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Tuesday 18 January 2011
Justice Department Allows Comcast-NBCU Joint Venture to Proceed with ConditionsRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice announced today a settlement with Comcast Corp. and General Electric Co.’s subsidiary NBC Universal Inc. (NBCU) that allows their joint venture to proceed conditioned on the parties’ agreement to license programming to online competitors to Comcast’s cable TV services, subject themselves to anti-retaliation provisions and adhere to Open Internet requirements. The department said that the proposed settlement will preserve new content distribution models that offer more products and greater innovation, and the potential to provide consumers access to their favorite programming on a variety of devices in a wide selection of packages.
The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, along with five state attorneys general, filed a civil antitrust lawsuit today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, to block the formation of the joint venture, alleging that the transaction would allow Comcast to limit competition from its cable, satellite, telephone and online competitors. At the same time, the department and the states filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, would resolve the competitive concerns in the lawsuit. The participating states are: California, Florida, Missouri, Texas and Washington.
“The Antitrust Division worked in close cooperation and unprecedented coordination with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reach a result that fully protects competition, allowing businesses to bring new and innovative products to the marketplace, providing consumers with more programming choices,” said Christine Varney, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “The conditions imposed will maintain an open and fair marketplace while at the same time allow the innovative aspects of the transaction to go forward.”
Today, the FCC also issued an order approving the proposed transaction subject to conditions, some of which are similar to those in the department’s settlement. The department and FCC consulted extensively to coordinate their reviews and create remedies that were both consistent and comprehensive. Consistent with the department’s complaint, the FCC order requires the joint venture to license NBCU content to Comcast’s cable, satellite and telephone competitors, making it unnecessary for the department to impose the same requirement.
The department’s complaint alleges that Comcast’s traditional and online rivals need access to NBCU programming, including the NBC broadcast network, to compete effectively against Comcast. The joint venture would have less incentive to distribute NBCU programming to Comcast’s video distribution rivals than a stand-alone NBCU, and could cause Comcast’s rivals and their customers to face higher prices for that content. The department said that the joint venture, as originally proposed, may have substantially lessened competition for video programming distribution in major portions of the United States. The department also said that the market would experience lower levels of investment, less experimentation with new models of delivering content and less diversity in the types and range of product offerings.
Under the proposed settlement and the FCC order, the joint venture must make available to online video distributors (OVDs) the same package of broadcast and cable channels that it sells to traditional video programming distributors. In addition, the joint venture must offer an OVD broadcast, cable and film content that is similar to, or better than, the content the distributor receives from any of the joint venture’s programming peers. These peers are NBC’s broadcast competitors (ABC, CBS and FOX), the largest cable programmers (News Corp., Time Warner Inc., Viacom Inc. and The Walt Disney Co.), and the largest video production studios (News Corp., Sony Corporation of America, Time Warner Inc., Viacom Inc. and The Walt Disney Co.).
In the event of a licensing dispute between the joint venture and an online video distributor, the department may seek court enforcement of the settlement or permit, in its sole discretion, the aggrieved online video distributor to pursue a commercial arbitration procedure established under the settlement. The FCC order also requires the joint venture to license content to OVDs on reasonable terms and includes an arbitration mechanism for resolving disputes. If timely arbitration is available for resolution of disputes under the FCC order, the department ordinarily will defer to the FCC’s arbitration process to resolve such disputes. The FCC order also allows Comcast’s traditional competitors, such as satellite and telephone companies, to invoke arbitration at the FCC to resolve program access and retransmission consent disputes.
The settlement also includes other relief aimed at ensuring that Comcast cannot evade the provisions designed to protect competition. For example:
- Comcast may not retaliate against any broadcast network (or affiliate), cable programmer, production studio or content licensee for licensing content to a competing cable, satellite or telephone company or OVD, or for raising concerns to the department or the FCC;
- Comcast must relinquish its management rights in Hulu, an OVD. Without such a remedy, Comcast could, through its seats on Hulu’s board of directors, interfere with the management of Hulu, and, in particular, the development of products that compete with Comcast’s video service. Comcast also must continue to make NBCU content available to Hulu that is comparable to the programming Hulu obtains from Disney and News Corp;
- In accordance with recently established Open Internet requirements, Comcast is prohibited from unreasonably discriminating in the transmission of an OVD’s lawful network traffic to a Comcast broadband customer. Comcast must also maintain the high-speed Internet service it offers to its customers by continuing to offer download speeds of at least 12 megabits per second in markets where it has upgraded its broadband network. Additionally, Comcast is required to give other firms’ content equal treatment under any of its broadband offerings that involve caps, tiers, metering for consumption or other usage-based pricing; and
- Comcast may not, with certain narrow exceptions, require programmers or video distributors to agree to licensing terms that seek to limit online distributors’ access to content.
Comcast is a Pennsylvania corporation headquartered in Philadelphia. It is the largest video programming distributor in the nation, with approximately 23 million video subscribers. Comcast wholly owns national cable programming networks (e.g., E! Entertainment, Golf, Style), has partial interests in other networks (e.g., MLB Network, PBS KIDS Sprout), and has controlling interests in regional sports networks. Comcast also owns digital properties such as DailyCandy.com, Fandango.com and Fancast, its online video website. In 2009, Comcast reported total revenues of $32 billion.
GE is a New York corporation with its principal place of business in Fairfield, Conn. GE is a global infrastructure, finance and media company. GE owns 88 percent of NBCU, a Delaware corporation, with its headquarters in New York City. NBCU is principally involved in the production, packaging and marketing of news, sports and entertainment programming. NBCU wholly owns the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, as well as 10 local NBC owned and operated television stations (O&Os), 16 Telemundo O&Os and one independent Spanish language television station. In addition, NBCU wholly owns national cable programming networks – Bravo, Chiller, CNBC, CNBC World, MSNBC, mun2, Oxygen, Sleuth, SyFy and USA Network – and partially owns A&E Television Networks (including the Biography, History and Lifetime cable networks), The Weather Channel and ShopNBC. NBCU also owns Universal Pictures, Focus Films and Universal Studios. In 2009, NBCU had total revenues of $15.4 billion.
As required by the Tunney Act, the proposed seven-year settlement, along with the department’s competitive impact statement, will be published in the Federal Register. Any person may submit written comments concerning the proposed settlement during a 60-day comment period to Nancy Goodman, Chief, Telecommunications & Media Enforcement Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 7000, Washington, D.C. 20530. At the conclusion of the 60-day comment period, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia may enter the proposed settlement upon finding that it is in the public interest.
Imprisoned Spy Sentenced to 8 More Years for Conspiracy to Act as an Agent of the Russian Government and Money LaunderingRead the Press Release
PORTLAND, Ore. – Harold James Nicholson, 59, was sentenced today to 96 months imprisonment by U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown following his guilty pleas to the crimes of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government and conspiracy to commit international money laundering. This 8-year prison sentence will be served following the 283-month prison sentence the defendant is currently serving in connection with his 1997 espionage conviction in the Eastern District of Virginia. Pursuant to the plea agreement both parties requested the court imposed the 8-year consecutive sentence. This case represents the first time a convicted spy has been convicted of new crimes involving a foreign country they spied for, while serving a sentence for espionage.
Harold J. Nicholson, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee, is serving a 283-month sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Sheridan, Ore., for a 1997 conviction of conspiracy to commit espionage. At the plea hearing Nicholson admitted that from 2006 to December 2008, with the assistance of his son Nathaniel, he acted on behalf of the Russian Federation, passed information to the Russian Federation, and received cash proceeds for his past espionage activities.
Harold J. Nicholson admitted that during the course of the conspiracy he met with his son Nathaniel on several occasions at FCI Sheridan and provided Nathaniel information intended for the Russian Federation. Defendant admitted that it was part of the conspiracy that Nathaniel would travel to several locations including San Francisco; Mexico City; Lima, Peru and Nicosia, Cyprus, to meet with agents of the Russian Federation. At these meetings, Nathaniel provided the Russian Federation information from the defendant and collected money for the defendant’s past espionage activities. Defendant followed the instructions of the Russian Federation and provided information requested by the Russians to Nathaniel to deliver to Russian agents at the overseas locations. Defendant directed Nathaniel on how to covertly travel with the funds from the Russian Federation and how to disperse the funds to family members.
“Today, former CIA official Harold Nicholson is being held accountable for once again violating his oath to protect America’s national security,” said David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security. “While imprisoned for a prior espionage conviction, Nicholson dispatched his son around the globe to pass information to and receive cash payments from agents of the Russian Federation. The many agents, analysts and prosecutors who uncovered and put an end to this continued betrayal deserve our thanks.”
Dwight C. Holton, U.S. Attorney for Oregon, stated, “Harold Nicholson betrayed his country and he betrayed his family -- and stooped so low as to involve his son in his corrupt scheme to collect money for his spying. For his new crimes, Nicholson will spend an additional 8 years in prison. Law enforcement and the Bureau of Prisons should be commended for an outstanding investigation uncovering these serious crimes.”
“At a global level, this investigation shows that international espionage is a threat America still faces, decades after the end of the Cold War,” said Arthur Balizan, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Oregon, “On a personal level, it shows the damage a father can do as he manipulates a son into a world of dishonor.”
The FBI and the Federal Bureau of Prisons investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Pamala Holsinger and Ethan Knight of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon prosecuted this case. Trial Attorney Patrick Murphy of the Counterespionage Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division also assisted.
Capital One Bank (usa) N.a. Will Refund More Than $2 Million in Monies Improperly Collected from Consumers in BankruptcyRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Trustee Program (USTP) announced today that Capital One Bank (USA) N.A. will refund approximately $2.35 million to consumers in bankruptcy (or their bankruptcy estates) for amounts received by Capital One as a result of erroneous claims it filed in bankruptcy cases for debts that previously had been discharged. Capital One also will reimburse attorneys' fees and costs to consumers and bankruptcy trustees who filed legal objections to Capital One's erroneous claims.
In October 2008, the USTP entered a settlement agreement with Capital One to resolve allegations that the company attempted to collect on debts that previously had been discharged in bankruptcy. At that time, the USTP alleged that Capital One had filed approximately 5,600 erroneous claims in bankruptcy cases, and the company acknowledged that it had received approximately $340,000 to which it was not entitled.
As part of the settlement with the USTP, Capital One agreed to an audit process overseen by an independent auditor chosen by the court to examine Capital One customer accounts to ensure that all monies improperly received by Capital One as a result of erroneously filed claims were returned to consumers who had filed bankruptcy or to their bankruptcy estates. The auditor would also approve reimbursement to consumers and bankruptcy trustees for out-of-pocket costs and expenses, including attorneys' fees, incurred to contest erroneous claims.
The auditor filed her report with the bankruptcy court today, after examining nearly 700,000 claims made by Capital One. The auditor found that Capital One erroneously filed approximately 15,500 claims totaling approximately $24.7 million on account of debts previously discharged in bankruptcy, and that the company received payment of approximately $2.35 million on approximately 5,100 of those erroneously filed claims. The refund to each affected consumer or bankruptcy estate will be based on the amount paid to Capital One as a result of the erroneous claim, and consumers and bankruptcy trustees need not take any further action. Similarly, reimbursement of attorneys' fees and costs will be based on the amount paid by consumers to their counsel or costs incurred by the bankruptcy trustee to object to Capital One's erroneous claims, and affected consumers and bankruptcy trustees will receive further information from the auditor.
The auditor's report and the October 2008 settlement agreement are filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts (United States Trustee v. Capital One Bank (USA) N.A., Adversary Proceeding No. 08-01272 (Bankr. D. Mass.)).
The USTP is the component of the Department of Justice that protects the integrity of the bankruptcy system by overseeing case administration and litigating to enforce the bankruptcy laws.
Contact:Jane Limprecht, Public Information Officer
Executive Office for U.S. Trustees
(202) 305-7411Attorney General Holder Leads Stalking Awareness EventRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder, Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli and Director of the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) Susan B. Carbon today opened an event focused on the complexities and impact of stalking crimes. The program featured a panel of speakers who shared their involvement in one family’s experience as victims of stalking, and their work to investigate and identify stalking behavior, and make changes to a state law to protect victims.
The event, which commemorated National Stalking Awareness Month, welcomed an audience of victim advocates, law enforcement officials, prosecutors, congressional staffers, and representatives from national organizations and federal agencies.
"Commemorating National Stalking Awareness Month today allows the department to underscore our commitment and efforts to prevent violence against women, to empower victims, and to hold perpetrators accountable and bring them to justice," said Attorney General Holder. "By providing a model for how a potential tragedy can be turned into opportunity, today’s guests also inspire our efforts in meeting the goals and responsibilities that we share."
Today’s event, presented by OVW, focused on the story of a young girl, Hannah Perryman, who was stalked and faced a criminal justice system that was, at the time, ill-equipped to provide the assistance she needed. With extraordinary community collaboration, particularly from law enforcement, she was able to successfully persuade the Illinois General Assembly to pass new legislation on behalf of victims of stalking.
"Stalking is a crime that affects families, work colleagues, and entire communities," said Associate Attorney General Perrelli. "Therefore, when we help communities recognize stalking behavior as criminal and provide tools to help them deal with this crime, we support victims and take a step towards ending violence against women."
"Stalking, a complex and often dangerous crime, is sometimes difficult to recognize. Providing appropriate responses can also be challenging for communities that do not understand what stalking is," said Carbon, the Director of OVW. "This national observance of Stalking Awareness Month is intended to provide information about the crime and support to victims and to those who work to prevent and end behaviors associated with stalking."
In addition to Department officials, expert presenters included Rebecca Dreke, Senior Program Associate with the Stalking Resource Center of the National Center for Victims of Crime and Cindy Southworth, Director of Safety Net: the National Safe and Strategic Technology Project at the National Network to End Domestic Violence.
According to a report by the Office of Justice Program’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, during a 12-month period, an estimated 3.4 million persons age 18 or older were victims of stalking. The study measured behaviors such as unwanted phone calls, sending unsolicited or unwanted letters or e-mails, following or spying on the victim, showing up at places without a legitimate reason, waiting at places for the victim, leaving unwanted items, presents or flowers and posting information or spreading rumors about the victim on the Internet, in a public place, or by word of mouth. Additional findings included that approximately one in four stalking victims reported some form of cyberstalking such as e-mail (83 percent) and nearly three in four stalking victims knew the offender in some capacity.
Resources and information related to stalking awareness month are located on OVW’s website at www.ovw.usdoj.gov and the Stalking Resource Center’s National Stalking Awareness Month website at www.stalkingawarenessmonth.org.
OVW is a component of the Department of Justice. In recognition of the severity of the crimes associated with domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking, Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act in 1994 (VAWA) as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Created in 1995, OVW administers financial and technical assistance to communities around the country to facilitate the creation of programs, policies and practices aimed at ending domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking. Since its inception, OVW has awarded more than $4 billion in grants and cooperative agreements, and has launched a multifaceted approach to implementing VAWA. By forging state, local, federal and tribal partnerships among police, prosecutors, victim advocates, health care providers, and community leaders, OVW grant programs help provide victims with the protection and services they need to pursue safe and healthy lives, while simultaneously enabling communities to hold offenders accountable.
Attorney General Creates Professional Misconduct Review Unit, Appoints Kevin Ohlson ChiefRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder announced today the creation of a new Professional Misconduct Review Unit to handle disciplinary actions for career attorneys at the Department of Justice that arise from Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) investigations and appointed Kevin Ohlson to be its Chief.
The Professional Misconduct Review Unit (PMRU) will be responsible for all disciplinary and state bar referral actions relating to OPR findings of professional misconduct against career attorneys.
“The current procedures for resolving these disciplinary matters consume too much time, and risk inconsistent resolutions, but this new Unit will help change that by providing consistent, fair, and timely resolution of these cases,” said Attorney General Holder. “In the vast majority of cases, Department attorneys meet their professional obligations but when allegations of misconduct occur, all parties deserve a fair and timely resolution. This Unit will be instrumental in achieving that goal and will also further the Department’s mission of meeting its ethical obligations in every case.”
