 2006, 2007 and 2009, McBride used nominees to hide and conceal his ownership in real property and partnerships.

The case was investigated by special agents of the IRS - Criminal Investigation and was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Brent Ward of the Criminal Division and Trial Attorney Andrea Kafka for the Tax Division.

The Department of Justice announced that Robert Keller, 70, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah today to a federal civil rights crime related to interfering with the housing rights of three members of an interracial family because of the family member’s races and because the family members were living in a home while associating with an African American family member in Hurricane, Utah. 

During the plea proceedings, Keller admitted that on Dec. 30, 2013, he wrote a note to two Caucasian family members of an interracial family threatening to kill them if they did not make their African American family member leave their home.  Keller admitted that he used threats of force to willfully intimidate and interfere with the two Caucasian family members because they were occupying a dwelling while associating with their African American family member.  

“Members of our community have a constitutional right to live in their home without fear, and the department will not tolerate threats of violence that infringe on that right,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Molly Moran for the Civil Rights Division. 

"Hate based crimes have no place in America,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Carlie Christensen for the District of Utah.  “They not only hurt the individuals who are the object of such hate, but tear at the fabric of our society as a whole.  In this case, the defendant’s attempt to rid his neighborhood of an African-American member of an interracial family serves as a horrifying reminder that racial intolerance stills exists in some communities.  This conviction sends a clear message that such despicable acts will not be tolerated by this office, but will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Sentencing is scheduled for December 1st and the defendant faces a maximum penalty of one year in prison.

This case is being investigated by the Salt Lake City Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in cooperation with the Hurricane City Police Department.  It is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Saeed Mody of the Civil Rights Division and Assistant United States Attorney Carlos Esqueda of the District of Utah.

In a speech at the Brennan Center for Justice, Attorney General Eric Holder announced today that the federal prison population has dropped by roughly 4,800 inmates since September 2013.  This represents the first time the federal inmate population has fallen, rather than risen, over the course of a fiscal year since 1980.

Moreover, Attorney General Holder announced that current Bureau of Prisons estimates project this downward trend to continue in each of the next two fiscal years.  In FY15, the inmate population is projected to drop by another 2,200 inmates.  In FY16, the population is projected to drop by 10,000 inmates - or the equivalent of six federal prisons.

“This is nothing less than historic,” said Attorney General Holder. “Clearly, criminal justice reform is an idea whose time has come.  And thanks to a robust and growing national consensus – a consensus driven not by political ideology, but by the promising work that’s underway – we are bringing about a paradigm shift, and witnessing a historic sea change, in the way our nation approaches these issues.”

While these statistics show progress at the federal level, there is similar progress at the state level.  Overall, incarceration rates have fallen by roughly 10 percent since President Obama took office, and that has occurred simultaneously with a similarly-sized reduction in crime rates.

The Attorney General’s full remarks to the law enforcement conference, as prepared for delivery appear below:

Thank you, Jim [Johnson], for those kind words; for your friendship over the many years we’ve known one another – since we served together in the Clinton Administration; and for your leadership, along with Doug Jones, as co-chair of the Brennan Center’s Blue Ribbon Panel. 

I’d also like to thank the Brennan Center’s distinguished president, my friend Michael Waldman, and your entire staff – particularly the Justice Program – for bringing us together today.  It’s an honor to take part in this important conference.  It’s a privilege to be at NYU Law School for the second time in as many weeks.  And it’s a great pleasure, as always, to be back home in New York City. 

For nearly two decades, the Brennan Center has provided indispensable leadership on issues ranging from campaign finance and voting rights to national security and equal justice.  You’ve offered rigorous research and expert guidance to policymakers at every level of government.  And with this conference – and the report you’re unveiling today – you’re taking yet another step to advance our efforts to address some of our nation’s most critical challenges – few of which are more complex, or more urgent, than the need to strengthen America’s criminal justice system and reduce our overreliance on incarceration.

As you know, we gather this afternoon just over a year after the launch of the Justice Department’s Smart on Crime initiative – a series of important changes and commonsense reforms I set in motion last August.  Already, these changes are fundamentally shifting our response to certain crime challenges – particularly low-level, nonviolent drug offenses.  And this initiative is predicated on the notion that our work as prosecutors must be informed, and our criminal justice system continually improved, by the most effective and efficient strategies available.

After all – as I’ve often said – the United States will never be able to prosecute or incarcerate its way to becoming a safer nation.  We must never, and we will never, stop being vigilant against crime – and the conditions and choices that breed it.  But, for far too long – under well-intentioned policies designed to be “tough” on criminals – our system has perpetuated a destructive cycle of poverty, criminality, and incarceration that has trapped countless people and weakened entire communities – particularly communities of color.

In recent decades, the effects of these policies – and the impact of the “truth-in-sentencing” mindset – have been dramatic.  Although the United States comprises just five percent of the world’s population, we incarcerate almost a quarter of its prisoners.  The entire United States population has increased by about a third since 1980.  But the federal prison population has grown by almost 800 percent over the same period.  Spending on corrections, incarceration, and law enforcement has exploded, consuming $260 billion per year nationwide.  And the Bureau of Prisons currently commands about a third of the Justice Department’s overall budget.

Perhaps most troubling is the fact that this astonishing rise in incarceration – and the escalating costs it has imposed on our country, in terms both economic and human – have not measurably benefited our society.  We can all be proud of the progress that’s been made at reducing the crime rate over the past two decades – thanks to the tireless work of prosecutors and the bravery of law enforcement officials across America.  But statistics have shown – and all of us have seen – that high incarceration rates and longer-than-necessary prison terms have not played a significant role in materially improving public safety, reducing crime, or strengthening communities.

In fact, the opposite is often true.  Two weeks ago, the Washington Post reported that new analysis of crime data and incarceration rates – performed by the Pew Charitable Trusts, and covering the period of 1994 to 2012 – shows that states with the most significant drops in crime also saw reductions in their prison populations.  States that took drastic steps to reduce their prison populations – in many cases by percentages well into the double digits – saw crime go down as well.  And the one state – West Virginia – with the greatest increase in its incarceration rate actually experienced an uptick in crime. 

As the Post makes clear: “To the extent that there is any trend here, it’s actually that states incarcerating people have seen smaller decreases in crime.”   And this has been borne out at the national level, as well.

