District Not Recorded

Federal Agents Arrested A Louisiana Man And Former Member Of The United States Navy Stationed In Japan, Relating To A 2004 sexual assault.  The arrest was based on a two-count indictment returned Friday by a federal grand jury in New Orleans.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Peter G. Strasser of the Eastern District of Louisiana made the announcement.

Travis Lamont Murray, 36, from Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, is charged with one count of aggravated sexual abuse and one count of sexual abuse.  He had his initial court appearance Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dana M. Douglas for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

The indictment alleges that on or about the late evening hours of May 25, 2004, and the early morning hours of May 26, 2004, in Yokosuka City, Japan, Murray did knowingly cause a victim to engage in a sexual act by the use of force and by threatening and placing the victim in fear that she would be subjected to death and serious bodily injury.  Murray was identified as the assailant after a DNA sample of his was submitted to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office during an unrelated investigation in 2018 and was determined to be consistent with a DNA profile obtained during the sexual assault investigation previously entered into CODIS.

All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service.  The prosecution is being handled by Senior Trial Attorney Frank Rangoussis of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn McHugh of the Eastern District of Louisiana.

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana entered a permanent injunction barring Jessica Barthelemy St. Ann and JJSM Inc., from preparing federal tax returns.

The government’s complaint alleged that St. Ann knowingly took unreasonable positions on returns she prepared that result in understatements of the tax her customers owe or overstatements of the refunds to which they are entitled to receive. For example, the complaint alleged that St. Ann prepared returns which claimed erroneous car and truck expenses for some customers, intentionally and improperly understating the tax that the customers owed. According to the complaint, St. Ann also repeatedly prepared Schedules C improperly claiming business losses from activities that her customers engaged in purely as hobbies.

St. Ann agreed to the entry of the permanent injunction without admitting any factual allegations in the complaint.

Return preparer fraud is one of the IRS’ Dirty Dozen Tax Scams and taxpayers seeking a return preparer should remain vigilant. The IRS has information on its website about selecting a return preparer and has launched a free directory of federal tax preparers.

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

WASHINGTON – Attorney General William P. Barr today announced that he has appointed Katharine Sullivan to serve as the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs and that Laura L. Rogers will serve as the Acting Director of the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW).

 “Katie Sullivan has been an energetic and great leader of the Office on Violence Against Women, and I am confident she will bring the same enthusiasm to the Office of Justice Programs,” said Attorney General Barr.  “Katie’s leadership will further enhance the department’s efforts to strengthen public safety and the criminal justice system through research, programs and strategies, and to provide critical services to victims of crime.”

Katharine (Katie) Sullivan has served as the Acting Director of OVW since January 2018.  Prior to joining OVW, Ms. Sullivan was appointed in 2007 to the Colorado state trial court bench where she presided over misdemeanor, felony and civil matters including domestic violence,  sexual assault sentencings, cases involving drugs and alcohol, and jury trials.  Ms. Sullivan implemented and presided over a drug court and a driving under the influence (DUI) court, leading two multidisciplinary teams.   Prior to becoming a Judge, Ms. Sullivan served as a Deputy District Attorney in Colorado, prosecuting all types of felony and misdemeanor cases, worked closely with law enforcement and participated in a community based collaborative domestic violence task force.  While in private practice, she served on the Victim Compensation Board. Ms. Sullivan also trained law enforcement nationwide regarding risk and liability in jails and prisons.  She also served on the State Judicial Ethics Board. 

Laura L. Rogers to serve as Acting OVW Director

Also today, Attorney General Barr announced that Laura L. Rogers will lead the Office on Violence Against Women.  OVW leads federal efforts to reduce violence against women and administer justice for and strengthen services to victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.

Ms. Rogers has served as Director of the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART Office), in the Office of Justice Programs since January 2018.  As the SMART Director, Ms. Rogers led the SMART staff in administering the standards of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

“Laura Rogers has a distinguished history serving the cause of justice for victims of sexual abuse and preventing future abuse,” said Attorney General Barr.  “Among her many accomplishments, Laura was appointed by President George W. Bush to be the founder of the SMART office and has been a pioneer in developing the sex offender registration and notification systems that today deny known sex offenders anonymity and help keep children and adults safe across America.”

Prior to coming to the Department, Ms. Rogers served on the National Review Board of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as well as the Philadelphia Archdiocese Review Board on Sexual Abuse and Pastoral Conduct.  Ms. Rogers also served as deputy director of the Criminal Law Division of the U.S. Navy's Office of the Judge Advocate General.  Ms. Rogers began her legal career in 1988 as a criminal prosecutor in the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Financial Services LLC (ICBCFS) pleaded guilty to an antitrust charge and was sentenced to pay a criminal fine in excess of $3 million for its involvement in a bid-rigging conspiracy involving certain financial instruments, the Department of Justice announced today. 

ICBCFS admitted, as part of a guilty plea, that from May 2012 until at least August 2014, it conspired with other institutions and individuals to submit rigged bids to borrow pre-release American Depository Receipts (ADRs).  ICBCFS’s plea is the second in the ongoing criminal antitrust investigation; Banca IMI Securities Corp. previously pleaded guilty for its role in the conspiracy and was sentenced to pay a fine in excess of $2 million on May 10, 2019.

Worldwide, thousands of publicly traded companies list their shares of common stock only on foreign stock exchanges.  Most U.S. investors are unable to purchase or sell such foreign shares.  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, however, permits four U.S. depository banks to create ADRs, which represent foreign ordinary shares and can be traded in the United States.  Through the purchase and sale of ADRs, U.S. investors are able to gain exposure to — including the ability to receive dividends from — companies whose common stock is listed only on foreign stock exchanges. 

ICBCFS pleaded guilty to conspiring to borrow pre-release ADRs from U.S. depository banks at artificially suppressed rates.  During the conspiracy, a U.S. depository bank began using an auction-style process and invited ICBCFS and other broker-dealers to submit competitive bids for rates to borrow ADRs.  In response, ICBCFS and its co-conspirators intensified their coordination in an effort to artificially increase their profits under the auction-style process.  On at least 24 occasions, ICBCFS reached an agreement with one or more co-conspirators as to the bids they would submit to U.S. depository banks.  On many occasions, the conspirators agreed that they would all submit the same bid.

“In today’s proceeding, the Department of Justice and its law enforcement partners held to account another broker-dealer for its role in suppressing competition and rigging bids in the financial services industry,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.  “The competitive integrity of financial markets is essential to their efficient operation, and the Antitrust Division will continue to aggressively prosecute collusion that corrupts our financial markets.”

“As evidenced by this latest guilty plea, the FBI’s investigation into big ridding for ADRs is broad and deep,” said Assistant Director Robert Johnson of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “Not only are we bringing the conspirators to justice, we are sending a message to the entire financial industry: you are not above the law. The FBI can and will investigate bid rigging and all fraudulent schemes.  You will be caught.”

“This guilty plea is an example of the FBI’s commitment to investigating companies when they operate outside the law and conspire to cheat and dominate the marketplace,” said FBI Washington Field Office, Acting Assistant Director in Charge, John P. Selleck.  “I would like to thank the FBI agents and analysts who have worked on this complex investigation and are committed to holding those companies accountable who disregard the rule of law for their own financial gain.”

The Securities and Exchange Commission also separately announced today that ICBCFS has agreed to settle charges that it violated federal securities laws by improperly handling pre-release ADRs.  

The Washington Criminal II Section of the Antitrust Division and the FBI’s International Corruption Squad in Washington, D.C. are conducting the investigation into bid rigging in the market for pre-release ADRs.  Anyone with information in connection with this investigation is urged to call the Antitrust Division’s Washington Criminal II Section at 202-598-4000 or visit www.justice.gov/atr/contact/newcase.html.

On June 12 to 14, in Cartagena, Colombia, prosecutors from Colombia, Mexico, and the United States came together for the second Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCO) Working Group.  The mission of the Working Group is to engage in specialized training and to develop joint strategies and best practices to dismantle the transnational criminal organizations that threaten the three nations.

