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Friday 28 January 2011
Georgia Man Sentenced to Life in Prison<br /> for Child Sex Abuse OffensesRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON - Dwain D. Williams, 37, was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge W. Louis Sands to life in prison for child sex abuse offenses, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Michael J. Moore of the Middle District of Georgia.
Williams, of Pelham, Ga., was convicted on Aug. 19, 2010, by a federal jury in Valdosta, Ga., of one count of traveling in foreign commerce and engaging in illicit sexual conduct, one count of aggravated sexual abuse and one count of abusive sexual contact of a child under 12 years of age. The aggravated sexual abuse and the abusive sexual contact charges were committed while Williams was accompanying a member of the Armed Forces outside of the United States in violation of the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA).
At trial, the female victim testified that Williams had repeatedly raped her starting from when she was nine years old until she was 13.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Leah McEwen of the Middle District of Georgia and Trial Attorney Mi Yung Park of the Criminal Division’s CEOS. The case was investigated by the FBI and the Office of Special Investigations for Moody Air Force.
Former Uplands Park, Missouri, Police Officer Sentenced on Civil Rights ViolationsRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON - Leon Pullen, 32, of Foley, Mo., a former police officer employed by the Uplands Park Police Department in suburban St. Louis, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on civil rights violations stemming from several incidents where he sexually assaulted and stole money from women, the Justice Department announced.
According to court documents, Pullen was a police officer employed by the Uplands Park Police Department. On July 15, 2009, Officer Pullen responded to an advertisement placed on the internet. The woman posted her picture and contact information as a prostitute. Pullen contacted her via cell phone, identified himself as “Jimmy,” and, without identifying himself as a police officer, arranged to meet her at a specific location in Uplands Park. He agreed to pay $400 for sexual acts, and also asked her to bring a friend. When the woman arrived, a police vehicle pulled behind her car. Pullen, who was on duty and dressed in full uniform, including a badge and sidearm, approached her, showed her the ad she had posted on the Internet, and demanded to know how much money she had with her. Pullen made her follow him to the police station where he sexually assaulted her.
In February or March of 2009, Pullen answered another ad from a different woman and arranged to meet her at a hotel room that she had rented in St. Louis. When he arrived, he was wearing a blue jacket over a gray golf shirt that had a police badge embroidered onto the front with the words “Detective Pullen.” Once inside, he identified himself as a police officer and told her that she was under arrest. He displayed his firearm and handcuffs. After he sexually assaulted her, he took $100 in cash and her laptop computer. The victim told the FBI later that she was initially afraid to report the sexual assault when it happened because Pullen identified himself as a police officer.
Pullen sexually assaulted two more women using the same tactics in May and June 2009.
Following his arrest on Sept. 20, 2009, Pullen gave a voluntary statement to the FBI. First, he told the agents that he had never taken money from the victims, and denied to the FBI that he had ever engaged in sexual activity - consensual or otherwise - while on duty.
“Communities must be able to trust their law enforcement officers to protect public safety. When officers abuse their power and violate the rights of individuals in their communities, they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.
Pullen pleaded guilty in July 2010 to one felony count of conspiracy to violate deprivation of rights under color of law, four felony counts of deprivation of rights under color of law, one felony count of conspiracy to commit interference with commerce by threats or violence, one felony count of interference with commerce by threats or violence, one felony count of tampering with a witness, and one felony count of making false statements. He appeared today for sentencing before U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel.
This case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Howard Marcus and Former Civil Rights Division trial attorney Eric Gibson.
Former Owner & Former In-House Counsel of Cincinnati Company Sentenced to Prison for Tax CrimesRead the Press Release
CINCINNATI – The former owner of Buddy’s Carpet, Leif D. Rozin, and Alan W. Koehler, the company’s former in-house counsel, were sentenced to prison for their roles in a tax fraud scheme for which they were convicted in 2008, the Justice Department announced today. Both men were formerly full-time Cincinnati residents. Rozin now resides in Westchester, Ohio, and Bonita Springs, Fla., and Koehler resides in Purcellville, Va. In 2008, a jury found Rozin and Koehler guilty of a conspiracy to defraud the United States. In addition, the jury found Rozin guilty of filing a false corporate income tax return and tax evasion, and found Koehler guilty of assisting in the filing of a false corporate income tax return. Buddy’s Carpet was a retail chain with more than 30 stores in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.
Rozin, 68, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Susan J. Dlott to serve 12 months and one day in prison, a three-year period of supervised release, 2,000 hours of community service, and to pay a $30,000 fine as well as the cost of his prosecution and a special assessment. Koehler, age 50, was sentenced to serve 18 months in prison, a three-year period of supervised release, and to pay a $20,000 fine and a special assessment.
Another former owner of the company, Burton B. “Buddy” Kallick; their investment and insurance advisor, Milton Liss, of Cincinnati; and unlicensed financial and insurance salesman Bruce M. Cohen of Louisville, Ky., were indicted along with Rozin and Koehler. Kallick passed away in January 2007, and both Liss and Cohen pleaded guilty to the charged conspiracy to defraud the United States. Cohen was sentenced by Judge Dlott in 2008 to 37 months in prison for his role in the scheme. Liss, 67, was sentenced at the same time as Rozin and Koehler to serve 12 months and one day in prison, a three-year period of supervised release, 1,000 hours of community service, and to pay a $10,000 fine and a special assessment. Although Rozin had already deposited $387,687 with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which is the amount he was found guilty of evading on his 1998 income tax return, the court ordered Rozin, Koehler and Liss to pay to the IRS jointly an additional $387,687, which was the amount of Kallick’s unpaid 1998 income taxes.
John DiCicco, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division; Carter M. Stewart, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; and Jose A. Gonzalez, Special Agent in Charge, IRS-Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati, announced the sentences today.
During the three-week trial, the evidence showed that Rozin and Koehler conspired with Liss, Cohen and others to defraud the United States by having Rozin, Inc., dba Buddy’s Carpet, purchase several sham “Loss of Income” insurance policies from an insurance company in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The co-conspirators used these sham insurance policies to evade approximately $775,000 in income taxes on the 1998 tax returns of Rozin and Kallick. In addition, the evidence showed that the co-conspirators intended to evade a similar amount of income taxes for the 1999 tax returns of Rozin and Kallick, but they did not file the returns because the IRS disclosed its criminal investigation.
The evidence showed that, prior to selling the business in 2000, the defendants caused the firm to spend a total of $3.6 million on eight “Loss of Income” insurance policies, the purpose of which was to provide substantial tax deductions to the company and to the owners, Rozin and Kallick. The evidence also demonstrated that these insurance policies were a sham. The evidence further showed that Rozin, Kallick, Koehler, Cohen and Liss attempted to conceal their participation in these sham arrangements by establishing offshore nominee entities in foreign countries, such as Nevis.
The former owners and operators of the source of the “Loss of Income” policies, Security Trust Insurance Company in the U.S. Virgin Islands, along with their attorney, were also prosecuted and convicted in a federal court in Grand Rapids, Mich., in 2009.
During the trial, the evidence revealed that Rozin and Koehler engaged in a series of purchases of these insurance policies and took numerous steps to conceal their scheme, including creating backdated documents. In addition, the evidence showed that Rozin, Koehler and others shared Liss’s commissions from their purchases of the policies, as well as the commissions from others’ purchases.
Acting Assistant Attorney General DiCicco, U.S. Attorney Stewart and Special Agent Gonzalez commended the investigative efforts of the IRS agents involved in this case, as well as Justice Department Tax Division attorneys Richard Rolwing and Patrick J. Murray, who prosecuted the case.
Additional information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found at www.usdoj.gov/tax.
Federal Officials Close the Investigation into the Death of Trey JoynerRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced today that there is insufficient evidence to pursue federal criminal civil rights charges against U.S. Park Police detectives involved in the fatal shooting of Trey Joyner.
Officials from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the Washington Field Office of the FBI met today with the Joyner family and their representatives to inform them of this decision.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania conducted a comprehensive investigation into the events surrounding the June 8, 2009, shooting that resulted in Mr. Joyner’s death. The investigation reviewed all of the material and evidence generated by the Washington Field Office of the FBI, including witness statements, crime scene evidence, ballistics reports and medical reports.
U.S. Park Police detectives were attempting to question Mr. Joyner regarding a homicide investigation. Officers had credible information that Mr. Joyner was armed. Upon stopping his vehicle, Mr. Joyner began to flee, but turned back to his car to retrieve a handgun that had dropped to the ground as he exited. Civilian and police witnesses either saw or heard the gun hitting the ground and a loaded handgun with a round in the chamber was found near the location where Mr. Joyner was shot. As Mr. Joyner picked the gun up off of the ground, a detective ran to Mr. Joyner and grabbed him and a brief struggle ensued. The witness statements support that Mr. Joyner pointed the loaded gun at the detective during this struggle, and that he ignored repeated commands to drop the gun. The detective then fired his own gun, striking Mr. Joyner in his torso at close range. The detective fell back as other officers fired their weapons. Forensic examination of gunshot wounds to Mr. Joyner indicate that one of the fatal wounds came from close range fire to his torso consistent with the struggle described by officers. Contrary to some civilian witness statements that Mr. Joyner was shot in the back as he was fleeing, the autopsy revealed wounds to Mr. Joyner consistent with the officers’ version that Mr. Joyner spun around following an initial close-range shot during a struggle.
Under the applicable federal criminal civil rights laws, prosecutors must establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, that a law enforcement officer willfully deprived an individual of a constitutional right, meaning with the deliberate and specific intent to do something the law forbids. Accident, mistake, fear, negligence or bad judgment are not sufficient to establish such a criminal violation. After a careful and thorough review, federal prosecutors and FBI agents determined that the evidence was insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the law enforcement personnel who fired at Mr. Joyner acted willfully, meaning with the deliberate and specific intent to do something the law forbids. Accordingly, the investigation into this incident has been closed without prosecution.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Civil Rights Division and the Washington Field Office of the FBI devoted significant time and resources to complete a painstaking analysis of the evidence and facts developed during the investigation.
The Justice Department is committed to investigating allegations of excessive force by law enforcement officers and will continue to devote the resources necessary to ensure that all allegations of serious civil rights violations are fully and completely investigated.
Attorney General Holder Speaks at First Meeting of the <br /> National Advisory Committee on Violence Against WomenRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder and Director of the Office on Violence Against Women, Susan B. Carbon today opened the first meeting of the re-chartered National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women (NAC). The attorney general spoke with committee members, federal agency representatives and public guests about the importance of the work of the committee and their advice to improve the nation’s response to violence against women including domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking.
"Addressing violence by implementing bold, innovative and collaborative solutions is a top priority for this administration," said Attorney General Holder. "We are committed to engaging a broad spectrum of community partners to help stem teen dating violence and safeguard our children"
The 15 member committee will provide practical and general policy advice to the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services with a specific focus on successful interventions with children and teens who witness or are victimized by intimate partner and sexual violence. The committee will focus on the effective coordinated approach among agencies, organizations and federal, state, local and tribal governments. The link to the well-being of children to the safety and well-being of their mothers will also be explored.
Addressing the issue of children’s exposure to violence as victims or witnesses is a priority of the attorney general. He encouraged the committee to work toward the creation of a strategic, comprehensive action plan that can help more young people to understand and develop healthy relationships, to identify signs of abuse and to assist them in locating services if necessary. During today’s meeting committee members discussed priorities for their future work.
The 15 members of the NAC are:
· Dr. Jeffrey L. Edleson, Professor and Director of Research
University of Minnesota School of Social Work, St. Paul, Minn.
· Maria Jose Fletcher, Esq.,
Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, Miami
· Neil Irvin, Executive Director
Men Can Stop Rape, Washington, D.C.
· Amber Johnson, Youth Advocate
Providence, R.I.
· Monika Johnson Hostler, Executive Director
North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Raleigh, N.C.
· Debbie Lee, Senior Vice President
Family Violence Prevention Fund, San Francisco
· Susan Manheimer, Chief of Police
San Mateo Police Department, San Mateo, Calif.
· Betsy McAlister Groves, Director
Child Witness to Violence Project, Department of Pediatrics, Boston Medical Center, Boston
· Carol Post, Executive Director
Delaware Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Wilmington , Del.
· Francine Sherman , Esq., Clinical Professor
Boston College Law School, Newton, Mass.
· The Honorable Melvin Stoof , Associate Judge
Pascua Yaqui Tribal Court , Tucson, Ariz.
· Joe Torre , Chairman
The Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation, New York
· Jerry Tello , Director
Sacred Circles; National Latino Fatherhood and Family Institute, Hacienda Heights, Calif.
· Gabrielle Union, Advocate
Beverly Hills, Calif.
· Dr. Sujata Warrier, Director
New York City Program of the New York Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, New York
More information about the NAC and its members is available at www.ovw.gov.
Thursday 27 January 2011
United States Files Suit Against Guidant and Boston Scientific for Selling Defective Heart Devices That Were Implanted in Medicare PatientsRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – The United States has filed a complaint against Boston Scientific Corp. and related Guidant entities under the False Claims Act for conduct relating to certain of its cardiac devices, the Justice Department announced today. The United States alleges that Guidant sold cardiac devices, the Ventak Prizm 2 and the Renewal 1 and 2, even though Guidant knew the devices were defective. Despite Guidant’s fixing the defect in these lines of devices, the company continued to sell their remaining stock of defective devices anyway.
The devices at issue are implantable cardioverter defibrillators, which are designed to deliver therapy to prevent sudden cardiac death. The devices are surgically implanted into patients’ chests. When they detect an irregular heartbeat, the devices send an electrical pulse to the heart to "shock" it back to normal rhythm.
The government’s complaint alleges that Guidant hid the problems with their defibrillators from patients, doctors and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In February 2010, Guidant pleaded guilty to misleading the FDA about the problems in the devices. A district court in Minnesota accepted the company’s plea on Jan. 12, 2011. Guidant was acquired by Boston Scientific in 2006.
"Patients with serious heart conditions who depend on these devices should not have to second-guess whether they are safe and effective," said Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Division. "When a medical device manufacturer conceals problems with its products, as is alleged here, not only is taxpayer money wasted, but lives are put at risk."
"When companies like Guidant request and receive federal dollars for products they know to be defective, the United States is committed to aggressively seeking the recovery of those payments. That is especially true when the defective products endanger human lives. In today’s environment, it is essential that Medicare and other public health care programs be made whole to ensure their continued vitality for future generations," said John R. Marti, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota.
The United States alleges that Guidant knew as early as April 2002 that an implantable cardiac device it manufactured and sold, known as the Prizm 2, contained a potentially life-threatening defect. The government’s complaint also alleges that Guidant knew as early as November 2003 that another implantable device it manufactured and sold, the Renewal 1 and 2, contained a similar, potentially life-threatening defect. Yet, the United States alleges that, even after Guidant took corrective action to fix the defects, the company continued to sell its stock of the old, defective versions of the devices. Moreover, as information about the cause and nature of the defect grew within the top ranks of the company, the United States contends that Guidant took steps to hide the problem from patients, doctors and the FDA. According to the government’s complaint, instead of disclosing the problem, Guidant issued a misleading communication to doctors that misinformed them about the nature of the defect.
The United States alleges that Guidant did not fully disclose the problem in the devices to doctors and the FDA until May 2005, after first being contacted by a reporter. The company subsequently recalled the devices shortly after a front-page article about the defects appeared in The New York Times.
The United States joined a lawsuit filed under the qui tam or whisteblower provisions of the False Claims Act by James Allen, who allegedly received one of the defective devices. Under the act’s qui tam provisions, a private citizen, known as a "relator," can sue on behalf of the United States and share in any recovery. The case is United States ex rel. Allen v. Guidant LLC et al., No. 11-CV-22 (D. Minn.).
This action is part of the government’s emphasis on combating health care fraud and another step for the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) initiative, which was announced by Attorney General Eric Holder and Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services in May 2009. 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 that effort is the False Claims Act, which the Justice Department has used to recover more than $5.3 billion since January 2009 in cases involving fraud against federal health care programs. The Justice Department’s total recoveries in False Claims Act cases since January 2009 now exceeds $6.8 billion.
Two Former Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, Police Officers Convicted of Falsifying Information About Hate CrimeRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON - A federal jury in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., has convicted Matthew Nestor and William Moyer of falsifying information related to the investigation into the beating death of Luis Ramirez. Mr. Ramirez died on July 12, 2008, as a result of injuries he suffered after being attacked by Derrick Donchak and Brandon Piekarsky, two high school students from Shenandoah, Pa., who were convicted of a federal hate crime in October 2010 and await sentencing.
Nestor, the former chief of police in Shenandoah, Pa., was convicted of filing a false report regarding the incident. Evidence presented at trial established that a report to the Schuylkill County District Attorney’s Office filed by Nestor, contained materially false information intended to mislead the investigation. Nestor will face up to 20 years in prison.
William Moyer, a former lieutenant in the Shenandoah Police Department, was convicted of making false statements to FBI agents in reference to his involvement in the investigation of the Ramirez homicide. The jury found that Moyer deliberately relayed false information about what a witness told him on the scene. Moyer will face up to five years in prison.