Since President Obama took office, both overall crime and overall incarceration have decreased by approximately 10 percent.  This is the first time these two critical markers have declined together in more than 40 years.  And although we have a great deal of work to do – and although, last year, some states continued to record growth in their prison populations – this is a signal achievement.

We know that over-incarceration crushes opportunity.  We know it prevents people, and entire communities, from getting on the right track.  And we’ve seen that – as more and more government leaders have gradually come to recognize – at a fundamental level, it challenges our commitment to the cause of justice.

Fortunately, I can report today that we are finally moving in the right direction, at least at the federal level.  Over the past year, the federal prison population declined by roughly 4,800 inmates – the first decrease we’ve seen in many ‎decades.

Even more promising are new internal projections from the Bureau of Prisons.  In a dramatic reversal of prior reports – which showed that the prison population would continue to grow, becoming more and more costly, overcrowded, and unsafe – taking into account our new policies and trends, our new projections anticipate that the number of federal inmates will fall by just over 2,000 in the next 12 months – and by almost 10,000 in the year after.‎

This is nothing less than historic.  To put these numbers in perspective, 10,000 inmates is the rough equivalent of the combined populations of six federal prisons, each filled to capacity.  Now, these projected decreases won’t result in any prison closures, because our system is operating at about 30 percent above capacity.  But my hope is that we’re witnessing the start of a trend that will only accelerate as our Smart on Crime changes take full effect. 

Clearly, criminal justice reform is an idea whose time has come.  And thanks to a robust and growing national consensus – a consensus driven not by political ideology, but by the promising work that’s underway, and the efforts of leaders like Senators Patrick Leahy, Dick Durbin, Mike Lee, and Rand Paul – we are bringing about a paradigm shift, and witnessing a historic sea change, in the way our nation approaches these issues. 

Of course, for these changes to become permanent, we’ll need to rely on the dedication – and the leadership – of federal prosecutors in Washington and in all 94 of our United States Attorney’s Offices.  As a career prosecutor myself – and as former U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia – I have always had the utmost confidence in, and respect for, these hardworking men and women.  And that’s why, as Attorney General, I’ve consistently advocated policies that push discretion out into the field.

The Smart on Crime initiative is in many ways the ultimate expression of my trust in the abilities – and the judgment – of our attorneys on the front lines.  And although some have suggested that recent changes in charging and sentencing policies might somehow undermine their ability to induce cooperation from defendants in certain cases, today, I want to make it abundantly clear that nothing could be further from the truth.

As I know from experience – and as all veteran prosecutors and defense attorneys surely recognize – defendant cooperation depends on the certainty of swift and fair punishment, not on the length of a mandatory minimum sentence.  Like anyone old enough to remember the era before sentencing guidelines existed and mandatory minimums took full effect, I can testify to the fact that federal guidelines attempted to systematize the kinds of negotiations that were naturally taking place anyway.  As our U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, John Vaudreuil, often reminds his colleagues, even without the threat of mandatory minimums, it remains in the interests of all attorneys to serve as sound advocates for their clients – and for defendants to cooperate with the government in exchange for reduced sentences.

Far from impeding the work of our prosecutors, the sentencing reforms I’ve mandated have strengthened their discretion. The contention that cooperation is somehow dependent on mandatory minimums is tied to a past at tension with the empirical present, and is plainly inconsistent with history, and with now known facts.  After all, as the Heritage Foundation observed earlier this year: “[t]he rate of cooperation in cases involving mandatory minimums is comparable to the average rate in all federal cases.” 

Of course, as we refine our approach and reject the ineffective practice of calling for stringent sentences against those convicted of low-level, nonviolent crimes, we also need to refine the metrics we use to measure success; to evaluate the steps we’re taking; and to assess the effectiveness of new criminal justice priorities.  In the Smart on Crime era, it’s no longer adequate – or appropriate – to rely on outdated models that prize only enforcement, as quantified by numbers of prosecutions, convictions, and lengthy sentences, rather than taking a holistic view. 

As the Brennan Center and many others have recognized – and as your landmark report on Federal Prosecution for the 21st Century makes crystal clear – it’s time to shift away from old metrics and embrace a more contemporary, and more comprehensive, view of what constitutes success.  This means developing a new system of assessment – because, as you’ve noted, what gets measured is what gets funded and what gets funded is what gets done.  That’s why I want to commend this organization – and each of our Blue Ribbon Panelists, including some of our very best sitting and former U.S. Attorneys – for examining new ways for the Justice Department to leverage our resources to better serve America’s communities.

Your concrete recommendations – that federal prosecutors should prioritize reducing violence, incarceration, and recidivism – are consistent with the aims of the Smart on Crime initiative.  The new metrics you propose – such as evaluating progress by assessing changes in local violent crime rates, numbers of federal prisoners initially found in particular districts, and changes in the three-year recidivism rate – lay out a promising roadmap for us to consider.  And my pledge to you today is that my colleagues and I will not merely carefully study this critical report – we will use it as a basis for discussion, and a vital resource to draw upon, as we engage in a far-reaching process to develop and codify new success measures – with the aim of cementing recent shifts in law and policy.

One of the key points underscored by your report – and emphasized under the Smart on Crime approach – is the need for the Justice Department to direct funding to help move the criminal justice field toward a fuller embrace of science and data.  This is something that we – and especially our Office of Justice Programs and Bureau of Justice Assistance – have taken very seriously throughout the Obama Administration.  And nowhere are these ideals more fully embodied – or more promisingly realized – than in our Justice Reinvestment Act and Second Chance Act programs. 

As we speak, the states that participate in Justice Reinvestment are making fundamental policy reforms that aim to reduce unnecessary confinement, save taxpayer dollars, and reinvest funding in strategies proven to enhance community safety.  A report issued in January highlighted 17 states that are projected to save $4.6 billion over 10 years.  Another study, in June, highlighted seven states that have achieved substantial reductions in three-year recidivism rates.  And these successes are notable not only for their magnitude, but for the political consensus that drove them. 

Thanks to bipartisan support from Congress, funding for the Justice Reinvestment Initiative has more than quadrupled this year.  That, on its own, is an extraordinary indication of the power and importance of this work.  And this additional funding is allowing us to launch a new challenge grant program – designed to incentivize states to take the next major step in their reform efforts. 