During the Working Group, experienced prosecutors from the three nations benefited from trainings on international judicial cooperation and money laundering, and began developing a road map for the development or dissemination of best practices and effective strategies to dismantle these dangerous enterprises.  This effort is all the more critical given the increasing interconnectedness between Mexican cartels and Colombian drug trafficking organizations, which collaborate to improve their profits and ability to traffic narcotics, humans, weapons and other contraband into the United States, threatening its national security.

The TCO Working Group is a direct outgrowth of Presidential Executive Order 13773 – Enforcing Federal Law with Respect to Transnational Criminal Organizations and Preventing International Trafficking – which recognized the threat that transnational criminal organizations, including transnational drug cartels, pose to the national security of the United States.  In the Executive Order, President Trump prioritized the need to increase cooperation and information sharing with foreign counterparts, and to enhance their operational capabilities via increased security sector assistance, all with the goal of dismantling TCO.  Since the 2017 Executive Order was issued, the President has continually reiterated the need to immediately attack the ability of these organizations to traffic narcotics and other criminality into the United States.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT), which is housed under the Department’s Criminal Division, seized on the momentum from the Dec. 6 to 7, 2017 “Trilateral Summit Against Transnational Organized Crime,” to spearhead the TCO Working Group.  The Attorneys General from the United States, Mexico and Colombia converged at the Trilateral Summit to strengthen their commitment to international judicial cooperation and to reinforce joint strategies to dismantle transnational organized crime, such as narcotics trafficking, money laundering, and public corruption.  Via a Joint Declaration, the three Attorneys General called on their respective institutions to increase the exchange of best practices to effectively dismantle TCO and to develop joint capacity building and training programs for those charged with investigating and prosecuting TCO.  With this clear mandate, OPDAT Colombia and OPDAT Mexico sponsored the first TCO Working Group in August 2018 in Mexico City, Mexico.

Participating in the TCO Working Group meeting was U.S. Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez for the Middle District of Florida; representatives of the Fiscalía General de la Nación (FGN) of Colombia including Claudia Carrasquilla, head of the National Organized Crime Unit and Ricardo Carriazo, head of the National Drug Trafficking Unit of FGN; representatives of the Fiscalía General de la República (FGR) of Mexico, OPDAT Resident Legal Advisors (RLAs) in Colombia and México and Assistant U.S. Attorneys from the federal districts of Arizona, Southern District of California, Middle District of Florida, Southern District of Florida, Northern District of Georgia, District of New Jersey, District of New Mexico, Eastern District of Texas, Southern District of Texas, Western District of Texas and District of Utah; trial attorneys from the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section and representatives from the Criminal Division’s International Criminal Investigative Training and Assistance Program (ICITAP); the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); U.S. Customs and Border Protection; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Colombian National Police.

“Global cooperation is the key to mitigating threats to our national security and thwarting borderless crimes,” said U.S. Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez for the Middle District of Florida. “The OPDAT Program continues to provide us, and our international partners, with the vital tools, information, and resolve necessary to defeat criminals, wherever they operate.”

"We held the trilateral meeting between the U.S., Colombian and Mexican prosecutors, where we've discussed issues of absolute importance for the dismantling of transnational criminal organizations that affect the national security of our countries,” said Ricardo Carriazo, Director of the Special Unit against Drug Trafficking for the Colombian Attorney General’s Office.  “The results in this exchange of experiences and good practices will be seen soon in the development of international judicial operations. "

OPDAT spearheads and organizes this critical event in coordination with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL).

For photos of this event, please see here.

The owner of a chiropractic business pleaded guilty today to tax evasion, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.  

According to an indictment filed in June 2018, Richard Rogers, a Northborough, Massachusetts, chiropractor, operated his practice from his residence. Rogers was charged with evading his taxes from 2012 through 2016 by concealing his income from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) through a variety of methods. Rogers encouraged his clients to pay in cash, used a nominee bank account to negotiate check payments when he was not paid in cash, paid creditors using postal money orders, and used credit card accounts opened with a fictitious social security number. Rogers also concealed the ownership of his residence by titling the property in the name of a trust. Rogers did not file federal tax returns from at least 2008 through 2016, despite his obligation to do so.

United States District Judge Timothy S. Hillman scheduled sentencing for Sept. 10, 2019. Rogers faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and monetary penalties. 

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman thanked special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Assistant Chief John N. Kane and Trial Attorney Carl F. Brooker of the Tax Division, who are prosecuting the case.

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

The Department of Justice today announced the one-year anniversary of its Place to Worship Initiative, which focuses on protecting the rights of religious individuals and communities to build, expand, buy, or rent houses of worship and other religious facilities as guaranteed by the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA).

“The Department of Justice has prioritized protecting religious freedom, and the successes we have achieved under the Place to Worship Initiative in just one year demonstrate the strength of that commitment,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband. “The Civil Rights Division will continue to enforce vigorously the laws that defend the fundamental freedom of religion, and we are pleased that this initiative has allowed the Department to continue this important work on behalf of many different and diverse religious groups.”

Since launching the initiative last June, the Civil Rights Division has doubled the number of RLUIPA investigations to 15, compared to the average of seven investigations per year from 2010 – 2016.  A majority of investigations result in a resolution, or settlement, without a lawsuit.  Since the initiative began, the Justice Department has resolved 10 RLUIPA investigations.

Moreover, since the start of the initiative, the Department filed a lawsuit against the Borough of Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, alleging that the borough violated RLUIPA when its zoning board denied zoning approval to allow the Valley Chabad, an Orthodox Jewish congregation, to build a new place of worship on its land. The Department also filed suit against and reached an agreement with the City of Farmersville, Texas, to resolve allegations that the city violated RLUIPA when it denied an application by the Islamic Association of Collin County to build a cemetery.

Since the initiative began, the Department has also actively participated in RLUIPA lawsuits filed by private parties around the country.  The Department has filed four Statements of Interest supporting RLUIPA plaintiffs in federal district courts, including: Hope Lutheran Church v. City of St. Ignace, Christian Fellowship Centers of New York, Inc. v. Village of Canton, Ramapough Mountain Indians, Inc. v. Township of Mahwah, and Jagannath Organization for Global Awareness v. Howard County.  These cases have involved such diverse issues as the ability of churches in New York and Michigan to locate in business districts, the right of Ramapough Mountain Indians to use land for religious assembly in New Jersey, and the right of a Hindu congregation to build a temple in Maryland.  The Department also filed an amicus brief and presented oral argument in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit supporting an Evangelical church’s RLUIPA claim against Baltimore County, Maryland.  The Fourth Circuit ultimately agreed with the Department’s position that the small congregation, many of whose members are African immigrants, could proceed with its claim that the county improperly denied approval to build a small church on a 1.2-acre lot.

Finally, as part of the Place to Worship Initiative, the Department has launched a new website and complaint portal, provided informational materials for religious leaders and municipal officials, and held 15 community outreach and training events to raise awareness about RLUIPA across the country.

The Department of Justice announced the creation of the Religious Liberty Task Force in July 2018.  The Task Force helps the Department fully implement the religious liberty guidance by ensuring that all Justice Department components are upholding that guidance in the cases they bring and defend, the arguments they make in court, the policies and regulations they adopt, and how we conduct our operations.

RLUIPA is a federal law that protects religious institutions from unduly burdensome or discriminatory land use regulations.  More information about RLUIPA is available on the Place to Worship Initiative homepage, https://www.justice.gov/crt/place-worship-initiative.

Attorney General William P. Barr today announced the establishment of the Transnational Elder Fraud Strike Force, a joint law enforcement effort that brings together the resources and expertise of the Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Branch, the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for six federal districts, the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and other organizations. The Strike Force will focus on investigating and prosecuting individuals and entities associated with foreign-based fraud schemes that disproportionately affect American seniors. These include telemarketing, mass-mailing, and tech-support fraud schemes.