“Through his lengthy career at the Department of Justice, Kevin Ohlson has been an extraordinary prosecutor and public servant, and I know that he will bring the high standards of professionalism and integrity that he has always demonstrated to this new position,” the Attorney General said.
OPR is responsible for investigating allegations of professional misconduct involving Department attorneys.
The Unit will review only those cases involving findings of intentional or reckless professional misconduct by OPR and determine whether those findings are supported by the evidence and the applicable law. OPR findings of poor judgment or mistake will continue to be referred to the component head or through the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA) to the relevant U.S. Attorney for appropriate action.
The Unit was created as a result of a comprehensive review of existing disciplinary procedures and processes with the aim of creating a more efficient and uniform system. OPR, EOUSA, the Criminal Division, the Justice Management Division and the Office of Attorney Recruitment and Management conducted the review and recommended the creation of the Unit. At the outset, the Unit will focus on cases involving career attorneys from the recommending components though the Department expects to expand the jurisdiction of the Unit to cover other litigating components over time.
Ohlson has served as Chief of Staff and Counselor to the Attorney General since February 2009. He has previously served as the Director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, chief of staff to the Deputy Attorney General, and Assistant U.S. Attorney. A former officer in the U.S. Army where he served as both a judge advocate and as a paratrooper, Ohlson was awarded the Bronze Star in 1990 for his service during the Persian Gulf War.
A copy of the memorandum is available at:
http://www.justice.gov/opa/documents/pmru-creation.pdf.
Friday 14 January 2011
Two Men Plead Guilty to Federal Hate Crime Charge Related to Desecration of Synagogue and Churches in Modesto, CaliforniaRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Brian Lewis, 23, of Modesto, Calif., and Abel Mark Gonzalez, 23, of Morgan Hill, Calif., pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill to conspiring to violate the civil rights of congregants of Congregation Beth Shalom, a synagogue in Modesto, Calif.
According to court documents, on or about Feb. 2, 2006, Lewis, Gonzalez and a co-conspirator conspired to deface and damage the synagogue. Lewis and Gonzalez admitted that the men spray-painted anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi graffiti on the synagogue’s exterior walls. Lewis and Gonzalez further admitted that the men spray-painted anti-Christian graffiti on the exterior walls of, and caused other damage to, Our Lady of Fatima Church and School and the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, both churches located in Modesto.
Lewis and Gonzalez each face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. A sentencing hearing has been set for April 8, 2011.
"Freedom of worship for all Americans is a constitutional right that the federal government will continue to protect through strong enforcement of our nation’s civil rights laws," said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. "This prosecution sends a clear signal to all who may contemplate similar conduct that we will continue to seek justice for victims of hate crimes and will hold accountable those who threaten religious freedom."
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California Benjamin B. Wagner said: "This country and this state are bastions of religious freedom, and our duty is to preserve and protect that liberty. No job is more important for this office than protecting the right to worship free from violence, fear, or intimidation. As this case indicates, together with the FBI and our state and local law enforcement allies, we will vigorously investigate and prosecute those who attack that right."
This case, which is ongoing, is being investigated by the Modesto Resident Agency of the FBI’s Sacramento Field Office with assistance from the Modesto Police Department, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Gappa of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California and Civil Rights Division Trial Attorney Karen Ruckert Lopez.
President of Florida Corporation Sentenced to 33 Months in Prison for Money Laundering Related to Child Pornography DistributionRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – The president and co-director of a Florida corporation was sentenced today to 33 months in prison for money laundering related to proceeds generated by the corporation through its distribution of child pornography, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance of the Northern District of Alabama. The corporation, Webe Web Corporation, also was sentenced today to five years of probation for child pornography charges.
Marc Evan Greenberg, 45, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., pleaded guilty in the Northern District of Alabama on April 21, 2010, to one count of money laundering. Webe Web pleaded guilty on April 21, 2010, to one count of conspiracy to produce child pornography and 16 counts of transporting child pornography. U.S. District Court Judge C. Lynwood Smith also sentenced Greenberg to three years of supervised release to follow his prison term and ordered Greenberg to pay $900,000 in restitution to six victims.
According to court documents, Webe Web was the registered owner of the website "www.childsupermodels.com," which purported to be a child modeling website that promoted models 7 through 16 years old and their photographers. It contained hyperlinks to websites containing photographs of individual “child super models” featuring minor female children in various poses and wardrobes.
Greenberg and Webe Web admitted that the websites pertaining to 16 different children contained illegal images of child pornography. In some of the photos, the victims, all girls aged 8 to 15, were wearing underwear, lingerie, bathing suits and other revealing outfits, and were posed in positions that constituted child pornography.
According to court documents, viewers of the websites could preview a certain number of images for free on the website homepage. If viewers wanted to join the website to access additional photographs, they could purchase a 30-day membership for approximately $30 per month. Greenberg and Webe Web admitted that the websites depicting the 16 victims generated approximately $1 million in revenue.
Webe Web also admitted that it promoted subscriptions to these individual sites through its free advertising website known as Babble Club. On Babble Club’s website, members could receive a free sample of images of the children. According to court documents, the website encouraged the purchase of subscriptions to the individual websites of the children, and hosted discussion boards and groups which were devoted to each individual website. Babble Club members made postings to the discussion boards, which included comments on specific images they liked, the type of clothing and poses they liked, and poetry written to the photographed child. Certain members posted expressions of fondness and devotion for a photographed child.
The vice president and co-director of Webe Web, Jeffrey Robert Libman, pleaded guilty on Sept. 15, 2010, to 16 counts of transporting child pornography and was sentenced on Dec. 17, 2010, to 108 months in prison.
According to court documents, the photographs of the 16 victims in this case were taken by Jeff Pierson, a former photographer based in the Birmingham, Ala., area. Pierson pleaded guilty in January 2007 to conspiracy to transport child pornography and transportation of child pornography.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jim Phillips and Daniel J. Fortune of the Northern District of Alabama, and Assistant Deputy Chief Alexandra Gelber of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS).
This case was investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The Document and Media Exploitation Branch of the National Drug Intelligence Center provided assistance in ascertaining the revenue flow of this criminal enterprise to support analysis of and to identify the ill gotten gains of the defendants.
Nacogdoches, Texas, Man Pleads Guilty for Role in MurdersRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – A Nacogdoches, Texas, man pleaded guilty today to charges related to a double homicide which took place in Nacogdoches 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.
Charles Cameron Frazier, aka "Mojo," 29, pleaded guilty today to committing a violent crime in aid of racketeering activity before U.S. District Judge Marcia Crone in federal court in Beaumont, Texas. Specifically, Frazier admitted that he had participated in the murders of David Mitchamore and Christy Rochelle Brown.
According to information presented in court, Frazier was a member 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" by members of the ABT because of Mitchamore’s failure to repay an outstanding debt he allegedly owed to an Aryan Brotherhood general. The bodies of Mitchamore and Brown were discovered in Nacogdoches County on Aug. 10, 2007.
Frazier 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 National Gang Intelligence Center; 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, Texas, and the Criminal Division’s Gang Unit, in full cooperation with the Nacogdoches County District Attorney’s Office.
Large Network of Private Schools Pays $215,000 to Settle Lawsuit Alleging Discrimination Against Children with DisabilitiesRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department today announced the settlement of a lawsuit filed to enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) against Nobel Learning Communities, Inc. (NLC), a private, for-profit entity that operates a nationwide network of more than 180 preschools, elementary schools and secondary schools. These entities operate in the District of Columbia and in 15 states (Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Washington) under a variety of names, including Chesterbrook Academy, Merryhill School and Evergreen Academy, among others.
In its lawsuit, filed in April 2009 in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Justice Department alleged that NLC violated Title III of the ADA by excluding from its programs children with disabilities, including some children with autism spectrum disorder, Down Syndrome, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and global developmental delays. NLC denies the allegations.
“It is illegal under the ADA to discriminate against children with disabilities. Just like public schools, private schools must make reasonable modifications of policies to permit children with disabilities to participate fully in the programs they offer,” said Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez. “This agreement ensures that children will not be denied quality preschool and other educational opportunities based upon their disabilities.”
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Zane David Memeger, noted, “no child should be discriminated against on the basis of disability. All children should have an equal opportunity to attend any school for which they qualify, and schools must make reasonable modifications to policies, practices or procedures in accordance with the law.”
Key provisions of the Settlement Agreement include the following:
· Disability Non-Discrimination Policy: NLC has adopted and will implement a formal policy to ensure that it will operate its programs, facilities, and services in a non-discriminatory manner to comply with Title III of the ADA.
· Publicity: NLC will publicize the Disability Non-Discrimination Policy to its principals, teachers, and other staff at all facilities in the NLC network. The policy will be posted on NLC’s website and member schools’ websites. Paper copies of the policy will be available to any person upon request.
· Monetary Relief: Upon receipt of appropriate releases, NLC has agreed to pay $215,000.00 collectively to the children referred to in the United States’ First Amended Complaint.
· Commitment to Avoid Unnecessary Inquiries: In accordance with the requirements of the ADA, NLC will not make unnecessary inquiries into the existence of a disability or impose or apply eligibility criteria that screen out or tend to screen out students with disabilities from the full and equal enjoyment of NLC’s goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations.
· Reasonable Modification Requests: NLC will, among other things, engage in a process to consider requests from a student’s parent(s)/guardian(s) for reasonable modifications of NLC’s programs and services when such modifications are necessary to afford NLC’s programs and services to students with disabilities, unless NLC can demonstrate that making such modifications would fundamentally alter the nature of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations at issue.
· Appointment of an ADA Compliance Officer: NLC will designate a person who is knowledgeable about the ADA and its implementing regulations, and who will communicate with parents/guardians on decisions regarding requests for reasonable modifications. In addition, (s)he will review (for compliance with the Disability Non-Discrimination Policy) all decisions not to enroll a student with a disability, or to disenroll a student with a disability.
· Training: At specified periods during the term of the settlement agreement, NLC will train its regional executives, principals and assistant principals on the content of the Disability Non-Discrimination Policy and the terms and conditions of the settlement agreement. NLC will also require all of its teachers and assistant teachers to read the policy and report requests for reasonable modifications to appropriate NLC personnel.
· Reporting and Tracking: NLC will track and report to the United States, at one year and at 18 months from the effective date of the settlement agreement, information including the number of applicants with disabilities and their ultimate enrollment status, as well as the number of requests received on behalf of applicants and current students for reasonable modifications (and whether the modifications were provided).
Those interested in learning more about federal disability rights statutes can call the Justice Department’s toll-free ADA information line at 800-514-0301, 800-514-0383 (TTY) or access the ADA website at www.ada.gov .
Co-Founder of Casino-Cheating Criminal Enterprise Pleads Guilty to Racketeering Conspiracy Targeting Casinos Across the United StatesRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – The co-founder of a criminal enterprise known as the “Tran Organization” pleaded guilty today in San Diego to conspiring to participate in the organization’s scheme to cheat casinos across the country out of millions of dollars, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy for the Southern District of California.
Van Thu Tran, 45, entered her guilty plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge Anthony J. Battaglia, subject to final acceptance of the plea by U.S. District Judge John A. Houston.
A three-count indictment was returned in San Diego on May 22, 2007, and unsealed on May 24, 2007, which charged Van Thu Tran and 13 others each with one count of conspiracy to participate in the affairs of a racketeering enterprise; one count of conspiracy to commit several offenses against the United States, including conspiracy to steal money and other property from Indian tribal casinos; and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The indictment also charged five separate individuals each with one count of conspiracy to commit several offenses against the United States, including conspiracy to steal money and other property from Indian tribal casinos; and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
In her plea agreement, Van Thu Tran admitted that in approximately August 2002, she, along with co-conspirators Phuong Quoc Truong, Tai Khiem Tran and others, created a criminal enterprise defined in the indictment as the Tran Organization, based in San Diego and elsewhere, for the purpose of participating in gambling cheats at casinos across the United States. In her plea agreement, Van Thu Tran also admitted that she and her co-conspirators unlawfully obtained up to $7 million during card cheats. As part of her plea agreement, Van Thu Tran agreed to the forfeiture of her interests in various assets, including jewelry.
“Today’s guilty plea by the co-founder of the Tran Organization marks the final chapter for a group that targeted as many as 29 casinos in the United States and Canada in their card cheating scheme,” said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. “Using false shuffles, specially developed computer programs, concealed microphones and transmitters, and a web of co-conspirators, Van Thu Tran and her co-conspirators obtained up to $7 million during card cheats. With the exception of two fugitives, every member of the organization has now been convicted. As this case shows, our prosecutors and agents will work relentlessly with federal, state, local and foreign authorities to dismantle organized criminal enterprises like the Tran Organization.”
At sentencing, scheduled for April 11, 2011, Van Thu Tran faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, forfeiture of certain assets and payment of restitution to the victims.
The investigation of the Tran Organization’s alleged casino-cheating conspiracy has led to the filing of three separate indictments. The charges contained in the indictments are merely accusations and defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty at trial beyond a reasonable doubt. According to the three indictments, the defendants and others executed a “false shuffle” cheating scheme at casinos in the United States and Canada during blackjack and mini-baccarat games. The indictments allege that members of the criminal organization bribed casino card dealers and supervisors to perform false shuffles during card games, thereby creating “slugs” or groups of unshuffled cards. The indictments also allege that after tracking the order of cards dealt in a card game, a member of the organization would signal to the card dealer to perform a “false shuffle,” and members of the group would then bet on the known order of cards when the slug appeared on the table. By doing so, members of the conspiracy repeatedly won thousands of dollars during card games, including winning several hundred thousand dollars on one occasion.
The indictments also allege that the members of the organization used sophisticated mechanisms for tracking the order of cards during games, including hidden transmitter devices and specially created software that would predict the order in which cards would reappear during blackjack games.
To date, 42 defendants have pleaded guilty to charges relating to the casino-cheating conspiracy, including: Van Thu Tran, Phuong Quoc Truong, Tai Khiem Tran, Anh Phuong Tran, Phat Ngoc Tran, Martin Lee Aronson, Liem Thanh Lam, George Michael Lee, Tien Duc Vu, Son Hong Johnson, Barry Wellford, John Tran, Willy Tran, Tuan Mong Le, Duc Cong Nguyen, Han Truong Nguyen, Roderick Vang Thor, Sisouvanh Mounlasy, Navin Nith, Renee Cuc Quang, Ui Suk Weller, Phally Ly, Khunsela Prom, Hop Nguyen, Hogan Ho, Darrell Saicocie, Bryan Arce, Qua Le, Outtama Keovongsa, Leap Kong, Thang Viet Huynh, Don Man Duong, Dan Thich, Jimmy Ha, Eric Isbell, Brandon Pete Landry, James Root, Jesus Rodriguez, Jason Cavin, Nedra Fay Landry, Connie Holmes and Geraldo Montaz. These defendants admitted to targeting, with the aid of co-conspirators, a combined total of approximately 29 casinos in the United States and Canada during the course of the conspiracy, including:
1) Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi, Miss.;
2) Casino Rama, in Orillia, Ontario, Canada;
3) Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, Conn.;
4) Gold Strike Casino in Tunica, Miss.;
5) Horseshoe Casino in Bossier City, La.;
6) Horseshoe Casino and Hotel in Tunica;
7) Isle of Capri Casino in Westlake, La.;
8) Majestic Star Casino in Gary, Ind.;
9) Mohegan Sun Resort Casino in Uncasville, Conn.;
10) Palace Station Casino in Las Vegas;
11) Resorts East Chicago Hotel and Casino in East Chicago, Ind.;
12) Sycuan Casino in El Cajon, Calif.;
13) Cache Creek Indian Bingo and Casino in Brooks, Calif.;
14) Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Wash.;
15) Imperial Palace Casino in Biloxi, Miss.;
16) Argosy Casino in Baton Rouge, La.;
17) Trump 29 Casino in Coachella, Calif.;
18) Isle of Capri Casino in Bossier City.;
19) Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage, Calif.;
20) Spa Resort Casino in Palm Springs, Calif.;
21) Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, Calif.;
22) L'Auberge du Lac Casino in Lake Charles, La.;
23) Nooksack River Casino in Deming, Wash.;
24) Barona Valley Ranch Casino and Resort in Lakeside, Calif.;
25) Caesars Indiana Hotel and Casino in Elizabeth, Ind.;
26) Monte Carlo Resort and Casino in Las Vegas;
27) Harrah’s Casino in Lake Charles;
28) Golden Moon Casino in Choctaw, Miss.; and
29) Viejas Casino in Alpine, Calif.