Today, I am pleased to announce that five states – Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, Ohio, and Oregon – will be receiving these grants, which can be used to expand pre-trial reforms, to scale up swift and certain sanctions, to institute evidence-based parole practices, or a number of other options.  I am also pleased to announce that five states have been selected to receive new funding under the Second Chance Act to help reduce recidivism.  Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Vermont will each be awarded $1 million to meet their recidivism reduction goals.  And each will be eligible for an additional $2 million over the next two years if they do so. 

In addition to these and other Second Chance awards, our Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is providing $7 million in Second Chance Act funding to support reentry demonstration programs and other important efforts at the juvenile level.  A further $1.8 million will support a new Juvenile Reentry Legal Assistance Program through our partners at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.  And we’ll soon be launching a broader partnership with HUD – a partnership rooted in the Pay for Success model championed by the Brennan Center – to focus on finding permanent supportive housing for those returning from incarceration. 

The Justice Department has transferred $5 million to HUD for this program, which will announce the competition in the coming months.  Together, these exciting efforts reaffirm our commitment to strengthening America’s justice system at every level.  They underscore our determination to help people get back on the right path.  But they’re only the beginning – because, beyond our Smart on Crime reforms and our emphasis on evidence-based practices, I believe the federal government has an even broader and more critical role to play in securing the fundamental promise of equal justice under law. 

As we saw all too clearly last month – as the eyes of the nation turned to events in Ferguson, Missouri – whenever discord, mistrust, and roiling tensions fester just under the surface, interactions between law enforcement and local residents can quickly escalate into confrontation, unrest, and even violence.  These tensions simmer every day in far too many communities across the country.  And it’s incumbent upon all of America’s law enforcement officers and leaders to work with the communities they serve to defuse these charged situations by forging close bonds, establishing deep trust, and fostering robust engagement. 

The situation in Ferguson has presented leaders across the nation, and criminal justice and civil rights leaders in particular, with a moment of decision – and a series of important questions that can no longer be avoided.  Will we allow this time – our time – to be defined by division and discord?  Or will we summon the resolve, the fortitude, and the vision to reassess – and even to remake – our system, through cooperation, consensus, and compassion? 

Will we again turn a blind eye to the hard truths that Ferguson exposed, burying these tough realities until another tragedy arises to set them off like a powder keg?  Or will we finally accept this mandate for open and honest dialogue, reach for new and innovative solutions, and rise to the historic challenge – and the critical opportunity – now right before us?

These questions are not rhetorical.  And as we seek to address them, we must take into account the preconceived notions that certain people may bring to interactions with police – preconceptions that may be informed by generations of experience; by the totality of what it has meant to be a person of color in the United States.  We must consider corresponding notions that police may bring to interactions with certain communities and individuals.  And we must never lose sight of the immense and unyielding difficulties inherent in the law enforcement profession – from the training they receive to the risks these brave men and women incur every time they put on their uniforms; from the dangers they face, and the split-second decisions they often must make, to the anguish of family members who awaken at night to the sound of a ringing telephone – hoping for the best, but fearing tragic news about a loved one out walking the beat.

As the brother of a retired law enforcement officer, I understand well how challenging – and how thankless – their vital work can be.  As our nation’s Attorney General, I will always be proud – and steadfast – in my support for law enforcement personnel and their families, who make tremendous and often unheralded sacrifices every single day to keep us safe.  And as an African-American man – who has been stopped and searched by police in situations where such action was not warranted – I also carry with me an understanding of the mistrust that some citizens harbor for those who wear the badge.

So today, it’s time to ask ourselves – as a nation – are we conducting policing, in the 21st century, in a manner that is as effective, as efficient, as equitable, and as just as is possible?  It’s time to build on the outstanding leadership that so many local police are providing – and the reform efforts that are underway in St. Louis County and elsewhere – by making this work a focused, national priority.

Just last week, the Justice Department launched a substantial effort to do just that – by establishing a National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice to promote credibility, to enhance procedural justice, to reduce implicit bias, and to support racial reconciliation.  Separately, President Obama has directed federal agencies to carefully review programs that may provide military equipment, or funding for military equipment, to local police – a process that remains ongoing.  Through a range of other programs like the President’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative – and the department’s regular interactions with exemplary law enforcement executives across the country – my colleagues and I are doing important work to resolve tensions and promote mutual understanding;  to bridge divides and spark constructive dialogue; and to ensure – above all else – that everyone who comes into contact with the police is treated fairly.

This is important, and in some cases life-changing, work.  But I believe we need to take these efforts even further.  That’s why, under the leadership of our COPS Office, the Justice Department is working with major police associations to conduct a broad review of policing tactics, techniques, and training – so we can help the field swiftly confront emerging threats, better address persistent challenges, and thoroughly examine the latest tools and technologies to enhance the safety, and the effectiveness, of law enforcement.  Going forward, I will support not only continuing this timely review, but expanding it – to consider the profession in a comprehensive way – and to provide strong, national direction on a scale not seen since President Lyndon Johnson’s Commission on Law Enforcement nearly half a century ago.

In this ongoing effort, and in so many others – as we seize this important moment, renew our determination to combat crime, and accept the historic opportunities now before us – my colleagues and I will continue to look to the Brennan Center, and each of the leaders in this audience, for guidance; for edification; and for frank and honest advice.  We will continue to rely on the experience, and the thoughtful consideration, that you have brought to today’s discussion – and to countless others over the past two decades.  And we will always be both proud and humbled to count you as partners, and as essential allies, in the considerable work ahead.

I want to thank you all – once again – for your leadership, your vision, and your unwavering commitment to the mission we share.  I look forward to building on this dialogue in the weeks and months to come.  And I am optimistic – despite the challenges we face, and the obstacles we must confront – about where your efforts will take us, and all that we will achieve – together – for the exceptional nation we all love.

Thank you.

The former information technology manager of Liberty Reserve, a company that operated one of the world’s most widely used digital currency services and allegedly laundered billions in suspected criminal proceeds, pleaded guilty today in the Southern District of New York in connection with his role in maintaining the company’s technological infrastructure.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York made the announcement.

Maxim Chukharev, 28, of San José, Costa Rica, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Denise L. Cote to conspiring to operate an illegal unlicensed money transmitting business.  Sentencing is scheduled for January 30, 2015.