The Transnational Elder Fraud Strike Force will be comprised of prosecutors and data analysts from the Consumer Protection Branch, prosecutors with six U.S. Attorneys’ Offices (Central District of California, Middle and Southern Districts of Florida, Northern District of Georgia, Eastern District of New York, Southern District of Texas), FBI special agents, Postal Inspectors, and numerous other law enforcement personnel. The Strike Force will also collaborate with the Federal Trade Commission and industry partners, who have pledged to engage with the Department to help end the scourge of elder fraud. It will further benefit from the help of the Elder Justice Coordinators now assigned in every U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“Fraud against the elderly is on the rise,” said Attorney General Barr.  “One of the most significant and pernicious causes for this increase is foreign-based fraud schemes. The new Transnational Elder Fraud Strike Force will bring together the expertise and resources of our prosecutors, federal and international law enforcement partners, and other government agencies to better target, investigate, and prosecute criminals abroad who prey on our elderly at home. The Department of Justice is committed to ending the victimization of elders across the country.”

“It doesn’t matter where these criminals live. We’re committed to keeping our elderly citizens safe, whether they’re being targeted door-to-door, over the phone, or online, from thousands of miles away,” said Director Christopher Wray of the FBI. “Our new Transnational Elder Fraud Strike Force will give us additional resources and tools to identify and stop those who are targeting our senior communities from overseas. If you think you may be a victim of elder fraud, or you know someone who is, please let us know. We want to help.”

“Protecting older Americans and educating them and their caregivers about foreign lotteries and sweepstakes has been a long-time priority of the Postal Inspection Service,” said Chief Postal Inspector Gary Barksdale. “Our consumer awareness programs, coupled with our investigative efforts, have prevented countless older Americans from fraud and financial exploitation. But there’s so much more than can be done. By joining our partner agencies in this Strike Force, we become more effective at identifying and stopping those who prey on our vulnerable citizens.”

Using analytical tools and sophisticated investigative approaches, the Strike Force will seek to identify those responsible for foreign fraud schemes affecting American seniors, as well as those individuals and entities facilitating such schemes. The Strike Force will coordinate closely with foreign law enforcement, and will use all available criminal and civil tools to stop victims from losing money and to hold wrongdoers responsible.

The Attorney General announced creation of the Strike Force as part of a week of events recognizing World Elder Abuse Awareness Day on June 15, which is dedicated to raising awareness about the millions of older adults who experience elder abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation.

The establishment of the Transnational Elder Fraud Strike Force builds on the Trump Administration’s commitment to combating elder fraud. That commitment was reflected in the Department’s historic 2018 and 2019 Elder Fraud Sweeps—which collectively brought criminal and civil actions against more than 500 defendants responsible for defrauding more than $1.5 billion from at least 3 million victims —as well as the 2018 Rural and Tribal Elder Justice Summit.

More information about the Department’s efforts to help American seniors is available at its Elder Justice Initiative webpage. For more information about the Consumer Protection Branch and its enforcement efforts, visit its website at https://www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch. Elder fraud complaints may be filed with the FTC at www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov or at 877-FTC-HELP. The Department of Justice provides a variety of resources relating to elder fraud victimization through its Office for Victims of Crime, which can be reached at https://www.ovc.gov.

Today, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) announced a new initiative to work directly with interested employers seeking to hire newly-released inmates. Through the “Ready to Work” initiative, the BOP seeks to connect employers directly to inmates to improve reentry outcomes. This initiative is part of the BOP’s holistic approach to implementation of the First Step Act, which was enacted in December 2018 and seeks to reduce recidivism among federal offenders. 

“The Justice Department is committed to fully implementing the First Step Act,” said Attorney General William P. Barr.  “This includes helping offenders successfully reintegrate into the community – a critical factor in preventing recidivism and, in turn, reducing the number of crime victims.   Finding gainful employment is an important part of that process.” 

The “Ready to Work” initiative aims to secure every offender reentering his or her community an opportunity to quickly secure employment. This includes the approximately 2,200 inmates scheduled for early release due to good conduct on July 19, 2019, after changes in the First Step Act become effective.

The BOP has long recognized that inmates benefit from a variety of self-improvement programs.  Federal inmates participate in vocational training, educational classes, and skills groups – all of which contribute to employment readiness and helps to develop high-quality employees. At the same time, businesses are struggling to find qualified employees due to historically low unemployment rates.

“Newly-released individuals can provide an untapped source of qualified employees for businesses having difficulty hiring during this strong economy,” said Acting BOP Director Hugh Hurwitz. “The BOP is working to strengthen existing, and build new, partnerships with businesses across the country to ensure that inmates have solid employment opportunities upon release.”

Every day, the BOP releases hundreds of individuals into communities throughout the country, and employment plays a critical role in successful reentry and recidivism reduction. Studies have shown that individuals released from incarceration who found prompt employment were less likely to recidivate. 

Prior to release, many individuals will have utilized BOP occupational training programs that produce skilled workers in a variety of professional fields, such as HVAC (heating, ventilation and air condition) systems, plumbing, masonry, aquiculture, computers and technology, carpentry, cosmetology, medical billing and food preparation, among other fields. But even those who do not qualify as skilled workers will have participated in BOP’s educational classes and self-improvement programming designed to improve community reintegration and contributes to employment success. 

To learn more about the BOP’s “Ready to Work” initiative, including BOP’s employment readiness programs, or to begin working with the BOP to hire newly-released individuals, employers may contact BOP’s Reentry Services Division (email: BOP-RSD/NationalReentryAffairs~@bop.gov).  Additional information about the BOP can be found at www.bop.gov.

A Long Island business person in the construction industry pleaded guilty today to failing to pay over employment taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

Edward Hansen of Northport, New York, pleaded guilty to one count of willfully failing to collect, truthfully account for, and pay over payroll taxes to the IRS. According to documents filed with the court, Hansen owned and operated steel erection businesses in Suffolk County. From 2008 to 2011, the IRS assessed more than $480,000 in penalties against Hansen for his failure to pay over employment taxes on behalf of several of these businesses. After the last IRS assessment in May 2011, Hansen changed the name of his business to BR-Teck Enterprises Inc., and nominally transferred ownership to another individual. Hansen, however, continued to operate the business and continued to fail to pay over employment taxes. From January 2012 through June 2017, Hansen failed to pay over more than $950,000 in payroll taxes withheld from the wages of BR-Teck’s employees.

Hansen faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for failing to pay over payroll taxes. He also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties. 

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman thanked special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Tax Division Trial Attorneys, Abigail Burger Chingos and Jeffrey Bender, who are prosecuting the case.

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

In the June 12, 2019 memorandum to all U.S. Attorneys, Assistant Attorneys General, and the FBI, the Deputy Attorney General extended at least until the end of the calendar year the grace period on implementing the Office of Legal Counsel's (OLC) 2018 opinion finding that all but one of the prohibitions of the Wire Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1084, apply to non-sports gambling.  During the grace period, federal prosecutors should not apply the Wire Act to non-sports-related betting or wagering.  The Deputy Attorney General also directed that, to ensure continuity across the country, any Wire Act charges must be reviewed and approved by the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section.  

The Department of Justice today announced the arrest of almost 1,700 suspected online child sex offenders during a two-month, nationwide operation conducted by Internet Crimes Against Children task forces. The task forces identified 308 offenders who either produced child pornography or committed child sexual abuse, and 357 children who suffered recent, ongoing or historical sexual abuse or were exploited in the production of child pornography.

The 61 ICAC task forces, located in all 50 states and comprised of more than 4,500 federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies, led the coordinated operation known as “Broken Heart” during the months of April and May 2019. During the course of the operation, the task forces investigated more than 18,500 complaints of technology-facilitated crimes targeting children and delivered more than 2,150 presentations on internet safety to over 201,000 youth and adults.

"The sexual abuse of children is repugnant, and it victimizes the most innocent and vulnerable of all," Attorney General William P. Barr said. "We must bring the full force of the law against sexual predators, and with the help of our Internet Crimes Against Children program, we will. Over the span of just two months, our ICAC task forces investigated more than 18,000 complaints of internet-related abuse and helped arrest 1,700 alleged abusers. I would like to thank our Office of Justice Programs, all of the task force members, and especially the state and local partners who helped us achieve these important results. We are committed to bringing the defendants in these cases to justice and protecting every American child."