Two other defendants, Ha Thuy Giang and Tammie Huynh, pleaded guilty to tax offenses stemming from the investigation, and Khai Hong Tran admitted to the offenses alleged in a 2007 U.S. indictment when he pleaded guilty to casino-cheating offenses in Canada.
On Dec. 15, 2010, Mike Waseleski, a former casino card dealer, was found guilty by a federal jury in San Diego for his role in the Tran Organization’s cheating scheme to steal approximately $1.5 million from Resorts East Chicago Casino. Waseleski’s sentencing is scheduled for March 28, 2011, in San Diego before U.S. District Judge John A. Houston.
The case is being investigated by the FBI’s San Diego Field Office; the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation; the San Diego Sheriff’s Department; and the California Department of Justice’s Bureau of Gambling Control. The investigation has received assistance from federal, state, tribal and foreign authorities, including: the Ontario Provincial Police; the National Indian Gaming Commission; the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington; FBI Resident Agencies in Gulfport, Miss., Tacoma, Wash. and Toledo, Ohio; the Indiana State Police; the Rumsey Rancheria Tribal Gaming Agency; the Sycuan Gaming Commission; the Barona Gaming Commission; the Mississippi Gaming Commission; and the Washington State Gambling Commission.
The prosecution of the case is led by the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Section (OCRS). OCRS Trial Attorneys Joseph K. Wheatley and Robert S. Tully are prosecuting the case in San Diego.
Thursday 13 January 2011
U.S. Announces Clean Air Act Settlement to Protect Public Health in IndianaRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Northern Indiana Public Service Co. (NIPSCO) has signed a settlement agreement in which it has agreed to invest approximately $600 million in pollution control technology to resolve violations of the Clean Air Act, the Justice Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today. The proposed settlement covers all of NIPSCO’s coal fired power plants, located in Chesterton, Michigan City, Wheatfield and Gary, Ind. It will require that NIPSCO spend $9.5 million on environmental mitigation projects and pay a civil penalty of $3.5 million. The state of Indiana has been involved with developing this settlement and is a signatory.
“This settlement will bring substantial reductions in sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and carbon dioxide emissions that will benefit the health and environment of residents across Indiana and the surrounding area,” said Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice. “Under the settlement, NIPSCO will achieve compliance with the Clean Air Act and reduce emissions from its entire coal-fired power plant system. This marks another positive step in our efforts, alongside EPA, to target large sources of air pollution and to bring about system and region-wide improvements to the environment.”
“The pollution reductions achieved in this settlement will ensure that the people of Indiana and neighboring states have cleaner, healthier air to breathe," said Cynthia Giles, Assistant Administrator for EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “EPA is committed to advancing its national enforcement initiative to reduce air pollution from the largest sources of emissions.”
The proposed settlement was lodged today in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, and is subject to a 30-day public comment period and final court approval.
Under the proposed settlement, NIPSCO will install pollution control technology at three of its four coal-fired power plants to comply with stringent emission rates and annual tonnage limitations. These actions will result in annual reductions of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by 18,000 tons and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions by 46,000 tons. The proposed settlement will also result in significant reductions of particulate matter emissions. The proposed settlement also requires NIPSCO to permanently retire its fourth facility, the Dean H. Mitchell facility in Gary, Ind. The facility has been out of operation since 2002 and its permanent retirement will ensure that the facility does not restart without proper permitting under the Clean Air Act.
“The residents of northwest Indiana who are all too familiar with air pollution issues will benefit from this reasonable agreement that will improve air quality and fund local environmental projects including restoration near the Indiana Dunes, a unique area of remarkable ecological diversity. My office and our state and federal colleagues have worked diligently to ensure that the laws are enforced fairly and the public is protected,” said Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller, whose office represented the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) in the settlement negotiations.
The proposed settlement also requires NIPSCO to spend $9.5 million on projects that will benefit the environment and human health in communities located near the NIPSCO facilities. These projects include a clean diesel retrofit project for public vehicles, a woodstove and outdoor boiler change-out project and a land restoration project to restore lands adjacent to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
Reducing air pollution from the largest sources of emissions, including coal-fired power plants, is one of EPA’s National Enforcement Initiatives for 2011-2013. SO2 and NOx, two key pollutants emitted from power plants, have numerous adverse effects on human health and are significant contributors to acid rain, smog, and haze. These pollutants are converted in the air to fine particles of particulate matter that can cause severe respiratory and cardiovascular impacts, and premature death. Reducing these harmful air pollutants will benefit the communities located near NIPSCO facilities, particularly, communities disproportionately impacted by environmental risks and vulnerable populations, including children. In addition, air pollution from power plants can drift significant distances downwind, thereby affecting not only local communities, but also populations in a much broader area.
More information: www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/cases/civil/caa/nipsco.html
Taiwan Hannstar Executive Indicted for Role in LCD Price-Fixing ConspiracyRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – A federal grand jury in San Francisco returned an indictment against the current president of HannStar Display Corporation for his participation in a global conspiracy to fix prices of thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels, the Department of Justice announced today.
The indictment, filed today in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, charges that Ding Hui Joe, aka David Joe, conspired with others to suppress and eliminate competition by fixing the prices of TFT-LCD panels. Joe, a resident of Taiwan, is charged with participating in the conspiracy from on or about Sept. 14, 2001, until on or about Jan. 31, 2006.
TFT-LCD panels are used in computer monitors and notebooks, televisions, mobile phones and other electronic devices. By the end of the conspiracy period, the worldwide market for TFT-LCD panels was valued at $70 billion. Companies directly affected by the LCD price-fixing conspiracy are some of the largest computer and television manufacturers in the world, including Apple, Dell and Hewlett Packard.
According to the one-count felony charge, Joe participated in the conspiracy by agreeing to fix prices of TFT-LCD panels during secret meetings, referred to as "Crystal Meetings," in hotel rooms in Taipei, Taiwan. The participants in the conspiracy also exchanged information on the sales of TFT-LCD panels for the purpose of monitoring and enforcing adherence to the agreed-upon prices. According to the court document, in order to keep the meetings secret and avoid detection, the participants took various steps to conceal the conspiracy.
As a result of this investigation, more than $890 million in criminal fines have been obtained to date. Including today’s indictment, 22 executives and eight companies have been charged in the department’s ongoing investigation into price fixing in the LCD industry.
Joe is charged with price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine for individuals. The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.
An indictment contains merely allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.
Today’s charge is the result of a joint investigation by the Department of Justice Antitrust Division’s San Francisco Field Office and the FBI in San Francisco.
Anyone with information concerning illegal conduct in the TFT-LCD industry is urged to call the Antitrust Division’s San Francisco Field Office at 415-436-6660 or visit www.justice.gov/atr/contact/newcase.htm.
Minnesota-based National Hardware Store Distributor Fastenal to Pay U.S. $6.25 Million to Resolve False Claims Act AllegationsRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON - Fastenal Company, a national hardware store distributor, has reached a settlement with the United States following an investigation of alleged false claims in connection with a General Services Administration (GSA) contract, the Justice Department announced today. Fastenal has agreed to pay the United States $6.25 million.
The settlement relates to a contract entered into by the Winona, Minn.-based company to sell hardware products to government customers through the GSA’s Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) program. The MAS program provides the government and other GSA-authorized purchasers with a streamlined process for procurement of commonly-used commercial goods and services. To be awarded a MAS contract, and thereby gain access to the broad government marketplace, contractors must agree to disclose commercial pricing policies and practices, and to abide by the contract terms when selling to purchasers under the MAS contract.
The settlement resolves issues discovered during a GSA post-award audit of Fastenal’s contract. The GSA Office of Inspector General learned that Fastenal knowingly failed to meet its contractual obligations to provide the GSA with current, accurate and complete information about its commercial sales practices, including discounts afforded to other customers.
In addition, the settlement resolves allegations that Fastenal failed to comply with the price reduction clause of its GSA contract, overcharged government customers, and improperly assessed delivery and sales tax charges on government sales. As a result, the United States paid more than it should have for Fastenal products. The settlement also resolves allegations that Fastenal violated the Trade Agreements Act when it knowingly sold products to the United States that were manufactured in countries that do not have trade agreements with the United States, e.g., China.
"Misrepresentations during contract negotiations undermine the integrity of the government procurement process," said Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division. "The Justice Department is acting to ensure that government purchasers of commercial products can be certain that they are getting the prices to which they are entitled."
"This case is another demonstration of the value of OIG audits in helping to uncover fraud on government programs," said Brian D. Miller, GSA Inspector General.
This settlement was the result of a coordinated effort by the Department of Justice, Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch; the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri; and the GSA Office of Inspector General and Office of General Counsel in investigating and resolving the allegations.
Miami Contractor Sentenced to 24 Months in Prison for Employment Tax FraudRead the Press Release
MIAMI – Axel Rafael Mercado was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge Patricia A. Seitz to 24 months in prison for tax evasion, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. Mercado was also ordered to pay $352,605 in restitution to the United States.
According to court documents, from 2005 through 2007, Mercado, who owns Mercado Enterprises Inc., attempted to evade a large part of his company’s federal employment taxes. To avoid his employment tax obligations, Mercado caused the company’s checks to be written to shell companies, which were supposedly legitimate subcontractors, but which in fact did no work for Mercado Enterprises. Mercado would then direct those checks to be cashed at a local check-cashing store, which was aware of the scheme, and use the cash to pay his workers. Mercado never reported the existence of the employees, never reported the cash wages of the employees, never filed employment tax returns and never paid the required employment tax.
Wifredo A. Ferrer, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and John A. DiCicco, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice, Tax Division, commended the IRS special agents who investigated the matter and Tax Division Trial Attorneys Jason H. Poole and Matthew J. Mueller who prosecuted the case.
Detroit-Area Men Charged with Tax EvasionRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – A federal grand jury in Detroit has returned a 14-count indictment against Michigan residents David A. Cusumano and Henry Nino, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today.
According to the indictment, Cusumano was a mechanical engineer from Plymouth, Mich., and Nino was an electrician from Northville, Mich. Both men are alleged to have committed multiple counts of tax evasion by failing to file income tax returns and maintaining Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificates (IRS Forms W-4) which their employers falsely claimed were exempt from tax withholding.
Both are also charged with corruptly endeavoring to obstruct the administration of the internal revenue laws through the services of Florida-based American Rights Litigators/Guiding Light of God Ministries (ARL) and by other means. The indictment alleges that Cusumano and Nino used ARL to falsely accuse Internal Revenue Service (IRS) workers of criminal acts and to send false documents to the IRS.
Cusumano is also accused of sending fake financial instruments called "Registered Bonds" to the IRS and the Treasury Department while Nino is accused of sending fake financial instruments called "Registered Bills of Exchange" to the Treasury. Nino is also alleged to have willfully failed to file income tax returns for 2007 and 2008.
In August 2004, a federal district judge permanently enjoined ARL and two of its promoters from the sale of a nationwide tax scam. According to court documents, the purpose of ARL’s scheme was to thwart the IRS in its attempts to assess and collect taxes by various means. These schemes included manufacturing and selling worthless "bills of exchange" supposedly drawn on the U.S. Treasury for customers to use in purported payment of their taxes, as well as producing false and harassing complaints against IRS employees that were sent to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration in Washington, D.C.
An indictment merely alleges that a crime has been committed, and a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Tax Division Trial Attorneys Melissa Siskind and Jeffrey McLellan are prosecuting the case.
More information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division and its enforcement efforts is available at www.usdoj.gov/tax .
Contratista de Miami sentenciado a 24 meses de prisión por fraude de cargas socialesRead the Press Release
MIAMI — Axel Rafael Mercado fue sentenciado hoy por la Jueza Federal de Distrito Patricia A. Seitz a 24 meses de prisión por evasión tributaria, anunciaron el Departamento de Justicia y Servicios de Impuestos Internos [Internal Revenue Service (IRS)]. También se ordenó a Mercado que pagara una restitución de 352,605 dólares a los Estados Unidos.
De acuerdo con el expediente judicial, de 2005 a 2007, Mercado, propietario de Mercado Enterprises Inc., intentó evadir una gran parte de las cargas sociales de empleo federales de su compañía. Para evadir sus obligaciones de cargas sociales de empleo, Mercado hizo que los cheques de la empresa fueran emitidos a empresas fantasma, que supuestamente eran subcontratistas legítimos, pero que en realidad no trabajaban para Mercado Enterprises. Luego, Mercado indicaba que los cheques fueran cobrados en una tienda local de cambio de cheques, que sabía del ardid, y usaba el dinero en efectivo para pagar a sus trabajadores. Mercado nunca informó de la existencia de los empleados, ni los sueldos en efectivo que recibían y tampoco presentó declaraciones de impuestos laborales o pagó las cargas sociales obligatorias.
Wifredo A. Ferrer, Fiscal Federal para el Distrito Sur de Florida, y el Secretario de Justicia Auxiliar Interino John DiCicco, de la División de Impuestos del Departamento de Justicia, felicitaron a los agentes especiales de IRS a cargo de la investigación en el caso y a los Abogados Litigantes de la División de Impuestos Jason H. Poole y Matthew J. Mueller, que estuvo a cargo de la acusación en el caso.
Assistant Attorney General David Kris Announces Departure from National Security DivisionRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, announced his resignation from the Department of Justice today, effective March 4, 2011.
“David Kris led the National Security Division (NSD) with great distinction through a period when the department confronted a number of threats to the nation’s security, and there is no doubt that his tireless work helped keep the American people safe,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “I will miss his leadership.”
“I am grateful for my two years of service as Assistant Attorney General for National Security,” Kris said. “I started my legal career at the Department of Justice, and it has been a tremendous privilege to work with the department's leadership and the dedicated professionals in the National Security Division.”
As Assistant Attorney General for National Security, Kris helped lead the department’s response to a number of serious threats to the nation, including the attempted bombing of Times Square, the al-Qaeda plot to bomb the New York subway system, the attempted detonation of a bomb onboard an airliner on Christmas Day 2009, and the arrest and prosecution of Mumbai plotter David Headley.
Under Kris’ leadership, the National Security Division also played a pivotal role in the investigation, arrest and swap of Russian illegal agents during the summer of 2010, and prosecuted a number of other significant espionage cases, including Kendall and Gwendolyn Myers, who were caught and prosecuted after decades of spying for the government of Cuba. The division also continued and expanded its enforcement in the areas of export control and counter-proliferation.
During Kris’ tenure, the National Security Division also strengthened its partnerships with the intelligence community and other national security elements, including the Department of Defense and the National Security Council, and advanced significantly in establishing the processes, policies, and procedures necessary to make NSD a highly effective and fully functioning division.
Kris joined the department in March 2009 after being confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate. He previously served in the Justice Department from 1992 to 2003 as an attorney in the Criminal Division and Associate Deputy Attorney General.