"A community must be able to rely on its law enforcement officers to be honest and truthful," said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. "When they fail in this most fundamental duty, they must be held accountable. Today’s verdict does just that."
The jury acquitted former Shenandoah Police Officer Jason Hayes of all charges relating to allegations that he obstructed justice and falsified reports.
Today’s conviction resulted from the investigative work of the FBI. The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Myesha Braden and Shan Patel from the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Illinois Firefighter Pleads Guilty to Child Exploitation ChargesRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – A Rochester, Ill., firefighter pleaded guilty today to one count of production of child pornography, one count of possession of child pornography and one count of destruction of evidence, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney for the Central District of Illinois James A. Lewis.
Justin D. Weaver, 26, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Byron G. Cudmore in U.S. District Court in Springfield, Ill. During the plea hearing, Weaver admitted to molesting a 7-year-old minor victim and producing child pornography of the molestation. Additionally, Weaver admitted to knowingly possessing images of child pornography, and destroying evidence of his child pornography offenses.
Weaver is scheduled to be sentenced on June 6, 2011. At sentencing, Weaver will face a minimum mandatory sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of 60 years in prison, a fine of up to $750,000 and a lifetime term of supervised release. Weaver will be required to register as a sex offender in accordance with state and federal law. Weaver was arrested on May 7, 2009, and remains in custody pending sentencing.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Elly Peirson of the Central District of Illinois and Trial Attorney Mi Yung Park of the Criminal Division’s CEOS. The case was investigated by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Springfield Police Department, the Adams County Sheriff’s Department, and CEOS’s High Technology Investigative Unit.
Federal Court Permanently Bars Joliet, Illinois, Man from Preparing Federal Tax Returns for OthersRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – A federal court in Chicago has permanently barred Sidney Dove, a tax-return preparer from Joliet, Ill., from preparing federal income tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. U.S. District Judge Charles Kocoras also ordered Dove, who does business under the name "Sid’s Tax," to prepare a list of every person for whom he has prepared a federal income tax return since Jan. 1, 2006, and to provide the list to the government. The court had previously entered a preliminary injunction order against Dove on April 16, 2010.
The court found that an Internal Revenue Service investigation of Dove revealed a pattern of overstated deductions for charitable contributions, employee business expenses and Schedule C business expenses. The court also found that Dove prepared a number of returns that significantly understated individuals’ tax liabilities because they contained positions that had no possibility of being sustained on the merits. For example, according to the court, Dove habitually deducted 10 percent of his customers’ income as charitable donations without ensuring that the customers had documents to support the deductions. The court concluded that a permanent injunction order against Dove was necessary because of his continuous and knowing violations of the tax laws over the last three years and his stated intention to continue preparing tax returns in the future.
The court’s order also requires Dove to mail a copy of the court’s order to all customers for whom he has prepared federal income tax returns.
In the past decade, the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained hundreds of injunctions to stop the promotion of tax-fraud schemes and the preparation of false tax returns. Details of these cases are available on the Justice Department website.
Wednesday 26 January 2011
Patient Recruiter Sentenced to 40 Months in Prison for<br /> His Role in a Fraudulent Diagnostic Testing SchemeRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – A Detroit-area patient recruiter was sentenced today to 40 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to defraud the Medicare program, the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today.
Melvin Young, 57, was also sentenced by U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Duggan in the Eastern District of Michigan to three years of supervised release following his prison term and was ordered to pay restitution, joint and several with co-defendants, in the amount of $533,643. Young pleaded guilty in April 2010 to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
According to the plea documents, beginning in approximately September 2007, Young and a co-conspirator began recruiting and transporting patients to a clinic called Ritecare LLC. Ritecare was owned and operated by co-conspirators and had locations in Detroit and Livonia, Mich. Young admitted that he and this co-conspirator, Emma King, paid kickbacks to Medicare beneficiaries whom they recruited and transported to Ritecare. According to the plea documents, the owners and operators of Ritecare were the source of the funds used by Young to pay the Medicare beneficiaries he recruited. Young admitted that he would keep part of these funds as a kickback. Typically, the owners of Ritecare would provide $100-$150 per patient Young recruited, with Young retaining $50-$75 of that amount.
According to the plea documents, the patients Young recruited had to subject themselves to medically unnecessary tests to receive the money. Per instructions from the owners and operators of Ritecare, Young admitted that he instructed the patients to claim they had certain symptoms to trigger medically unnecessary tests. Consequently, the patients’ medical records contained false symptoms allowing Ritecare to deceive Medicare as to the legitimacy and medical necessity of the tests it performed.
Young admitted that King and he were responsible for recruiting at least 269 patients to Ritecare. Through his recruitment efforts, Young caused the submission of approximately $940,760 in false or fraudulent billings by Ritecare. Medicare paid approximately $533,643 on those claims.
King pleaded guilty in April 2010 to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and was sentenced on Dec. 14, 2010, to 8 months in prison.
Today’s sentence was announced by Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Barbara L. McQuade; Special Agent in Charge Andrew G. Arena of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Lamont Pugh III of the HHS Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) Chicago Regional Office.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant Chief John K. Neal and Trial Attorney Gejaa T. Gobena of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. The case was investigated by the FBI and HHS-OIG, 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 Eastern District of Michigan.
Since its inception in March 2007, Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations in seven districts have obtained indictments of more than 850 individuals and organizations that collectively have billed the Medicare program for more than $2.1 billion. In addition, HHS’s 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 Action Team (HEAT), go to: www.stopmedicarefraud.gov
Nation’s Second Largest Refinery to Pay $700 Million to Upgrade Pollution Controls at U.S. Virgin Islands FacilityRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – HOVENSA LLC, owner of the second largest petroleum refinery in the United States, has agreed to pay a $5.375 million civil penalty and spend more than $700 million in new pollution controls to resolve Clean Air Act violations at its St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, refinery, the Department of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today.
The settlement requires new and upgraded pollution controls, more stringent emission limits and aggressive monitoring, leak-detection and repair practices to reduce emissions from refinery equipment and process units.
“This important settlement with the second largest refinery in the United States will result in significant improvements to human health and the environment of the U.S. Virgin Islands,” said Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice. “Because of this settlement, HOVENSA will install advanced pollution control and monitoring technology, will adopt more stringent emissions limits, and will also create a fund dedicated to local environmental projects. This is another major step in our efforts, alongside EPA, to bring the petroleum refining sector into compliance with our nation’s environmental laws.”
“This settlement will produce significant benefits for the environment and for the people of the Virgin Islands,” said Cynthia Giles, Assistant Administrator of EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “The commitments made by HOVENSA to install state-of-the-art pollution controls will mean cleaner air for years to come.”
“Residents of the Virgin Islands expect and deserve to live in an environment free from harmful emissions and other pollutants,” said Ronald W. Sharpe, U.S. Attorney for the District of the Virgin Islands. “This agreement further illustrates the U.S. Department of Justice’s commitment to enforcing environmental laws so that current and future generations will be able to enjoy the natural beauty so prevalent in the Virgin Islands.”
The consent decree, lodged in the U.S. District Court of the Virgin Islands, is subject to a 30-day public comment period and court approval.
The government’s complaint, filed concurrently with today’s settlement, alleged that the company made modifications to its refinery that increased emissions without first obtaining pre-construction permits and installing required pollution control equipment. The Clean Air Act requires major sources of air pollution to obtain such permits before making changes that would result in a significant emissions increase of any pollutant.
Once fully implemented, the pollution controls required by the settlement are estimated to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) by more than 5,000 tons per year and sulfur dioxide (SO2) by nearly 3,500 tons per year. The settlement will also result in additional reductions of volatile organic compounds, particulate matter, carbon monoxide and other pollutants that affect air quality. Additional pollution-reducing projects at the refinery’s coking unit under the settlement will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 6,100 tons per year.
High concentrations of SO2 and NOx , two key pollutants emitted from refineries, can have adverse impacts on human health, and are significant contributors to acid rain, smog and haze.
The government of the U.S. Virgin Islands has joined in the settlement and will receive a portion of the civil penalty. In addition, the company will set aside an additional $4.875 million for projects to benefit the environment of the U.S. Virgin Islands. The projects will be identified jointly by the U.S. Virgin Islands government and HOVENSA, in consultation with EPA.
The settlement with HOVENSA is the 28th under an EPA initiative to improve compliance among petroleum refiners and to reduce significant amounts of air pollution from refineries nationwide through comprehensive, company-wide enforcement settlements. The first of EPA’s settlements was reached in 2000, and with today’s settlement, 105 refineries operating in 32 states and territories – more than 90 percent of the total refining capacity in the United States – are under judicially enforceable agreements to significantly reduce emissions of pollutants. As a result of the settlement agreements, refiners have agreed to invest over $6 billion in new pollution controls designed to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and other pollutants by over 360,000 tons per year.
HOVENSA is one of the 10 largest refineries in the world and has the capacity to refine more than 525,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
To read the proposed consent decree:
www.justice.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html
For more information on the HOVENSA settlement:
www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/cases/civil/caa/hovensa.html
For more information on EPA’s Petroleum Refinery Initiative:
www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/cases/civil/caa/oil/index.html
Deputy Attorney General James Cole Appoints Stuart M. Goldberg as Chief of Staff and Lisa O. Monaco as Principal Associate Deputy Attorney GeneralRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Deputy Attorney General James Cole today announced the appointment of Lisa O. Monaco as the Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General and Stuart M. Goldberg as the Chief of Staff to the Deputy Attorney General.
“Lisa and Stuart are veteran career prosecutors who have served the department in a number of capacities over the years and I am grateful that they will continue their service in the Deputy Attorney General's office,” said Deputy Attorney General Cole. “Stuart and Lisa have demonstrated an unrivaled commitment to this institution and I am confident they will be key assets in our efforts to keep the American people safe, ensure the fairness and integrity of our financial markets, and protect the traditional missions of the department.”
Since 2010, Monaco has served as the acting Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General and before that served as an Associate Deputy Attorney General since 2009. Prior to joining the Deputy Attorney General's office, Monaco was the Chief of Staff to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, working on a wide range of national security and law enforcement issues. She also served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to Director Mueller during her tenure at the FBI.
From 2001 to 2007, Monaco served as a federal prosecutor. She was appointed to the Enron Task Force, serving as a co-lead trial counsel in the prosecution of five former executives of Enron Broadband Services. For her work on the Enron Task Force, Monaco received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service, the Justice Department’s highest award. Prior to her appointment to the Enron Task Force, she served as the Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.
Monaco served as Counsel to Attorney General Janet Reno from 1998 to 2001, providing advice and guidance on national security, law enforcement, budget and oversight issues.
Before joining the department, Monaco clerked for the Honorable Jane R. Roth, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. She earned her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School and her B.A. from Harvard University.
Since 2005, Goldberg has served as the First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, where he oversaw the work of over 85 Assistant U.S. Attorneys involved in criminal prosecutions and civil litigation. In December 2010, he was awarded a Director’s Award for his superior performance as a manager at the 2010 Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys Director’s Awards ceremony.
Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Goldberg was Principal Deputy Chief of the Public Integrity Section, the office that oversees the federal effort to combat corruption through the prosecution of officials and employees at all levels of government. Goldberg began his career with the Department as a trial attorney at Public Integrity in 1988. He also served the section as Deputy Chief for Litigation and Senior Litigation Counsel.
Before joining the Department, Goldberg worked as a civil litigator at Rogers & Wells LLP, focusing largely on securities and commodities fraud, First Amendment and antitrust cases.
Goldberg has been a member of the adjunct faculty at Georgetown University Law Center, teaching courses on professional responsibility. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School and his B.A. from the University of Virginia.
Attorney General Holder, Justice Department Officials Meet with Defending Childhood RepresentativesRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder today met with Defending Childhood representatives from eight communities across the country to discuss local efforts to address children’s exposure to violence. The week-long Defending Childhood meeting brought together the initiative’s eight demonstration sites for a series of presentations, peer-to-peer exchanges and dialogue with Justice Department leadership. Attorney General Eric Holder, Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli and department officials discussed the initiative with representatives and their ongoing efforts in their communities.
“I am grateful for this opportunity to discuss our shared goals – and your front-line efforts – to prevent, reduce, and combat childhood exposure to violence,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “The issue of children’s exposure to violence has been both a personal and professional concern for decades. As our nation’s Attorney General, and as a parent of three young children, addressing this crisis – and implementing bold, innovative, and collaborative solutions – is a top priority.”
Attorney General Holder launched Defending Childhood to focus on addressing children’s exposure to violence. A key component of the initiative is a multi-year demonstration program. This included Justice Department funding for eight demonstration sites to develop and implement multi-disciplinary plans that specifically address prevention, intervention, treatment and response strategies to address children’s exposure to violence.
The eight sites are:
· City of Boston ($160,000)
· City of Portland , Maine ($160,000)
· Chippewa Cree Tribe, Mont. ($153,210)
· City of Grand Forks , N.D. ($159,967)
· Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners, Ohio ($157,873)
· Multnomah County Department of Human Services, Ore. ($159,349)
· Rosebud Sioux Tribe, S.D. ($159,534)
· Shelby County, Tenn. ($159,099)
The goals of the initiative are to prevent children’s exposure to violence as victims and witnesses, mitigate the negative effects experienced by children exposed to violence and develop knowledge about and increase awareness of this issue. More information about this initiative can be found at: www.justice.gov/ag/defendingchildhood/ .
Tuesday 25 January 2011
Statement of the Attorney General on the Sentencing of Ahmed GhailaniRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – “Today’s sentencing of Ahmed Ghailani shows yet again the strength of the American justice system in holding terrorists accountable for their actions. Ghailani will now rightly serve the rest of his life in prison for his role in the attacks against American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that left 224 dead, including twelve Americans.
Ghailani is the fifth person to be convicted in federal court in connection with the embassy bombings, and we hope this life sentence brings some measure of justice to the victims of these attacks and their families and friends who have waited so long for this day. Hundreds of individuals have now been convicted in federal court of terrorism or terrorism-related crimes since September 11, 2001. As this case demonstrates, w e will not rest in bringing to justice terrorists who seek to harm the American people, and we will use every tool available to the government to do so.”
Ripley, Ohio, Man Sentenced for Tax CrimesRead the Press Release
CINCINNATI – Robert C. Welti, a resident of Ripley, Ohio, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, the Justice Department announced. Welti previously pleaded guilty to one count of corruptly endeavoring to obstruct and impede the due administration of the Internal Revenue Code.
U.S. District Court Senior Judge Sandra S. Beckwith sentenced Welti to six months in prison and one year of supervised release. The court also ordered Welti to pay $5,000 in fines.
According to court documents, in April of 2002, Welti, who represented Douglas and Donald Frichtl in an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audit, attempted to obstruct the audit by preventing properly summonsed documents from being turned over to the IRS, preventing the Frichtls from responding to the auditors’ questions, proposing meritless and frivolous questions and arguments to the IRS auditors, and accusing the IRS auditors of engaging in a criminal racketeering conspiracy.
The case resulted from an investigation by the IRS, Criminal Investigation. IRS Special Agent Ankur Arora conducted the investigation. Tax Division attorneys Thomas Voracek and Rita Calvin prosecuted the case.
Tax Division Acting Assistant Attorney General John A. DiCicco and Carter M. Stewart, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, made the announcement.
Importer of Defective Zylon Fiber Used in Bullet Proof Vests Reaches Settlement with United StatesRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON - N.I. Teijin Shoji Co. Ltd., aka N.I. Teisho of Japan, and an American subsidiary, N.I. Teijin Shoji (USA) Inc., have agreed to pay the United States $1.5 million to resolve potential claims under the False Claims Act in connection with the companies’ importation and sale of defective Zylon fiber which was used as the key ballistic material in bulletproof vests, the Justice Department announced today.
The Teijin companies imported the fiber on behalf of the Zylon manufacturer, Toyobo Co. Ltd. of Japan. The United States alleged that the Teijin companies were aware that the fiber degraded quickly over time and that this degradation rendered bulletproof vests containing woven Zylon unfit for use. The government further alleged that, despite this knowledge, the Teijin companies did not inform the United States of any degradation concerns or stop selling Zylon fiber for use in ballistic applications. Rather, Teijin personnel actively participated in the marketing of the Zylon fiber and downplayed the extent of the degradation problem. Furthermore, for a period of time in 2002, Teijin purchased Zylon fabric back from the Canadian weaver to whom it had sold the fiber for weaving, and sold it directly to American body armor manufacturers, after the weaver itself refused to sell the Zylon fabric due to its fears of potential liability.
"Those who knowingly provide defective material for bulletproof vests not only cheat the taxpayers, they put the lives of law enforcement officers at risk," said Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Division. "We will pursue any company that is aware of problems with Zylon fiber, yet continues to market and sell it anyway."
This settlement is part of a larger investigation of the body armor industry’s use of Zylon in body armor. The United States previously has settled with eight other participants in the Zylon body armor industry for more than $59 million. Additionally, the federal government has lawsuits pending against Toyobo Co. and several of the vest manufacturers. As part of today’s agreement, Teijin has pledged its cooperation in the government’s on-going investigation.