The operation targeted suspects who: (1) produce, distribute, receive and possess child pornography; (2) engage in online enticement of children for sexual purposes; (3) engage in the sex trafficking of children; and (4) travel across state lines or to foreign countries and sexually abuse children.

The ICAC Program is funded through the Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) within the Office of Justice Programs (OJP). In 1998, OJJDP launched the ICAC Task Force Program to help federal, state and local law enforcement agencies enhance their investigative responses to offenders who use the internet, online communication systems or computer technology to exploit children. To date, ICAC task forces have reviewed more than 922,000 complaints of child exploitation, which have resulted in the arrest of more than 95,500 individuals. In addition, since the ICAC program's inception, more than 708,500 law enforcement officers, prosecutors and other professionals have been trained on techniques to investigate and prosecute ICAC-related cases.

For more information, visit the ICAC Task Force webpage. For state-level Operation Broken Heart results, please contact the appropriate state ICAC task force commander. Contact information for task force commanders is available online.

The Office of Justice Programs, directed by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Matt M. Dummermuth, provides federal leadership, grants, training, technical assistance, and other resources to improve the nation’s capacity to prevent and reduce crime, assist victims and enhance the rule of law by strengthening the criminal justice system. More information about OJP and its components can be found at www.ojp.gov.

The Department of Justice today announced that it has reached a settlement agreement with Sam Williamson Farms Inc. (SWF), a strawberry farm in Dover, Florida. The settlement resolves the Department’s investigation into whether SWF violated the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by preferring to hire H-2A visa holders to harvest its strawberry crop instead of U.S. workers. This is the seventh settlement under the Civil Rights Division’s Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative, which is aimed at targeting, investigating, and taking enforcement actions against companies that discriminate against U.S. workers in favor of temporary visa workers. 

The Department of Justice’s independent investigation concluded that at the end of the 2016-2017 strawberry picking season, SWF informed its existing U.S. workers that it would rely instead on H-2A workers from a farm labor contractor to harvest its strawberries for the next season, and retained a farm labor contractor for the express purpose of obtaining workers with H-2A visas. Ultimately, the strawberry picking positions were filled by more than 300 H-2A workers and no U.S. workers. Refusing to recruit or hire available and qualified U.S. workers because of their citizenship status violates the INA.    

“While H-2A workers can provide employers with necessary labor when there are insufficient numbers of interested U.S. workers, employers cannot deter or overlook qualified and available U.S. workers based on their citizenship status. This agreement reflects the Civil Rights Division’s continued commitment to protecting U.S. workers from discrimination,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband of the Civil Rights Division. 

Under the settlement, SWF will pay $60,000 in civil penalties to the United States, pay up to $85,000 in back pay to eligible U.S. workers, and conduct enhanced U.S. worker recruitment and advertising for future positions. The settlement also requires SWF to train employees on the requirements of the INA’s anti-discrimination provision and be subject to departmental monitoring and reporting requirements. 

Under the Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative, the Civil Rights Division has opened dozens of investigations, filed one lawsuit, and reached settlement agreements with seven employers. Since the Initiative’s inception, employers have agreed to pay or have distributed a combined total of more than $1.1 million in back pay to affected U.S. workers and civil penalties to the United States. The Division has also increased its collaboration with other federal agencies to combat discrimination and abuse by employers using temporary visa workers. 

The Division’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) is responsible for enforcing the anti-discrimination provision of the INA. Among other things, the statute prohibits discrimination based on citizenship status and national origin in hiring, firing, or recruitment or referral for a fee; unfair documentary practices; retaliation; and intimidation. 

More information on how employers can avoid citizenship status discrimination is available here.  For more information about protections against employment discrimination under immigration laws, call IER’s worker hotline at 1-800-255-7688 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); call IER’s employer hotline at 1-800-255-8155 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); sign up for a free webinar; email IER@usdoj.gov; or visit IER’s English and Spanish websites. Subscribe to GovDelivery to receive updates from IER.

Applicants or employees who believe they were subjected to discrimination based on their citizenship, immigration status, or national origin in hiring, firing, or recruitment or referral for a fee; or discrimination in the employment eligibility verification process (Form I-9 and E-Verify) based on their citizenship, immigration status, or national origin; or retaliation can file a charge or contact IER’s worker hotline for assistance.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – El Departamento de Justicia anunció hoy que ha llegado a un acuerdo con Sam Williamson Farms, Inc. («SWF»), una empresa agrícola que cultiva fresas en Dover, Florida. Este acuerdo resuelve la investigación del Departamento para determinar si SWF vulneró la disposición antidiscriminatoria de la ley de Inmigración y Nacionalidad («INA», por sus siglas en inglés) al preferir contratar a individuos con visas H-2A para cosechar su cosecha de fresas en vez de a trabajadores en este país. Este es el séptimo acuerdo bajo la Iniciativa para la Protección de los Trabajadores en los EE. UU., de la División de Derechos Civiles, cuya meta es enfocarse en investigar y tomar medidas de ejecución contra empresas que discriminan a trabajadores en este país a favor de trabajadores con visas temporales.

La investigación independiente del Departamento concluyó que a finales de la temporada de recogida de fresas del 2016-2017, SWF informó a sus trabajadores existentes en este país que la próxima temporada usarían a trabajadores con visa H-2A de un contratista de trabajos agrícolas para cosechar sus fresas, y empleó a un contratista de trabajo agrícolas con el fin expreso de obtener a trabajadores con visa H-2A. Al final, aquellos puestos como recogedor de fresas fueron ocupados por 300 trabajadores con visa H-2A y no por trabajadores en este país. El negarse a reclutar o a contratar a trabajadores disponibles y cualificados en este país por motivos de su estatus de ciudadanía vulnera la INA.

«Mientras que los trabajadores con visa H-2A pueden proporcionar a los empleadores la mano de obra necesaria cuando no hay suficientes trabajadores interesados en este país, los empleadores no pueden disuadir o pasar por alto a trabajadores cualificados y disponibles en este país por motivos de su estatus de ciudadanía. Este acuerdo refleja el compromiso continuo de la División de Derechos Civiles a proteger a los trabajadores en este país de la discriminación», afirmó el Fiscal General Auxiliar, Eric Dreiband, de la División de Derechos Civiles.

Conforme el acuerdo, SWF pagará $60.000 en sanciones civiles a los Estados Unidos, pagará hasta $85.000 en pagos retroactivos a trabajadores elegibles en este país y mejorará sus esfuerzos de publicidad y reclutamiento por atraer a trabajadores en este país para futuros puestos. Asimismo, el acuerdo requiere que SWF capacite a sus empleados en cuanto a los requisitos de la disposición antidiscriminatoria de la INA y que se someta a los requisitos del Departamento de supervisión.

En virtud de la Iniciativa para la Protección de los Trabajadores en los EE. UU., la División de Derechos Civiles ha iniciado decenas de investigaciones, presentado un pleito y llegado a acuerdos con siete empleadores. Desde la incepción de la Iniciativa, los empleadores han acordado pagar o han distribuido más de $1,1 millones en pagos retroactivos a trabajadores afectados en este país y sanciones civiles a los Estados Unidos. La División también ha aumentado su nivel de colaboración con otras agencias federales para combatir la discriminación y abusos por parte de empleadores que usan a trabajadores temporales con visa.

La Sección de Derechos de Inmigrantes y Empleados (IER, por sus siglas en inglés) de la División es responsable de aplicar la disposición antidiscriminatoria de la INA. Entre otras cosas, esta ley prohíbe la discriminación por motivos de estatus de ciudadanía o nacionalidad de origen en los procesos de contratación, despido o reclutamiento o recomendación por comisión; prácticas documentales injustas; y represalias y la intimidación.

Para más información sobre protecciones contra la discriminación en el empleo en virtud de las leyes migratorias, llame a la línea directa de la IER para trabajadores al 1‑800‑255-7688 (1‑800-237-2515, TTY para personas con discapacidades auditivas); llame a la línea directa de la IER para empleadores al 1-800-255-8155 (1-800-237-2515, TTY para personas con discapacidades auditivas); inscríbase a un seminario en línea gratuito; mande un correo electrónico a IER@usdoj.gov o visite la página web de la IER en inglés o español. Para recibir las últimas noticias de la IER, inscríbase a GovDelivery.