According to allegations contained in the indictment and statements made in related court proceedings, Liberty Reserve was incorporated in Costa Rica in 2006 and billed itself as the Internet’s “largest payment processor and money transfer system.”  Liberty Reserve was created, structured and operated to help users conduct illegal transactions anonymously and launder the proceeds of their crimes, and it emerged as one of the principal money transfer agents used by cybercriminals around the world to distribute, store and launder the proceeds of their illegal activity.  Liberty Reserve was used extensively for illegal purposes, functioning as the bank of choice for the criminal underworld because it provided an infrastructure that enabled cybercriminals around the world to conduct anonymous and untraceable financial transactions. 

According to court records, before being shut down by the government in May 2013, Liberty Reserve had more than one million users worldwide, including more than 200,000 users in the United States, who conducted approximately 55 million transactions through its system totaling more than $6 billion in funds.  These funds encompassed suspected proceeds of credit card fraud, identity theft, investment fraud, computer hacking, child pornography, narcotics trafficking and other crimes. 

Chukharev was an associate of Liberty Reserve founder Arthur Budovsky and served as Liberty Reserve’s information technology manager in Costa Rica.  In that role, Chukharev was principally responsible, along with co-defendant Mark Marmilev, formerly Liberty Reserve’s chief technology officer, for maintaining Liberty Reserve’s technological infrastructure.

Chukharev, Marmilev and Budovsky were among seven individuals charged in the indictment, which was unsealed on May 28, 2013.  Three co-defendants – Marmilev, Vladimir Kats and Azzeddine el Amine – previously pleaded guilty and await sentencing.  The indictment also charged Liberty Reserve with conspiracy to commit money laundering and operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business, and the charges remain pending.

The charges contained in the indictment remain pending and are merely accusations.  The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

This case is being investigated by the U.S. Secret Service, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, with assistance from the Secret Service’s New York Electronic Crimes Task Force.  The Judicial Investigation Organization in Costa Rica, the National High Tech Crime Unit in the Netherlands, the Financial and Economic Crime Unit of the Spanish National Police, the Cyber Crime Unit at the Swedish National Bureau of Investigation and the Swiss Federal Prosecutor’s Office also provided assistance. 

This case is being prosecuted jointly by the Criminal Division’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section (AFMLS) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Complex Frauds Unit and Asset Forfeiture Unit in the Southern District of New York, with assistance from the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs and Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section.

Trial Attorney Kevin Mosley of AFMLS and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Serrin Turner, Andrew Goldstein and Christine Magdo of the Southern District of New York are in charge of the prosecution, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Magdo is in charge of the forfeiture aspects of the case.

The Justice Department announced today that it reached an agreement with United Continental Holdings Inc. resolving a claim that divisions of the company previously operating as Continental Airlines discriminated against individuals because of citizenship status in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).   

The department’s investigation was initiated based on a telephone call to the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices’s (OSC) hotline.  The department found that the company requested lawful permanent resident employees, but not U.S. citizen employees, to complete additional Forms I-9 and provide additional proof of employment eligibility after hire even though the law prohibits this practice.  The INA’s anti-discrimination provision prohibits employers from placing additional documentary burdens on work-authorized employees during the employment eligibility verification process based on their citizenship status. 

“The INA’s anti-discrimination provision protects individuals from being singled out for unnecessary and unauthorized employment reverification based on their citizenship or immigration status,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Molly Moran for the Civil Rights Division.  “We commend Continental’s willingness to resolve the issues uncovered during the department’s investigation.”

Under the settlement agreement, Continental will pay $215,000 to the United States, create a $55,000 back pay fund to compensate individuals who may have lost wages due to the company’s practices, and undergo training on the anti-discrimination provision of the INA.  The company will also be subject to departmental monitoring of its employment eligibility reverification practices for a period of two years.    

The Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices within the Justice Department is responsible for enforcing the anti-discrimination provision of the INA.  Among other things, the statute prohibits citizenship status and national origin discrimination in hiring, firing, or recruitment or referral for a fee; unfair documentary practices; retaliation; and intimidation. 

For more information about protections against employment discrimination under immigration laws, call OSC’s worker hotline at 1-800-255-7688 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); call OSC’s employer hotline at 1-800-255-8155 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); sign up for a free webinar at www.justice.gov/crt/about/osc/webinars.php, email [email protected]; or visit OSC’s website at www.justice.gov/crt/about/osc.   

Applicants or employees who believe they were subjected to: different documentary requirements based on their citizenship status, immigration status, or national origin; or discrimination based on their citizenship status, immigration status or national origin in hiring, firing, or recruitment or referral for a fee, should contact OSC’s worker hotline for assistance.

The Justice Department announced today that it has asked a federal court in Chicago, Illinois, to permanently bar Anna Platos and Theodore (Ted) Platos, who do business as Midway Accounting Services, from preparing federal tax returns.  According to the complaint, Ted Platos began doing business as API Tax Solutions in 2013.  The civil injunction suit alleges that Anna Platos and Ted Platos claim bogus deductions and credits on customers’ federal tax returns.

Anna Platos and Ted Platos allegedly claim head-of-household filing status on customers’ tax returns in order to increase customers’ standard deductions, even though Anna Platos and Ted Platos are aware that the customers do not qualify to claim that filing status.  Anna Platos and Ted Platos also allegedly fabricate claims for education credits, unreimbursed employee business expenses, charitable contributions, medical expenses, and state and local taxes paid on tax returns that they prepare.  The complaint further alleges that Anna Platos fabricated a receipt purportedly supporting an energy credit that she claimed on a customer’s tax return, presented that fabricated receipt to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and instructed the customer to lie to the IRS.

The complaint also requests that the federal court require Anna Platos and Ted Platos to provide the government with a list of customers for whom they have prepared tax returns beginning with the 2009 tax year, to contact those customers to inform them of the injunction order, and to post a copy of the injunction order at their place of business.

Return preparer fraud is one of the IRS' Dirty Dozen Tax Scams for 2014.  The IRS has some tips on their website for choosing a tax preparer.  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 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.

Related Materials:

United States v. Anna Platos, etc., et al.
Complaint for Permanent Injunction and Other Relief

A federal court in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, permanently barred Larry E. Snow from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today.  Snow allegedly claimed false tax deductions on customers’ tax returns.