Assistant Attorney General West acknowledged the contributions of the many government agencies assisting the government’s ongoing investigation of those who participated in the manufacture and sale of Zylon vests, including the Justice Department’s Civil Division; the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia; the General Services Administration, Office of the Inspector General; the U.S. Army Criminal Investigative Command; the Department of Commerce, Office of Inspector General; the Department of the Treasury’s Inspector General for Tax Administration; the Defense Criminal Investigative Service; the Air Force Office of Special Investigations; the Department of Energy, Office of the Inspector General; the Defense Contracting Audit Agency; and the FBI.
Hawaii Man Sentenced to 32 Years in Prison for Providing Defense Information and Services to People’s Republic of ChinaRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Noshir S. Gowadia, 66, of Maui, Hawaii, was sentenced late yesterday to 32 years in prison for communicating classified national defense information to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), illegally exporting military technical data, as well as money laundering, filing false tax returns and other offenses.
The sentence, handed down by Chief U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway in the District of Hawaii, was announced by David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, and Florence T. Nakakuni, U.S. Attorney for the District of Hawaii.
On Aug. 9, 2010, following six days of deliberation after a trial spanning nearly four months in Honolulu, a federal jury found Gowadia guilty of five criminal offenses relating to his design for the PRC of a low-signature cruise missile exhaust system capable of rendering a PRC cruise missile resistant to detection by infrared missiles.
The jury also convicted Gowadia in three counts of illegally communicating classified information regarding lock-on range for infrared missiles against the U.S. B-2 bomber to persons not authorized to receive such information. The B-2 bomber is one of America’s most critical defense assets, capable of utilizing its stealth characteristics to penetrate enemy airspace and deliver precision guided weapons on multiple targets. Gowadia was also convicted of unlawfully exporting classified information about the
B-2, illegally retaining information related to U.S. national defense at his home, money laundering and filing false tax returns for the years 2001 and 2002.
“Mr. Gowadia provided some of our country’s most sensitive weapons-related designs to the Chinese government for money. He is now being held accountable for his actions. This prosecution should serve as a warning to others who would compromise our nation’s military secrets for profit. I commend the prosecutors, analysts and agents - including those from the FBI and the Air Force - who were responsible for this investigation and prosecution,” said Assistant Attorney General Kris.
“Justice is finally done in this lengthy and complex case where highly classified information and sensitive technology was unlawfully disclosed and transferred to the People’s Republic of China, and other persons and entities as well. Mr. Gowadia went beyond disclosing information to China, he performed defense work in that nation with the purpose of assisting them in their stealth weapons design programs. While the full damage of his activities may never be known, we are comforted that justice has been done, and that Mr. Gowadia will spend 32 years in federal prison, incapable of betraying the United States of America again. It must be remembered also that Mr. Gowadia’s sentence also addresses his creation of an international identity to hide his income and launder his ill gotten gains. I deeply appreciate the hard work of the FBI, the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations, and the IRS Criminal Investigation Division in assisting us in obtaining the espionage, arms export, tax and money laundering convictions in this important case,” said U.S. Attorney Nakakuni.
“Along with our partners in the law enforcement and intelligence communities, the FBI will continue to pursue anyone who attempts to sell America’s national security secrets for personal gain. The safety of the American people remains our highest priority, and we will use every tool at our disposal to find, stop, and prosecute anyone engaging in espionage,” said Frank Montoya, Special Agent in Charge of the Honolulu Division of the FBI.
“This case has set the example for interagency cooperation focused singularly to protect Americans from harm. The sentencing reflects the successful prosecution of Mr. Gowadia for espionage and other crimes and highlights the many contributions of AFOSI personnel and our partner organizations worldwide,” said Brigadier General Kevin Jacobsen, Commander, U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI).”
“This defendant betrayed us in at least two ways, said Marcus Williams, the IRS Special Agent in Charge of Hawaii. Not only did he sell out his country for personal gain, but he also cheated us all out of the tax owed on those ill-gotten gains. In short, his actions were despicable from beginning to end,” said Marcus Williams, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Special Agent in Charge of Hawaii.
Gowadia was first arrested in October 2005 on a criminal complaint alleging that he willfully communicated national defense information to a person not entitled to receive it. He was charged with additional violations in a 2005 indictment, a 2006 superseding indictment and a 2007 second superseding indictment.
According to information produced during the trial, Gowadia was an engineer with Northrop Grumman Corporation from approximately 1968 to 1986, during which time he contributed to the development of the unique propulsion system and low observable capabilities of the B-2 Spirit bomber, sometimes referred to as the “Stealth” bomber. Gowadia also continued to work on classified matters as a contractor with the with the U.S. government until 1997, when his security clearance was terminated.
Evidence at the trial revealed that from July 2003 to June 2005, Gowadia took six trips to the PRC to provide defense services in the form of design, test support and test data analysis of technologies for the purpose of assisting the PRC with a cruise missile system by developing a stealthy exhaust nozzle. At the time of his arrest, Gowadia had been paid at least $110,000 by the PRC. The jury convicted Gowadia of two specific transmissions of classified information: a PowerPoint presentation on the exhaust nozzle of a PRC cruise missile project and an evaluation of the effectiveness of a redesigned nozzle, and a computer file providing his signature prediction of a PRC cruise missile outfitted with his modified exhaust nozzle and associated predictions in relation to a U.S. air-to-air missile.
The prosecution also produced evidence that documented Gowadia’s use of three foreign entities he established and controlled, including a Liechtenstein charity purportedly for the benefit of children, to hide, launder and disguise the income he received from foreign countries. Gowadia admitted on cross examination at trial that he never donated money to any charity using the foundation, despite repeatedly representing that he did to the IRS and others. In addition to demonstrating that Gowadia under-reported his income and falsely denied having control over foreign bank accounts for the two tax years involved in his convictions, the evidence at trial revealed that Gowadia had not paid any income tax since from at least 1997 until 2005 when he was arrested. Trial evidence showed that during this time Gowadia built a luxurious ocean side home located on a cliff in Maui, Hawaii.
This case was investigated by FBI, the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations, the IRS’s Criminal Investigation Division, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Hawaii and Senior Trial Attorney Robert E. Wallace Jr., of the Counterespionage Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
Former Upstate New York Financial Advisor Pleads Guilty to Using and Selling Abusive Trust Schemes to Obstruct the IRSRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON - Richard A. Muto of Buffalo, N.Y., has pleaded guilty to corruptly endeavoring to obstruct and impede the administration of the internal revenue laws, the Justice Department announced today. A federal grand jury in Buffalo returned an indictment against Muto in December 2005.
According to the indictment and documents filed in the district court, Muto, a former resident of Lewiston, N.Y., was a financial advisor who owned and operated a business called Tax and Investment Strategies, located in Niagara Falls, N.Y. Between February 1996 and March 2000, Muto promoted abusive tax shelters that involved a multi-layered abusive trust scheme. The fraudulent scheme allowed clients to illegally reduce their federal income taxes by diverting business income through a series of sham corporations and trusts. Through these trusts, Muto helped his clients conceal their true income from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This fraudulent scheme resulted in an unlawful reduction in reported taxes by his clients.
Muto also counseled his clients to submit frivolous documents and correspondence to the IRS to obstruct audits and thwart the IRS revenue agents. In addition to promoting the fraudulent trusts, Muto also utilized them. The use of these fraudulent trusts resulted in Muto also filing false income tax returns for the tax years 1996, 1997 and 1998. According to the plea documents, the scheme promoted by Muto caused a tax loss to the United States of more than $1.7 million.
The charge against Muto carries a maximum sentence of up to three years in prison and up to one year of supervised release. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 9, 2011.
"The IRS and the Justice Department will continue to investigate and prosecute people who use schemes and scams to obstruct our nation’s tax system," said John A. DiCicco, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division. He thanked the IRS
Criminal Investigation agents who investigated the case as well as Tax Division trial attorneys John N. Kane and Jeffrey Shih who prosecuted the case.
This prosecution is one of several prosecutions against the fraudulent trust schemes promoted nationwide by The Aegis Company based in Palos Hills, Ill. In May 2008, a federal jury in Chicago convicted the six Aegis principals who ran the nationwide scheme out of Illinois and with whom Muto had a business relationship to promote the trusts.
Former Senior Employee with U.S. Military Contractor Sentenced to 37 Months in Prison for Bribery Scheme Related to Contracts Used to Support Iraq WarRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON - A former senior employee of a U.S. military contractor was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge David Hittner in Houston to 37 months in prison for participating in a conspiracy to pay $360,000 in bribes to U.S. Army contracting officials stationed at a U.S. military base in Kuwait, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division.
In addition, Judge Hittner ordered Dorothy Ellis, 53, of Texas City, Texas, to serve three years of supervised release following her prison term and ordered her to pay $360,000 in restitution. Ellis pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas on Sept. 2, 2010, to one count of conspiracy to bribe public officials.
The case against Ellis arose from a corruption probe focusing on Camp Arifjan, a U.S. military base in Kuwait. As a result of this investigation, 16 individuals, including Ellis, have been charged, of which 14 have pleaded guilty. These individuals include Ellis’s former boss and military contractor, Terry Hall, and several U.S. Army contracting officials, including former Army Majors James Momon and Christopher Murray.
According to court documents, from spring 2004 through fall 2007, Hall operated and had an interest in several companies, including Freedom Consulting and Catering Co. and Total Government Allegiance, which, at various times during this period, provided goods and services to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and its components. The goods and services were provided based on a blanket purchase agreement (BPA) to deliver bottled water and a contract to construct a security fence in Kuwait and elsewhere. A BPA is a type of contract by which the DoD agrees to pay a contractor a specified price for a particular good or service. Based on a BPA, the DoD orders the supplies on an as-needed basis. The contractor is then obligated to deliver the supplies ordered at the price agreed upon in the BPA. The term for such an order by the DoD is a “call.”
According to court documents, Ellis was Hall’s most senior employee. In that role, she was responsible for serving as the liaison between Hall and U.S. Army contracting officials stationed at Camp Arifjan. Ellis admitted that she participated in the bribery scheme by providing Momon and Murray access to secret bank accounts established on their behalf in the Philippines to enable Hall and others to transfer bribe payments to them. Ellis also admitted that, to further Hall’s unlawful dealings with Momon, she obtained confidential Army contract pricing information from Momon that was designed to give Hall an unlawful advantage in the bidding process for an ice contract from the DoD.
According to court documents, Hall obtained the calls made under the bottled water BPA and the fence contract by bribing certain U.S. Army contracting officers, including, among others, Momon and Murray. Assisted by Ellis, Hall paid Momon approximately $330,000 and Murray approximately $30,000. In exchange for these bribe payments, Momon arranged for the DoD to pay Hall’s companies more than $6.4 million based on calls for bottled water, and Murray arranged for the DoD to pay Hall to construct security fencing.
On Feb. 18, 2010, Hall pleaded guilty to bribery conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy and agreed to forfeit $15.7 million to the U.S. government in connection with his payment of more than $3 million in bribes to former U.S. Army Majors John Cockerham, Eddie Pressley, Momon and Murray.
On Aug. 13, 2009, Momon pleaded guilty to receiving approximately $1.6 million in bribes and agreed to pay $5.7 million in restitution. On Jan. 8, 2009, Murray pleaded guilty to charges of bribery and making a false statement. He was sentenced on Dec. 17, 2009, to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay $245,000 in restitution.
On Jan. 31, 2008, Cockerham pleaded guilty to participating in a bribery and money laundering scheme at Camp Arifjan. He was sentenced on Dec. 2, 2009, to 210 months in prison and ordered to pay $9.6 million in restitution.
The case against Hall’s co-defendants, Eddie Pressley and his wife, Eurica Pressley, is scheduled for trial Jan. 31, 2011, in Decatur, Ala. These defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Edward J. Loya, Jr. and Peter C. Sprung of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section. The case is being investigated by special agents of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Army Criminal Investigation Command Division, the FBI and the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.
Monday 24 January 2011
Two Individuals Plead Guilty to Defrauding FCC Video Relay Service ProgramRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Two individuals pleaded guilty today for their participation in a conspiracy to defraud the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Video Relay Service (VRS) program, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.
Ellen Thompson, 44, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Joel A. Pisano in Trenton, N.J., to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Wanda Hutchinson, 36, pleaded guilty before Judge Pisano to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Thompson and Hutchinson were indicted in the fall of 2009, along with others alleged to have been involved in the criminal conspiracy. The defendants and their co-conspirators are alleged to have caused the FCC to pay millions of dollars in fraudulent reimbursements.
According to court documents, Thompson was the chief operating officer for Deaf Studio 29, Verson Studio and Deaf News Network, California corporations that contracted with a certified VRS provider company to use the company’s VRS service. Hutchinson was a call center manager for Innovative Communication Services for the Deaf Corporation (ICSD), a company that operated VRS call centers in Florida. Thompson and Hutchinson both conspired with others to generate illegitimate VRS call minutes for reimbursement by the FCC.
According to the indictment, VRS is an online video translation service that allows people with hearing disabilities to communicate with hearing individuals through the use of interpreters and web cameras. A person with a hearing disability who wants to communicate with a hearing person can do so by contacting a VRS provider through an audio and video Internet connection. The VRS provider, in turn, employs a video interpreter to view and interpret the hearing disabled person’s signed conversation and relay the signed conversation orally to a hearing person. VRS is funded by fees assessed by telecommunications providers from telephone customers, and is provided at no cost to the VRS user.
On Jan. 6, 2011, Marc Velasquez, the founder and owner of Deaf Studio 29, Verson Studio and Deaf News Network, pleaded guilty for his role in the conspiracy. On March 9, 2010, Yosbel Buscaron and Lazaro Fernandez, the co-owners of ICSD, pleaded guilty for their roles in the conspiracy. Jessica Bacallao, an ICSD call center manager, pleaded guilty on Oct. 28, 2010.
Thompson and Hutchinson are scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 6, 2011. Both defendants face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and mandatory restitution and forfeiture.
This case was prosecuted by Deputy Chief Hank Bond Walther and current and former Trial Attorneys Robert Zink and Brigham Cannon of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. The case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the FCC Office of Inspector General.
Seafood Wholesaler Owners Plead Guilty to Selling Falsely Labeled Fish, Smuggling, and Misbranding of Seafood ProductsRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON– Karen L. Blyth and David H.M. Phelps pleaded guilty today in federal court in Mobile, Ala., to 13 felony offenses for their roles in purchasing and selling farm raised Asian catfish and Lake Victoria perch falsely labeled as grouper; selling foreign farm-raised shrimp falsely labeled as U.S. wild caught shrimp, selling shrimp that falsely claimed to be larger, more expensive shrimp than they actually were; and for buying fish they knew had been illegally imported into the United States. The defendants pleaded guilty to one conspiracy count, nine violations of the Lacey Act, two counts of receiving smuggled goods and one misbranding count. A third defendant charged in the case, John J. Popa, of Lisbon, Conn., had previously pleaded guilty to similar offenses.
Blyth, of Paradise Valley, Ariz., was the co-owner and president of two companies, Consolidated Seafood Enterprises Inc., located in Phoenix, and Reel Fish and Seafood, Inc., located in Pensacola, Fla., which traded in a variety of seafood products. Phelps, of Scottsdale, Ariz., co-owned Consolidated Seafood and Reel Fish and served as a vice president in both companies. John J. Popa managed and co-owned Reel Fish with Blyth and Phelps and served as the company’s vice president.
The defendants admitted using Consolidated Seafood to buy frozen fillets of a type of farm raised catfish from Vietnam with the genus Pangasius, called sutchi, that they knew had been imported into the United States and falsely declared as wild caught sole, in order to avoid anti-dumping duties that were owed on this product.
“These defendants have admitted to flouting federal laws in a misguided scheme to defraud the American consumer,” said Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice. “Today’s convictions send the message that we will pursue others who engage in illegal activity. This type of scam floods the market with falsely labeled fish, thereby misleading consumers, artificially deflating the cost of wild-caught fish, and depriving law-abiding fishermen of the full measure of their labor.”
“These prosecutions should send a clear message that instances of consumer fraud will be vigorously prosecuted and that this U.S. Attorney’s Office will continue to protect local seafood consumers and all components of the local seafood market and industry,” said Kenyen R. Brown, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama.
Anti-dumping duties went into effect on frozen fillets of sutchi, basa and swai in Jan. 2003, after an investigation by the Department of Commerce established that this product was being sold in the United States at less than fair value and were therefore injuring domestic catfish producers. In all, the defendants conspired to falsely label and buy approximately 283,500 pounds of farm raised sutchi, which was imported without $145,625 of anti-dumping duties having been paid.
“These anti-dumping duties are designed to protect domestic catfish producers from unfair foreign competition,” said Raymond R. Parmer, Jr., Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations. “Those that conspire to and buy such a product knowing that it was imported illegally will be brought to justice and punished.”
“We will continue to investigate all false labeling and substitution of this country’s fish and seafood, and work to protect fisheries in the Southeast region and the American consumer which are harmed by this kind of criminal activity,” said Harold Robbins, Special Agent in Charge, Southeast Region, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of Law Enforcement.