Wednesday 12 January 2011
Tribunal Federal prohíbe permanentemente a hombre del Sur de Florida preparar declaraciones de impuestos para tercerosRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON -- Un tribunal federal ha prohibido en forma permanente a Sony Ducasse de Greenacres, Fla. preparar declaraciones de impuestos a la renta federales para terceros, anunció hoy el Departamento de Justicia. La orden de interdicto, a la que consintió Ducasse, fue emitida por el Juez James Cohn del Tribunal Federal de Distrito para el Distrito Sur de Florida en West Palm Beach.
La demanda entablada por el gobierno alega que Ducasse prepara declaraciones de impuestos federales para sus clientes, las que contienen reclamos falsos de crédito tributario por ingresos del trabajo o deducciones tributarias falsas. De acuerdo con la demanda, Ducasse ha preparado al menos 3,200 declaraciones desde 2007 y el Servicio de Impuestos Internos [Internal Revenue Service (IRS)] le ha impuesto más de $30,000 en multas por conducta indebida de preparador de declaraciones de impuestos. La demanda indica que el IRS estima que los ingresos perdidos debido a las declaraciones preparadas por Ducasse en la época de presentación de declaraciones de impuestos de los años 2007 a 2010 podrían superar los 6 millones de dólares.
En los últimos diez años, la División de Impuestos del Departamento de Justicia ha obtenido centenas de interdictos para detener la promoción de ardides de fraude tributario y la preparación de declaraciones fraudulentas. Se puede encontrar información sobre estos casos en el portal del Departamento de Justicia.
Medical Device Manufacturer Guidant Sentenced for Failure to Report Defibrillator Safety Problems to FDARead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Guidant LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Boston Scientific Corporation, was formally convicted and sentenced today in St. Paul, Minn., before U.S. District Court Judge Donovan W. Frank for criminal violations relating to its interactions with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Judge Frank sentenced Guidant to pay more than $296 million in criminal fines and forfeiture and also to submit to the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for three years. The Justice Department brought criminal charges against Guidant for its mishandling of short-circuiting failures of three models of its implantable cardioverter defibrillators: the Ventak Prizm 2 DR (Model 1861) and the Contak Renewal (Models H135 and H155). Guidant’s Cardiac Rhythm Management division, which produced the defibrillators, is headquartered in Arden Hills, Minn. The company pleaded guilty to the charges last April.
Implantable cardioverter defibrillators are lifesaving devices used to detect and treat abnormal heart rhythms that can result in sudden cardiac death. The devices, once surgically implanted, continually monitor the electrical activity in a patient’s heart for deadly arrhythmias and deliver an electrical shock to the heart in an effort to return the heartbeat to normal rhythm. If they fail to operate properly when needed, a person can die within minutes.
Judge Frank sentenced Guidant for withholding information from the FDA regarding catastrophic failures in some of its lifesaving devices. Guidant made decisions at various junctures to conceal information from the FDA and medical professionals regarding the device failures. In June 2005, the company finally went public about the problem with information it had known for 10 months, and then only after three deaths had occurred.
The Justice Department’s sentencing memorandum filed with the court explains how Guidant decided to continue to implant hundreds of defective Renewal devices, even after the company had decided to stop shipping them from the factory due to the seriousness of the health risk they represented. Guidant developed a strategy to mitigate the health risk while not raising FDA concerns about the problem. This strategy included the company advising its sales representatives to tell physicians that “nothing was broken” with the Renewal, and falsely telling the FDA that c hanges it proposed to the device in response to the electrical short-circuiting “ were not being done to correct device flaws that threaten patient safety” but were rather “to improve process throughout.”
Under today’s sentence, Guidant is required to forfeit $42,079,675 to the United States and pay a criminal fine of $253,962,251. In addition, Guidant was sentenced to three years of probation. During that period, Guidant is required to make quarterly reports to the Probation Office and to submit to regular, unannounced inspections of its records by the Probation Office. The court also required Guidant to notify its employees and shareholders of its criminal conviction.
“The sentence the court imposed reflects the seriousness of Guidant’s conduct,” said Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the Department of Justice. “Patients are put at risk when health care companies fail to meet their responsibility to provide complete and accurate information to the FDA.”
Guidant was charged in federal district court on Feb. 25, 2010. Last April, Judge Frank declined to accept a proposed plea agreement between the government and Guidant.
“The safety and integrity of critical medical devices is assured only by close FDA oversight,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney John Marti of the District of Minnesota. “This agency can only perform its mandated duty when medical device manufacturers provide the agency with timely and accurate information. When Guidant withheld important information, patient safety was jeopardized. The court’s sentence recognizes the harm of Guidant’s conduct.”
“FDA always works closely with companies to support compliance with standards that prevent serious safety problems from occurring. However, as today's sentence demonstrates, when companies fail to comply, we will use our enforcement tools to ensure the safety and efficacy of the medical products that Americans rely on every day,” said Margaret Hamburg, M.D., Commissioner of Food and Drugs.
The case was investigated by the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert M. Lewis of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota, and Justice Department Trial Attorneys Ross S. Goldstein and Matthew S. Ebert of the Civil Division’s Office of Consumer Litigation. Additional assistance has been provided by Steven Tave of FDA’s Office of Chief Counsel.
Illinois Commercial Print Broker Pleads Guilty to Making False Statement to the Government Printing OfficeRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – An Illinois commercial print broker pleaded guilty today to making false statements in a bid submitted to the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), the Department of Justice announced.
Richard I. Keefe of Rock Falls, Ill., pleaded guilty today to a one-count felony charge filed on Nov. 4, 2010, in U.S. District Court in Chicago. According to the court document, Keefe submitted a bid to the GPO in or around January 2008 in the name of a company that had not authorized him to do so. Keefe also certified that the bid was not made with an understanding that a brokerage fee would be paid, when in fact it was. In order to reduce the costs of printing services procured by the federal government, the GPO procures most printing services through competitive bidding and attempts to limit the payment of commissions and brokerage fees in connection with print solicitations as much as possible.
The department said that the GPO, an agency within the legislative branch of the U.S. government, issued the bid on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service of the Department of the Treasury. By statute, the GPO performs, with few exceptions, all printing for the federal government. The GPO procures most printing services from outside vendors, and its annual print solicitations are approximately $1 billion.
Keefe is charged with making false statements, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for individuals. The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.
This case is the first to arise in an ongoing investigation of bids to the GPO and is being conducted by the Antitrust Division’s National Criminal Enforcement Section and by the GPO’s Office of Inspector General. Anyone with information concerning price fixing or other anticompetitive conduct regarding GPO print solicitations should contact the National Criminal Enforcement Section at 202-307-5784, visit www.justice.gov/atr/contact/newcase.htm or contact the GPO’s Office of Inspector General at 1-800-743-7574.
Federal Court Permanently Bars South Florida Man from Preparing Tax Returns for OthersRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – A federal court has permanently barred Sony Ducasse of Greenacres, Fla., from preparing federal income tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. The injunction order, to which Ducasse consented, was entered by Judge James Cohn of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in West Palm Beach.
The government complaint in the case alleges that Ducasse prepares federal income tax returns for his customers containing false claims for the earned income tax credit or bogus tax deductions. According to the complaint, Ducasse has prepared at least 3,200 returns since 2007 and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has imposed over $30,000 in penalties against him for tax-preparer misconduct. The complaint states that the IRS estimates that the lost revenue from the returns Ducasse prepared in the 2007 through 2010 tax filing seasons could exceed $6 million.
In the past ten years the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained hundreds of injunctions to stop the promotion of tax-fraud schemes and the preparation of fraudulent returns. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website.
Detroit Area Strip Club Owner Pleads Guilty to Using Computer Software Program<br /> to Delete Club’s Sales in Order to Cheat on TaxesRead the Press Release
Nicholas J. Faranso of Farmington Hills, Mich., pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Court Judge John Corbett O’Meara in the Eastern District of Michigan to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. For his role in the conspiracy, Faranso faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The court set sentencing for July 14, 2011.
According to court documents, Faranso owned two strip clubs: BT’s in Dearborn, Mich., and Tycoon’s in Detroit. From 2001 through 2004, both establishments used a computerized point of sales system which produced guest checks and electronically tracked and recorded sales. Court documents reveal that, in 2001,Faranso purchased a computer software program called Journal Sales Remover from Theodore Kramer, a self-employed computer software salesman. This computer software program was specifically designed to remove a portion of the actual sales from the computerized point of sales systems. The program would make it appear that Faranso’s clubs received less income than they actually did.
Faranso directed Kramer to put the Journal Sales Remover program onto his businesses’ computer systems in order to help the club owner cheat on the businesses’ taxes. From about 2001 to about 2004, at Faranso’s request, Kramer made periodic visits to Faranso’s clubs to run the Journal Sales Remover program to remove a substantial amount of the actual sales from the computerized sales systems. Faranso then provided the reduced sales figures to his accountant. As a result, Faranso falsified the clubs’ tax returns by understating their gross receipts by more than $500,000. Kramer previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy on Nov. 17, 2010.
Barbara L. McQuade, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, and John A. DiCicco, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice, Tax Division, commended the IRS special agents who investigated this matter and Tax Division Trial Attorneys Kenneth C. Vert and Tiwana L. Wright, who prosecuted the case.
Tuesday 11 January 2011
Pennsylvania Odometer Tamperer Sentenced to 100 Months in PrisonRead the Press Release
PHILADELPHIA – Yakov Babchinetskiy, 43, of Huntingdon Valley, Pa., was sentenced today in Philadelphia by U.S. District Court Judge Legrome D. Davis to 100 months in prison plus three years of supervised release for his role in a conspiracy to alter odometers on used motor vehicles, provide false odometer statements, and commit wire and securities fraud, the Justice Department announced. He was also ordered to pay restitution of more than $4,098,165
to the victims of the fraud, which include consumers, retail automobile dealers and insurance companies.From 2002 to 2005, Babchinetksiy conspired with other individuals to purchase high-mileage used motor vehicles, alter the mileage on the titles, roll back the odometers, and sell the vehicles at a false low-mileage to dealers and consumers. Co-defendants Mikhail Gokhman and Yan Hershman previously pleaded guilty to similar charges and were also sentenced by Judge Davis.
Mikhail Gokhman was sentenced in October 2008 to 10 years in prison; and Yan Hershman was sentenced in July 2008 to 48 months in prison. Hershman, who was an illegal alien, was deported to Israel after serving his sentence. Another co-defendant, Edvard Khakhan, remains a fugitive.
In a related case brought in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, James Russell Bradbury, a former Pennsylvania Department of Transportation title clerk, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in November 2006 by U.S. District Court Judge Yvette Kane to 21 months in prison for bribery concerning a program receiving federal funds.
"This type of financial fraud harms consumers making one of the biggest investments they will make: their automobile. Dishonest dealers who roll back odometers cheat customers out of their hard-earned money, impede informed buying choices, and raise safety concerns by misrepresenting the actual condition of the vehicles they sell," said Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Division. "The Justice Department will seek appropriately tough sentences for those engaging in these illegal practices."
"Consumers are entitled to know exactly what they are buying," said Zane Memeger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. "The type of fraud committed by this defendant deprives the car buying public of the right-to-know how many miles a car has been driven prior to purchase. Such mileage could ultimately affect car safety and the costs of future repairs to the consumer."
This case was investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Office of Odometer Fraud Investigation and the Pennsylvania State Police. It was prosecuted by Senior Litigation Counsel Linda I. Marks and Trial Attorney Mary Murphy of the Civil Division’s Office of Consumer Litigation, with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia.
Maryland Man Indicted for Filing False Income Tax ReturnsRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON - A federal grand jury in Greenbelt, Md., today indicted Thomas Robert Turner, a resident of Prince George’s County, Md., for corruptly endeavoring to obstruct and impede the due administration of the internal revenue laws between 2004 and January 2009, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. Turner is also charged with filing two false amended individual income tax returns with the IRS for 2004 and 2005.
According to the indictment, Turner worked as a bus driver for D & B Tours Inc., a tour bus company. He, along with at least two other people, caused false corporate income tax returns for 2001, 2002 and 2003 to be filed with the IRS. These corporate returns claimed false refunds of more than $177,000 based upon fraudulently inflated federal fuel tax credits. Turner also filed false individual tax returns for 2002 through 2005, which reported fictitious businesses and claimed more than $70,000 in false refunds based on fraudulently inflated federal fuel tax credits.
An indictment merely alleges that a crime has been committed, and a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
John DiCicco, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division, and Rod Rosenstein, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, commended the investigative efforts of the IRS agents involved in this case, as well as Tax Division Trial Attorneys Caryn Finley and Jack Hinton, who are prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.
Cincinnati-Area Man Sentenced 30 Months in Prison for Tax CrimesRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON - Homer Lee Richardson of Loveland, Ohio, was sentenced today for corruptly endeavoring to obstruct and impede the due administration of the Internal Revenue Code, aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false income tax return on the behalf of another individual, and filing his own false individual income tax returns for the years 1998, 1999 and 2000, the Justice Department announced. Richardson, a former promoter of sham trust systems, had previously pleaded guilty.
U.S. District Court Senior Judge for the Southern District of Ohio Sandra S. Beckwith sentenced Richardson to 30 months in prison and one year of supervised release. The court also ordered Richardson to pay a $60,000 fine and $61,212 in restitution.
According to the indictment, Richardson marketed and promoted sham trusts for an organization known as Aegis. The trusts had no economic substance or business purpose and falsely gave the appearance that Aegis members relinquished control over their assets. Taxpayers who used these trusts filed false federal individual income tax returns understating their income.
In addition, Richardson attempted to obstruct Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audits of his own and at least one other individual’s income taxes. Finally, Richardson filed his own false tax returns which falsely understated his income.
John A. DiCicco, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division, commended IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent Ankur Arora, who investigated the case, as well as Tax Division trial attorneys Thomas Voracek and Rita Calvin, who prosecuted the case.
More information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division and its enforcement efforts is available at www.usdoj.gov/tax.
Assistant Attorney General Ignacia Moreno to Deliver Remarks on 2011 Priorities for the Environment and Natural Resources DivisionRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division, will deliver remarks regarding the division’s 2011 priorities to the Washington, D.C., Bar Association’s Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Section on THURSDAY, JAN. 13, 2011, at 12:00 P.M. EST. Following her remarks, Assistant Attorney General Moreno will hold a pen and pad briefing with reporters at 2:30 P.M. EST.
12:00 P.M. EST Assistant Attorney General Ignacia Moreno will deliver remarks regarding the division’s 2011 priorities.
Hunton & Williams
1900 K St., N.W.
Washington, D.C.
2:30 P.M. EST Assistant Attorney General Moreno will hold a pen and pad briefing with reporters.
Department of Justice
ENRD Conference Room – Room 2143
950 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C.
NOTE: All media must present government-issued photo I.D. (such as a driver’s license) as well as valid media credentials. Members of the press who wish to attend the speech or take part in the pen and pad briefing must RSVP to Robert O’Donnell at Robert.F.O’[email protected] or 202-514-2007 by Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011, at 4:00 P.M. EST. Press inquiries regarding logistics should be directed to the Office of Public Affairs at 202-514-2007.
Monday 10 January 2011
Justice Department Settles Fair Housing Lawsuit Against Town of Garner, North CarolinaRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced today that it has settled its suit against the town of Garner, N.C., and the town’s Board of Adjustment alleging that they violated the Fair Housing Act when refused to allow up to eight men recovering from drug and alcohol addictions to live together as a reasonable accommodation.
Oxford House Inc., the non-profit organization that chartered the home, sponsors the development of self-governing houses in which recovering addicts support each other’s determination to remain sober. The case began when Garner refused to consider requests by Oxford House to increase the number of residents in the home from six to eight. Oxford House filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which referred the matter to the Justice Department. After conducting an independent investigation, the Justice Department filed suit in May 2009, and Oxford House subsequently intervened. In June 2010, the district court denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit, ruling that Oxford House had taken the legal steps necessary to have Garner consider its request for a reasonable accommodation.