Senior U.S. District Judge Maurice B. Cohill for the Western District of Pennsylvania entered the injunction against Snow on Sept. 23 after Snow failed to contest the government’s claims.  In 2012, Snow pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and assisting in the preparation and presentation of false and fraudulent income tax returns and was later sentenced to six months of home detention and three years probation.  According to the complaint, Snow repeatedly prepared returns with false deductions for medical expenses, personal property taxes, charitable contributions and unreimbursed employee expenses.  He allegedly maintained a list he referred to as “IRS Gimmies,” which were items he instructed his employees to report on each return prepared in his accounting practice, regardless of whether the customer was entitled to them.

The IRS estimated that Snow’s fraudulent return preparation for one year alone cost the U.S. Treasury more than $1.3 million in lost tax revenue.  The court also ordered Snow to notify his former customers of the injunction entered against him.

Return preparer fraud is one of the IRS' Dirty Dozen Tax Scams for 2014.  The IRS has some tips on their website for choosing a tax preparer.  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 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.

Related Materials:

United States v. Larry E. Snow
Default Judgment Against Defendant Larry E. Snow

WASHINGTON – El Departamento de Justicia anunció hoy que llegó a un acuerdo con United Continental Holdings, Inc., por medio del cual se resuelve una acusaciόn de que algunas divisiones de la compañía previamente operando como Continental Airlines discriminaron contra individuos por su estatus de ciudadanía en violación de la Ley de Inmigración y Nacionalidad (INA por sus siglas en inglés).

La investigación del departamento se inició por medio de una llamada telefónica que recibió la Oficina del Consejero Especial para Prácticas Injustas en el Empleo Relacionadas a la Inmigración (OSC) através de su línea directa.  Durante la investigación, el departamento descubrió que la compañía solía requerir a sus empleados residentes permanentes legales, y no a los empleados estadounidenses, que llenaran Formularios I-9 adicionales y proporcionaran comprobantes adicionales de sus autorizaciones de empleo después de la contratación aunque esta práctica está prohibida por ley.  La provisiόn antidiscriminatoria de la INA prohíbe que los empleadores impongan cargas documentales adicionales a los trabajadores con autorizaciόn de trabajo durante el proceso de verificación de elegibilidad de empleo basado en el estatus de ciudadanía del individuo. 

            “La provisiόn antidiscriminatoria de la INA protege a los individuos de reverificaciόn de empleo innecesaria y no autorizada por motivos de su ciudadanía o estatus migratorio,” dijo Molly Moran, Sub-Procuradora General Interina para la Divisiόn de Derechos Civiles.  “Reconocemos la disponibilidad de Continental para resolver los problemas descubiertos durante la investigación del departamento.”

            Según el acuerdo, Continental le pagará $215,000 a los Estados Unidos, establecerá un fondo de $55,000 para compensar a los individuos que pudieron haber sufrido una perdida de salario debido a las práticas injustas de la compañía y participará en un programa de capacitación sobre la provisión antidiscriminatoria de la INA.  La compañía también estará sujeta a un período de monitoreo de sus prácticas de reverificación por el departamento por un período de dos años.

La Oficina del Consejero Especial para Prácticas Injustas en el Empleo Relacionadas a la Inmigración es la oficina responsable por hacer cumplir con la provisión antidiscriminatoria de la INA.  Entre otras cosas, la ley prohíbe discriminación por estatus de ciudadanía o del origen nacional durante la contrataciόn, el despido, el reclutamiento o la referencia por comisiόn, las prácticas injustas de documentación, represalias, e intimidación.

            Para más información sobre las protecciones contra discriminación en el empleo según las leyes migratorias, llame a la línea directa de OSC para trabajadores al 1-800-255-7688 (1-800-237-2515, TTY para personas con discapacidad auditiva), llame a la línea directa de OSC para empleadores al 1-800-255-8155 (1-800-237-2515, TTY para personas con discapacidad auditiva), o para registrarse para un seminario gratis ofrecido a través del internet visite www.justice.gov/crt/about/osc/webinars.php, envíe un correo electrónico al [email protected], o visite el sitio de Internet www.justice.gov/crt/about/osc.

Los solicitantes o empleados que consideren que fueron sujetos a (1) diferentes requisitos de verificación por su estatus de ciudadanía, estatus migratorio u origen nacional, o (2) discriminación por estatus de ciudadanía, estatus migratorio, u origen nacional con relación a la contratación, el despido y el reclutamiento o la referencia por comisión, deberán comunicarse a la línea dedicada a los trabajadores anteriormente citada para poderlos ayudar.

The Department of Justice today announced that it will not challenge a proposal by Flexi-Van Leasing Inc. and Direct ChassisLink Inc. to enter into a Chassis Use Agreement at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California.  Flexi-Van and Direct ChassisLink are chassis leasing companies that also manage chassis pools operating at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. 

Based upon representations made by the applicants, as well as the department’s investigation, the department has no present intention to challenge the proposed agreement.

The department’s position was stated in a business review letter to counsel for Flexi-Van and Direct ChassisLink from Bill Baer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. 

According to representations made by Flexi-Van and Direct ChassisLink, the proposed agreement will result in the establishment of a “gray” chassis pool, which will extend benefits associated with individual pools by allowing the interchange of chassis across multiple pools throughout the port complex.  The increased flexibility created by the interchangeability will enhance customer service, improve chassis productivity, and respond to the desire of the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports authorities to achieve better overall utilization of the region’s chassis fleets.  The pools managed by Flexi-Van and Direct ChassisLink will continue to compete for business, and leasing terms and rates will continue to be set independently by each chassis provider.  No information will be exchanged between Flexi-Van and Direct ChassisLink regarding customer pricing or other competitively sensitive terms.  A third party provider will be used to facilitate operation of the gray chassis pool, audit chassis usage, and prevent the exchange of competitively sensitive information among the pools and chassis providers.  After initial implementation, Flexi-Van and Direct ChassisLink intend that the agreement will become open to other pools at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.  Based on these representations, as well as the department’s investigation into the particular facts and circumstances relating to the competitive conditions of chassis supply at the port complex, the department has no present intention to challenge the proposed agreement. 

Under the department’s business review procedure, an organization may submit a proposed action to the Antitrust Division and receive a statement as to whether the division currently intends to challenge the action under the antitrust laws based on the information provided.  The department reserves the right to challenge the proposed action under the antitrust laws if it produces anticompetitive effects.