Aquellos postulantes o empleados que creen haber sido víctimas de discriminación por motivos de su ciudadanía, estatus migratorio o nacionalidad de origen en los procesos de contratación, despido o reclutamiento o recomendación por comisión en el proceso de la verificación de la elegibilidad para trabajar (Formulario I-9 e E-Verify) con base en su ciudadanía, estatus migratorio o nacionalidad de origen; o represalias pueden presentar una denuncia o llamar a la línea directa de la IER para trabajadores para pedir ayuda.

As the 2019 hurricane season begins, the Department of Justice reminds the public to be on the lookout for fraud against natural disaster victims, and report it to the National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF). The Atlantic Hurricane Season opened June 1 and runs through November 30. 

“Committing fraud against natural disaster victims is an inexcusable crime,” said Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen.  “It is important for people to be on the lookout for fraudsters who seek to profit from natural disasters through identity theft schemes and solicitations for fake charities.  The Department of Justice is committed to detecting this type of fraud, and we will aggressively prosecute the offenders. Through our National Center for Disaster Fraud, and in conjunction with our law enforcement partners, we are working to keep Americans from becoming victims of these schemes.”

The Department of Justice established the NCDF in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, when billions of dollars in federal disaster relief poured into the Gulf Coast region, which opened opportunities for criminals to exploit people during vulnerable times.  The NCDF, a national coordinating agency within the Department’s Criminal Division, operates a call center at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and serves as a centralized clearinghouse for disaster fraud complaints and information relating to both natural and man-made disasters. The NCDF seeks to improve and further the detection, prevention, investigation, and prosecution of fraud related to natural and man-made disasters, and to advocate for victims of such fraud.  More than 20 federal, state, and local agencies participate in the NCDF, which allows them to forward on complaints to the appropriate agency for investigation.

Numerous U.S. Attorneys’ offices in districts impacted by recent hurricanes have established task forces comprised of local, state and federal agencies in their respective areas to combat disaster fraud.

"The Department of Justice and the NCDF is committed to ensuring each report of disaster fraud reaches the appropriate investigative agency. Do not let disaster strike twice. Report suspected disaster fraud to the NCDF, which has an excellent staff of investigators, analysts, call center operators, and managers who are well prepared to handle the anticipated volume of complaints during hurricane season,” said U.S. Attorney Brandon J. Fremin for the Middle District of Louisiana, who is also the NCDF’s Executive Director.

Eighteen major disaster declarations have already been declared in 2019 for events including recent storms, tornadoes, and flooding across the Midwest; Typhoon Wutip in Guam; and severe winter storms and mudslides in Oregon, California. Unfortunately, and inevitably, natural and man-made disasters will continue to occur across our great nation. These terrible and often tragic events leave many people without food, water, or shelter, and often cause devastating damage to life and property. Nevertheless, there are criminals ready to take advantage of victims before, during, and especially after a natural disaster. They are looking to strike those at their most vulnerable time.

While compassion, assistance, and solidarity are generally prevalent in the aftermath of natural disasters, unscrupulous individuals and organizations also use these tragic events to take advantage of those in need. Examples of illegal activity being reported to the NCDF and law enforcement include:

• Impersonation of federal law enforcement officials;
• Identity theft;
• Fraudulent submission of claims to insurance companies and the federal government;
• Fraudulent activity related to solicitations for donations and charitable giving;
• Fraudulent activity related to individuals and organizations promising high investment returns via profits from recovery and cleanup efforts;
• Price gouging;
• Contractor Fraud;
• Debris removal fraud;
• Theft, looting, and other violent crime

Members of the public are reminded to be extremely cautious before providing personal identifying or financial information to anyone, especially those who may contact you after a natural disaster. They are also reminded to report suspected waste, fraud, abuse, or allegations of criminal conduct. If members of the public believe they have been the victim of fraud from a person or organization soliciting relief funds on behalf of disaster victims, they are strongly encouraged to contact the National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline toll free by phone at (866) 720-5721, email at disaster@leo.gov, or fax at (225) 334-4707.   The telephone line is staffed by live operators 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 

To learn more about the NCDF please visit the website at www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud and watch a public service announcement. 

Attorney General William P. Barr today announced the formation of a Domestic Violence Working Group aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of convicted domestic abusers, using the tools of federal prosecution to stop and prevent domestic violence. The group will operate under the auspices of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC) and be comprised of nine U.S. Attorneys across the country, chaired by U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox.

“Too often, domestic abusers start with threats and abuse, and end up committing extreme violence and even homicide, with devastating impact on families and the community around them,” said Attorney General Barr.  “I have directed this working group to examine this issue and determine the best way to use federal gun prosecutions and other appropriate tools to supplement state, local and tribal efforts to address domestic violence.”

“With so many domestic disputes escalating from bruises to bullets, we felt we needed to supplement our state and local partners’ efforts to curb domestic violence with federal prosecutions,” said U.S. Attorney Nealy Cox. “We hope our initial cases send a message to convicted abusers:  Not only could the Justice Department theoretically prosecute abusers for firearm possession – they have and they will.”

Federal law has long barred convicted felons, as well as individuals subject to certain domestic violence protective orders or convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors, from possessing firearms.

Offenders with domestic violence in their past pose a remarkably high risk of homicide. Research shows that abusers with a gun in the home are five times more likely to kill their partners than abusers who don’t have that same access to a firearm. And according to one recent study, more than half of America’s mass shootings are cases of extreme domestic violence.

Keeping guns from domestic abusers legally prohibited from possessing them would significantly reduce violence in America, a major priority of the Justice Department.

However, federal gun cases involving domestic violence present unique challenges. In some states, the federal and state definitions of domestic violence differ, requiring complex legal analysis that varies based on the location of conviction.

U.S. Attorneys’ offices have worked tirelessly over the years to address these legal challenges with tremendous success.  The Working Group will share best practices, legal analysis and guidance on prosecuting abusers who unlawfully possess guns, and will advise U.S. Attorneys across the country on outreach to local law enforcement, judges, and nonprofit groups.

Working Group members include:

• Scott W. Brady, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania
• Robert M. Duncan, Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky
• Nicola T. Hanna, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California  
• Justin E. Herdman, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio
• Erin Nealy Cox, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas
• Christina E. Nolan, U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont
• Byung J. Pak, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia
• R. Trent Shores, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma
• Timothy J. Downing, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma

The Department of Justice today filed a Statement of Interest in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine supporting students who claim that the State discriminated against them in violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the U.S. Constitution when it barred them from a program paying the public or private school tuition of students who do not have public schools in their school districts, because the students wish to use the tuition to attend private religious schools that otherwise satisfy State education requirements.

The case, Carson v. Makin, was brought by students and their parents challenging their exclusion from the Maine tuition program. In Maine, 143 of the State’s 260 school districts do not operate their own high schools. Such school districts may arrange for another school to teach all of their students, or these school districts may provide tuition payments to allow families to go to the public school or private school of their choice. The State, however, forbids students in the tuition program to attend “sectarian” schools.

“Under the Constitution, governments may not exclude students from education programs solely because of their religious status or their religious choices,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband. “The Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that all children and their families may participate in benefit programs without discrimination based on their faith.”

The United States’ Statement of Interest emphasizes that excluding otherwise eligible students from the program because they attend religious schools violates the First Amendment, as recently explained by the Supreme Court two years ago in Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer. In Trinity Lutheran, the Supreme Court held that “denying a generally available benefit solely on account of religious identity imposes a penalty on the free exercise of religion,” and may only be justified by the most compelling governmental interests, which, the brief argues, Maine cannot show here. Preferring secular private schools that meet the academic requirements set forth in Maine law to religious schools that meet those same requirements, the United States’ brief concludes, cannot be reconciled with the Supreme Court’s decision in Trinity Lutheran.