Some of the fish seized during the investigation tested positive for malachite green and Enrofloxin, both of which are banned from U.S. food. Malachite green is a chemical compound often used in overseas fish farming, and Enrofloxin is an antibiotic used in some foreign fish farming but for which there is zero tolerance by the Food and Drug Administration in food sold in the United States. The defendants ultimately received 81,000 pounds of this illegally imported sutchi, and sold 34,100 pounds of it to Reel Fish, which in turn sold it to customers in Alabama, Florida and elsewhere.
The defendants would change the marking on this sutchi and other imported basa to grouper, and sell it to customers in Alabama, Florida and Mississippi as more desirable grouper, at a higher cost. The defendants sold more than 100,000 pounds of this falsely labeled basa and sutchi to these customers.
Blyth and Phelps also admitted to buying more than 25,000 pounds of Lake Victoria perch from Africa, mislabeling and selling this fish as grouper to customers in Alabama and Florida at a higher cost, and in greater quantities than if it had been accurately labeled.
The defendants also admitted that they conspired to mislabel and create false labels for shrimp they sold to customers in these areas. The defendants, through Reel Fish, would repackage farm raised foreign shrimp as U.S. wild caught shrimp. The defendants would also falsely label the shrimp as being larger than they were. By falsely labeling the shrimp in these manners, the defendants were able to sell more and charge more for the shrimp that they sold.
Sentencing for Blyth and Phelps is set for May 4, 2011. Popa’s sentencing is set for Feb. 22, 2011. The maximum penalty for each smuggling count is up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The maximum penalty for each violation of the Lacey Act includes up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The maximum penalty for each misbranding count includes up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The case was investigated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of Law Enforcement; the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement; the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations; and the Department of Defense, Defense Criminal Investigative Service. The case was prosecuted by Wayne D. Hettenbach and Susan L. Park of the Environmental Crimes Section of the Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division, and Deborah A. Griffin of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama.
Propietarios de mayorista de mariscos se declaran culpables de vender pescado etiquetado falsamente, contrabandear y falsificar marcas de mariscosRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON — Karen L. Blyth y David H.M. Phelps se declararon culpables hoy en el tribunal federal en Mobile, Ala., de 13 delitos graves por sus papeles en la compra y venta de bagre asiático de criadero y perca del Lago Victoria etiquetados falsamente como mero; vender camarones extranjeros de criadero falsamente etiquetados como camarones silvestres pescados en EE.UU., vender camarones que alegaban ser de mayor tamaño y más caros de lo que realmente eran; y comprar pescado que sabían que había sido ilegalmente importado a los Estados Unidos. Los demandados se declararon culpables de un cargo de conspiración, nueve violaciones de la Ley Lacey, dos cargos de recibir bienes contrabandeados y un cargo de falsificación de marca. Un tercer demandado acusado en el caso, John J. Popa, de Lisbon, Conn., se había declarado culpable anteriormente de delitos similares.
Blyth, de Paradise Valley, Ariz., era el copropietario y presidente de dos compañías, Consolidated Seafood Enterprises, Inc., ubicada en Phoenix, y Reel Fish and Seafood, Inc., ubicada en Pensacola, Fla., las que comercializaban una variedad de pescados y mariscos. Phelps, de Scottsdale, Ariz., copropietario de Consolidated Seafood and Reel Fish, también fue vicepresidente de ambas compañías. John J. Popa administraba y era copropietario de Reel Fish con Blyth y Phelps y fue vicepresidente de la compañía.
Los codemandados admitieron haber utilizado a Consolidated Seafood para comprar filetes congelados de un tipo de bagre de criadero de Vietnam con el género Pangasius, llamado sutchi, que sabían haber sido importado a los Estados Unidos y declararon falsamente que se trataba de lenguado pescado en forma silvestre, a fin de evitar cargos anti-dumping que incidían sobre este producto.
"Estos demandados han admitido haber burlado las leyes federales en un ardid para defraudar al consumidor estadounidense", dijo Ignacia S. Moreno, Secretaria de Justicia Auxiliar de la División de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales del Departamento de Justicia. "Las condenas de hoy transmiten el mensaje de que iremos atrás de cualquier otra persona que realice actividades ilegales. Este tipo de ardid inunda el mercado con pesado falsamente etiquetado, engañando, por lo tanto, a los consumidores, reduciendo artificialmente el costo de los pescados pescados en forma silvestre, y privando a los pescadores respetuosos de la ley de los frutos plenos de su trabajo".
"Estos enjuiciamientos deben transmitir un mensaje claro de que se enjuiciarían enérgicamente los casos de fraude al consumidor y que esta Fiscalía Federal seguirá protegiendo a los consumidores locales de mariscos y a todos los componentes del mercado y la industria de mariscos locales", dijo Kenyen R. Brown, Fiscal Federal para el Distrito Sur de Alabama.
Los cargos antidumping entraron en vigencia para filetes congelados de sutchi, basa y swai enero de 2003, después de que una investigación realizada por el Departamento de Comercio estableciera que este producto estaba siendo vendido en los Estados Unidos a un valor menor que el justo, perjudicando, por lo tanto, a los productores domésticos de bagre. En total, los demandados conspiraron para etiquetar falsamente y comprar aproximadamente 283,500 libras de sutchi de criadero importado sin que se pagaran los cargos anti-dumping de $145,625.
"Estos cargos antidumping fueron diseñados para proteger a los productores domésticos de bagre contra la competencia injusta extranjera", dijo Raymond R. Parmer, Jr., Agente Especial a Cargo, Departamento de Seguridad Nacional de EE.UU., Investigaciones de Seguridad Nacional. "Quienes conspiren para comprar y compren tal producto sabiendo que fue importado ilegalmente enfrentarán a la justicia y serán castigados".
"Seguiremos investigando todo etiquetado falso y la sustitución del pescado y los mariscos de este país, y trabajaremos para proteger a las pescaderías en la región sudeste y al consumidor estadounidense perjudicados por este tipo de actividad delictiva", dijo Harold Robbins, Agente Especial a Cargo, Región Sudeste, Administración Nacional Oceánica y Atmosférica, Oficina de Coacción Legal.
Parte del pescado confiscado durante la investigación tuvo resultado positivo en pruebas realizadas para constatar la presencia de verde malaquita y enrofloxina, ambos los cuales están prohibidos en alimentos estadounidenses. El verde malaquita es un compuesto químico utilizado con frecuencia en criaderos de peces en el exterior, y la enrofloxina es un antibiótico utilizando en algunos criaderos de peces extranjeros, pero para el cual existe tolerancia cero por parte de la Administración de Alimentos y Fármacos para alimentos vendidos en los Estados Unidos. Los demandados recibieron 81,000 libras de este sutchi ilegalmente importado, y vendieron 34,100 libras del mismo a Reel Fish, quien a su vez lo vendió a clientes en Alabama, Florida y otros lugares.
Los demandados cambiaron las etiquetas en estos sutchi y otros basa importados a mero, vendiéndoselo a clientes en Alabama, Florida y Mississippi como un mero más deseable, a un costo más alto. Los demandados vendieron más de 100,000 libras de estos basa y sutchi con falsamente etiquetados a estos clientes.
Blyth y Phelps también admitieron haber comprado más de 25,000 libras de perca del Lago Victoria de África, haber falsificado sus etiquetas y haber vendido este pescado como siendo mero a clientes en Alabama y Florida a un costo más alto, y en cantidades mayores que si hubieran estado correctamente etiquetados.
Los demandados también admitieron que conspiraron para etiquetar engañosamente y crear etiquetas falsas para camarones que vendieron a clientes en dichas áreas. Los demandados, a través de Reel Fish, re embalaban camarones extranjeros de criadero como camarones pescados de manera silvestre en EE.UU. Los demandados también etiquetaron los camarones falsamente indicando un tamaño mayor que el que tenían en realidad. Al etiquetar el camarón falsamente, los demandados lograron vender más y cobrar más por el camarón vendido.
Se ha programado la lectura de la sentencia para Blyth y Phelps para el 4 de mayo de 2011. La lectura de la sentencia de Popa fue programada para el 22 de febrero de 2011. La pena máxima por cada cargo de contrabando es de hasta 20 años en prisión y una multa de 250,000 dólares. La pena máxima por cada violación de la Ley Lacey incluye hasta cinco años en prisión y una multa de 250,000 dólares. La pena máxima por cada cargo de falsificación de marca incluye hasta tres años en prisión y una multa de 250,000 dólares.
El caso fue investigado por la Administración Nacional Oceánica y Atmosférica, Oficina de Coacción Legal; el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional, Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas; Oficina de Investigaciones Especiales de la Fuerza Aérea de EE.UU.; y el Departamento de Defensa, Servicio de Investigaciones Penales de Defensa. Estuvieron a cargo de la acusación en el caso Wayne D. Hettenbach y Susan L. Park de la Sección de Delitos Ambientales de la División de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales del Departamento de Justicia, y Deborah A. Griffin de la Fiscalía Federal para el Distrito Sur de Alabama.
Michigan Businessman Pleads Guilty to Defrauding the Federal E-Rate ProgramRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON - A Michigan businessman pleaded guilty to wire fraud in connection with the federal E-Rate program, the Department of Justice announced today.
Jeremy R. Sheets pleaded guilty to a charge filed in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Dec. 9, 2010, for engaging in wire fraud in connection with the E-Rate program funding applications of two school districts in western Michigan. The department said Sheets engaged in the wire fraud beginning in or about December 2001 and continuing until about December 2007.
According to the charge, Sheets, the president and part owner of an Internet and technology services company, violated E-Rate program rules by compensating two school districts for their share of E-Rate expenses. In addition, Sheets utilized E-Rate funds to purchase undisclosed items, some of which were not eligible for E-Rate funding. Sheets concealed his violation of E-Rate program rules from the E-Rate program by fraudulently misrepresenting that the schools had been billed for their E-Rate expenses when, in fact, Sheets had reimbursed the schools for their share of expenses.
The E-Rate program was created by Congress in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and is administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company, under the auspices of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The program provides subsidies to economically disadvantaged schools and libraries. Depending on the financial needs of the applicant schools, the program pays 20 to 90 percent of the cost for Internet access and telecommunications services, as well as internal computer and communications networks.
As a result of the Antitrust Division’s investigation into fraud and anticompetitive conduct in the E-Rate program, a total of seven companies and 20 individuals have pleaded guilty or have been convicted and found guilty or entered civil settlements. Those companies and individuals have paid, agreed to pay, or been sentenced to pay criminal fines and restitution totaling more than $40 million. Fifteen individuals have been sentenced to serve jail time.
The wire fraud charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for an individual. 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 amount is greater than the statutory maximum fine.
The charge announced today resulted from an ongoing investigation by the Department of Justice Antitrust Division’s Chicago Field Office, with the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Grand Rapids, the FBI’s Grand Rapids Office of its Detroit Division and the FCC’s Office of Inspector General. Anyone with information concerning violations of the E-Rate Program or other anti-competitive conduct is urged to call the Antitrust Division’s Chicago Field Office at 312-353-7530 or visit www.justice.gov/atr/contact/newcase.htm.
Lockheed Martin to Pay $2 Million to Resolve Allegations Resulting from Fraudulent Submission of Government ContractRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Lockheed Martin Inc. has reached a $2 million settlement with the United States to resolve False Claims Act claims in a whistleblower suit, the Justice Department announced today. The suit, filed in June 2009, in the Southern District of Mississippi, alleges that the defendants knowingly violated the False Claims Act (FCA) when they submitted or caused the submission of false claims and conspired to submit such claims under a contract with the General Services Administration (GSA) in support of the Naval Oceanographic Major Shared Resource Center (NAVO MSRC).
That contract was to provide support services for the National Center for Critical Information Processing and Storage (NCCIPS) at the NAVO MSRC at the John C. Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, Miss. GSA awarded the NCCIPS task order in April 2004 to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), which teamed with Lockheed Martin and Applied Enterprise Solutions (AES) to perform under the task order. SAIC was paid a total of $115 million under the contract, of which Lockheed Martin was paid $2 million according to the terms of its subcontract with SAIC.
The suit alleges that prior to the issuance, and once the NCCIPS solicitation had been publicized, that then government employees, Stephen Adamec and Robert Knesel, conspired with Lockheed Martin, Galloway, SAIC and AES to ensure that SAIC and its teaming partners were awarded the task order by (a) sharing non public, advance procurement information with the SAIC team that was not provided to other potential bidders; (b) sharing information about the solicitation with the SAIC team before providing that information to other bidders; and choosing a type of contract and putting language in the solicitation in order to bias the selection process to favor the SAIC team.
“Companies that do business with the federal government and get paid by the taxpayers must act fairly and comply with the law,” said Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “Whistleblowers have helped us to enforce the law by bringing to light schemes that misuse taxpayer dollars and abuse the public trust by undermining the integrity of the procurement process.”
The suit was filed under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the FCA by David Magee, a former employee at the NAVO MSRC. Under those provisions, a private party can file an action on behalf of the United States and receive a portion of the recovery. As a result of today’s settlement, the whistleblower will receive $560,000 as his share of the recovery.
The cases is U.S. ex. rel. Magee v. Lockheed Martin, et al., Case Number 1:09cv324 HSO (JMR) (S.D. Ms.), brought by David Mageeagainst SAIC SAIC; Lockheed Martin; AES; Dale Galloway, Chief Executive Officer of AES; Stephen Adamec, former Director of NAVO MSRC; and Robert Knesel, Deputy Director of NAVO MSRC. The United States intervened in the suit against all parties with the exception of Lockheed Martin.
The investigation was conducted by the Justice Department’s Civil Division, the Department of Defense’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the GSA Office of Inspector General.
Justice Department Releases Proposed Rule in Accordance with the Prison Rape Elimination ActRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department today released a proposed rule that aims to prevent and respond to sexual abuse in incarceration settings, in accordance with the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). Based on recommendations of the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission (NPREC), the proposed rule contains four sets of national standards aimed at combating sexual abuse in four types of confinement facilities: adult prisons and jails, juvenile facilities, lockups and community confinement facilities.
A 60-day public comment period will follow publication in the Federal Register, after which the department will make revisions as warranted and the standards will be published as a final rule. The department expects the final rule will be published by the end of the year.
“Sexual abuse is a crime, not punishment for a crime,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “The Department of Justice’s goal is to eliminate these acts of violence by taking deliberative and concrete steps to ensure the health and safety of prisoners. In crafting our proposed rule, we have aimed to build a durable set of standards that are attainable, effective and consistent with the Prison Rape Elimination Act’s requirements and goals.”
In developing the proposed rule, the department convened listening sessions with key stakeholders, performed an extensive analysis of the anticipated costs and benefits of the standards, and reviewed more than 650 comments that were submitted in response to an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. The standards are based on recommendations by the NPREC, which was created by PREA to study sexual abuse in confinement settings and disbanded in 2009 after issuing its final report, which included recommended standards. The department’s revisions aim to make the standards more effective, clarify the responsibilities imposed on correctional agencies, and comply with relevant law, including PREA’s requirement that the new standards not “impose substantial additional costs compared to the costs presently expended by federal, state and local prison authorities.” In addition, the department attempted to ensure that correctional agencies will be able to implement these standards without jeopardizing other programs vital to protecting inmates and ensuring their eventual reintegration into society.
The standards seek to prevent sexual abuse and to reduce the harm that it causes when it occurs. Each of the four sets of standards consists of 11 categories: prevention planning; responsive planning; training and education; screening for risk of sexual victimization and abusiveness; reporting; official response following an inmate report; investigations; discipline; medical and mental care; data collection and review; and audits.
Among other things, the proposed standards would require correctional agencies to:
- Ban cross-gender strip searches, and for juveniles, cross-gender pat-down searches;
- Check the backgrounds of new hires and not hire past abusers;
- Establish an evidence protocol to preserve evidence following an incident and train investigators to act promptly and diligently;
- Screen inmates through a process that takes into account their safety and assign them to housing in a way that best protects them;
- Provide multiple methods to report sexual abuse;
- Provide inmates access to outside victim advocates for emotional support services related to sexual abuse;
- Provide appropriate medical and mental health care to victims;
- Prepare a written policy mandating zero tolerance toward all forms of sexual abuse and sexual harassment;
- Discipline staff and inmate assailants appropriately, with termination as the presumptive disciplinary sanction for staff who have engaged in sexual touching;
- Train employees on their responsibilities in preventing, recognizing and responding to sexual abuse;
- Allow inmates a reasonable amount of time to file grievances so as to preserve their ability to seek legal redress after exhausting administrative remedies; and
- Conduct audits to assess compliance.
The Justice Department’s complete rule can be found online at: www.ojp.usdoj.gov/programs/pdfs/prea_nprm.pdf . Following publication in the Federal Register, the proposed rule will be available at www.regulations.gov , through which comments on the proposed rule may be submitted.