A file containing the business review request and the department’s response may be examined in the Antitrust Documents Group of the Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 1010, Washington, D.C. 20530.  After a 30-day waiting period, the documents supporting the business review will be added to the file, unless a basis for their exclusion for reasons of confidentiality has been established under the Business Review Procedure.

An Army sergeant pleaded guilty today to bribery and conspiracy to defraud the government for his role in a scheme to steal more than one million gallons of fuel from the U.S. military for resale on the black market in Afghanistan.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Thomas G. Walker of the Eastern District of North Carolina, Special Agent in Charge John F. Khin of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) Southeast Field Office, Special Agent in Charge John A. Strong of the FBI’s Charlotte Division, Director Frank Robey of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) Major Procurement Fraud Unit (MPFU) and Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John F. Sopko made the announcement.

Christopher Ciampa, 32, of Lillington, North Carolina, entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Court Judge Terrence W. Boyle of the Eastern District of North Carolina.  The sentencing hearing was scheduled for the week of December 15, 2014.      

 “Sergeant Ciampa took bribes to help steal millions of dollars’ worth of fuel meant to support U.S. military operations in Afghanistan,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell.  “His greed put his fellow soldiers at greater risk, and his actions stand in stark contrast to the integrity and sacrifice demonstrated every day by the men and women of our Armed Forces.”   

“The DCIS, with our investigative partners, continues to aggressively pursue those who deprive the Department of Defense of much needed resources, such as fuel, critical to accomplishing its global missions,” said DCIS Special Agent in Charge Khin.  “Corruption and theft in a combat environment, especially on such a large scale, degrade the effectiveness of the U.S. armed forces, and increases the danger to our warfighters by diverting those resources to our enemies

“Sergeant Christopher Ciampa betrayed his unit and nation for personal profit by entering into illegal relationships in order to personally profit from the sale and transport of fuel valued at millions of dollars,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Strong.  “These actions, especially in a wartime environment, damage the reputation of all soldiers and impede the success of coalition war efforts.  Those who put the reputation and lives of their fellow servicemen and women at risk will be aggressively pursued by the FBI and our military partners dedicated to upholding justice.”

“Our highly-trained special agents are experts in fraud investigations and untangling webs of lies and deceit,” said CID MPFU Director Robey.  “Whether an individual is in or out of uniform, it makes no difference, we will do everything in our investigative power to see those who defraud the Army brought to justice.”

“The crimes alleged in this case are serious and describe actions that undermine our mission in Afghanistan,” said Special Inspector General Sopko.  “SIGAR will continue to work tirelessly to protect the American taxpayers’ hard earned money and bring the full weight of the justice system to bear on anyone who seeks to rob the U.S. government.”

According to his plea agreement, Ciampa was deployed to Afghanistan with the 3rd Special Forces Group Service Detachment and was assigned to Camp Brown at Kandahar Air Field between February 2011 and January 2012.  During the deployment, one of Ciampa’s chief responsibilities was management of the Transportation Movement Requests (TMRs) for fuel and other items in support of military units in Afghanistan paid for by the U.S. government. 

Over the course of the conspiracy, Ciampa and others created and submitted false TMRs for the purchase of thousands of gallons of fuel that were neither necessary nor used by military units.  Instead, Ciampa and his co-conspirators stole the fuel and resold it on the black market in neighboring towns.  Between February 2011 and December 2011, they created false TMRs for 114 large fuel tanker trucks, which could each carry approximately 10,000 gallons of fuel.  All of the TMRs were awarded to a single Afghan trucking company, despite significantly higher rates charged by this company.

As a result of the criminal conduct, the United States suffered a total loss of $10,812,000.  The loss resulted from stolen fuel and payments on the fraudulent TMRs in the following amounts: $9,120,000 in lost fuel and $1,692,000 in fraudulent TMRs for the 114 large tanker trucks.

Ciampa admitted that he and his co-conspirators sent some of the illicit proceeds back to the United States via wire transfer and carried some of the cash in their luggage, and Ciampa hid $180,000 of stolen funds inside stereo equipment that he shipped back to North Carolina with his unit’s gear.  He used his share of the proceeds from the scheme to purchase a truck and other personal items.

The case was investigated by DCIS, FBI, CID MPFU and the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).  The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Wade Weems on detail to the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section from SIGAR and Assistant U.S. Attorney Banumathi Rangarajan of the Eastern District of North Carolina.

Sulaiman Abu Ghayth Appeared with Usama Bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri Immediatelv After September 11, 2001, Threatening Additional Attacks Against the United States

United States Attorney General Eric Holder, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin, Assistant Director-in-Charge George Venizelos of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and New York City Police Commissioner William J. Bratton announced that Sulaiman Abu Ghayth, aka “Salman Abu Ghayth,” Usama Bin Laden’s son-in-law and the former spokesman for al Qaeda at the time of the September 11th terrorist attacks, was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to serve life in prison by U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan.  Abu Ghayth, who was arrested overseas on Feb. 28, 2013, and first appeared in this district on March 1, 2013, was found guilty on March 26, 2014, following a three-week jury trial, of conspiring to kill U.S. nationals, conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and providing material support to terrorists. 

 “Justice has been served,” said Attorney General Holder.  “This outcome ensures that Sulaiman Abu Ghayth, a senior member of al Qaeda and an associate of Usama bin Laden, will never again set foot outside a prison cell.  From beginning to end, this trial, conviction and sentencing have underscored the power of America’s Article III court system to deliver swift and certain justice in cases involving terrorism defendants.  We will continue to rely on this robust and proven system to hold accountable anyone who would harm our nation and its people.  And we will never waver, and never relent, in our pursuit of violent extremists.”

“As the face and voice of al Qaeda in the days and weeks after the 9/11 attacks, Abu Ghayth conspired with Usama Bin Laden and others and announced to the world al Qaeda’s deadly intentions to continue to attack America,” said Assistant Attorney General Carlin.  “For his role in al Qaeda's plot to kill Americans, Abu Ghayth will now spend the rest of his life in prison.  This case highlights our resolve to find and bring to justice - no matter how long it takes - those who plot to attack our citizens and our interests around the world.  I want to thank all of the agents, analysts, and prosecutors who are responsible for this result.”