Today’s filing addresses issues set forth in the Department of Justice’s Guidance on Federal Law Protections for Religious Liberty issued on Oct. 6, 2017, at the direction of President Trump’s  May 4, 2017, Executive Order Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty. The Department of Justice Guidance states that “government may not target persons or individuals because of their religion” and observes that “constitutional protections for religious liberty are not conditioned upon the willingness of a religious person or organization to remain separate from civil society . . .  Individuals do not give up their religious-liberty protections by providing or receiving social services, education, or healthcare.”

In July 2018, the Department of Justice announced the formation of the Religious Liberty Task Force. The Task Force brings together Department components to coordinate their work on religious liberty litigation and policy, and to implement the Attorney General’s 2017 Religious Liberty Guidance.

Canon Inc. and Toshiba Corporation have agreed to settle federal charges that the companies violated the premerger notification and waiting period requirements of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (HSR Act), when Canon acquired Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation from Toshiba in 2016.

The companies will pay $2.5 million each to settle the charges. The settlement also requires the companies to implement HSR compliance programs and comply with inspection and reporting requirements, among other obligations imposed under the consent order.

The complaint alleges that Canon and Toshiba devised a scheme to avoid observing the waiting period required by the HSR Act for Canon’s acquisition of Toshiba’s subsidiary Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (TMSC). According to the complaint, the scheme devised by Canon and Toshiba “had no purpose” other than to complete the sale of TMSC prior to March 31, 2016, and avoid the HSR Act’s waiting period requirements.

The complaint further alleges that long-running financial irregularities at Toshiba became public in 2015 and, as a result, Toshiba was facing financial difficulty. To shore up its financial statement, Toshiba needed to recognize the proceeds of the sale of TMSC by the end of its 2015 fiscal year on March 31, 2016. The complaint also alleges that, by Canon’s and Toshiba’s own admission, Canon could not acquire TMSC outright because “it simply was not possible to complete a significant acquisition of TMSC voting securities before the end of Toshiba’s fiscal year due to the review periods under various merger control laws.”

“The HSR Act is an essential tool for antitrust enforcement because it allows federal antitrust enforcers to review proposed acquisitions for potential anticompetitive effects before they occur. Canon and Toshiba structured their transaction for the purpose of avoiding the HSR Act’s requirements,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “An acquiring person may not enlist a third party to make an acquisition on its behalf to evade the HSR Act.”

“The prior notice provisions of the HSR Act are designed to allow the agencies to analyze a proposed transaction before it is consummated to determine whether it will harm competition,” said Bruce Hoffman, Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition. “Deliberately structuring a transaction to avoid or delay HSR filing undermines the efficacy of the premerger notification process, regardless of whether the parties’ motives for doing so in a particular case were anticompetitive. We will be vigilant in seeking relief against attempts to circumvent the HSR Act’s filing requirements.”

The HSR Act imposes notification and waiting period requirements for transactions meeting certain size thresholds so that they can undergo premerger antitrust review. The maximum civil penalty for an HSR violation is currently $42,530 per day.

The Department of Justice filed the complaint and proposed final judgment in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on June 10, 2019. 

As required by the Tunney Act, the proposed settlement, along with a 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 Kenneth A. Libby, Special Attorney, United States, c/o Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20580 klibby@ftc.gov. At the conclusion of the 60-day comment period, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia may approve the proposed settlement upon finding that it is in the public interest.

A New York resident pleaded guilty today to providing cash bribes to an employee of the U.S. Department of the Navy to make unauthorized liquor purchases at a Navy Exchange (NEX), announced Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Special Agent in Charge Leo Lamont of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service’s (NCIS) Northeast Field Office. 

Edwin D. Fragoso, 45, of Freeport, New York, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gary R. Brown of the Eastern District of New York.  Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 9, 2019 before U.S. District Judge Sandra J. Feurstein of the Eastern District of New York. 

According to admissions made in connection with his guilty plea, Fragoso agreed with NEX supervisory sales associate Eric J. Jex to arrange repeated large purchases of liquor from the NEX at Mitchel Field in Garden City, New York.  Official policies limited access to the NEX’s goods to authorized personnel, including Navy service members, and required NEX employees to confirm purchasers’ identities.  Over more than a year, until December 2016, Fragoso paid Jex over $95,000 in cash bribes to make unauthorized purchases of NEX liquor at significant discounts.  He ultimately resold the liquor purchased from the NEX for profit.

On Aug. 1, 2017, Jex pleaded guilty to accepting more than $250,000 in cash bribes from Fragoso and two other individuals, Adam Agaev and David Manasherov.  Agaev and Manasherov each pleaded guilty to conspiracy on Jan. 7, 2019, and are pending sentencing on Sept. 24, 2019.        

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) and New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, Criminal Investigations Division investigated the case.  Trial Attorney Jessica C. Harvey is prosecuting the case.

A Denham, Massachusetts, resident pleaded guilty today in Boston to conspiring to defraud the United States by impeding the lawful functions of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

According to court documents, Ayaz Ali Shah co-owned and operated a carry-out restaurant called “New York Fried Chicken and Pizza” that conducted business in Dorchester, Massachusetts. The indictment alleges that Shah, together with his co-defendants, Muhamad Siuyab Khan and Khurshed Jehan Badshah, conspired to defraud the United States from 2009 through 2014. The co-defendants each owned twenty percent of the business, but during the five-year period charged in the indictment, Shah and his co-conspirators allegedly agreed to underreport the business’s gross receipts, cost of goods sold, and net profit, and to report these false amounts on Shah’s 2012 and 2013 individual tax returns.

The indictment against Khan and Badshah remains pending. An indictment merely alleges that crimes have been committed. A defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Chief United States District Judge Patti B. Saris scheduled Shah’s sentencing for Sept. 19, 2019. Shah faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison on the conspiracy charge. He also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman commended special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation, the FBI Boston Division, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the Boston Police Department, who conducted the investigations, and Trial Attorneys Mark McDonald and Thomas Voracek of the Tax Division, who are prosecuting the case.

As part of The Department of Justice’s ongoing review of legacy antitrust judgments, the Antitrust Division today announced that it has opened a review of its consent decrees with The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI).  For more than seventy-five years, these decrees have governed the process by which these two organizations license rights to publicly perform musical works.  The purpose of the Division’s review is to determine whether the decrees should be maintained in their current form, modified, or terminated.

ASCAP and BMI are the two largest performing rights organizations in the United States.  Their primary function is to pool the copyrights held by their composer, songwriter, and publisher members or affiliates and collectively license public performance rights to music users such as radio and television stations, streaming services, concert venues, bars, restaurants, and retail establishments.  The Antitrust Division first entered into consent decrees with ASCAP and BMI in 1941 and they have since been modified – the ASCAP decree most recently in 2001 and the BMI decree in 1994.  The decrees require ASCAP and BMI to issue licenses covering all works in their repertory upon request from music users.  If the parties are unable to agree on an appropriate price for a license, the decrees provide for a “rate court” proceeding in front of a U.S. district judge.  Neither decree contains a termination date.

“The ASCAP and BMI decrees have been in existence in some form for over seventy-five years and have effectively regulated how musicians are compensated for the public performance of their musical creations,” said Makan Delrahim, Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division.  “There have been many changes in the music industry during this time, and the needs of music creators and music users have continued to evolve.  It is important for the Division to reassess periodically whether these decrees continue to serve the American consumer and whether they should be changed to achieve greater efficiency and enhance competition in light of innovations in the industry.”   

The Antitrust Division has posted an invitation for public comment on its public website (https://www.justice.gov/atr/antitrust-consent-decree-review-ascap-and-bmi-2019), inviting interested persons, including songwriters, publishers, licensees, and other industry stakeholders to provide the Division with information or comments relevant to whether the ASCAP and BMI decrees should be modified, terminated, or retained unchanged.  The period for public comment ends August 9, 2019.*

* The original version of this release stated the public comment period ended on July 10, 2019.  The original 35 day comment period is now extended to 65 days.

A Pennsylvania anesthesiologist pleaded guilty today to filing a false income tax return, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

James G. Allen Jr., 53, admitted as part of his guilty plea that he filed false tax returns for himself and his wife for the years 2010 through 2017 with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). He failed to report more than $3 million that the pair earned as anesthesiologists on their tax returns. According to the plea agreement, the false tax returns that Allen filed caused a loss to the government of more than $900,000.