Once published, the standards will be immediately binding on the federal Bureau of Prisons. States that do not comply with the standards are subject to a five percent reduction in funds they would otherwise receive for prison purposes from the department unless the governor certifies that five percent of such funds will be used to enable compliance in future years.
Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Efforts Recover Record $4 Billion; New Affordable Care Act Tools Will Help Fight FraudRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today released a new report showing that the government’s health care fraud prevention and enforcement efforts recovered more than $4 billion in taxpayer dollars in Fiscal Year (FY) 2010. This is the highest annual amount ever recovered from people who attempted to defraud seniors and taxpayers, or from those who sought payments to which they were not entitled. In addition, HHS today announced new rules authorized by the Affordable Care Act that will help the department prevent and fight fraud, waste and abuse in Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
These findings, released today, in the annual Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program (HCFAC) report, are a result of President Obama making the elimination of fraud, waste and abuse a top priority in his administration. The success of this joint Department of Justice and HHS effort would not have been possible without the Health Care Fraud Prevention & Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), created in 2009 to prevent waste, fraud and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and to crack down on the fraud perpetrators who are abusing the system and costing American taxpayers billions of dollars. These efforts to reduce fraud will continue to improve with the new tools and resources provided by the Affordable Care Act, including the new rules announced today.
“Our aggressive pursuit of health care fraud has resulted in the largest recovery of taxpayer dollars in the history of the Justice Department,” said Associate Attorney General Perrelli. “These actions are in large part because of the great work being led by the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team. Through this initiative, we are working in partnership with government, law enforcement and industry leaders, and the public to protect taxpayer dollars, control health care costs, and ensure the strength and integrity of our most essential health care programs.”
“President Obama has made it very clear that fraud and abuse of taxpayers’ dollars are unacceptable. And for too long, our fraud prevention efforts have focused on chasing after taxpayer dollars after they have already been paid out,” said Secretary Sebelius. “Thanks to the President’s leadership and the new tools provided by the Affordable Care Act, we can focus on stopping fraud before it happens.”
HCFAC Report
More than $4 billion stolen from federal health care programs was recovered and returned to the Medicare Health Insurance Trust Fund, the Treasury and others in FY 2010. This is an unprecedented achievement for HCFAC, a joint effort of the two departments to coordinate federal, state and local law enforcement activities to fight health care fraud and abuse.
The Affordable Care Act provides additional tools and resources to help fight fraud that will help boost these efforts, including an additional $350 million for HCFAC activities. The administration is already using tools authorized by the Affordable Care Act, including enhanced screenings and enrollment requirements, increased data sharing across government, expanded overpayment recovery efforts and greater oversight of private insurance abuses.
The Departments of Justice and HHS have enhanced their coordination through HEAT and have expanded Medicare Fraud Strike Force teams since 2009. The departments hosted a series of regional fraud prevention summits around the country, and sent letters to state attorneys general urging them to work with HHS and federal, state and local law enforcement officials to mount a substantial outreach campaign to educate seniors and other Medicare beneficiaries about how to prevent scams and fraud. During FY 2010, HEAT and the Medicare Fraud Strike Force expanded local partnerships and helped educate Medicare beneficiaries about how to protect themselves against fraud.
In FY 2010, the total number of cities with strike force prosecution teams was increased to seven, all of which have teams of investigators and prosecutors dedicated to fighting fraud. The strike force teams use advanced data analysis techniques to identify high-billing levels in health care fraud hot spots so that interagency teams can target emerging or migrating schemes along with chronic fraud by criminals masquerading as health care providers or suppliers. Strike force enforcement accomplishments in all seven cities during FY 2010 include:
· 140 indictments involving charges filed against 284 defendants who collectively billed the Medicare program more than $590 million;
· 217 guilty pleas negotiated and 19 jury trials litigated, winning guilty verdicts against 23 defendants; and
· 146 defendants were sentenced to prison during the fiscal year, averaging more than 40 months of incarceration.
Including strike force matters, federal prosecutors opened 1,116 criminal health care fraud investigations as of the end of FY 2010, and filed criminal charges in 488 cases involving 931 defendants. A total of 726 defendants were convicted for health care fraud-related crimes during the year.
In addition to these criminal enforcement successes, 2010 was a record year for recoveries obtained in civil health care matters brought under the False Claims Act—more than $2.5 billion, which is the largest in the history of the Department of Justice.
The HCFAC annual report can be found here, oig.hhs.gov/publications/hcfac.asp . For more information on the joint DOJ-HHS Strike Force activities, visit: www.StopMedicareFraud.gov/
New Affordable Care Act Rules to Fight Fraud
Today, HHS also announced new rules authorized by the Affordable Care Act which will help stop health care fraud. The provisions of the Affordable Care Act implemented through this final rule include new provider screening and enforcement measures to help keep bad actors out of Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP. The final rule also contains important authority to suspend payments when a credible allegation of fraud is being investigated.
“Thanks to the new law, CMS now has additional resources to help detect fraud and stop criminals from getting into the system in the first place,” said Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Donald Berwick, M.D. “The Affordable Care Act’s new authorities allow us to develop sophisticated, new systems of monitoring and oversight to not only help us crack down on fraudulent activity scamming these programs, but also help us to prevent the loss of taxpayer dollars across the board for millions of American health care consumers.”
A copy of the regulation is on display today at the Federal Register and may be downloaded from the following link: www.ofr.gov/inspection.aspx . Several days after the regulation is published, the preceding link will be deactivated and the published version of the regulation will be available on the National Archives website at www.archives.gov/federal-register/news.html. CMS will continue to take public comments on limited areas of this final rule for 60 days.
More information can be found at www.HealthCare.gov, a web portal made available by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A fact sheet on the new rules is available at www.HealthCare.gov/news/factsheets .
Attorney General Holder Joins President Obama, Administration Officals to Announce Presidential Initiative Supporting Military FamiliesRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder today joined President Barack Obama and other administration officials to announce the presidential initiative aimed at establishing a coordinated and comprehensive federal approach to supporting military families. Strengthening Our Military Families: Meeting America’s Commitment is the result of an effort led by the National Security Staff and Domestic Policy Council responding to the Presidential Study Directive-9 calling on all members of the cabinet and other agency heads to find better ways to provide our military families with the support they deserve.
As part of the presidential initiative, the Justice Department today identified three strategic priorities to better serve our military families.
“Our military men and women have served the cause of justice across this country and around the world – in areas of great danger and in times of urgent need,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “The Department of Justice is committed to supporting our military members, families and veterans, and the President’s initiative is an important step in addressing the primary challenges facing military families.”
The three strategic priorities announced by the Justice Department today include:
• Assisting in the development and enhancement of veterans courts around the nation, focusing on those military veterans and families with substance abuse and mental health needs. In response to the growing need for veterans courts, Bureau of Justice Assistance provided funding to the National Drug Court Institute to create and deliver a curriculum for “veterans only” drug courts. Training and technical assistance dollars have already been reallocated to address this growing need. The first Veterans Drug Court Planning Initiative occurred in October 2010 and due to the high demand, a second planning initiative will be held in February 2011.
• Working collaboratively with other federal agencies to enforce the federal laws that protect the civil rights of service members. The department will continue to coordinate with the Department of Defense and any other appropriate agencies to ensure military families are aware of their rights under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, the Service members Civil Relief Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• Coordinating with the Justice Department’s Office of Violence against Women to enhance communication between civilian and military agencies to combat domestic violence and sexual assault.
The presidential initiative will also help to ensure that the U.S. military recruits and retains America’s best; service members can maintain both strong families and high states of readiness; family members can live fulfilling lives while supporting their service member(s); and the American people better understand and appreciate the experience strength and commitment of those who serve and sacrifice on their behalf.
Friday 21 January 2011
Mobile, Alabama, Man Sentenced on Federal Civil Rights and Weapons Charge Related to Desecration of SynagogueRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – A judge sentenced Thomas Hayward Lewis to 12 months and one day in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for violating the civil rights of congregants of the Congregation Tree of Life Messianic Synagogue, as well as possession of an unregistered firearm, the Justice Department announced.
Lewis, 24, of Mobile, Ala., pleaded guilty last year to violating one count of the Church Arson Act by defacing the Congregation Tree of Life Messianic Synagogue with threatening graffiti and neo-Nazi markings. Lewis admitted in court that between the late night of Jan. 3, 2009, and the early morning of Jan. 4, 2009, he and an accomplice, Christian Rodney Ice, spray painted the synagogue with anti-Semitic graffiti and neo-Nazi markings. Lewis also pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of an unregistered firearm. Ice, who also pleaded guilty to violating the Church Arson Act, is currently serving a two-year probation sentence.
"Threats against religious institutions and their members have no place in this country and will not be tolerated," said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. "This case should send a clear message to others who would carry out similar criminal acts that they will be held accountable for their actions."
"The U.S. Attorney’s Office is committed to the protection of our citizens’ civil rights. The U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of religion is one of our citizen’s most sacred civil rights," said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama Kenyen R. Brown.
This case was investigated by the FBI and the city of Mobile Police Department. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John Cherry of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama and Trial Attorney D. W. Tunnage of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section.
Michigan Man Sentenced 48 Months for Attempting to Spy for the People’s Republic of ChinaRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Glenn Duffie Shriver, 29, of Grand Rapids, Mich., was sentenced today to 48 months in prison for conspiring to provide national defense information to intelligence officers of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Neil H. MacBride, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Court Judge Liam O’Grady.
On Oct. 22, 2010, Shriver pleaded guilty to a one-count criminal information charging him with conspiracy to communicate national defense information to a person not entitled to receive it.
“Mr. Shriver sold out his country and repeatedly sought a position in our intelligence community so that he could provide classified information to the PRC,” said U.S. Attorney MacBride. “Attempts to gain access to sensitive information are a serious threat to our national security. We are doing everything in our power to find and punish those who seek to betray our country.”
According to a statement of facts filed with his plea agreement, Shriver is proficient in Mandarin Chinese and lived in the PRC both as an undergraduate student and after graduation. While living in Shanghai in October 2004, Shriver developed a relationship with three individuals whom he came to learn were PRC intelligence officers. At the request of these foreign agents, Shriver agreed to return to the United States and apply for positions in U.S. intelligence agencies or law enforcement organizations.
Shriver admitted in court that he knew that his ultimate objective was to obtain a position with a federal department or agency that would afford him access to classified national defense information, which he would then transmit to the PRC officers in return for cash payments.
From 2005 to 2010, Shriver attempted to gain employment as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer with the Department of State and as a clandestine service officer with the Central Intelligence Agency. Shriver admitted that, during this time, he maintained frequent contact with the PRC intelligence officers and received more than $70,000 in three separate cash payments for what the officers called his “friendship.”
In December 2009, Shriver received notice that he was to report to Washington, D.C., in May 2010 for employment processing activities with the CIA. Shriver admitted that he communicated with a PRC intelligence officer that he was “making some progress” in obtaining a position with the CIA and that he would not be free to travel to PRC for another meeting because it could raise suspicion with federal agents conducting his background investigation.
Shriver admitted that he made false statements on the CIA questionnaire required for employment stating that he had not had any contact with a foreign government or its representative during the last seven years, when in fact he had met in person with one or more of the officers approximately 20 times since 2004. He also deliberately omitted his travel to PRC in 2007 when he received a $40,000 cash payment from the PRC for applying to the CIA. In addition, Shriver made false statements during a series of screening interviews at the CIA, and he admitted he made each of the false statements to conceal his illicit relationship with the PRC intelligence officers.
This case is being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen M. Campbell of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia and Trial Attorney Brandon L. Van Grack of the Counterespionage Section in the National Security Division are prosecuting the case.
Justice Department Commemorates 50th Anniversary of Robert F. Kennedy’s Swearing-In as Attorney General with Kennedy Family, Civil Rights Leaders and Former EmployeesRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – In honor of the 50th anniversary of Robert F. Kennedy’s swearing-in as the nation’s 64th Attorney General, the Justice Department today welcomed Kennedy family members, including Ethel Kennedy, renowned civil rights leaders, historians and current and former Justice Department employees to pay tribute to Attorney General Kennedy’s service.
The two-hour event celebrated the accomplishments of Kennedy’s tenure from January 1961 to September 1964, focusing on his strong commitment to protecting the civil rights of all Americans and the department’s dedicated efforts to combat organized crime. The event was held in the Great Hall of the department’s main building, the Robert F. Kennedy Justice Building, named after the late Attorney General in 2001.
“Attorney General Kennedy championed the cause of the least among us – and made our nation more just, more fair, and more humane. He was not afraid to dream a better world and to act to create it,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “ As we celebrate Robert Kennedy’s life and his impact on this Department, let us also commit ourselves to carrying on – and carrying out – his mission to make gentle the life of this world, and to make good on the promise of our nation.”
The celebration included remarks from Attorney General Eric Holder and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Attorney General Kennedy’s daughter and the former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland.
Following the remarks and a video retrospective, Jack Rosenthal, a chief press officer at the Justice Department under Attorney General Kennedy, moderated a panel discussion featuring John Seigenthaler, Administrative Assistant to Attorney General Kennedy; John Doar, the First Assistant of the Civil Rights Division during the Kennedy Administration; distinguished journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault, who was the first African American to graduate from the University of Georgia; and Congressman John Lewis. After the panel, former Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, who served as Deputy Attorney General under Attorney General Kennedy, shared a special video message.
Former Justice Department leaders were present in the audience, including former attorneys general, assistant attorneys general, first assistants and personal aides to Attorney General Kennedy.
Protecting voter registration laws was a priority for Kennedy. During his tenure, the Civil Rights Division brought 57 voting rights lawsuits. In 1961, Kennedy sent U.S. Marshals to Montgomery, Ala., to protect the “freedom riders,” who rode buses in the South to desegregate interstate transportation. Kennedy also established the first coordinated federal law enforcement program to prosecute organized crime. While he was attorney general, the organized crime conviction rate increased dramatically.
A compilation of photographs from the tenure of Attorney General Kennedy are available at www.justice.gov/css-gallery/gallery-rfk.html .
An archive of speeches and statements from the tenure of Attorney General Kennedy are available at www.justice.gov/ag/rfk-speeches.html .
For more information about the legacy of Robert F. Kennedy, visit www.rfkcenter.org/ .
Related Resources:
- Speeches of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, 1961-1964
- Photos of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, from the Justice Department archives.
- Attorney General Holder's full remarks at the event to honor Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy
Former Controller of a Miami-Dade County Telecommunications Company Sentenced to 24 Months in Prison for His Role in Foreign Bribery SchemeRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON - The former controller of a Miami-Dade County, Fla., telecommunications company was sentenced to 24 months in prison for his participation in a conspiracy to pay and conceal bribes to former Haitian government officials, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer of the Southern District of Florida; and Daniel W. Auer, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Miami Field Office.
Antonio Perez, 52, of Miami was also ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Jose E. Martinez to serve two years of supervised release following his prison term, and to forfeit $36,375. Perez pleaded guilty on April 27, 2009, to conspiring to making corrupt payments for a Miami-Dade County telecommunications company to officials of the Republic of Haiti’s state-owned national telecommunications company, Telecommunications D’Haiti, in violation of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and money laundering laws.
In his guilty plea, Perez admitted to conspiring to make corrupt payments to foreign government officials for the purpose of securing business advantages for the telecommunications company from Telecommunications D’Haiti. According to court documents, Perez conspired with Robert Antoine, the former director of international relations for Telecommunications D’Haiti and Juan Diaz, the owner of J.D. Locator Services, along with others. Perez and his co-conspirators concealed the bribe payments in part by conducting financial transactions that involved wiring money to shell companies and mislabeling invoices, checks and ledgers. Perez admitted that he was personally involved with two bribe payments totaling approximately $36,375.
On July 30, 2010, Diaz was sentenced to 57 months in prison after pleading guilty to paying and concealing $1,028,851 in bribes to former Haitian government officials while serving as an intermediary for three private telecommunications companies. Antoine admitted his acceptance of bribes, including bribes from Diaz, and pleaded guilty on March 12, 2010, to money laundering conspiracy. Antoine was sentenced to four years in prison.
Joel Esquenazi and Carlos Rodriguez, the owners of the telecommunications company where Perez worked, as well as Jean Rene Duperval, who was director of international relations for Telecommunications D’Haiti from June 2003 to April 2004, and Duperval’s sister, Marguerite Grandison, were indicted along with Antoine, on Dec. 4, 2009. Trial for these remaining defendants is scheduled to begin Feb. 28, 2011, in U.S. District Court in Miami. An indictment is merely an accusation, and defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Department of Justice is grateful to the government of Haiti for providing substantial assistance in gathering evidence during this investigation. In particular, Haiti’s financial intelligence unit, the Unité Centrale de Renseignements Financiers, the Bureau des Affaires Financières et Economiques, which is a specialized component of the Haitian National Police, and the Ministry of Justice and Public Security provided significant cooperation and coordination in the investigation.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Aurora Fagan of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, Senior Trial Attorney Nicola J. Mrazek of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Trial Attorney Kevin Gerrity of the Criminal Division’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section. The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs also provided assistance in this matter. The case was investigated by the IRS-CI Miami Field Office.