"The Fair Housing Act requires equal access to housing for persons with disabilities," said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. "The Justice Department will continue to ensure the right of people with disabilities to live in housing appropriate for their needs."
"This settlement demonstrates the high priority that our office gives to enforcement of all federal civil rights statutes, including the Fair Housing Act," stated George E.B. Holding, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
Under the terms of the settlement, which must still be approved by the U.S. District Court in Raleigh, N.C., the defendants will pay $105,000 in monetary damages to Oxford House and $9,000 to the government as a civil penalty. The settlement requires the town to grant the reasonable accommodation requested by Oxford House to submit periodic reports to the government, and to train town officials on the requirements of the Fair Housing Act. In December 2010, in connection with the parties’ proposed settlement, the town amended its zoning code to establish a procedure for addressing future requests for reasonable accommodations.
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.
Former NASA Employee Charged with Illegally Exporting<br /> Military Technology to South KoreaRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – An Ohio man was charged with illegally shipping infrared military technology to South Korea, the Department of Justice announced today.
A criminal information was filed charging Kue Sang Chun, 66, of Avon Lake, Ohio, with one count of exporting defense articles on the U.S. Munitions List without first obtaining an export license or written authorization from the U.S. Department of State, and one count of knowingly making and subscribing a false U.S. individual income tax return.
Chun is a longtime employee at the NASA Glenn Research Center, though he is not accused of taking technology or related materials from the research center.
According to count one of the information, between March 2000 and November 2005, Kue Sang Chun knowingly exported and caused the export from the United States to the Republic of Korea (South Korea) of Infra Red Focal Plane Array detectors and Infra Red camera engines which were designated as defense articles on the U.S. Munitions List. The information charges that Chun did so without first obtaining an export license or written authorization for such export from the U.S. Department of State.
Count two charges Chun with knowingly making and subscribing a false U.S. individual income tax return for the year 2005, which failed to report approximately $83,399.08 of taxable income he earned during said tax year.
“This defendant is charged with violating important regulations designed to protect national security,” said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. “He did it for money and, according to the charges, he intentionally failed to pay taxes on the money he made from his crimes.”
“ The FBI and the Department of Justice are committed to the protection of U.S. defense technology, particularly that which is governed by the International Trafficking in Arms Regulations. As such, the FBI will continue to pursue all investigative leads in this matter, and is committed to the continued investigation of any and all persons or entities who may be involved in such criminal activities and those activities with national security implications,” said Steven Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Cleveland Field Office.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert W. Kern and Justin E. Herdman of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio, following an investigation by the Cleveland Offices of the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations.
An information is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Former Leader of MS-13 Gang in San Francisco Pleads Guiltyto Racketeering ChargesRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON — A former leader of La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, pleaded guilty today in federal court in San Francisco to racketeering (RICO) conspiracy, conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering, and the use or possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag for the Northern District of California.
Ivan Cerna, aka “Tigre,” 34, admitted that since at least the late 1990s, he was a member of MS-13 in the San Francisco Bay area. Cerna admitted that he agreed with other MS-13 members that the gang would engage in acts involving murder, including the murder of rival gang members and others who defied or betrayed MS-13, such as individuals who cooperated with law enforcement against the gang. In 2004, following the murder of the then-leader of MS-13’s San Francisco clique, Cerna assumed the leadership of MS-13 in San Francisco and held this position until roughly 2006. As the leader, according to court documents, Cerna exhorted members of the gang to defend their turf by attacking rival gang members as well as to avenge attacks by rival gang members committed on members of MS-13. Cerna also possessed guns and directed others to arm themselves with guns in order to further the activities of MS-13.
In addition, two MS-13 members pleaded guilty on Jan. 7, 2011, to similar charges. Aristides Carcamo, aka “Indio,” 32, pleaded guilty to RICO conspiracy, conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, and conspiracy to commit robbery affecting interstate commerce. Carcamo admitted that he had been a member of MS-13 since roughly 2004 and that he agreed with other MS-13 members to commit crimes to further the goals of the gang, including acts involving murder, narcotics trafficking, robbery affecting interstate commerce and extortion. Carcamo also admitted that he possessed firearms related to and in furtherance of his membership in MS-13. Carcamo also admitted that between Oct. 10, 2008, and Oct. 22, 2008, he agreed with others, including another MS-13 member, to rob a jewelry merchant.
In addition, Jose Quinteros, aka “Fantasma,” 25, pleaded guilty to RICO conspiracy and conspiracy to commit assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering, also arising from his involvement in MS-13.
The maximum prison term for the RICO conspiracy charge is life for Cerna and Carcamo, and 20 years for Quinteros. RICO conspiracy also carries a maximum fine of $250,000. The maximum penalties for the conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering are 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, while the maximum penalties for the conspiracy to commit assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering are three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence charge carries a mandatory minimum prison term of five years and a maximum term of life in prison, as well as a fine of up to $250,000. The robbery conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing for Cerna is scheduled for March 29, 2011. Carcamo is scheduled to be sentenced on March 22, 2011, and Quinteros is scheduled to be sentenced on April 5, 2011.
These guilty pleas are the most recent in a series of pleas by members of MS-13, a transnational gang, to racketeering charges arising out of a multi-year investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations, called “Operation Devil Horns,” which targeted MS-13 gang members in the San Francisco Bay area. Cerna, Carcamo and Quinteros were previously indicted along with 26 other individuals as part of Operation Devil Horns. Since the original charges against MS-13 were unsealed on Oct. 22, 2008, three superseding indictments have been returned charging additional defendants as well as additional crimes. Thirteen defendants are still awaiting trial, which is currently scheduled to begin on March 7, 2011.
An indictment contains merely allegations and the remaining defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys W.S. Wilson Leung, Wil Frentzen and Christine Y. Wong, and Trial Attorney Theryn G. Gibbons of the Criminal Division’s Gang Unit. The case was investigated by ICE Homeland Security Investigations.
Federal Court Permanently Bars Florida Woman from Preparing Federal Tax Returns for OthersRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – A federal court has permanently barred Dianelys Armengol Guevara of Pembroke Pines, Fla., from preparing federal income tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. The permanent injunction order, to which Guevara consented, was entered by Judge Cecilia Altonaga of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Fort Lauderdale.
The government complaint in the case alleges that Guevara has prepared returns that falsely claim tax credits and deductions, including the first-time-homebuyer credit, for her customers. According to the complaint, Guevara improperly claimed over $950,000 in homebuyer credits, misrepresented the requirements for the credit to her customers, failed to disclose to her customers that a person must actually purchase a home in order to claim the credit, and claimed the credit without her customers’ knowledge or against their wishes.
The government’s suit also claims that Guevara failed to identify herself properly as the paid tax return preparer on many of the returns. She allegedly used a fictitious Social Security number to identify herself on hundreds of returns she prepared.
In the past 10 years the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained hundreds of injunctions to stop the promotion of tax-fraud schemes and the preparation of fraudulent returns. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website.
Ex Líder de la Pandilla MS-13 en San Francisco se Declara Culpable de Cargos de Asociación IlícitaRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON - Un ex líder de La Mara Salvatrucha, o MS-13, se declaró culpable hoy en el tribunal federal en San Francisco de conspiración para formar una asociación ilícita, contra la Ley de Organizaciones Corruptas e Influenciadas por la Delincuencia Organizada [The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO)], conspiración para cometer homicidio en apoyo a la asociación ilícita, y uso o posesión de arma de fuego para cometer un delito violento, anunciaron el Secretario de Justicia Auxiliar Lanny A. Breuer de la División de lo Penal y la Fiscal Federal Melinda Haag para el Distrito Norte de California.
Ivan Cerna, alias "Tigre," 34, admitió que, desde al menos fines de la década de 1990, fue miembro de la MS-13 en el área de la Bahía de San Francisco. Cerna admitió que acordó con otros miembros de la MS-13 que la pandilla realizaría actos de homicidio, incluido el homicidio de miembros de pandillas rivales y otros que desafiaron o traicionaron a la MS-13, tales como personas que cooperaron con las fuerzas del orden público contra la pandilla. En 2004, después del asesinato del entonces líder de la división de San Francisco de la MS-13, Cerna asumió el liderazgo de la MS-13 en San Francisco y mantuvo su cargo hasta alrededor de 2006. Como líder, de acuerdo con el expediente judicial, Cerna exhortó a miembros de la pandilla que defendieran su jurisdicción atacando a miembros de pandillas rivales, así como que se vengaran de ataques realizados por miembros de pandillas rivales contra miembros de la MS-13. Cerna también poseía armas de fuego e instruyó a otros que se armaran con armas de fuego a fin de promover las actividades de la MS-13.
Además, dos miembros de la MS-13 se declararon culpables el 7 de enero de 2011 a cargos similares. Aristides Carcamo, alias "Indio," 32, se declaró culpable de conspiración contra la RICO, conspiración para cometer homicidio para promover la asociación ilícita, posesión de arma de fuego para promover un delito violento y conspiración para cometer robo que afecta el comercio interestatal. Carcamo admitió que había sido miembro de la MS-13 desde alrededor de 2004 y acordó con otros miembros de la MS-13 cometer delitos para promover los objetivos de la pandilla, incluidos actos asociados a homicidio, narcotráfico, robo que afecta el comercio interestatal y extorsión. Carcamo también admitió que poseía armas de fuego asociadas a y para promover su membresía en la MS-13. Carcamo también admitió que entre el 10 de octubre de 2008 y el 22 de octubre de 2008, acordó con otros, incluido otro miembro de la MS-13, robar a un joyero.
Además, José Quinteros, alias "Fantasma", 25, se declaró culpable de conspiración contra la RICO y conspiración para cometer agresión con un arma peligrosa para promover la delincuencia organizada, también a partir de su participación en la MS-13.
La sentencia máxima de prisión por el cargo de conspiración contra la RICO es prisión perpetua para Cerna y Carcamo y 20 años para Quinteros. La conspiración contra la RICO también conlleva una multa màxima de 250,000 dólares. Las penas máximas para la conspiración para cometer homicidio para promover la delincuencia organizada son 10 años en prisión y una multa de 250,000 dòlares, mientras que las penas máximas para la conspiración para cometer agresión con un arma peligrosa para promover la delincuencia organizada es tres años en prisión y una multa de 250,000 dólares. La posesión de un arma de fuego para promover un cargo de delito violento conlleva una sentencia mínima obligatoria en prisión de cinco años y una sentencia máxima de prisión perpetua, así como una multa de hasta 250,000 dólares. La conspiración para cometer robo conlleva una pena máxima de 20 años en prisión y una multa de 250,000 dólares. La lectura de la sentencia de Cerna está programada para el 29 de marzo de 2011. La de Carcamo está programada para el 22 de marzo de 2011, y la de Quinteros para el 5 de abril de 2011.
Estas declaraciones de culpabilidad son las más recientes en una serie de declaraciones de culpabilidad realizadas por miembros de la MS-13, una pandilla transnacional, de cargos de asociación ilícita que surgieron de una investigación de varios años de duración realizada por Investigaciones de Seguridad Nacional del Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas de EE.UU. [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)] denominada "Operación cuernos del diablo", contra los miembros de la pandilla MS-13 en el área de la Bahía de San Francisco. Cerna, Carcamo y Quinteros fueron acusados formalmente con anterioridad junto con otros 26 individuos como parte de la Operación Cuernos del diablo. Desde que se revelaron los cargos originales contra la MS-13 el 22 de octubre de 2008, se han emitido tres acusaciones formales sobrevivientes acusando a demandados adicionales, así como por delitos adicionales. Trece demandados aun aguardan su enjuiciamiento, con inicio actualmente programado para el 7 de marzo de 2011.
Una acusación formal contiene meros alegatos y se supone que los demás demandados son inocentes hasta y si se prueba lo contrario.
Están a cargo de la acusación en el caso los Fiscales Federales Auxiliares W.S. Wilson Leung, Wil Frentzen y Christine Y. Wong, y el Abogado Litigante Theryn G. Gibbons de la Unidad de Pandillas de la División de lo Penal. El caso fue investigado por Investigaciones de Seguridad Nacional del ICE.
El Tribunal Federal Prohíbe en Forma Permanente a Mujer de Florida Preparar Declaraciones de Impuestos Federales para TercerosRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON -- Un tribunal federal ha prohibido en forma permanente a Dianelys Armengol Guevara of Pembroke Pines, Fla.,preparar declaraciones de impuestos a la renta federales para terceros, anunció hoy el Departamento de Justicia. La orden de interdicto permanente, a la que consintió Guevara, fue emitida por la Jueza Cecilia Altonaga del Tribunal Federal de Distrito para el Distrito Sur de Florida en Fort Lauderdale.
La demanda del gobierno en el caso alega que Guevara preparó declaraciones que reclaman falsamente créditos y deducciones tributarios, incluido el crédito de comprador de primera vivienda, para sus clientes. De acuerdo con la demanda, Guevara reclamó indebidamente más de 950,000 dólares en créditos para comprador de vivienda, realizó declaraciones falsas a sus clientes acerca de las exigencias para el crédito, dejó de informar a sus clientes que una persona debe efectivamente comprar una vivienda a fin de reclamar el crédito, y reclamó el crédito sin el conocimiento de sus clientes o contra sus deseos.
La demanda presentada por el gobierno también alega que Guevara dejó de identificarse debidamente como la preparadora de declaración de impuestos remunerada en muchas declaraciones. Se alega que utilizó un número de Seguro Social ficticio para identificarse en centenas de declaraciones que preparó.
En los últimos diez años, la División de Impuestos del Departamento de Justicia ha obtenido centenas de interdictos para detener la promoción de ardides de fraude tributario y la preparación de declaraciones fraudulentas. Se puede encontrar información sobre estos casos en el portal del Departamento de Justicia.
Sunday 9 January 2011
Federal Complaint Filed Against Jared Lee LoughnerRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON The United States Attorney for the District of Arizona, Dennis K. Burke, announced today that his office filed a federal complaint against Jared Lee Loughner. The complaint was signed by Magistrate Judge Michelle Burns in Phoenix.
Loughner is suspected of shooting U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Chief Judge John Roll, Giffords' staff member Gabriel Zimmerman and approximately 16 others Saturday in Tucson, Ariz.
The federal complaint alleges five counts against Loughner:
COUNT 1
On or about Jan. 8, 2011, at or near Tucson, in the District of Arizona, the defendant, Jared Lee Loughner, did attempt to kill Gabrielle Giffords, a Member of Congress; in violation of Title 18, United States Code Section 351(c).
COUNT 2
On or about Jan. 8, 2011, at or near Tucson, in the District of Arizona, the defendant, Jared Lee Loughner, did unlawfully kill Gabriel Zimmerman, an employee of the United States who was engaged in performance of official duties and who was assisting Member of Congress Gabrielle Giffords while she was engaged in performance of official duties; in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1114 and 1111.
COUNT 3
On or about Jan. 8, 2011, at or near Tucson, in the District of Arizona, the defendant, Jared Lee Loughner, did unlawfully kill John M. Roll, a U. S. District Court Judge for the District of Arizona, an employee of the United States who was engaged in performance of official duties; in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1114 and 1111.
COUNT 4
On or about Jan. 8, 2011, at or near Tucson, in the District of Arizona, the defendant, Jared Lee Loughner, did, with intent to kill, attempt to kill Pamela Simon, an employee of the United States who was engaged in performance of official duties and who was assisting Member of Congress Gabrielle Giffords while she was engaged in performance of official duties; in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1114 and 1113.
COUNT 5
On or about Jan. 8, 2011, at or near Tucson, in the District of Arizona, the defendant, Jared Lee Loughner, did, with intent to kill, attempt to kill Ron Barber, an employee of the United States who was engaged in performance of official duties and who was assisting Member of Congress Gabrielle Giffords while she was engaged in performance of official duties; in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1114 and 1113.