Allen admitted that the false tax returns were based on a tax fraud scheme promoted by Peter Hendrickson in his book, Cracking the Code. Hendrickson was convicted of filing false tax returns in 2009 and sentenced to prison. 

U.S District Judge Arthur J. Schwab set sentencing for Nov. 12, 2019.  Allen faces up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. As part of his plea, Allen has agreed to pay restitution to the IRS in the amount of $902,721.45.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman thanked special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, who investigated the case, and Trial Attorneys Melissa S. Siskind and Carl F. Brooker, IV of the Tax Division, who are prosecuting the case. 

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the division’s website at www.justice.gov/tax.

A federal jury in Michigan found a Houston, Texas, woman guilty of a nine-count indictment for her role as the leader of several robbery crews that traveled all over the United States in order to conduct home invasions of families of Indian and Asian descent. 

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Special Agent in Charge Timothy R. Slater of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office made the announcement.

After a four-week trial, Chaka Castro, 44, was convicted of one count of RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) Conspiracy, four counts of Assault with a Dangerous Weapon in Aid of Racketeering and four counts of Use of a Firearm During and in Relation to a Crime of Violence.  Sentencing is scheduled for September 2019, before U.S. District Court Judge Laurie J. Michelson of the Eastern District of Michigan, who presided over the trial.

According to evidence presented at trial, from 2011 to 2014, Chaka Castro and her robbery crews committed a string of home invasions in Georgia, New York, Ohio, Michigan and Texas.  The leader of the robbery crews was Chaka Castro, who would generate lists of robbery targets in various states around the county, specifically families of Asian and Indian ancestry, and then assign crews to carry out the armed robberies of these families within their homes.  Once Castro assigned a crew to a particular area, members of the group would travel to that location, conduct surveillance, and execute the robberies.  The crews utilized a particular modus operandi in each of the robberies.  They disguised their appearance with clothing and bandanas so that victims of their robberies would have difficulty identifying them.  They would openly carry and brandish firearms to gain control of the victims and then immediately corral the victims, including children, into one location in the home.  At least one robber would then restrain the victims with duct tape and threats of violence while a partner would ransack the home in search of cash, jewelry, and electronics to steal.  The group organized their trips to involve multiple home invasion robberies over a series of days.      

The conviction was the result of a joint federal and state investigation led by the FBI with the assistance of federal agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Secret Service.  Local law enforcement agencies in Michigan, including Washtenaw County Sherriff’s Office, Ann Arbor Police Department and Canton Police Department; local law enforcement agencies in Ohio, including Beachwood Police Department; local law enforcement agencies in Georgia, including the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office, Cobb County Police Department, Gwinnett County Police Department, Duluth Police Department and Milton Police Department; local law enforcement agencies in New York, including Nassau County Police Department; the Tennessee Highway Patrol and local law enforcement agencies in Texas including Allen Police Department, Coppell Police Department, Flower Mound Police Department, Carrollton Police Department, Lewisville Police Department and Southlake Police Department also provided assistance in the investigation.

Trial Attorneys Marianne Shelvey and Beth Lipman of the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section prosecuted the case. 

Today, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Department of the Interior (DOI), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the State of Washington, the Suquamish Tribe, and the Tulalip Tribes (collectively, “the Port Gardner Bay Trustees” aka “the Trustees”), announced that they have reached a settlement with the Port of Everett (the Port) related to contamination of the Port Gardner Bay Area in Everett, Washington. The settlement is intended to resolve claims brought under the Clean Water Act (CWA), the Oil Pollution Act (OPA), and the Washington Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA), for damages to natural resources stemming from the release of oil and other hazardous substances in Port Gardner Bay. The settlement will also address potential liability of the U.S. Navy for natural resource damages.

In April 2018, three other identified potentially responsible parties (PRPs) entered into a consent decree to resolve the full amount of their liability for natural resource damages in the Port Gardner Bay Area, through cash-out payments totaling over $3.9 million. Today’s settlement, if approved by the court, will resolve the liability of the remaining identified PRPs — the Port and the Navy.

As part of the proposed settlement, the Port is required to construct the Blue Heron Slough Restoration Project (the BHS Project), in accordance with a final design plan approved by the Trustees, and maintain the project in perpetuity. The BHS Project will restore 338 acres of intertidal estuarine and upland habitats along Interstate I-5 in the lower Snohomish River estuary, reconnecting these habitats to the Snohomish River watershed and Puget Sound, and preserving open space. The restoration of this habitat will be beneficial to a multitude of native fish, wildlife, and other natural resources. The Port will operate the Project as a “bank” for conservation credits, and will resolve its liability by “retiring,” or setting aside, credits equivalent to approximately 35 acres of the Project.

The proposed settlement also states that the United States, on behalf of the Navy, will make a payment of $789,840 to be used towards construction of the BHS Project. In exchange for the payments from the Navy and the other three PRPs, the Port will set aside credits equivalent to approximately 36 additional acres of the project.  As part of the proposed settlement, the Port and the Navy will also pay a proportionate share of the costs incurred by the Trustees in assessing natural resource damages in the Port Gardner Bay Area.

“The Department of Justice is confident that this voluntary settlement will be a significant win for the environment,” said Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “The United States is looking forward to cooperating with the other Trustees and the Port to ensure that the vital habitats of the Port Gardner Bay Area can successfully recover.”

“The Department of the Interior worked together with all the trustees to come to a successful conclusion,” said Regional Director Robyn Thorson for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Pacific Region.  “We are excited to see the Blue Heron Slough Restoration Project come to life for the benefit of the public and all our shared trust resources."

“This settlement highlights the benefits of working cooperatively with industry, co-trustees and private partners to resolve natural resource liability at a contaminated site”, said Nicole LeBoeuf, Acting Assistant Administrator for NOAA's National Ocean Service. “This agreement will restore habitats critical for salmon and many other species of fish and wildlife, and benefit local communities and economies that depend on clean and robust fisheries.”    

“This groundbreaking achievement is a win-win for the environment and local communities,” said Jim Pendowski, Toxics Cleanup Program Manager for the Washington Department of Ecology.  “Restoring and protecting 338 acres of critical tidal habitats will help salmon thrive and the communities that rely on healthy fisheries.”

“This settlement will restore habitat that is critical to protecting and supporting treaty-reserved fisheries, which the Suquamish Tribe has relied upon since time immemorial,” said Leonard Forsman, Chairman of the Suquamish Tribe and President of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians. “The process that resulted in this agreement is a model for the sort of collaboration that can restore the health of Puget Sound. We look forward to continuing this work for the benefit of all of us who rely on the Salish Sea for economic and cultural sustenance.”  

“Our ancestral waters, and the marine habitats vital to the natural and cultural resources of the Tulalip people, are in need of protection and restoration if they are to continue to support Salmon, Orcas, and shellfish,” said Teri Gobin, Chairwoman of the Tulalip Tribes. “The collaborative process of this settlement represents the best path forward for protecting our natural resources for future generations of the Salish Sea.” 

According to documents filed with the court, the violations for which the Port is allegedly liable involved the unauthorized discharge of oil and other harmful compounds on properties now owned or operated by the Port. Investigations have detected hazardous substances in soils, groundwater and sediments on or in the Port’s properties.  Alleged liability of the Navy is the result of past releases of harmful substances on land now owned or operated by the Navy.

The claims against the Port were brought under Section 311 of the CWA, Section 1002(b) of the OPA, and the MTCA. These statutes protect against the discharge of oil or hazardous substances into the waters and marine habitats of the United States and impose liability for damages to natural resources resulting from those discharges.

This settlement marks the close of a long-running matter by resolving the liability of the only remaining PRPs on terms which are acceptable to all parties. The settlement will yield the construction of a large-scale restoration project that will benefit a multitude of injured natural resources in the Port Gardner Bay Area, and it ensures that each PRP is proportionately responsible for the resolution of both the cost of damages to the area’s habitats and the assessment costs incurred by the Trustees.