Former Chicago Police Officer Jon Burge Sentenced for Lying About Police TortureRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department announced today that former Chicago Police Department Commander Jon Burge, 63, of Apollo Beach, Fla., was sentenced to 54 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for lying in a deposition in a civil case about torture and abuse of suspects by Chicago Police Department officers. Burge’s sentence was an upward departure from the recommended Guidelines’ sentence.
Burge was convicted last June of two counts of obstruction of justice and one count of perjury stemming from false answers he gave in a civil case in 2003. In those answers, Burge denied ever using, or being aware of other officers using, any type of improper coercion, physical abuse or torture with suspects who were in custody at Chicago Police Department’s Area Two. However, evidence at trial showed that Burge abused multiple victims in Area Two, suffocating them with plastic bags; shocking them with electrical devices; and placing a loaded gun to their heads.
In a 23-year career with the Chicago Police Department, Burge rose through the ranks to commander before being fired in 1993 over allegations of abuse. Special prosecutors were appointed in 2002 to investigate claims of abuse by Burge and others. A four-year investigation concluded that the abuse was outside the statute of limitations. It was a pending civil suit that was the basis for the federal charges in this case.
“Burge abused his power and betrayed the public trust by abusing suspects in his custody, and then by lying under oath to cover up what he and other officers had done,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The department will aggressively prosecute any officer who violates the Constitution.”
“Today, we put to rest the decades of denials that torture of suspects in police custody occurred,” said Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. “This sentence delivers a measure of justice, which Burge obstructed for so long.”
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Weisman and April Perry from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois and Trial Attorney Betsy Biffl from the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Department of Justice Secures More Than $2 Billion in Judgments and Settlements<br /> as a Result of Enforcement Actions Led by the Criminal DivisionRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – In fiscal year 2010, the Department of Justice secured approximately $2.072 billion in judgments and settlements as a result of enforcement actions led by the Criminal Division, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division. This is part of a total of $3.4 billion in judgments and settlements that were secured in FY 2010 as a result of criminal matters in which the Criminal Division participated, including joint enforcement actions with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices throughout the country.
“By pursuing fines against bad actors, forfeiting the proceeds of their crimes and seeking restitution to make crime victims whole, the Criminal Division, working in partnership with the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, is embracing a comprehensive approach to law enforcement,” said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. “We are taking money out of criminals’ hands, depriving criminal organizations of the resources they need to survive, and returning those funds to crime victims and law enforcement, while also benefiting U.S. taxpayers.”
The $2 billion in judgments and settlements secured by enforcement actions led by the Criminal Division includes over $1 billion in fines and penalties, $788 million in forfeiture and $116 million in restitution. The fines and penalties, upon payment, are provided by the department to the U.S. Treasury. Forfeiture funds are deposited in the Department of Justice Asset Forfeiture Fund or the Department of Treasury Forfeiture Fund, and are used to restore money to crime victims and for a variety of law enforcement purposes. Restitution funds are distributed to victims. Federal law requires defendants to pay restitution to victims of certain crimes who have suffered a physical injury or financial loss.
The Criminal Division’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement involved imposition of $1 billion in penalties in FY 2010, the largest in the history of FCPA enforcement. The remaining $1 billion in Criminal Division judgments and settlements were primarily the result of other financial fraud cases brought by the Criminal Division in FY 2010, including bank settlements of substantial violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA), securities fraud and health care fraud-related recoveries, as well as judgments in child exploitation, narcotics, computer crime and organized crime cases.
Attorney General Holder Announces Violence Against Women Tribal Prosecution Task Force in Indian CountryRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder today announced the formation and inaugural meeting of the Violence Against Women Federal and Tribal Prosecution Task Force.
The creation of the Prosecution Task Force fulfills a pledge made by Attorney General Holder at the department’s Tribal Nations Listening Session in October 2009.
“We know too well that tribal communities face unique law enforcement challenges and are struggling to reverse unacceptable rates of violence against women and children,” said Attorney General Holder. “The creation of the Violence Against Women Tribal Prosecution Task Force has been a priority for me since my visit with tribal leaders last year, and I believe it is a critical step in our work to improve public safety and strengthen coordination and collaboration concerning prosecution strategies with tribal communities.”
United States Attorney Deborah Gilg of the District of Nebraska, six Assistant United States Attorneys working in Indian Country, and six representatives from tribal governments comprise the Task Force. They include:
· U.S. Attorney Deborah R. Gilg, District of Nebraska, Chairperson
· Tribal Prosecutor Diane S. Cabrera, Crow Tribe (MT)
· Assistant U.S. Attorney Glynette R. Carson McNabb, District of New Mexico
· Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregg S. Peterman, District of South Dakota
· Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Roe, Western District of Washington
· Assistant U.S. Attorney Trina A. Higgins, District of Utah
· Assistant U.S. Attorney Marcia Hurd, District of Montana
· DOJ’s National Indian Country Training Coordinator Leslie A. Hagen
· Deputy Attorney General M. Brent Leonhard, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (OR)
· Chief Judge Theresa M. Pouley, Tulalip Tribal Court (WA)
· Chief Prosecutor Sheri Freemont, Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian (AZ)
· Tribal Attorney Michelle Rivard Parks, Spirit Lake Tribe (ND)
· Staff Attorney Joshua Breedlove, Mississippi Choctow (MS)
In addition to the six assistant U.S. Attorneys and six tribal attorneys, the task force includes a group of advisors and liaisons from the Justice Department’s Office of Violence Against Women, health care professionals and law enforcement officials.
Within a year of convening, the Task Force is directed to produce a trial practice manual on the federal prosecution of violence against women offenses in Indian Country. In the short term, the Task Force will explore current issues raised by professionals in the field, and recommend "best practices" in prosecution strategies involving domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking.
Violence against American Indian women occurs at epidemic rates. In 2005, Congress found that one in three American Indian women are raped during their lifetimes, and American Indian women are nearly three times more likely to be battered in their lifetimes than Caucasian women.
The launch of the Task Force marks another step in the Justice Department’s ongoing initiative to increase engagement, coordination and action on public safety in tribal communities. This effort is driven largely by input gathered from the department’s 2009 Tribal Nations Listening Session on Public Safety and Law Enforcement, the department’s annual tribal consultation on violence against women, and from written comments submitted by tribal governments, groups and organizations to the Justice Department.
Alabama Woman Charged with Conspiring to Use Stolen Identities of Student Loan BorrowersRead the Press Release
ON FALSE TAX RETURNSWASHINGTON Janika Fernae Bates of Millbrook, Ala., was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of identity theft, wire fraud and conspiracy to make false claims for tax refunds, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today. Bates was previously employed at Electronic Data Systems in Montgomery, Ala.
According to the indictment filed against her, Bates obtained the names and Social Security numbers of student loan borrowers from the databases at her employer and conspired to use the stolen identifying information to steal money from the government. The indictment further alleges that Bates and a co-conspirator fraudulently obtained refund anticipation loans from the bank HSBC predicated on the fraudulently filed tax returns.
An indictment merely alleges that a crime has been committed, and a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If convicted, Janika Fernae Bates faces a minimum of two years in prison, a maximum of 354 years in prison and a maximum fine of $6,250,000.
John A. DiCicco, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division, and Leura G. Canary, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, made the announcement.
This case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Monica Stump and Tax Division Trial Attorney Justin K. Gelfand.
Related Documents:
United States v. Janika F. Bates
Indictment
(PDF documents)Portable Document Format (PDF) files may be viewed with a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader
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Thursday 20 January 2011
Two Owners of Houston Health Care Company Plead Guilty to Alleged $5.2 Million Medicare Fraud SchemeRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON -- Two owners of a Houston health care company pleaded guilty today in connection with an alleged $5.2 million Medicare fraud scheme, announced the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services (HHS).
Clifford Ubani, 52, and Princewill Njoku, 51, each pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Atlas in Houston to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to pay kickbacks and 16 counts of payment of kickbacks to Medicare beneficiary recruiters.
According to court documents, Ubani and Njoku were owners and operators of Family Healthcare Group (Family Group), a home health care company. Family Group purported to provide skilled nursing to Medicare beneficiaries. According to court documents, Ubani and Njoku hired co-conspirators to recruit Medicare beneficiaries for the purpose of filing claims with Medicare for skilled nursing that was medically unnecessary and/or not provided. Ubani and Njoku admitted that they paid kickbacks to the recruiters for their referrals.
Ubani and Njoku previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud related to their ownership of another Houston health care company, Family Healthcare Services (Family Services). Family Services submitted approximately $1.1 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare for the costs of durable medical equipment.
At sentencing, scheduled for July 19, 2011, Ubani and Njoku each face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for each health care fraud conspiracy count, five years in prison for each kickback conspiracy count and five years in prison for each kickback count.
Today’s guilty pleas were announced by Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division Lanny A. Breuer; U.S. Attorney José Angel Moreno of the Southern District of Texas; Special Agent-in-Charge Richard C. Powers of the FBI’s Houston Field Office; Special Agent-in-Charge Mike Fields of the Dallas Regional Office of HHS Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), Office of Investigations; and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.
This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Charles D. Reed and Laura Cordova, and Assistant Chief Sam S. Sheldon of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. The case was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas and the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
Since their inception in March 2007, Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations in seven districts have obtained indictments of more than 850 individuals who collectively have falsely billed the Medicare program for more than $2.1 billion. In addition, HHS’s 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 Action Team (HEAT), go to: www.stopmedicarefraud.gov
Minnesota-Based St. Jude Medical Pays U.S. $16 Million <br /> to Settle Claims that Company Paid Kickbacks to PhysiciansRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – St. Jude Medical Inc. of St. Paul, Minn., has agreed to pay the United States $16 million to resolve allegations that the company used post-market studies and a registry to pay kickbacks to induce physicians to implant the company’s pacemakers and defibrillators, the Justice Department announced today.
Post-market studies are intended to assess the clinical performance of a medical device or drug after that device or drug has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Registries are collections of data maintained by a device manufacturer concerning its products that have been sold and implanted in patients.
The United States contends that St. Jude used three post-market studies and a device registry as vehicles to pay participating physicians kickbacks to induce them to implant St. Jude pacemakers and defibrillators. Although St. Jude collected data and information from participating physicians, it is alleged that the company knowingly and intentionally used the studies and registry as a means of increasing its device sales by paying certain physicians to select St. Jude pacemakers and I mplantable cardioverter defibrillator for their patients. In each case, St. Jude paid each participating physician a fee that ranged up to $2,000 per patient. The United States alleges that St. Jude solicited physicians for the studies in order to retain their business and/or convert their business from a competitor’s product.
“When companies pay kickbacks to health care providers in order to pad their bottom line, it taints the information patients rely on to make informed choices about their health,” said Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division. “It is critical that physicians base their decisions on which medical device to implant on the best interest of the patient, not on whether a device manufacturer will pay an extra fee or honoraria for the implant.”
“Medical device and pharmaceutical companies can use post-market studies legitimately to obtain information about how their products work in the field, but they cannot use those studies, and the honoraria associated with them, to induce physicians to select their products. Cardiologists and electrophysiologists should make their decisions on which pacemaker or defibrillator to implant in a patient based on their independent medical judgment, not based on how much the manufacturer is paying them to implant the device,” said Carmen Ortiz, U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts.
This action was initiated by the filing of a qui tam action under the False Claims Act (FCA) by a relator, Charles Donigian. The FCA permits a whistle blower to recover a share of the government recovery, and in this case Mr. Donigian will recover $2.64 million.
This resolution is part of the government’s emphasis on combating health care fraud and another step for the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team initiative, which was announced by Attorney General Eric Holder and Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services in May 2009. 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 that effort is the False Claims Act, which the Justice Department has used to recover more than $6.8 billion since January 2009 in cases involving fraud against federal health care programs.
The settlement was the result of an investigation by the Justice Department’s Civil Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, the Office of Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the FBI.
Justice Department Announces 2011 Application Process for Public Safety Funding for Tribal CommunitiesRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON –The Department of Justice today announced that it is accepting applications from American Indian and Alaska Native tribal communities for funding to improve public safety in Indian country. The funds are available through the Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS), a streamlined single solicitation for existing tribal government-specific grant programs administered by the Office of Justice Programs, the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services and the Office on Violence Against Women.
The CTAS process is the result of consultations held with tribal leaders on how to improve the application process for tribal grant applicants. For FY 2011, American Indian and Alaska Native tribal communities will submit a single application for all available tribal government-specific grant programs. The coordinated approach allows the Justice Department’s grant-making components to consider the totality of a tribal community’s overall public safety needs.
The FY 2011 solicitation includes revisions that will improve the award and application process, including a 90-day application period, closing April 21, 2011. Awards will be based upon available funding for FY 2011 and can be used to enhance law enforcement, bolster justice systems, prevent youth substance abuse, serve sexual assault and elder abuse victims, and support other efforts to combat crimes. Last year, CTAS provided more than $127 million to American Indian and Alaska Native tribal communities nationwide.
Native communities and tribal consortiums may be eligible for other non-tribal government-specific grant funding opportunities and are encouraged to submit a separate application to any grant programs for which they may be eligible. Additional resources and information, including a fact sheet and tips for pre-and post-application tasks are located on the website at www.tribaljusticeandsafety.gov/grants.html.
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 coordinated, comprehensive solicitation is now available at www.tribaljusticeandsafety.gov/grants.html.
Dos propietarios de empresa de atención médica de Houston se declararon culpables de supuesto ardid de fraude de 5.2 millones de dólares contra MedicareRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON -- Dos propietarios de una empresa de atención médica de Houston se declararon culpables hoy en conexión con un supuesto ardid de fraude de 5.2 millones de dólares contra Medicare, anunciaron los Departamentos de Justicia y de Salud y Servicios Humanos [Health and Human Services (HHS)].
Clifford Ubani, 52, y Princewill Njoku, 51, se declararon culpables ante la Juez Federal de Distrito Nancy Atlas en Houston de un cargo de conspiración para cometer fraude de atención médica, un cargo de conspiración para pagar comisiones ilícitas y 16 cargos de pago de comisiones ilícitas a reclutadores de beneficiarios de Medicare.
De acuerdo con el expediente judicial, Ubani y Njoku eran propietarios y operadores de Family Healthcare Group (Family Group), una compañía de atención médica domiciliaria. Family Group alegaba proveer servicios de enfermería especializada a beneficiarios de Mediare. De acuerdo con el expediente judicial, Ubani y Njoku contrataron a coconspiradores para reclutar a beneficiarios de Medicare con la finalidad de presentar reclamos a Medicare por servicios de enfermería especializada médicamente innecesarios y/o que nunca fueron brindados. Ubani y Njoku admitieron que pagaron comisiones ilícitas a los reclutadores por sus remisiones.
Ubani y Njoku se habían declarado ya culpables de conspiración para cometer fraude de atención médica asociada a su titularidad de otra compañía de atención médica en Houston, Family Healthcare Services (Family Services). Family Services presentó aproximadamente 1.1 millón de dólares en reclamos fraudulentos a Medicare por los costos de equipos médicos durables.
En la lectura de la sentencia, programada para el 19 de julio de 2011, Ubani y Njoku enfrentan cada uno una sentencia máxima de 10 años en prisión para cada cargo de conspiración para cometer fraude de atención médica, cinco años en prisión por cada cargo de conspiración para pagar comisiones ilícitas y cinco años en prisión por cada cargo de pago de comisiones ilícitas.
Las declaraciones de culpabilidad de hoy fueron anunciadas por el Secretario de Justicia Auxiliar de la División de lo Penal Lanny A. Breuer; el Fiscal Federal Jose Angel Moreno del Distrito Sur de Texas; el Agente Especial a Cargo Richard C. Powers de la Oficina Local de Houston del Buró Federal de Investigaciones [Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)]; el Agente Especial a Cargo Mike Fields de la Oficina Regional de Dallas de la Oficina del Inspector General del HHS (HHS-OIG), Oficina de Investigaciones; y el Secretario de Justicia de Texas Greg Abbott.
Están a cargo de la acusación en el caso los Abogados Litigantes Charles D. Reed y Laura Cordova, y el Jefe Auxiliar Sam S. Sheldon de la Sección de Fraude de la División de lo Penal. La demanda fue entablada como parte de la Fuerza de Ataque al Fraude contra Medicare, supervisada por la Fiscalía Federal para el Distrito Sur de Texas y la Sección de Fraude de la División de lo Penal.
Desde su creación en marzo de 2007, las operaciones de la Fuerza de Ataque al Fraude contra Medicare en siete distritos han logrado la formulación de cargos contra 850 individuos quienes, en conjunto, facturaron falsamente más de 2.1 mil millones de dólares al programa Medicare. Además los Centros para Servicios de Medicare y Medicaid del HH, en trabajo conjunto con la HHS-OIG, están tomando pasos para aumentar la responsabilización y reducir la presencia de proveedores fraudulentos.
Para conocer más sobre el Equipo de Acción de Coacción y Prevención del Fraude de Atención Médica [Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT)], visite: www.stopmedicarefraud.gov .