“Sulaiman Abu Ghayth was the mouthpiece of murder and menace for al Qaeda,” said U.S. Attorney Bharara.  “Hours after the 9/11 attacks, Abu Ghayth, Usama bin Laden’s propaganda minister, was exhorting others to pledge themselves to al Qaeda in the cause of murdering more Americans.  It has been 13 years since that terrible day, but from the day Abu Ghayth was brought to the United States 19 months ago, justice for him has been swift and fair.  Today, having been afforded a fair and impartial trial in an American civilian court at which a jury unanimously convicted him of material support to al Qaeda and conspiring to kill Americans, Abu Ghayth has been sentenced to life in prison.   No sentence can restore what was taken from the families of al Qaeda’s victims.  But today’s sentence ensures that Sulaiman Abu Ghayth will never be free to incite or support mass murder again.” 

“As the spokesman for al Qaeda, Abu Ghayth espoused messages of terror, hate and fear to motivate others to harm our country, underestimating the resiliency of the United States to stand strong in the face of violence and adversity,” said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Venizelos.  “Today's sentence is the culmination of years of hard work and cooperative efforts among law enforcement professionals to seek justice for those who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks.  Along with its law enforcement partners, the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force will vigorously pursue those who support this radical terrorist agenda.”

“Sulaiman Abu Ghayth was a key spokesman for al-Qaida and had access to the terrorist group's senior leadership as he took to the airwaves and threatened further attacks as our city was recovering from the horror of 9-11,” said NYPD Commissioner Bratton.  “His capture, trial and conviction is a reminder that the NYPD detectives and FBI agents of the Joint Terrorist Task Force will follow leads anywhere in the world to bring terrorists to justice.”

According to the evidence presented at trial, statements made during other public proceedings including today’s sentencing, and other court documents:

Since around 1989, al Qaeda has been an international terrorist organization, dedicated to opposing non-Islamic governments with force and violence.  Usama Bin Laden served as the leader, or “emir,” of al Qaeda until his death on or about May 2, 2011.  Members of al Qaeda typically have pledged an oath of allegiance, called bayat, to Bin Laden and to al Qaeda. 

The core purpose of al Qaeda, as stated by Bin Laden and other leaders, is to support violent attacks against property and nationals, both military and civilian, of the United States and other countries.  Between 1989 and 2001, al Qaeda established training camps, guest houses, and business operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries for the purpose of training and supporting its agenda of violence and murder.  Members and associates of al Qaeda have executed a number of terrorist attacks, all in furtherance of the organization’s stated conspiracy to kill Americans, including the attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania, which killed approximately 2,976 people.

From at least May 2001 up to around 2002, Abu Ghayth served alongside Bin Laden, appearing with Bin Laden and his then-deputy and now the declared leader of al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, speaking on behalf of al Qaeda and in support of Bin Laden’s terrorist objectives, recruiting young men to join al Qaeda and its murderous mission against the United States, and warning that attacks similar to those of Sept. 11, 2001, would continue. 

In particular, around May 2001, Abu Ghayth urged young al Qaeda recruits at a guest house in Kandahar, Afghanistan, to swear bayat to Bin Laden, shortly before these men were brought to an al Qaeda training camp.  On the evening of Sept. 11, 2001, immediately after the terrorist attacks on the United States, Bin Laden summoned Abu Ghayth and asked for his assistance, which Abu Ghayth agreed to provide.  On the morning of Sept. 12, 2001, Abu Ghayth appeared with Bin Laden, Zawahiri, and another al Qaeda leader, and spoke on behalf of al Qaeda in a speech that would be disseminated around the world, warning the United States and its allies that “[a] great army is gathering against you” and called upon “the nation of Islam” to do battle against “the Jews, the Christians and the Americans.”  Also, after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Abu Ghayth delivered speeches in which he addressed the then-U.S. Secretary of State and warned that “the storms shall not stop, especially the Airplanes Storm,” and advised Muslims, children, and opponents of the United States “not to board any aircraft and not to live in high rises.”  At this time, in Afghanistan, Bin Laden and others within al Qaeda were plotting to detonate shoe bombs aboard flights within or en route to the United States.

Abu Ghayth continued to speak on behalf of al Qaeda as the terrorist organization’s spokesperson through 2002, repeatedly working to drive more young men to al Qaeda.  Also in 2002, Abu Ghayth arranged to be, and was, successfully smuggled from Afghanistan into Iran, where he was later arrested with other al Qaeda leaders.

*                      *                      *    

In addition to a prison term of life, Abu Ghayth was ordered to forfeit all foreign and domestic assets derived from, involved in, and used and intended to be used to commit terrorism against the United States, its citizens and residents, and their property, and was ordered to pay a $300 special assessment fee.

Abu Ghayth’s conviction is the result of the close cooperative efforts of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force – which consists of law enforcement officers of the FBI, NYPD, United States Marshals Service, and other agencies – and the National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.  The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and the U.S. Department of State also provided assistance.

The prosecution is being handled by Assistant United States Attorneys John P. Cronan, Nicholas J. Lewin and Michael Ferrara of the Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, with assistance from Trial Attorney Jolie Zimmerman of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section, Tara M. LaMorte of the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, and Diane Gujarati, Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

The Justice Department announced today that it won a lawsuit against Life Generations Healthcare LLC, doing business as Generations Healthcare (GHC), regarding allegations that the company engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination against foreign-born workers.  The case was decided by the Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer, the administrative court authorized to hear discrimination cases under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). 

The court found that GHC, an assisted-living facility with 18 locations in California, violated the INA when it required foreign-born job applicants and employees to produce more, different, and specific documents to prove their employment eligibility verification, while native-born U.S. citizens were allowed to produce the documentation of their choice.  The court also found that, in some cases, foreign-born individuals were prevented from working for the company even though they had sufficient proof of their work authorization.  The case now moves to the remedial phase for the court to determine what relief GHC must provide for violating the law.

“Companies cannot create discriminatory barriers for workers and applicants based purely on where those individuals are born,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Molly Moran for the Civil Rights Division.  “This ruling sends a powerful message that this type of discrimination will not be tolerated.”  

The case was tried by the Justice Department’s Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices (OSC), which is responsible for enforcing the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act.  The statute prohibits employers from placing additional documentary burdens on work-authorized applicants or employees during the employment eligibility verification process because of their citizenship status or national origin.  The statute also prohibits citizenship status and national origin discrimination in hiring, firing, or recruitment or referral for a fee, as well as retaliation and intimidation. 