Loughner will make an initial appearance on the complaint at 2 p.m. Mountain time Monday, Jan. 10, 2011, in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Lawrence Anderson at the Sandra Day O’Connor Courthouse in Phoenix in courtroom 302. He is entitled to a preliminary hearing and a detention hearing. The court will set a date for both hearings. Loughner remains in federal custody.
The Rules of Criminal Procedure require that a grand jury review the evidence and issue an indictment within 30 days of the defendant's initial appearance.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Arizona is in the process of drafting an indictment against Loughner for presentation to the grand jury.
Friday 7 January 2011
Ludlow Falls, Ohio, Builder Sentenced to 16 Months in Prison for Filing False Federal Tax ReturnRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Roy W. Bradford was sentenced today in federal district court in Dayton, Ohio, for willfully filing a false federal income tax return for 2004, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. U.S. Judge Thomas M. Rose sentenced Bradford to 16 months in prison and ordered him to pay $379,852 in restitution to the IRS.
On Sep. 22, 2010, Bradford pleaded guilty to willfully filing a false tax return for 2004. According to court documents, Bradford owned and operated Bradford Builders out of his residence in Ludlow Falls, Ohio. Bradford Builders built wooden frames for residential construction.
For the 2003 and 2004 tax years, Bradford filed false Forms 1099 that deliberately inflated the amounts that he paid to his independent contractor crew chiefs. Bradford then used these false amounts from the Forms 1099 to inflate the deductions for labor costs on his 2003 and 2004 individual income tax returns. Bradford also improperly deducted as business expenses many of the costs incurred in constructing his personal residence. Bradford also understated his business income by not reporting money he received for work performed for certain clients.
In addition to falsifying his own tax information, Bradford used false tax ID numbers on the Forms 1099 that he issued to workers who did contract work for him. He also provided false information to an IRS agent during the course of an audit and to another IRS agent conducting the criminal investigation. Bradford admitted that he caused a tax loss of $379,852.
“Those who don’t obey the nation’s tax laws and pay their fair share face potentially serious consequences, including time in prison,” said John DiCicco, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division. “As the familiar April tax deadline approaches, the Justice Department is making every effort to ensure that those who willfully evade their taxes are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
“Tax violations have been erroneously referred to as victimless crimes, but it's the honest law abiding citizen who is harmed when someone tries to manipulate our nation's tax system." said Victor S. O. Song, Chief, IRS Criminal Investigation Division. "Wrongdoers will be held accountable for such actions, and today's sentencing is a costly reminder."
The case was investigated by IRS - Criminal Investigation and prosecuted by Tax Division Trial Attorneys Jorge Almonte and Jeffrey B. Bender.
Additional information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division and its enforcement efforts is available at www.usdoj.gov/tax .
Lobbyist Sentenced to 27 Months in Prison for Role in Illegal Campaign Contribution SchemeRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Paul Magliocchetti, the founder and president of PMA Group Inc., a lobbying firm, was sentenced today to 27 months in prison for making hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions and making false statements to a federal agency, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride of the Eastern District of Virginia; and James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.
U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III also sentenced Magliocchetti to two years of supervised release and ordered him to pay a $75,000 fine. Magliocchetti pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., on Sept. 24, 2010, to one count each of making false statements, making illegal conduit contributions and making illegal corporate contributions.
“Paul Magliocchetti spent half of a decade gaming the system. He concocted a massive scheme to secretly funnel money to political campaigns – all so that he could gain wealth and prestige,” said Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division. “As today’s sentence makes clear, he must now pay a price. We will continue to bring to justice those who hide the source of campaign funds and thus damage the integrity of our election process.”
“Mr. Magliocchetti carried out one of the largest federal campaign finance frauds in history,” said U.S. Attorney MacBride. “He learned that no one – despite wealth and influence – is above the law. Today’s sentence should put anyone on notice that if you seek to buy the influence of elected public officials through skirting the campaign finance laws you’ll not merely be exposed publicly but you’ll go to prison for a long time.”
“Enhancing one’s professional reputation by using colleagues, friends and even family to make illegal campaign contributions is dishonest; and Mr. Magliocchetti knew that his actions were against the law,” said James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office. “I am proud of the team of agents from the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and FBI who worked on behalf of all Americans to investigate this blatant abuse of prestige and money. The public needs to trust that elections will not be influenced in this manner.”
He was charged in an indictment unsealed on Aug. 5, 2010. According to the indictment, Magliocchetti orchestrated a scheme to make illegal conduit and corporate federal campaign contributions in an effort to enrich himself and PMA by increasing the firm’s influence, power and prestige among the firm’s current and potential clients as well as among the elected public officials to whom PMA and its lobbyists sought access. The federal campaigns that received these funds were unaware of Magliocchetti’s scheme.
Magliocchetti admitted that, from 2003 through 2008, he used members of his family, friends and PMA lobbyists to make unlawful campaign contributions. Aware of the strict limits on individual federal campaign contributions – and the outright ban on corporate contributions – Magliocchetti admitted that he instructed the conduits to write checks out of their personal checking accounts to specific candidates for federal office and that, for the purpose of making these contributions, Magliocchetti advanced funds to or reimbursed these individuals using personal and corporate monies. Magliocchetti also admitted that, through this scheme, he caused various federal campaign committees to unknowingly create and file false reports with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) regarding the contributions they had received. These reports, which the FEC made available to the public, falsely stated that the conduits had made contributions, when in fact the contributions were made by Magliocchetti or PMA.
In connection with this investigation, Mark Magliocchetti pleaded guilty on Aug. 5, 2010, before U.S. Magistrate Judge T. Rawles Jones Jr., in U.S. District Court in Alexandria to making illegal corporate campaign contributions. According to court documents, Mark Magliocchetti admitted to receiving payments from an individual and a company with the understanding that those monies were to be used for federal campaign contributions. According to court documents, the amount of contributions made by Mark Magliocchetti and his wife, and funded by the individual and the company, exceeded $120,000 but was less than $200,000. Mark Magliocchetti was sentenced to 14 days in prison plus five and a half months of home confinement.
This case was prosecuted by Deputy Chief Justin V. Shur and Trial Attorneys M. Kendall Day and Kevin O. Driscoll of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section, and by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark D. Lytle of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. The case was investigated by the FBI and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service.
Former U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Sentenced to 90 Months in Prison for Bribery in Afghanistan Fuel Theft SchemeRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON A former U.S. Army staff sergeant was sentenced today to 90 months in prison in connection with a fuel theft scheme to solicit more than $400,000 in bribes from a government contractor in Afghanistan, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride of the Eastern District of Virginia and James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.
Stevan Nathan Ringo, 26, of Marrero, La., was also ordered by U.S. District Judge T. S. Ellis III to forfeit the proceeds of the scheme, which included $408,495 and other property. In addition, Judge Ellis sentenced Ringo to serve three years of supervised release following his release from prison. Judge Ellis deferred until a later date his decision on the amount of restitution the defendant will be ordered to pay. Ringo pleaded guilty on Sept. 24, 2010, to one count of bribery.
According to court documents, Ringo was stationed at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Shank, a U.S. Army installation in the Logar Province of Eastern Afghanistan. FOB Shank supports U.S. military operations in Afghanistan in various ways, including through fuel receipt and redistribution. More specifically, the Army stores large quantities of fuel at FOB Shank and redistributes that fuel to installations in the surrounding area through government contractors. Ringo’s responsibilities at FOB Shank included supervision of that fuel redistribution process.
In his guilty plea, Ringo admitted that between December 2009 and February 2010, he accepted more than $400,000 in cash payments from a government contractor in exchange for creating and submitting fraudulent paperwork permitting that contractor to steal fuel from FOB Shank. The total value of the fuel stolen in the course of the scheme was nearly $1.5 million.
The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Ryan S. Faulconer of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Edmund P. Power for the Eastern District of Virginia. Substantial assistance was provided by the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs. The case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigative Division, other military law enforcement at FOB Shank, and members of the former National Procurement Fraud Task Force (NPFTF) and the International Contract Corruption Task Force (ICCTF).
The NPFTF, created in October 2006 by the Department of Justice, was designed to promote the early detection, identification, prevention and prosecution of procurement fraud. In November 2010, the NPFTF membership became a part of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, an interagency task force established to wage an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The ICCTF is a joint law enforcement agency task force that seeks to detect, investigate, and dismantle corruption and contract fraud resulting from U.S. Overseas Contingency Operations worldwide, including in Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Thursday 6 January 2011
Wife of Convicted Felon Thomas Parenteau Sentenced in Ohio to 33 Months in Prison for Money Laundering ConspiracyRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON - Marsha Parenteau of Dublin, Ohio, has been sentenced for conspiring to commit money laundering, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. U.S. District Court Judge Michael H. Watson on Wednesday sentenced Parenteau to serve 33 months in prison. In addition to the prison term, Judge Watson ordered Parenteau to serve a three year term of supervised release after her prison term, and to pay restitution.
The court also ordered Parenteau to forfeit to the U.S. government a vacant lot in the Wedgewood golf community in Dublin, which was purchased with some of the illegally obtained funds. The court furthered ordered the government to seize Parenteau’s personal belongings maintained at two storage garages and the home of a friend, and sell the belongings at auction to pay towards the restitution judgment.
Pamela McCarty of Columbus, Ohio, one of Marsha Parenteau’s co-conspirators, was sentenced today for conspiring to commit tax fraud, money laundering and bank fraud. U.S. District Court Judge Michael H. Watson sentenced McCarty to 24 months in prison.
According to court testimony and documents, Marsha Parenteau was the wife of convicted Columbus-area home builder, Thomas Parenteau. Marsha Parenteau conspired with her husband, his accountant Dennis Sartain, McCarty and others to launder unlawful proceeds generated from nearly $19 million in fraudulently obtained loans against a personal residence.
Marsha Parenteau was called as a witness by her husband at his trial in July 2010, in which Thomas Parenteau was convicted of conspiracy to commit tax fraud, money laundering, bank fraud, obstruction of justice and other felony charges. The sentencing for Mr. Parenteau is not yet scheduled.
According to court testimony and documents, McCarty was a real estate agent, whom witnesses during court proceedings described as Thomas Parenteau’s mistress. McCarty previously pleaded guilty to conspiring with other individuals at Your Home Source, real estate brokerage company, to defraud the United States by impairing and impeding the IRS by falsely understating amounts paid to workers. McCarty also admitted conspiring with Thomas Parenteau, Marsha Parenteau, Sartain and others to launder unlawful proceeds generated from more than $6 million in fraudulently obtained loans against a personal residence. McCarty further admitted to conspiring with Sartain and others to commit bank fraud by helping a Your Home Source employee fraudulently obtain a mortgage to buy a home from McCarty, which she held in trust for Thomas Parenteau, at an inflated price with an undisclosed kickback.
McCarty participated pro-actively with the government in the investigation of the Parenteaus and Sartain by wearing a recording device and taping conversations with her co-conspirators.
John A. DiCicco, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division, commended the IRS Criminal Investigation special agents who investigated the case, as well as Tax Division trial attorneys Richard Rolwing and Sean O’Connell, who prosecuted the case.
More information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division and its enforcement efforts is available at
www.usdoj.gov/tax>Persona Se Declara Culpable de Defraudar al Programa del Servicio de Transmisión de Videos de la FCCRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON - Marc Velasquez se declaró culpable hoy de participar en una conspiración para defraudar al programa del Servicio de Transmisión de Videos [Video Relay Service (VRS)] de la Comisión Federal de Comunicaciones [Federal Communications Commission (FCC)], anunciaron el Secretario de Justicia Auxiliar Lanny A. Breuer de la División de lo Penal y James W. McJunkin, Director Auxiliar a Cargo de la Oficina Local de Washington del Buró Federal de Investigaciones [Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)].
Velasquez se declaró culpable ante el Juez Federal de Distrito Joel A. Pisano en Trenton, N.J., de un cargo de conspiración para cometer fraude telegráfico. Velasquez fue acusado formalmente el 18 de noviembre de 2009, junto con otros que se alega que participaron en la conspiración delictiva. Los demandados también alegaron haber causado que la FCC pagara millones de dólares en reembolsos fraudulentos.
Al declararse culpable, Velasquez admitió que, a partir de aproximadamente octubre de 2008, conspiró con terceros para pagar a personas para que realizasen llamadas telefónicas de VRS fraudulentas utilizando el servicio de VRS de una compañía. A su vez, se le pagó a Velasquez al menos el 20 por ciento de cada dólar de llamadas reembolsadas fraudulentas pagadas por la FCC.
De acuerdo con la acusación formal, el VRS es un servicio de traducción en línea vía video que permite que personas con discapacidades auditivas se comuniquen con personas oyentes a través del uso de intérpretes y cámaras web. Una persona con una discapacidad auditiva que desee comunicarse con una persona oyente puede hacerlo comunicándose con un proveedor de VRS a través de una conexión de audio y video vía Internet. El proveedor de VRS, a su vez, emplea un intérprete por video para visualizar e interpretar la conversación en lenguaje de señas de la persona con discapacidad auditiva y transmitir la conversación oralmente a una persona oyente. El VRS es financiado por cargos cobrados por proveedores de telecomunicaciones a clientes de servicios telefónicos, y se provee sin costo al usuario de VRS.
En oportunidad de la emisión de la sentencia el 6 de junio de 2011, Velasquez enfrenta una sentencia máxima de 20 años en prisión, una multa de 250,000 dólares, así como restitución obligatoria y confiscación obligatorias.
Están a cargo de la acusación en estos casos el Jefe Adjunto Hank Bond Walther y los Abogados Litigantes Brigham Cannon y Robert Zink de la Sección de Fraude de la División de lo Penal, con la asistencia en la investigación de la Oficina Local de Washington del FBI, el Servicio de Inspección Postal y la Oficina del Inspector General de la FCC.
New Orleans Doctor and Owner of Medical Equipment Company Sentenced to Prison for Their Roles in Baton Rouge-area Medicare Fraud SchemeRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – A New Orleans-area medical doctor and the owner and operator of a medical equipment company were sentenced today to 48 and 30 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in a Baton Rouge-area durable medical equipment (DME) health care fraud scheme, the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services (HHS) announced.
Medical doctor Dahlia V. Kirkpatrick and Emmanuel M. Komandu, the owner and operator of the medical equipment company, each pleaded guilty on Oct. 4, 2010, before U.S. District Judge Brian A. Jackson in the Middle District of Louisiana, to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
In addition to their prison terms, Judge Jackson sentenced Kirkpatrick and Komandu each to three years of supervised release. Kirkpatrick and Komandu also were ordered to pay $302,811 in restitution jointly and severally with each other. The restitution is to be paid to the victim in this case, HHS’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
According to plea documents, Kirkpatrick began working with Komandu in approximately January 2005. Komandu was the owner and operator of Alpha Medical Solutions Inc., a purported DME supplier based in Baker, La. Alpha purportedly specialized in the provision of power wheelchairs, wheelchair accessories and feeding nutrients to Medicare beneficiaries.
According to court documents, from approximately January 2005 through February 2010, Komandu and Kirkpatrick submitted and caused the submission, on behalf of Alpha, of approximately $775,019 in fraudulent claims to the Medicare program. The majority of Alpha’s fraudulent claims were based on prescriptions for medically unnecessary DME that were written and provided by Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick wrote prescriptions for medically unnecessary DME, such as power wheelchairs, wheelchair accessories and feeding nutrients. Medicare paid $302,811 to Alpha based on these fraudulent claims.
Today’s sentences were announced by Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Donald J. Cazayoux for the Middle District of Louisiana, FBI Special Agent in Charge David W. Welker and HHS Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) Special Agent in Charge Mike Fields.
This case was prosecuted by Trial Attorneys O. Benton Curtis III and Sarah M. Hall of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. The case was investigated by the FBI, HHS-OIG and the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office. The case 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 Middle District of Louisiana.