91 Leaders, Members and Associates of La Cosa Nostra Families in Four Districts Charged with Racketeering and Related Crimes, Including Murder and ExtortionRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Ninety-one members and associates of seven organized crime families of La Cosa Nostra (LCN), including the New England LCN family, all five New York-based families and the New Jersey-based Decavalcante family have been charged with federal crimes in 16indictments returned in four judicial districts, announced Attorney General Eric Holder. Another 36defendants also have been charged for their roles in alleged associated criminal activity.
Joining in the announcement were Janice K. Fedarcyk, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s New York Division; Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Loretta E. Lynch; U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara; U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Paul J. Fishman; U.S. Attorney for the District of Rhode Island Peter F. Neronha; Acting Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Labor Daniel R. Petrole; and New York City Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly.
More than 110 of the 127 charged defendants have been arrested, and will appear in federal court in the districts in which they are charged. The charges relate to a wide range of alleged illegal activity, including murder, murder conspiracy, loansharking, arson, narcotics trafficking, extortion, robbery, illegal gambling and labor racketeering, in some cases occurring over decades. The indictments charge leaders of these criminal enterprises, as well as mid-level managers, numerous soldiers and associates, and others alleged to be corrupt union officials.
"Today’s arrests and charges mark an important step forward in disrupting La Cosa Nostra’s illegal activities," said Attorney General Holder. "This largest single day operation against La Cosa Nostra sends the message that our fight against traditional organized crime is strong, and our commitment is unwavering. As we’ve seen for decades, mafia operations can negatively impact our economy – not only through a wide array of fraud schemes but also through the illegal imposition of mob "taxes" at our ports, in our construction industries, and on our small businesses. The violence outlined in these indictments, and perpetrated across decades, shows the lengths to which these individuals are willing to go to control their criminal enterprises and intimidate others. The Department of Justice and our partners are determined to eradicate these criminal enterprises once and for all, and to bring their members to justice."
"Some believe organized crime is a thing of the past; unfortunately, there are still people who extort, intimidate, and victimize innocent Americans. The costs legitimate businesses are forced to pay are ultimately borne by American consumers nationwide," said FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, III.
"Today’s indictments represent a major milestone in the Office of Inspector General’s statutory responsibility to investigate labor racketeering and organized crime influence and control of unions, employee benefit plans and their workers," said Daniel R. Petrole, Acting Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Labor. "Through the alleged domination of these unions, these investigations revealed that union officials and associates and members of La Cosa Nostra Organized Crime Families conspired to steal from and extort hard working union members. My office remains committed to continue working with our law enforcement partners to combat these types of crimes."
Among those charged are Luigi Manocchio, 83, the former boss of the New England LCN; Andrew Russo, 76, street boss of the Colombo family; Benjamin Castellazzo, 73, acting underboss of the Colombo family; Richard Fusco, 74, consigliere of the Colombo family; Joseph Corozzo, 69, consigliere of the Gambino family; and Bartolomeo Vernace, 61, a member of the Gambino family administration. In total, more than 30 official members of the LCN, or "made men," were charged in the indictments unsealed today.
According to the indictments, the LCN operates in numerous cities around the United States and routinely engages in violence and threatens violence to extort money from victims, eliminate rivals, settle vendettas and obstruct justice. In the New York City-area, five LCN families principally operate: the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Luchese families. The Decavalcante family operates principally in New Jersey, while the New England LCN family operates in areas including Providence and Boston. Each LCN family has a hierarchical structure, with an administration comprised of a boss, underboss and consigliere at the top overseeing crews of criminals led by captains, who in turn supervise organized crime soldiers and associates.
In Brooklyn, 12 indictments were unsealed today charging 85 defendants from all five New York-based families as well as defendants from the Decavalcante family. One indictment (United States v. Russo) charges 39 defendants, including the entire leadership of the Colombo family not currently in prison – street boss Andrew Russo, acting underboss Benjamin Castellazzo and consigliere Richard Fusco – as well as four of the crime family’s official captains and eight of its soldiers, with crimes including racketeering and racketeering conspiracy committed during an approximately 20-year period. Among other acts of violence, Colombo family acting captain Anthony Russo is charged with the 1993 murder of Colombo family underboss Joseph Scopo during an internecine war among family members. According to court documents, Scopo was shot in the passenger seat of a car outside of his residence in Ozone Park, Queens, N.Y. The Russo indictment also charges numerous crimes of extortion and fraud, including charges related to the Colombo crime family’s alleged long-standing control of Cement and Concrete Workers Union Local 6A, and its alleged defrauding of the City of New York in regard to an annually held feast, the Figli di Santa Rosalia. The indictment is based in part on hundreds of hours of recorded conversations of members and associates of the Colombo family, including meetings of the Colombo family administration.
Two of the indictments returned in Brooklyn (United States v. Vernace and United States v. Dragonetti) charge 13 members and associates of the Gambino family, including Bartolomeo Vernace, a member of the current Gambino family administration. The Vernace indictment includes, among others, charges against Vernace in regard to the 1981 double murder of Richard Godkin and John D’Agnese inside the Shamrock Bar in the Woodhaven neighborhood of Queens. D’Agnese died from a single gunshot to the face and Godkin died from a point-blank gunshot to his chest. The Dragonetti indictment charges numerous acts of extortion, including a conspiracy by the Gambino family to extort a New York City cement manufacturer, as well as various construction companies and sites outlined on the crime family’s so-called "Construction List."
In nine of the indictments charged in Brooklyn (United States v. Alesi, United States v. Balzano, United States v. Caramanica, United States v. Cicalese, United States v. Colandra, United States v. Gallo, United States v. Gioia, United States v. Messina and United States v. Samperi), members and associates of the Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Decavalcante families are charged variously with racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, extortion, perjury, obstruction of justice, illegal gambling, receipt of stolen property and possession of contraband cigarettes. For example, in United States v. Messina, Bonanno family associate Neil Messina is charged with the murder of Joseph Pistone during a home invasion robbery in 1992. The Alesi indictment charges, among other things, a former member of the Suffolk County, N.Y., Police Department’s Emergency Services Unit with obstructing a state investigation of illegal gambling businesses by tipping off the business to upcoming law enforcement raids. The Cicalese indictment charges three members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) with committing perjury during testimony before a federal grand jury investigating organized crime’s infiltration of the waterfront and the ILA.
Another indictment (United States v. Depiro), being prosecuted jointly by the District of New Jersey and the Eastern District of New York, charges 15 defendants with various racketeering related crimes, including extortion of members of ILA Local Union 1235 and other New Jersey ILA locals, as well as for acts of illegal gambling through the management of a sports betting operation and a poker club, and extortionate collection of credit related to gambling debts. Certain defendants, who include numerous current and former officials in local ILA unions based in New Jersey, are alleged to be affiliated with the Genovese family. According to court documents, the Gambino and Genovese families have engaged in a multi-decade conspiracy to influence and control the unions and businesses that work on the New York-area piers. According to court documents, Stephen Depiro managed the Genovese family’s illegal activities on the New Jersey piers, including the Genovese family’s long-standing conspiracy to extort ILA members each year during the Christmas period, when the longshoremen annually receive a portion of royalty payments paid by shipping companies using the ports of New York and New Jersey. Depiro and others allegedly conspired with his cousin, Nunzio LaGrasso, an associate of the Genovese family and the vice-president of ILA Local 1478 in Newark, to extort ILA members each year.
In Manhattan, 26 defendants, primarily from the Gambino family, have been charged in two indictments that include charges related to racketeering conspiracy, murder, narcotics trafficking, extortion, assault, arson, loansharking, illegal gambling, mail and wire fraud, and stolen property crimes. Among the defendants charged are Joseph Corrozo, 69, who has served at times as the Gambino family consigliere; Bartolomeo Vernace, 61, a member of the Gambino family administration, who is also charged in Brooklyn; Gambino family captains Alphonse Trucchio, 34, and Louis Mastrangelo, 66; and Gambino soldiers Michael Roccaforte, 34, Anthony Moscatiello, 40, and Vincenzo Frogiero, 43.
According to court documents filed in the Manhattan cases, the criminal conduct allegedly occurred for more than two decades, from the late 1980s to approximately 2010. Gambino associate Todd LaBarca, 39, is charged with the 2001 conspiracy to murder and murder of Gambino family associate Marty Bosshart. According to the indictment, Bosshart was murdered on Jan. 2, 2002, with a single gunshot to the back of his head, and his body was left on the side of the road in Queens. According to court documents, a cooperating witness consensually recorded more than 100 conversations with other members and associates of the Gambino family, including conversations with LaBarca about the murder. In addition, according to court documents, the cocaine and marijuana trafficking involved multiple thousands of kilograms of the illegal drugs.
Finally, an indictment unsealed in Providence charges two defendants - longtime boss of the New England LCN Luigi Manocchio, 83, and LCN associate Thomas Iafrate, 61, - with extortion and extortion conspiracy. The extortion conspiracy allegedly spans almost two decades of illegal activity and involves the extortion of local pornographic bookstores and nightclubs, including the Satin Doll and the Cadillac Lounge, both in Providence.
The charges carry a variety of maximum penalties, up to life in prison on certain charges.
The charges announced today are merely allegations, and defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.
The defendants charged in each district will be prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys from each of the respective districts in which the cases were charged, including the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York, the District of Rhode Island and the District of New Jersey. The case charged in Providence is also being prosecuted by trial attorneys from the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Section.
The cases were variously investigated by the FBI’s New York and Newark Field Offices, and the Boston Division’s Providence Resident Agency; the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General, Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations; the New York City Police Department; the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office; the U.S. Secret Service; the Suffolk County Police Department; the Rhode Island State Police; and the Providence Police Department. The Drug Enforcement Administration; the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations; the U.S. Marshals Service in the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York; the Monmouth County, N.J., Prosecutor’s Office; the New York State Police; the New Jersey State Police; the New Jersey Department of Corrections; the U.S. Army-Ft. Hamilton; and the Italian National Police also provided assistance.
Copies of the indictments can be found at www.justice.gov/opa/lacosanostra.htm.
Wednesday 19 January 2011
Provident Capital Indemnity, Its President and Auditor<br /> Charged in $670 Million Fraud SchemeRead the Press Release
RICHMOND, Va. – The president and the auditor of a Costa Rican company selling reinsurance bonds to life settlement companies were arrested and charged, along with the company itself, in a seven-count indictment unsealed today for their alleged role in a $670 million fraud scheme involving victims throughout the United States and abroad.
The charges were announced today by U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Neil H. MacBride and Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division.
An indictment unsealed today in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia charges Costa Rica-based Provident Capital Indemnity Ltd. (PCI), Minor Vargas Calvo, 59, and Jorge Castillo, 55, each with one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud and three counts of wire fraud. The indictment also seeks forfeiture of more than $40 million from all three defendants. Vargas was arrested on Jan. 18, 2011, at the John F. Kennedy International Airport, and Castillo was arrested earlier today in New Jersey.
“PCI is accused of lying to investors across the globe to sell more than half a billion dollars worth of ‘guaranteed’ bonds which turned out to be worthless,” said U.S. Attorney MacBride. “This case is another example of how the members of the Virginia Financial and Securities Fraud Task Force are working to detect, deter and punish financial fraudsters who target investors throughout Virginia, the nation and the world.”
“These defendants allegedly sold $670 million in bonds by making numerous false representations, which were disseminated to thousands of investors,” said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. “They stand accused of defrauding victims at home and abroad. As these charges show, the Justice Department is committed to rooting out investment fraud wherever we find it.”
According to the indictment, Vargas, a citizen and resident of Costa Rica, is the president and majority owner of PCI, an insurance and reinsurance company registered in the Commonwealth of Dominica and doing business in Costa Rica. Castillo, a resident of New Jersey, is the purported independent auditor for PCI. If convicted, Vargas and Castillo face up to 20 years in prison on each count.
The defendants allegedly engaged in a scheme to defraud clients and investors by making misrepresentations about PCI’s reinsurers, PCI’s financial statements and PCI’s Dun and Bradstreet rating, in connection with PCI’s marketing and sale of “financial guarantee bonds” to companies that sold life settlements or securities backed by life settlements to investors. PCI’s bonds were allegedly marketed as a way to eliminate one of the primary risks of investing in life settlements, namely the possibility that the individual insured by the underlying life insurance policy will live beyond his or her life expectancy.
The indictment alleges that from 2004 through 2010, PCI sold approximately $670 million of bonds to life settlement investment companies located in various countries, including the United States, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada and elsewhere. PCI’s clients, in turn, sold investment offerings backed by PCI’s bonds to thousands of investors around the world. Purchasers of PCI’s bonds were allegedly required to pay up-front payments of 6 to 11 percent of the underlying settlement as “premium” payments to PCI before the company would issue the bonds.
This continuing investigation is being conducted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Internal Revenue Service and FBI, with assistance from the Virginia State Corporation Commission, the Texas State Securities Board, and the New Jersey Bureau of Securities. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael S. Dry and Jessica A. Brumberg of the Eastern District of Virginia and Trial Attorney Albert B. Stieglitz Jr. of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
In a parallel investigation, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced today its filing of a parallel emergency enforcement action against PCI, Vargas and Castillo.
An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until convicted through due process of law.
The investigation has been coordinated by the Virginia Financial and Securities Fraud Task Force, an unprecedented partnership between criminal investigators and civil regulators to investigate and prosecute complex financial fraud cases in the nation and in Virginia. The task force is an investigative arm of the President’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, an interagency national task force.
President Obama established the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes.
Lufkin, Texas, Man Pleads Guilty to Involvement in MurdersRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON –A Lufkin, Texas, man pleaded guilty today to charges related to a double homicide that took place in Nacogdoches, Texas, in August 2007, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney John M. Bales for the Eastern District of Texas.
Carl Carver, 44, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Marcia Crone to committing a violent crime in aid of racketeering activity. Specifically, Carver admitted that he had participated in the murder of David Mitchamore.
According to information presented in court, Carver was a general of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT), a powerful race-based state-wide organization that operates inside and outside of state and federal prisons throughout Texas and the United States. The ABT enforces its rules and promotes discipline among its members, prospects and associates through murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to murder, assault, robbery and threats against those who violate the rules or pose a threat to the enterprise. Members, and oftentimes associates, are required to follow the orders of higher ranking members, often referred to as “direct orders.”
According to court documents, David Mitchamore, aka “Super Dave,” an ABT member, and his girlfriend, Christie Rochelle Brown, were murdered as a result of a “direct order” issued by Carver against Mitchamore because of Mitchamore’s failure to repay an outstanding debt he allegedly owed to Carver. The bodies of Mitchamore and Brown were discovered in Nacogdoches County on Aug. 10, 2007.
Carver faces life in prison at sentencing. A sentencing date has not been set.
This case is being investigated by the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the National Gang Targeting, Enforcement and Coordination Center (Gang-TECC); the Nacogdoches Sheriff’s Department; the Nacogdoches Police Department; the Angelina County, Texas, Sheriff’s Department; the Texas Department of Public Safety; and the Texas Rangers. The case is being prosecuted by the Office of the U.S. Attorney in Lufkin and the Criminal Division’s Gang Unit, in full cooperation with the Nacogdoches County District Attorney’s Office.
Justice Department Obtains $35,000 Discrimination Settlement Against Chicago-area LandlordRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department announced today that Orland Park, Ill., property owner Terence Flanagan has agreed to pay $35,000 in monetary damages and civil penalties to settle consolidated Fair Housing Act lawsuits against him. The lawsuits alleged that Flanagan discriminated against a family that tried to rent a single-family home from him, and that Flanagan made repeated statements to fair housing testers expressing a preference not to rent the home to African-Americans.
Today’s settlement, which has been approved by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago, resolves a lawsuit filed by the department and one filed by Kemal Majied and the South Suburban Housing Center, a private fair housing organization, against Flanagan in late 2009. Mr. Majied, who is African-American, and his family unsuccessfully sought to rent a single-family home that Flanagan had advertised for rent and contacted the South Suburban Housing Center for assistance. Both the Housing Center and the department later sent fair housing testers to the property, where Flanagan stated he would rent the house to a white tester for $100 less than the advertised rate, and further stated “you’re not black, that’s the reason you’re getting that.”
“This kind of discrimination is illegal and has no place in the housing market anywhere in this country,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “This lawsuit demonstrates the department’s resolve to pursue and eradicate such discrimination, whether practiced by housing providers large or small.”
“This settlement reflects our resolve to guard against acts of discrimination and to protect the right of all area residents to seek housing wherever they choose to live,” said U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Patrick Fitzgerald.
Under the terms of the settlement, Flanagan will pay $15,000 each to Mr. Majied and the Housing Center and a $5,000 civil penalty to the United States. The settlement also prohibits Flanagan from personally managing or renting any properties for its five-year term. In addition, Flanagan admits in the settlement that he made the statements to the fair housing testers alleged in the complaints against him.