For more information about protections against employment discrimination under immigration laws, call OSC’s worker hotline at 1-800-255-7688 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); call OSC’s employer hotline at 1-800-255-8155 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); sign up for a free webinar at www.justice.gov/crt/about/osc/webinars.php, email [email protected]; or visit OSC’s website at www.justice.gov/crt/about/osc.  

Applicants or employees who believe they were subjected to: different documentary requirements based on their citizenship status, immigration status, or national origin; or discrimination based on their citizenship status, immigration status, or national origin in hiring, firing, or recruitment or referral for a fee, should contact OSC’s worker hotline for assistance.

The Justice Department announced today that it has asked a federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to permanently bar Jim Sanzone, who does business as Lakeshore Professionals LLC from preparing federal tax returns for others.

The complaint alleges that Sanzone inappropriately claims deductions and credits for customers on their tax returns, causing them to receive tax refunds or increased refund amounts to which they are not entitled.

According to the complaint, Sanzone claims false deductions and credits on customers’ federal tax returns by including fabricated or inflated claims for charitable contributions, medical expenses, mortgage interest and state and local taxes paid on tax returns that he and his business prepared since 2010.  Sanzone also allegedly reports fake business expenses in order to fraudulently reduce customers’ taxable income.  The complaint also alleges that Sanzone prepares tax returns for customers that falsely claim education credits, even though the customers did not attend school or have qualifying education-related expenses, and so were ineligible for the credit.                

Return preparer fraud is one of the IRS’s Dirty Dozen Tax Scams for 2014.  The IRS has some tips on their website for choosing a tax preparer.  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 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.

Related Materials:

USA v. Jim Sanzone, etc
Complaint for Permanent Injunction

The Department of Justice today announced the awarding of 169 grants to American Indian tribes, Alaska Native villages, tribal consortia and tribal designees.  The grants will provide more than $87 million to enhance law enforcement practices and sustain crime prevention and intervention efforts in nine purpose areas including public safety and community policing; justice systems planning; alcohol and substance abuse; corrections and correctional alternatives; violence against women; juvenile justice; and tribal youth programs.

Assistant Attorney General Karol V. Mason for the Office of Justice Programs, Principal Deputy Director Bea Hanson for the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) and Director Ron Davis for the Office of Community Oriented Policing (COPS) made the announcement while attending the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI) Annual Convention hosted by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.  ATNI represents 57 northwest tribal governments from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Northern California, Southeast Alaska, and Western Montana.  This year’s announcement includes awards to 22 of the represented tribes at the convention.  The awards are made through the department’s Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS), a single application for tribal-specific grant programs. 

“This work covers every area of public safety in Indian country, from supporting children and youth to protecting and serving native women to the hiring of tribal police officers to strengthening tribal criminal and juvenile justice systems,” said Assistant Attorney General Mason.  “The CTAS programs are not only critical to reversing crime in Indian country but are integral strengthening and sustaining healthy communities.”

The safety of American Indian and Alaska Native women is a top priority of OVW, and a clear priority of the entire Department of Justice.  With funding from OVW’s Tribal Governments Program, tribes are able to develop and strengthen the tribal justice system’s response to violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women that meets the specific needs of their tribe.  This funding has played a significant role in increasing programs and services available to tribes, and has both improved and increased the effectiveness of services provided by tribal court systems.  This coordinated approach allows OVW and its sister grant-making components to consider the totality of a tribal community’s overall public safety needs in making award decisions.

“We know from our work across Indian country and elsewhere, that early intervention that interrupts or deters a pattern of escalating violence is the key to avoiding more serious and deadly violence in the future,” said Principal Deputy Director Hanson.  “And it is the key to saving more women’s lives and protecting more children from growing up in a home where violence is the norm.”

COPS funding through CTAS improves public safety and enhances community policing in federally recognized tribal jurisdictions. These funds will allow tribal jurisdictions to expand the implementation of community policing and meet the most serious needs of law enforcement. With this funding, 21 tribal agencies will be able to hire or re-hire career law enforcement officers and village public safety officers.   Funds awarded today may also be used to procure basic equipment and training to assist in the initiation or enhancement of tribal community policing efforts.

“I am pleased that COPS can help tribal jurisdictions hire more officers to help control crime through community policing,” said Director Davis.  “These funds also support tribal jurisdictions by covering the costs of basic equipment and training.  It’s a comprehensive package of support that delivers much needed help to tribal communities.”

The department developed CTAS through its Office of Community Oriented Policing, Office of Justice Programs and Office on Violence against Women, and administered the first round of consolidated grants in September 2010.  Over the past five years, it has awarded over 1,100 grants totaling more than $530 million.

Information about the consolidated solicitation is available at www.justice.gov/tribal.  
FY 2014 CTAS Award List
FY 2014 CTAS Fact Sheet

Today’s announcement is part of the Justice Department’s ongoing initiative to increase engagement, coordination and action on public safety in tribal communities.

The former owner of a Long Beach, California, medical supply company was sentenced today to serve 30 months in prison and ordered to pay $1,490,532 in restitution for his role in a scheme to provide unnecessary power wheelchairs to Medicare patients, resulting in $2.6 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie Yonekura of the Central District of California and Assistant Director in Charge Bill L. Lewis of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office made the announcement.  U.S. District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez of the Central District of California imposed the sentence.

According to court documents, Akinola Afolabi, 55, of Long Beach, California, was the owner and president of Emmanuel Medical Supply, a durable medical equipment supply company in Long Beach.  From June 2006 through September 2009, Afolabi provided medically unnecessary power wheelchairs and other medical equipment to Medicare beneficiaries, and submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare for this equipment.  Afolabi admitted that he paid “marketers” to obtain Medicare beneficiary information that he used on the false claims.  Afolabi admitted that prescriptions for the equipment and related medical documents were fraudulent, and that some of the beneficiaries did not even receive the wheelchairs or other medical supplies that were billed.

From June 2006 through September 2009, Afolabi submitted approximately $2,668,384 in fraudulent claims to Medicare for power wheelchairs and related services, and Medicare paid approximately $1,490,532 on those claims.

The case was investigated by the FBI and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.  This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Fred Medick of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.  

Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, now operating in nine cities across the country, has charged nearly 2,000 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $6 billion.  In addition, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with HHS’ Office of Inspector General, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.  

To learn more about the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), go to: www.stopmedicarefraud.gov.

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