Since their inception in March 2007, Strike Force operations in seven districts nationwide 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
Individual Pleads Guilty to Defrauding FCC Video Relay Service ProgramRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Marc Velasquez pleaded guilty today to engaging 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.
Velasquez pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano in Trenton, N.J., to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Velasquez was indicted on Nov. 18, 2009, along with others alleged to have been involved in the criminal conspiracy. The defendants are alleged to have caused the FCC to pay millions of dollars in fraudulent reimbursements.
In pleading guilty, Velasquez admitted that, beginning in approximately October 2008, he conspired with others to pay individuals to make fraudulent VRS phone calls using a company’s VRS service. In return, Velasquez was paid at least 20 percent of every dollar of fraudulent reimbursed calls paid out 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 to telephone customers, and is provided at no cost to the VRS user.
At sentencing on June 6, 2011, Velasquez faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a fine of $250,000, and mandatory restitution and forfeiture.
These cases are being prosecuted by Deputy Chief Hank Bond Walther and Trial Attorneys Brigham Cannon and Robert Zink of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, with the investigative assistance of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the FCC Office of Inspector General.
Former CIA Officer Arrested for Alleged Unauthorized Disclosure of National Defense Information and Obstruction of JusticeRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – A former CIA officer was arrested today on charges that he illegally disclosed national defense information and obstructed justice, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Jeffrey Alexander Sterling, 43, of O’Fallon, Mo., was charged in a 10-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia on Dec. 22, 2010, and unsealed today. The indictment charges Sterling with six counts of unauthorized disclosure of national defense information, and one count each of unlawful retention of national defense information, mail fraud, unauthorized conveyance of government property and obstruction of justice. Sterling was arrested today in St. Louis and is expected to make his initial appearance this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Terry I. Adelman in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
According to the indictment, Sterling was employed by the CIA from May 1993 to January 2002. From November 1998 through May 2000, he was assigned to a classified clandestine operational program designed to conduct intelligence activities related to the weapons capabilities of certain countries, including Country A. During that same time frame, he was also the operations officer assigned to handle a human asset associated with that program. According to the indictment, Sterling was reassigned in May 2000, at which time he was no longer authorized to receive or possess classified documents concerning the program or the individual.
In connection with his employment, the indictment alleges that Sterling, who is a lawyer, signed various security, secrecy and non-disclosure agreements in which he agreed never to disclose classified information to unauthorized persons, acknowledged that classified information was the property of the CIA, and also acknowledged that the unauthorized disclosure of classified information could constitute a criminal offense. According to the indictment, these agreements also set forth the proper procedures to follow if Sterling had concerns that the CIA had engaged in any "unlawful or improper" conduct that implicated classified information. These procedures permit such concerns to be addressed while still protecting the classified nature of the information. The media, according to the indictment, was not an authorized party to receive such classified information under such circumstances.
The indictment alleges that Sterling, in retaliation for the CIA’s refusal to settle on terms favorable to him in the civil and administrative claims he was pursuing against the CIA, engaged in a scheme to disclose information concerning the classified operational program and the human asset – first, in connection with a possible newspaper story to be written by an author employed by a national newspaper in early 2003 and, later, in connection with a book published by the author in January 2006.
"The indictment unsealed today alleges that Jeffrey Sterling violated his oath to protect classified information and then obstructed an investigation into his actions. Through his alleged actions, Sterling placed at risk our national security and the life of an individual working on a classified mission," said Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer. "Those who violate the law, and the trust placed in them by the U.S. government to keep our national security information secure, must be held accountable."
"Our national security requires that sensitive information be protected," said U.S. Attorney MacBride. "The law does not allow one person to unilaterally decide to disclose that information to someone not cleared to receive it. Those who handle classified information know the law and must be held accountable when they break it."
The indictment alleges that Sterling took a number of steps to facilitate the disclosure of the classified information, including:
- stealing classified documents and other information from the CIA and unlawfully retaining those documents without the authority of the CIA;
- communicating by telephone, via e-mail and in person with the author in order to arrange for the disclosure of or to disclose classified information to the author;
- meeting with the author in person to orally disclose classified information to the author and to provide documents containing classified information to the author for review or use;
- characterizing the classified information in a false and misleading manner as a means of inducing the author to write and publish a story premised on that false and misleading information;
- deceiving and attempting to deceive the CIA into believing that he was a former employee adhering to his secrecy and non-disclosure agreements; and
- deliberately choosing to disclose the classified information to a member of the media, knowing that such an individual would not reveal his identity, thereby concealing and perpetrating the scheme.
Specifically, the indictment alleges that beginning in August 2000, Sterling pursued various administrative and civil actions against the CIA concerning alleged employment-related racial discrimination and decisions made by the CIA’s Publications Review Board regarding Sterling’s efforts to publish his memoirs. According to the indictment, on Feb. 12, 2003, the CIA rejected Sterling’s third offer to settle his discrimination lawsuit, which was ultimately dismissed by the court.
The indictment alleges that beginning a few weeks later, in February and March 2003, Sterling made various telephone calls to the author’s residence, and e-mailed the author a newspaper article about the weapons capabilities of Country A. According to the indictment, while the possible newspaper article containing the classified information Sterling allegedly provided ultimately was not published in 2003, Sterling and the author remained in touch from December 2003 through November 2005 via telephone and e-mail. The indictment alleges that in January 2006, the author published a book which contained classified information about the program and the human asset.
The indictment also alleges that Sterling obstructed justice when, between April and July 2006, he deleted the e-mail he had sent to the author concerning the weapons capabilities of Country A from his account. According to the indictment, Sterling was aware by June 2003 of an FBI investigation into his disclosure of national defense information, and was aware of a grand jury investigation into the matter by June 2006, when he was served a grand jury subpoena for documents relating to the author’s book.
The charges of unauthorized disclosure and retention of national defense information each carry maximum penalties of 10 years in prison. The charge of mail fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. The charge of unauthorized conveyance of government property carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. The charge of obstruction of justice carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Each of these charges also carries a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the loss or gain associated with the offense.
An indictment is merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.
This case is being prosecuted by Senior Litigation Counsel William M. Welch II of the Criminal Division, Trial Attorney Timothy J. Kelly of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Senior Litigation Counsel James L. Trump of the Eastern District of Virginia. The case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, with assistance in the arrest from the FBI’s St. Louis Field Office.
City of Evansville, Indiana, Agrees to Upgrade Sewer Systemsto Comply with Clean Water ActRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON—The city of Evansville, Ind., has agreed to make extensive improvements to its sewer systems that will significantly reduce the city’s longstanding sewage overflows into the Ohio River in a comprehensive Clean Water Act settlement with federal and state governments, the Justice Department, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the state of Indiana announced today. The agreement would resolve allegations made in a lawsuit filed by the United States and Indiana in September 2009 against Evansville for alleged violations of its Clean Water Act discharge permits.
Evansville’s sewer system has a history of maintenance and system capacity problems that result in it being overwhelmed by rainfall, causing it to discharge untreated sewage combined with storm water into the Ohio River. Under this settlement, the city will improve operation and maintenance, as well as develop and implement a comprehensive plan to increase capacity of its sewer system to minimize, and in many cases, eliminate those overflows. Costs may exceed $500 million. The plan must be fully implemented by calendar year 2032 or 2037, depending on Evansville’s financial health. Additional measures to improve the capacity, management, operation, and maintenance of its separate sanitary sewer system to eliminate overflows of untreated sewage will begin immediately.
In addition, the city will take immediate steps to upgrade the treatment capacity of its two wastewater treatment plants. In total, the measures undertaken by the city of Evansville and required by today’s settlement will help eliminate over four million pounds of pollutants and hundreds of millions of gallons of untreated overflows discharged into the Ohio River and Pigeon Creek every year.
"Evansville’s inadequate and aging sanitation infrastructure allows potentially harmful sewage and storm water overflows into the Ohio River," said Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice. "As a result of this settlement, Evansville will implement significant measures to achieve the requirements of the Clean Water Act. Like other settlements we have reached in municipalities across the country with outdated sewer systems, this settlement will protect public health and improve the water quality for the local community."
"By reducing the volume of sewage and polluted runoff entering the Ohio River, this settlement will improve water quality and protect the health of people that use the river," said EPA Regional Administrator Susan Hedman. "The comprehensive plan will improve the performance and sustainability of Evansville’s sewer system and significantly reduce basement backups and overflows."
In addition to improving its sewer system, Evansville has agreed to pay the U.S. a civil penalty of $420,000 and the state of Indiana a civil penalty of $70,000. Evansville will also implement an environmental project that will connect homes with failing septic systems to the city’s sewer system at a cost of more than $4 million. Failing septic systems often contribute significant pollutants that can impair local water quality.
Evansville is located in Vanderburgh County on the north bank of the Ohio River in southwest Indiana. Evansville’s sewer system serves a population of approximately 163,000. Thirty-nine percent of Evansville’s total sewered area is served by combined sewers while 61 percent is served by separate sanitary sewers. The combined sewers are located in the older, downtown portion of Evansville and lack sufficient capacity to transport all of the combined sewage that it receives to Evansville’s two wastewater treatment plants during rainfall. As a result, Evansville commonly discharges the combination of sewage and storm water through one or more of its 22 combined sewer overflow outfalls on the Ohio River and Pigeon Creek.
In the past, the U.S. has reached similar agreements with numerous municipal entities across the country including Jeffersonville, Ind.; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Indianapolis; Nashville, Tenn.; Mobile, Ala.; Jefferson County (Birmingham), Ala.; Atlanta; Knoxville, Tenn.; Miami; New Orleans; Toledo, Ohio; Hamilton County (Cincinnati), Ohio; Baltimore; Los Angeles; Louisville, Ky.; and northern Kentucky’s No. 1 Sanitation District.
Once the consent decree is lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, it will be subject to a 30-day public comment period and approval by the federal court. A copy of the consent decree will be available on the Justice Department website at www.usdoj.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html
Wednesday 5 January 2011
U.S. Army Contractor Charged with Assault <br /> in Relation to Stabbing at Kandahar Airfield in AfghanistanRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – A U.S. Army contractor was indicted today for stabbing another individual with a knife at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride for the Eastern District of Virginia and James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.
The indictment, returned today by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia, charges Sean T. Brehm, 44, of Western Cape, South Africa, with one count of assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to do bodily harm and without just cause or excuse, and one count of assault resulting in serious bodily injury.
According to the indictment, the stabbing took place on Nov. 25, 2010. The indictment alleges that at the time of the stabbing, Brehm was working as a contractor for DynCorp International LLC, a U.S. Army contractor in Afghanistan. Brehm originally was charged in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., on Dec. 9, 2010. U.S. Magistrate Judge Ivan D. Davis ruled on Dec. 10, 2010, that Brehm be removed to the United States, and he arrived on Dec. 21, 2010, at Dulles International Airport in Virginia.
If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to do bodily harm and without just cause or excuse, and 10 years in prison for assault resulting in serious bodily injury.
The defendant is charged under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA), a statute that gives U.S. courts jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed outside the United States by, among others, contractors or subcontractors of the Department of Defense.
The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney James S. Yoon of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald L. Walutes Jr., for the Eastern District of Virginia. The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provided assistance. The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office.
An indictment is merely a formal accusation. It is not proof of guilt, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Two Alabama Women Separately Plead Guilty for Roles in Tax Fraud ConspiracyRead the Press Release
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Betty Washington, a resident of Montgomery County, Ala., pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to defraud the United States, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today.
According to charging documents, between October 2009 and September 2010 Washington conspired with others to fraudulently obtain tax refunds by using stolen identities to file false income tax returns. Washington opened up an account at a local bank to receive tax refunds from the scheme and deposited 16 different refunds, issued in the name of 16 different individuals, into the account. When the bank closed the account because of the suspicious nature of the deposits, she opened new accounts at a credit union in her name and in the name of Central Alabama Financial Services.
Over the course of several months, more than 300 false refunds totaling more than $1.4 million were deposited into these accounts. To disburse these proceeds, Washington wrote checks, withdrew cash and obtained official checks payable to various co-conspirators and associates. She retained a portion of the proceeds for herself.
Sentencing has not yet been scheduled. Washington faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, restitution and a maximum fine of $250,000, or twice the loss caused by the offense.
In a separate case, Wendy Delbridge, also a resident of Montgomery County, Ala., pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to defraud the United States. Both women admitted to working for members of a tax fraud and identity theft conspiracy indicted last month in Montgomery.
According to charging documents, between February 2010 and June 2010 Delbridge conspired with others to fraudulently obtain tax refunds by using stolen identities to file false income tax returns. Delbridge opened up an account at a local bank to receive tax refunds from the scheme. When the bank closed the account because it was receiving tax refunds that were not in Delbridge’s name, she opened a new account at a credit union. The two accounts received over $50,000 in false tax refunds, which Delbridge withdrew in cash and provided to a co-conspirator. In return, Delbridge was paid a portion of the fraudulently obtained proceeds.
Sentencing has not yet been scheduled. Delbridge faces a maximum of ten years in prison, three years of supervised release, restitution and a maximum fine of $250,000.
IRS-Criminal Investigation agents investigated this case, and Justice Department Tax Division trial attorneys Jason Poole and Michael Boteler are prosecuting the case.
Former Member of Virginia House of Delegates Charged with Bribery and ExtortionRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia returned an indictment today charging Phillip A. Hamilton, a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates, with allegedly soliciting employees of Old Dominion University (ODU) for a paid position at the same time he was introducing legislation to fund the position, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Hamilton, 58, was charged with one count of federal program bribery and one count of extortion under color of official right. He will make an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Va., tomorrow.
According to the indictment, Hamilton began representing the 93rd District, which includes Newport News and James City County, Va., in 1988. As part of his duties, Hamilton sat on the Elementary & Secondary Education Subcommittee of the Virginia House Appropriations Committee.
The indictment alleges that from August 2006 through February 2007, Hamilton solicited employees of ODU for a position as director for the ODU Center for Teacher Quality and Educational Leadership. The center’s objective was to train teachers for success in urban school environments. According to the indictment, during this period, Hamilton simultaneously introduced legislation that would establish and fund the center, including his salary as the director.
According to the indictment, in an e-mail to an ODU official on Dec. 21, 2006, stating that the current budget did not include any funding for the center, Hamilton also allegedly indicated that his retirement payments from another source were being reduced in May 2007 and that he would need to supplement his current income. According to the indictment, an ODU official assured Hamilton in December 2006 and January 2007 that if ODU obtained funding from the Virginia General Assembly for the creation of the center, then Hamilton would have a job at the center. During this same period, in January 2007, Hamilton introduced a budget amendment in the House of Delegates to appropriate $1 million in fiscal year 2007-2008 (July 1, 2007 – June 30, 2008) for a “Center for Teacher Quality and Educational Leadership.” According to the indictment, Hamilton purposely kept ODU’s name out of the amendment so that it would be assigned to the Elementary & Secondary Education Subcommittee on which he served. The amendment passed the subcommittee and committee unanimously.
On Feb. 24, 2007, after a conference between the Virginia house and senate that resulted in an amendment to appropriate $500,000 to ODU for the center – for which Hamilton voted in favor - the budget bill was passed. The next day, according to the indictment, Hamilton and ODU officials exchanged e-mails about Hamilton receiving the director job. According to the indictment, approximately three people applied in response to a job posting for the position; however, none of them were interviewed. Hamilton, who was awarded the job, never submitted an application.
In June 2007, Hamilton and an ODU official signed an employee contract indicating, among other things, that Hamilton would direct the center and seek continual funding for the center. The contract also stated that Hamilton would be paid $40,000 per year. From approximately July 2007 through July 2009, Hamilton collected approximately $80,000 from ODU.