The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability and familial status. Individuals who believe that they may have been victims of housing discrimination should call the Housing Discrimination Tip Line (1-800-896-7743) or email the Justice Department at [email protected] . Such persons may also contact the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development at 1-800-669-9777 or at www.hud.gov . Fair housing enforcement is a priority of the department’s Civil Rights Division. More information about the Civil Rights Division and the laws it enforces is available at www.justice.gov/crt
Jared Lee Loughner IndictedRead the Press Release
TUCSON , Ariz. - A federal grand jury in Tucson, today returned an initial three-count indictment against Jared Lee Loughner for attempting to kill U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, and two of her aides, Ron Barber and Pamela Simon.
Today’s charges represent the initial indictment in the investigation of the Jan. 8 shooting in Tucson.
“Today, the Grand Jury returned an initial three-count indictment against Jared Lee Loughner in the Tucson shooting case. We are in the early stages of this ongoing investigation. We have made considerable progress in a short period of time,” said U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke. “This case also involves potential death-penalty charges, and Department rules require us to pursue a deliberate and thorough process. Today’s charges are just the beginning of our legal action, and we are working diligently to ensure that our investigation is thorough and that justice is done for the victims and their families.”
The charges meet the requirement under the Federal Criminal Code which mandates that the United States bring an indictment within 30 days of arrest of the defendant.
The indictment alleges that Loughner, 22, of Tucson, attempted to assassinate Gabrielle Giffords, a Member of Congress, 18 USC 351(c,), and attempted to murder two federal employees, Ron Barber and Pamela Simon, 18 USC 1114 and 1113.
Loughner has been held in federal custody since Jan. 8.
A conviction for the attempted assassination of a Member of Congress carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, a $250,000 fine or both. A conviction for attempted murder of a federal employee carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both.
In determining an actual sentence, Judge Burns will consult the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which provide appropriate sentencing ranges. The judge, however, is not bound by those guidelines in determining a sentence.
An indictment is simply the method by which a person is charged with criminal activity and raises no inference of guilt. An individual is presumed innocent until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Burke emphasized that the procedure in any case which may result in a punishment of death requires a careful and deliberate process, and includes consultation with the victims of the crimes and their families, consideration of all evidence relevant to guilt and punishment, and consultation with all the law enforcement agencies investigating the case.
Also, in order to pursue the death penalty the United States Attorney’s Office for Arizona must provide information to the Capital Review Committee. For more detailed information about this process, click here.
The investigation preceding the indictment was conducted by a multi-jurisdictional law enforcement team led by the FBI. The prosecution is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Wallace Kleindienst, Beverly Anderson, Christina Cabanillas and Mary Sue Feldmeier of the District of Arizona, Tucson.
RELEASE NUMBER: 2011-007(Loughner) Indictment
Belarusian National Pleads Guilty to<br /> International Online Scheme to Steal U.S. Tax RefundsRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – A Belarusian national and resident of Nantucket, Mass., pleaded guilty today to charges stemming from his participation in an international online scheme to steal income tax refunds from U.S. taxpayers around the country, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz of the District of Massachusetts.
Mikalai Mardakhayeu, 31, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. in the District of Massachusetts, to one count of conspiracy and nine counts of wire fraud.
According to court records, from 2006 through 2007, Mardakhayeu’s co-conspirators lured victims by operating websites that falsely claimed to be authorized by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to offer lower-income taxpayers free online tax return preparation and electronic tax return filing (e-filing). After taxpayers input and uploaded their tax information, co-conspirators in Belarus collected the data and altered the returns to increase the refund amounts and to direct the refunds to U.S. bank accounts controlled by Mardakhayeu. They then caused the fraudulently altered returns to be e-filed with the IRS. The conspirators ultimately caused the U.S. Treasury and various state treasury departments to deposit more than $200,000 in stolen refunds into bank accounts controlled by Mardakhayeu.
Sentencing is scheduled for April 26, 2011. Mardakhayeu faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine, forfeiture and restitution on each of the nine wire fraud counts. On the conspiracy count, he faces an additional five years in prison.
The case was investigated by the IRS Criminal Investigation Division and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Bookbinder of the District of Massachusetts’s Computer Crimes Unit and by Trial Attorney Mona Sedky of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section.
Army Contracting Officer Sentenced to 60 Months in Prison for BriberyRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – A U.S. Army contracting officer was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Christine M. Arguello in Denver to 60 months in prison for accepting money and items of value in return for being influenced in the awarding of Army contracts, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division.
Judge Arguello also ordered Army Major Roderick D. Sanchez, 45, of Pueblo, Colo., to serve three years of supervised release following his prison term, and to pay a $15,000 fine. In addition, Sanchez was ordered to forfeit Rolex watches, real estate and other property purchased with the proceeds of the bribery scheme. Sanchez pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado on Oct. 27, 2010, to one count of bribery.
According to court documents, Sanchez was employed by the U.S. Army and deployed overseas in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait as a contracting officer at various times from approximately 2004 until 2007. Sanchez’s duties included reviewing bids submitted by contractors for Army contracts, recommending the award of Army contracts to specific contractors, and ultimately awarding those contracts to government contractors. Sanchez admitted that during that time period he accepted illicit and secret bribe payments from foreign companies seeking to secure Army contracts. In return, Sanchez admitted he used his official position to steer Army contracts to these companies. During the course of this criminal scheme, Sanchez accepted Rolex watches, cash payments and other things of value worth more than $200,000.
The case was prosecuted by Deputy Chief Justin V. Shur and Trial Attorney Eric L. Gibson of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section. The case was investigated by the FBI, Army Criminal Investigation Command, Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.
Alleged Terrorist Charged with Conspiracy to Kill Americans in IraqRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON -- Faruq Khalil Muhammad ‘Isa, 38, also known as “Faruk Khalil Muhammad ‘Isa,” “Sayfildin Tahir Sharif,” and “Tahir Sharif Sayfildin,” was arrested in Canada today pursuant to a U.S. provisional arrest warrant, based on a complaint in the United States charging him with conspiring to kill Americans abroad and with providing material support to that terrorist conspiracy to kill Americans abroad. The U.S. government will seek the defendant’s extradition to face the charges.
The charges were announced by David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; Loretta E. Lynch, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; and Janice K. Fedarcyk, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the FBI. The government’s investigation is being conducted by the FBI New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, with assistance provided by the Department of Defense, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the government of Tunisia.
The defendant is charged in connection with his support for a multinational terrorist network that conducted multiple suicide bombings in Iraq and that is responsible for the deaths of five American soldiers. According to the complaint, filed on Jan. 14, 2011, in the Eastern District of New York, the five American soldiers were killed on April 10, 2009, when a Tunisian jihadist, whose travel to and activities in Iraq were facilitated by the terrorist network, drove a truck laden with explosives to the gate of the U.S. Military’s Forward Operating Base Marez in Mosul, Iraq. The jihadist exchanged fire with Iraqi police officers and then the American convoy that was exiting the base. The truck detonated approximately 50 yards from the gate, alongside the last vehicle in the U.S. convoy, leaving a 60-foot crater in the ground.
Five American soldiers were killed in the blast. They are Staff Sergeant Gary L. Woods, 24, of Lebanon Junction, Kentucky; Sergeant First Class Bryan E. Hall, 32, of Elk Grove, California; Sergeant Edward W. Forrest Jr., 25, of St. Louis; Corporal Jason G. Pautsch, 20, of Davenport, Iowa; and Army Private First Class Bryce E. Gaultier, 22, from Cyprus, California.
As alleged in the complaint, the day after the attack, the defendant had a conversation with one of the Iraq-based members of the terrorist network during which the defendant asked, “Did you hear about the huge incident yesterday? Is it known?” When the network member replied that he had, the defendant said, “He was one of the Tunisian brothers.” The network member responded, “Praise God, may God acknowledge him” and the defendant said, “Amen.” This conversation, along with the others referenced in the complaint, was recovered pursuant to Canadian court-authorized wiretaps and search warrants.
The defendant’s network is allegedly also responsible for a suicide bombing attack on an Iraqi police station on March 31, 2009, in which at least seven Iraqis were killed. That attack was committed by two other Tunisian jihadists who were recruited by the defendant’s network and who traveled to Iraq with the bomber responsible for the April 10th attack. A day or two after the bombing, the brother of one of the bombers received an anonymous phone call in which the caller repeated three times that the bomber had “been martyred two days ago in combat with the Americans in Mosul.” The caller went on to say, “May God witness what I say. God is great.”
According to the complaint, the network unsuccessfully tried to send a second group of Tunisian jihadists to Iraq in March 2009. In online conversations with one of those jihadists as the jihadist was preparing to leave Tunisia, the defendant advised him not to leave a will, and to “try to delete everything. . . . off your computer. Don’t leave one character of information or anything behind. . . . Don’t leave any trace. . . . Do not forget to keep reading Qur’an and repeat the famous prayers on the way until you meet with God.” That jihadist was arrested by Tunisian authorities as he attempted to leave the country in April 2009.
According to the complaint, the defendant has continued, since the March and April 2009 attacks, to seek to further the network’s attacks against Americans in Iraq, and to state his motive for doing so. In Jan. 2010, he told another person, “There is no more pressing duty after the declaration of faith than fighting the enemy. Fighting comes before the other four pillars of faith.” In July 2010, he stated, “Islam came for the good of humanity. So if someone doesn’t like good, we fight them, like those dog Americans.” The defendant also instructed a family member in Iraq to “Go learn about weapons and go attack the police and Americans. Let it be that you die.” According to the complaint, the defendant used the code “farming” to refer to jihadist attacks because, as he put it, jihadists “plant metal and harvest metal and flesh.”
The defendant allegedly also sought to conduct attacks himself and become a suicide bomber for the terrorist network. He informed his mother in November 2009, that his greatest wish was to die a martyr and be greeted by 70 virgins in paradise. In a conversation with an Iraq-based leader of the terrorist network in January 2010, the defendant volunteered to travel to Iraq, take up arms against the Americans, and subsequently conduct a suicide mission. The defendant asked that his dedication to the network be explained to those in charge as follows: “He [i.e., the defendant] is not just 100 percent but 1,000,000 percent with you. He is with you on the doctrine, the loyalty and the enmity and everything one million percent.” He added, “Even if I can’t work over there, I can work here.”
“These changes underscore the global nature of the terrorist threat we face and the importance of international cooperation in addressing this threat. I applaud the many agents, analysts and prosecutors who worked to bring about this case and thank our foreign counterparts for their substantial assistance,” said Assistant Attorney General Kris.
“There is no safe harbor for terrorists, including those who endeavor to spread violence from halfway across the world,” stated U.S. Attorney Lynch. “The five American servicemen who lost their lives in Iraq as a result of the actions of this terrorist network made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. Today’s arrest demonstrates that we have not forgotten that sacrifice and will continue to use every available means to bring to justice all those who are responsible.” Ms. Lynch also expressed her grateful appreciation to the New York City Police Department, the Canadian government, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the government of Tunisia for their assistance and cooperation in the investigation.
“The terrorist threat may be decentralized, but it is undeniably international,” said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Fedarcyk. “In a real sense, the safety and security of people anywhere depends on the ability and commitment of counterterrorism entities everywhere to work together. If national borders don’t deter terrorists, we can’t allow boundaries to impede the global effort to prevent a global threat.”
If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
The government’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Zainab Ahmad, Berit W. Berger, and Carter H. Burwell, with assistance provided by Mary Futcher of the Counterterrorism Section in the Department of Justice’s National Security Division. The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs also provided assistance in this matter.
The charges in the complaint are merely allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Tuesday 18 January 2011
Justice Department Settles Lawsuit in California Against Titan Laboratories Inc. and Its Owner to Enforce the Employment Rights of Army Reserve MemberRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department today announced that it has reached a settlement on behalf of U.S. Army reservist Miguel Orozco Garduño (Orozco) in its lawsuit against Titan Laboratories Inc., and its owner Harvey Berger. The lawsuit alleges that Titan and Berger willfully violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) by discriminating against and failing to reemploy Orozco after he returned from military leave. The settlement, embodied in a consent decree that the parties have submitted to the court for approval, calls for Titan and Berger to pay Orozco $21,000 in back pay.
The Justice Department’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that while Orozco was away on military leave, Titan and Berger terminated Orozco’s employment because of his military obligations and hired as a permanent replacement someone who did not have such obligations. The complaint also alleges that when Orozco completed his honorable military service and requested reemployment, Titan and Berger refused to reemploy him because he had been replaced.
"The men and women who serve in the military must be able to do so without fear that they will lose their civilian jobs as a result of their service. This case demonstrates the Justice Department’s commitment to vigorously enforcing federal laws that protect the employment rights of our servicemembers," said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.
"We applaud the Justice Department not only for helping Mr. Orozco bring his case to a successful conclusion, but also for its outstanding efforts on behalf of our country’s Service Members," said Ray Jefferson, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Veterans’ Employment and Training.
The case stems from a referral by the Department of Labor following an investigation by the Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service.
Additional information about USERRA can be found on the Justice Department website: www.servicemembers.gov and www.usdoj.gov/crt/emp, as well as on the Labor Department’s website at www.dol.gov/vets/programs/userra/main.htm.
Justice Department Settles Lawsuit in California Against Titan Laboratories Inc. and Its Owner to Enforce the Employment Rights of Army Reserve MemberRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department today announced that it has reached a settlement on behalf of U.S. Army reservist Miguel Orozco Garduño (Orozco) in its lawsuit against Titan Laboratories Inc., and its owner Harvey Berger. The lawsuit alleges that Titan and Berger willfully violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) by discriminating against and failing to reemploy Orozco after he returned from military leave. The settlement, embodied in a consent decree that the parties have submitted to the court for approval, calls for Titan and Berger to pay Orozco $21,000 in back pay.
The Justice Department’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that while Orozco was away on military leave, Titan and Berger terminated Orozco’s employment because of his military obligations and hired as a permanent replacement someone who did not have such obligations. The complaint also alleges that when Orozco completed his honorable military service and requested reemployment, Titan and Berger refused to reemploy him because he had been replaced.
“The men and women who serve in the military must be able to do so without fear that they will lose their civilian jobs as a result of their service. This case demonstrates the Justice Department’s commitment to vigorously enforcing federal laws that protect the employment rights of our servicemembers,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.
“We applaud the Justice Department not only for helping Mr. Orozco bring his case to a successful conclusion, but also for its outstanding efforts on behalf of our country’s Service Members,” said Ray Jefferson, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Veterans’ Employment and Training.
The case stems from a referral by the Department of Labor following an investigation by the Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service.
Additional information about USERRA can be found on the Justice Department website: www.servicemembers.gov and www.usdoj.gov/crt/emp, as well as on the Labor Department’s website at www.dol.gov/vets/programs/userra/main.htm .
Justice Department Settles Housing Discrimination Lawsuit Against Mississippi Mobile Home Park Owner and ManagersRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department today announced that Mississippi property owner Indigo Investments LLC, has agreed to pay $50,000 in monetary damages and civil penalties to settle the government’s Fair Housing Act lawsuit. The government alleged that Indigo and its former employees, Barbara A. Hamilton and Edward L. Hamilton, discriminated against African-American residents and members of interracial households at Homestead Mobile Home Village in Gulfport, Miss., which Indigo formerly owned and the Hamiltons formerly managed.
The lawsuit originated as a result of a complaint filed with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) by an African-American couple who moved to the mobile home park after being displaced by Hurricane Katrina. After investigating the complaint, HUD issued a charge of discrimination, and the case was referred to the Justice Department, which filed the lawsuit in June 2009.
"The law protects all individuals from harassment and discrimination in housing on the basis of race," said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. "Unlawful discrimination is particularly abhorrent when directed against those who have been displaced by natural disaster. The Department of Justice is committed to ensuring equal housing opportunities for all, no matter their housing circumstances."
"Hurricane Katrina devastated the lives of many people on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Those persons on whose behalf relief was obtained in this case were doubly affected – first by the hurricane and then in the very homes where they sought refuge when they were subjected to discriminatory treatment on the basis of race. It is never right to discriminate on any basis and this office will remain vigilant to protect the citizens of south Mississippi from unlawful discrimination in housing on any protected basis," said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi John M. Dowdy.
"Losing one’s home to any disaster is disruptive enough without facing housing discrimination when trying to find a new home to restart your life, " said John Trasviña, Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. "HUD and the Department of Justice continue our joint enforcement actions to eliminate illegal housing discrimination in all forms."
Under the settlement, which was approved by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, Indigo Investments LLC, will pay $45,000 to 12 individuals and $5,000 to the United States as a civil penalty. The settlement also provides that if Indigo obtains any interest in rental dwellings in the future, it must adopt non-discrimination policies; require its members, employees and agents to receive fair housing training; and submit to further monitoring by the government. The agreement prohibits Homestead’s former managers, Barbara and Edward Hamilton, from owning or managing rental properties.
Fighting illegal housing discrimination is a top priority of the Justice Department. The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin and disability.
More information about the Civil Rights Division and the laws it enforces is available at www.justice.gov/crt. Persons who believe they have experienced or witnessed unlawful housing discrimination may call the Housing Discrimination Tip Line at 1-800-896-7743, e-mail the Justice Department at [email protected] or contact HUD at 1-800-669-9777. More information about the Fair Housing Act can also be found at www.justice.gov/crt/housing or www.hud.gov/fairhousing.