The indictment also alleges that Hamilton took numerous steps to conceal this arrangement, including telling ODU officials not to mention his name in connection with the center to members of the Virginia Senate Finance Committee; allegedly advising an ODU official to tell a Virginia senate staffer that the official, and not Hamilton, was the director of the center; and, unsuccessfully attempting to persuade ODU leadership not to release incriminating e-mails in response to a Freedom of Information Act request that ODU had received.
If convicted, Hamilton faces maximum penalties of up to 10 years in prison on the bribery charge, and up to 20 years in prison on the extortion charge. The indictment also seeks forfeiture.
An indictment is merely an allegation and a defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.
The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney David V. Harbach II of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert J. Seidel Jr. of the Eastern District of Virginia. The case was investigated by the FBI.
El Secretario de Justicia de los Estados Unidos Eric Holder Convoca al Consejo Inaugural de Reincorporación del Nivel de GabineteRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON - El Secretario de Justicia de los Estados Unidos Eric Holder convocó hoy a la reunión inaugural del "Consejo de Reincorporación" del nivel del Gabinete en Washington para identificar y promover estrategias eficaces de seguridad pública y reincorporación de prisioneros.
Además del Secretario de Justicia de los Estados Unidos, el consejo incluye al Secretario del Departamento de Educación Arne Duncan; la Secretario de Salud y Servicios Humanos Kathleen Sebelius; el Secretario de Agricultura Tom Vilsack; el Secretario del Interior Ken Salazar; el Secretario de Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano Shaun Donovan; la Secretaria de Trabajo Hilda Solis; y el Secretario de Asuntos de Veteranos Eric Shinseki. Los miembros también incluyen al Comisionado de la Administración del Seguro Social, Michael Astrue; el Director de la Oficina de Política Nacional de Control de Drogas, R. Gil Kerlikowske; la Directora del Consejo de Políticas Domésticas de la Casa Blanca, Melody Barnes; el Director Ejecutivo de la Oficina de Asociados Religiosos y de Vecindarios de la Casa Blanca, Joshua DuBois; y la Presidente de la comisión de Igualdad de Oportunidades en el Empleo de EE.UU., Jacqueline Berrien.
El consejo tratará de objetivos de corto y largo plazo a través de la comunicación, la coordinación y la colaboración optimizadas entre dependencias federales. La misión del consejo tiene tres partes: hacer que las comunidades sean más seguras al reducir la reincidencia y la victimización; ayudar a los que regresen de la prisión y la cárcel a que se vuelvan ciudadanos productivos que pagan sus impuestos; y ahorrar dinero de los contribuyentes al reducir los costos directos y colaterales del encarcelamiento.
"La reincorporación a la sociedad provee una mejor oportunidad de reducir la recurrencia, ahorrar dinero de los contribuyentes y lograr comunidades más seguras", dijo el Secretario de Justicia de los Estados Unidos Holder. "Más de dos millones de personas están encarceladas y el 95 por ciento de las mismas serán liberadas y devueltas a sus comunidades. Al desarrollar programas de reincorporación eficaces y comprobados, podemos mejorar la seguridad pública y el bienestar comunitario".
Entre sus objetivos, el Consejo de Reincorporación se reunirá dos veces al año para apalancar recursos entre dependencias para reducir la recurrencia y la victimización; identificar prácticas comprobadas que ayuden a promover la misión del consejo; promover cambios a leyes, políticas y prácticas federales que se concentran en reducir la delincuencia; e identificar oportunidades de políticas federales y barreras existentes que impiden mejorar los resultados para la comunidad de reincorporación.
El consejo contará con el apoyo de un equipo interdependencias de 16 departamentos y oficinas federales. Desde su primera reunión en septiembre de 2010, el grupo ha producido un "Inventario de recursos federales concentrado en la reinserción de prisioneros en los ámbitos estatales y locales" conjunto y ha trabajado con un subsidiado del Departamento de Justicia, el Centro Nacional de Recursos de Reinserción, para mapear brevemente las diversas inversiones dedicadas a la población de reinserción de todo el gobierno (www.nationalreentryresourcecenter.org/national-criminal-justice-initiatives-map).
En el año fiscal 2010, el Departamento de Justicia ha otorgado 100 millones de dólares para 178 subsidios para la reinserción estatal y local para la provisión de una amplia gama de servicios.
Para obtener más información sobre temas de reincorporación a la sociedad, visite nationalreentryresourcecenter.org/.
Attorney General Eric Holder Convenes Inaugural Cabinet-Level Reentry CouncilRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder today convened the inaugural meeting of the Cabinet-level "Reentry Council" in Washington to identify and to advance effective public safety and prisoner reentry strategies.
In addition to the Attorney General, the council includes Departments of Education Secretary Arne Duncan; Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius; Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack; Interior Secretary Ken Salazar; Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan; Labor Secretary Hilda Solis; and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki. Members also include Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, Michael Astrue; Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, R. Gil Kerlikowske; Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, Melody Barnes; Executive Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Joshua DuBois; and Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Jacqueline Berrien.
The council will address short-term and long-term goals through enhanced communication, coordination and collaboration across federal agencies. The mission of the council is threefold: to make communities safer by reducing recidivism and victimization; to assist those returning from prison and jail in becoming productive, tax paying citizens; and to save taxpayer dollars by lowering the direct and collateral costs of incarceration.
"Reentry provides a major opportunity to reduce recidivism, save taxpayer dollars and make our communities safer," said Attorney General Holder. "More than two million people are behind bars, and 95 percent of them will be released back into their communities. By developing effective, evidence-based reentry programs, we can improve public safety and community well-being."
Among its goals, the Reentry Council will meet semi-annually to leverage resources across agencies to reduce recidivism and victimization; identify evidence-based practices that advance the council’s mission; promote changes to federal statutes, policies and practices that focus on reducing crime; and identify federal policy opportunities and barriers to improve outcomes for the reentry community.
The council will be supported by an interagency staff group from 16 federal departments and office. Since first convening in September 2010, the group has produced a collaborative "Inventory of Federal Resources Focusing on Prisoner Reentry at the State and Local Levels" and has worked with Justice Department grantee, the National Reentry Resource Center, to succinctly map out the various investments directed to the reentry population from across the administration (www.nationalreentryresourcecenter.org/national-criminal-justice-initiatives-map).
In Fiscal Year 2010, the Department of Justice awarded $100 million to support 178 state and local reentry grants to provide a wide range of services.
More information about reentry issues is at nationalreentryresourcecenter.org/ .
Tuesday 4 January 2011
Seven Hospitals in Six States to Pay U.S. More Than $6.3 Million to Resolve False Claims Act Allegations Related to KyphoplastyRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Seven hospitals located in Florida, Mississippi, Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina and Alabama have agreed to pay the United States a total of more than $6.3 million to settle allegations that the health care facilities submitted false claims to Medicare, the Justice Department announced today.
The settlements resolve allegations that these hospitals overcharged Medicare between 2000 and 2008 when performing kyphoplasty, a minimally-invasive procedure used to treat certain spinal fractures that often are due to osteoporosis. In many cases, the procedure can be performed safely as a less costly out-patient procedure, but the government contends that the hospitals performed the procedure on an in-patient basis in order to increase their Medicare billings.
"Hospitals that participate in the Medicare program must bill for their services accurately and honestly," said Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Department’s Civil Division. "The Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that Medicare funds are expended appropriately."
"These settlements show the continuing commitment by the U.S. Attorney’s Office to investigate and recover any improper billings for kyphoplasty procedures which the hospitals inappropriately classified as inpatient, rather than outpatient," said William J. Hochul Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York. "These actions not only protect taxpayers and the integrity of the Medicare program in the short term, they will in the long run help ensure optimal care for Medicare beneficiaries, by insisting that medicine, and not money, be used to determine the best course medical decision for a given case."
The settling facilities include the following: Lakeland Regional Medical Center, Lakeland, Fla. ($1,660,134.49); The Health Care Authority of Morgan County – City of Decatur dba Decatur General Hospital, Decatur, Ala. ($537,892.88); St. Dominic-Jackson Memorial Hospital, Jackson, Miss. ($555,949.35); Seton Medical Center, Austin, Texas ($1,232,955.91); Greenville Memorial Hospital, Greenville, S.C. ($1,026,764.01); Presbyterian Orthopaedic Hospital, Charlotte, N.C.($637,872.57); and The Health Care Authority of Lauderdale County and the City of Florence, Ala., dba the Coffee Health Group, fka Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital ($676,038.00).
The settlements with these facilities follow the settlements that the government reached in May 2009, September 2009, and May 2010 with 18 other hospitals for kyphoplasty-related Medicare claims, as well as the government’s May 2008 settlement with Medtronic Spine LLC, corporate successor to Kyphon Inc. Medtronic Spine paid $75 million to resolve allegations that the company defrauded Medicare by counseling hospital providers to perform kyphoplasty procedures as an in-patient procedure, even though the minimally-invasive procedure should have been done in many cases as an out-patient procedure.
All of the settling facilities were named as defendants in a lawsuit filed under the False Claims Act in 2008 in federal district court in Buffalo, New York by Craig Patrick and Charles Bates. The qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the Act permit private citizens, called "relators," to file lawsuits on behalf of the United States and share in any recovery. Mr. Patrick of Hudson, Wis., is a former reimbursement manager for Kyphon, and Mr. Bates was formerly a regional sales manager for Kyphon in Birmingham, Ala. The relators will receive a total of approximately $1.1 million as their share of the settlement proceeds.
"Hospitals overcharging Medicare take critically needed resources necessary to provide quality care and drive up health care costs," said Daniel R. Levinson, Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. "When Medicare and taxpayers' dollars are threatened, OIG and its federal partners will hold perpetrators accountable."
Assistant Attorney General West noted that the settlements with these hospitals were the result of a coordinated effort among the Justice Department’s Civil Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York, and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General and Office of Counsel to the Inspector General.
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 (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 approximately $4.2 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 have topped $6.8 billion.
MS-13 Gang Member in San Francisco Pleads Guilty to Racketeering ChargesRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – A member of La Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13 pleaded guilty today in federal court in San Francisco to racketeering (RICO) conspiracy and conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag for the Northern District of California.
Wilbert Castillo, aka "Cypress," 29, admitted in his guilty plea that he has been associated with or a member of MS-13 since approximately 2004. Castillo admitted that he agreed with others that a conspirator would commit crimes to further the goals of the gang, including attacking and killing rival Norteño gang members and others who defied or challenged MS-13. Castillo also admitted that in September 2004, he was driving other MS-13 members in San Francisco when one of the other MS-13 members directed Castillo to stop because he saw some Norteños on the street. Castillo did as directed, and the other MS-13 member exited the vehicle with a gun and fired several shots. Later, Castillo drove onto a freeway, where the same MS-13 gunman riding in Castillo’s car fired several shots at a nearby car he believed was being driven by a Norteño gang member.
On Nov. 15, 2010, two other MS-13 members — Walter Chinchilla-Linar, aka "Demonio," 24, and Cesar Alvarado, aka "Momia," 20 — pleaded guilty to RICO conspiracy and conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering. Chinchilla-Linar and Alvarado each admitted to being part of a group of MS-13 gang members who went "hunting," or looking for, Norteño gang members during the early morning of July 31, 2008. The group of MS-13 members eventually found and surrounded three teenagers in the vicinity of Persia and Madrid Streets in San Francisco’s Excelsior District. Alvarado admitted that he and others surrounded
the three teenagers and held them at knife point, questioning two of the teenage boys about their gang affiliation and checking them for gang symbols , while Chinchilla-Linar admitted to acting as a look-out. Chinchilla-Linar and Alvarado both admitted that one teenager then ran away and that two of their fellow MS-13 members pursued the teenager, caught up with him, and then stabbed and killed him.The maximum penalty for the RICO conspiracy charge is life in prison and a $250,000 fine. The maximum penalty for the conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering is 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing for Chinchilla-Linar and Alvarado is scheduled for Feb. 8, 2011. Sentencing for Castillo is scheduled for March 29, 2011.
These guilty pleas are the most recent in a series of pleas by MS-13 gang members to racketeering charges arising out of a multi-year investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations, called "Operation Devil Horns," which targeted MS-13 gang members in the San Francisco Bay area. Castillo, Chinchilla-Linar and Alvarado were previously indicted along with 26 other individuals as part of Operation Devil Horns. Since the original charges against MS-13 were unsealed on Oct. 22, 2008, three superseding indictments have been returned charging additional defendants as well as additional crimes. Sixteen defendants are still pending trial, currently scheduled to begin on March 7, 2011.
An indictment contains merely allegations and the remaining defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys W.S. Wilson Leung, Wil Frentzen and Christine Wong, and Trial Attorney Theryn G. Gibbons of the Criminal Division’s Gang Unit. The case was investigated by ICE Homeland Security Investigations.
Houston Doctor Sentenced to 41 Months in Prison for Role in Medicare Fraud SchemeRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Houston-area residents Dr. Howard Grant, Obisike Nwankwo and John Lachman were sentenced today to 41 months in prison, 21 months in prison, and 26 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in a multi-million dollar durable medical equipment (DME) Medicare fraud scheme, the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today.
In addition to the prison terms, U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Atlas in the Southern District of Texas sentenced Grant, Nwankwo and Lachman each to three years of supervised release. Grant was ordered to pay $121,742 in restitution jointly and severally with co-defendants. Nwankwo was ordered to pay $29,052 in restitution jointly and severally with co-defendants. Lachman was ordered to pay $1.14 million in restitution jointly and severally with co-defendants.
Grant and Nwankwo were both convicted by a federal jury after a two-week trial in the Southern District of Texas in May and June 2010. Grant was convicted of two counts of health care fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and Nwankwo was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud . Lachman pleaded guilty prior to the trial to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
Evidence at trial established that Onward Medical Supply, a Houston-area DME company, billed Medicare for fraudulent DME, including power wheelchairs and orthotic devices, beginning in 2003 and continuing until late 2009. In addition to the three co-conspirators sentenced today, one additional individual was convicted at trial, and seven individuals have pleaded guilty for their participation in various parts of Onward’s Medicare fraud scheme, including Onward’s owner, Doris Vinitski.
According to evidence presented at trial, Vinitski worked with Medicare biller and co-defendant John Nasky Okonkwo and others in late 2008 and early 2009 to submit fraudulent claims to Medicare identifying Dr. Howard Grant as the prescribing physician for the DME. The claims were submitted in several groups in November 2008. Evidence presented at trial showed that Grant learned about the fraudulent prescriptions prior to Onward’s submission of the claims to Medicare. Evidence at trial also showed that, upon learning of the prescriptions, Grant asked Vinitski for $10,000 in exchange for allowing the fraud scheme to continue. Okonkwo agreed to plead guilty for his participation in the scheme. Following the verdict, U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Atlas ordered Grant to surrender his medical license and his Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) number and to stop all billing to Medicare and Medicaid.
Evidence at trial established that Nwankwo acted as a delivery driver for Onward and several other DME companies and that he delivered DME such as power wheelchairs and orthotics for Onward to beneficiaries who did not want or need the equipment. One beneficiary testified at trial that when Nwankwo tried to deliver a power wheelchair to her, she told him to get off her front step or she would call the police.
Lachman managed the Onward fraud scheme in the early years, until the end of 2006. During that time, he created fraudulent patient files, managed payments of kickbacks to recruiters and delivery drivers, and operated the day-to-day business of Onward.
The sentences were announced by Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney José Angel Moreno of the Southern District of Texas; Richard C. Powers, Special Agent-in-Charge of the FBI’s Houston office; Special Agent-in-Charge Mike Fields of the Dallas Regional Office of the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG), Office of Investigations; and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott on behalf of the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU).
The cases were prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Jennifer L. Saulino, O. Benton Curtis III and Nicola J. Mrazek of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. The cases were investigated by the FBI, HHS-OIG and MFCU.
The cases were 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, 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.