The proposed settlement, which is subject to a 30-day public comment period, is available at: https://www.justice.gov/enrd/consent-decrees.

As the Department of Justice continues its efforts to fulfill President Donald J. Trump’s commitment to reducing violent crime in America, Attorney General William P. Barr today announced 10 new National Public Safety Partnership (PSP) sites in areas with elevated crime rates. The partnership provides a framework for enhancing federal support of state, local and tribal law enforcement officials and prosecutors as they aggressively investigate and pursue violent criminals, specifically those involved in gun crime, drug trafficking and gang violence.

“The Public Safety Partnership is a successful program that directs federal law enforcement resources to the cities where they can have the greatest impact," Attorney General Barr said. "These resources help police departments to diagnose where crime is highest—and why—and to find, arrest and prosecute criminals. Several participating cities have already seen dramatic reductions in violent crime over the past two years. As we expand this program to 10 more cities across America, we are determined to replicate that success.”

The Justice Department created PSP and the Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety in response to President Trump’s February 9, 2017, Executive Order charging the agency with leading a national effort to combat violent crime. In June 2017, the Department of Justice announced the formation of the National Public Safety Partnership initiative.

To be considered for selection, a site must have sustained levels of violence that far exceed the national average and demonstrate a commitment to reducing crime. Cities must also display compliance with federal immigration requirements.

The 10 sites announced today are as follows:

• Anniston, Alabama
• Oxford, Alabama
• Anchorage, Alaska
• Davenport, Iowa
• Wichita, Kansas
• Baton Rouge, Louisiana
• Baltimore, Maryland
• Cleveland, Ohio
• Amarillo, Texas
• Harris County, Texas

Last week, Attorney General Barr visited one of the new PSP sites in Anchorage, Alaska, and participated in a roundtable where he heard the public safety concerns from many Alaska Native leaders.  

“I know through experience as a former U.S. Attorney that the surest way to drive down crime is through a united effort that involves local government leaders and law enforcement agencies at all levels,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Matt M. Dummermuth, who oversees DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs. “The National Public Safety Partnership has been the force behind successful violence reduction efforts in a number of communities, and we intend to carry that success into other high crime neighborhoods.”

More than 30 cities have participated in PSP. The primary participating Justice Department components include the Office of Justice Programs, Office on Violence Against Women, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, FBI, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Marshals Service.

“We are proud to provide support to law enforcement in these new Sites, and we’re confident that this collaborative effort will help these jurisdictions reduce violent crime,” said Jon Adler, Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance. 

 More information about PSP can be found at: http://www.nationalpublicsafetypartnership.org.

The Department of Justice announced today that Amcor Limited will be required to divest three manufacturing facilities and other assets in order to proceed with its $6.8 billion acquisition of Bemis Company Inc.  The Department said that, without the divestiture, the proposed acquisition would eliminate competition between two of only three significant suppliers of three medical packaging products that are critical to the safe transportation and use of medical devices.

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

“The medical packaging products that Amcor and Bemis manufacture are integral to the safe sterilization, transportation, and use of medical devices in hospitals, medical offices, and labs around the country,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.  “Today’s settlement, which requires Amcor to divest its medical flexible packaging business at these three facilities, will ensure that medical care providers continue to benefit from competition for these critical products.”  

According to the Department’s complaint, Amcor and Bemis both supply three types of heat-seal, coated medical packaging products critical to the safe transportation and use of medical devices: medical-grade Tyvek rollstock, medical-grade paper rollstock, and medical-grade Tyvek die-cut lidding.  Due to Amcor’s and Bemis’s collective overall expertise in meeting the needs of doctors and hospitals, Amcor and Bemis are two major competitors supplying these products.  According to the complaint, the combination of Amcor and Bemis would eliminate head-to-head competition between the companies in the markets for these products and threaten the benefits that medical care providers have realized from that competition in the form of lower prices and better service. 

Under the terms of the proposed settlement, Amcor must divest manufacturing facilities located in Ashland, Massachusetts; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Madison, Wisconsin; along with certain related assets, to Tekni-Plex Inc., or an alternate acquirer approved by the United States. Tekni-Plex is an international leader in flexible films and medical supplies.   

Amcor, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, had total sales of over $9 billion in 2018, including approximately $288 million in sales of flexible packaging for medical use in the United States.

Bemis, a Missouri corporation headquartered in Neenah, Wisconsin, had total sales of over $4 billion in 2018, including approximately $260.9 million in sales of flexible packaging for medical use in the United States. 

As required by the Tunney Act, the proposed consent decree, along with the Department’s competitive impact statement, will be published in the Federal Register.  Any person may submit written comments concerning the proposed settlement within 60 days of its publication to Maribeth Petrizzi, Chief, Defense, Industrials, and Aerospace Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 8700, Washington, D.C. 20530.  At the conclusion of the 60-day comment period, the court may enter the final judgment upon a finding that it serves the public interest.

WASHINGTON – Daniel Jenkins, 20, and Daryl Henry, 22, were charged by a federal grand jury in a superseding indictment unsealed yesterday with conspiracy to commit hate crimes, kidnapping, and carjacking, announced Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox for the Northern District of Texas, and FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Matthew DeSarno of the Dallas Division. Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Henry were also charged with hate crimes and kidnapping. Additionally, Mr. Jenkins was charged with carjacking and brandishing a firearm during crimes of violence.

According to the 15 count indictment—which supersedes a previously filed indictment—members of the conspiracy used Grindr, a dating app for LGBT people, to create fake profiles and pose as gay men interested in “dates” to lure gay men to an apartment complex in Dallas, Texas, in order to commit violent crimes against them, including kidnapping, assault, robbery, and carjacking. Members of the conspiracy forced the victims at gunpoint to relinquish their possessions, including their wallets, money, car keys, cars, drivers’ licenses and identification cards, credit and debit cards, and cellular telephones.

According to the indictment, the conspirators used Grindr to lure nine victims to an apartment complex in Dallas from Dec. 6, 2017, through Dec. 11, 2017.  On Dec. 11, 2017, the conspirators held five victims against their will in an apartment at the complex. Four of the victims were physically assaulted, three were sexually assaulted, and some victims were called gay slurs. A conspirator also urinated and wiped human feces on at least one victim. The indictment further alleges that Jenkins and Henry caused bodily injury to four victims because of their actual and perceived sexual orientation. The indictment charges both Jenkins and Henry with kidnapping these four victims and Jenkins with kidnapping two additional victims, carjacking two victims, and using a firearm in connection with the carjackings.

An indictment is merely an accusation, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. If convicted, both defendants face a maximum statutory penalty of life in prison for the hate crime and kidnapping charges, five years for the conspiracy charge, and a fine of up to $250,000 with respect to each charge. Jenkins also faces up to 15 years for the carjacking charges and a mandatory minimum of at least seven years in prison, plus a $250,000 fine for each firearms charge.

The FBI’s Dallas Field Office conducted the federal investigation with the assistance and cooperation of the Dallas Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Dana of the Northern District of Texas and Trial Attorneys Rose E. Gibson and Kathryn E. Gilbert of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division are prosecuting the case.

The Department of Justice today reached a settlement agreement with El Expreso Bus Company (El Expreso), a company that provides intercity passenger bus service, headquartered in Houston, Texas. The agreement resolves the Department of Justice’s investigation into whether El Expreso unlawfully denied employment to qualified and available U.S. workers because it preferred to hire temporary visa workers with H-2B visas. This agreement is the sixth settlement under the Civil Rights Division’s Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative, which is aimed at targeting, investigating, and taking enforcement actions against companies that discriminate against U.S. workers in favor of temporary visa workers.

The Department’s investigation determined that El Expreso failed to consider applications from qualified U.S. workers for its temporary bus driver positions and then petitioned for H-2B visa workers to fill the positions, even though the H-2B visa program requires employers to recruit and hire available and qualified U.S. workers before they receive permission to hire temporary foreign workers. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) prohibits employers from discriminating in the hiring process based on a worker’s citizenship status or national origin. Refusing to hire or consider U.S. citizens because of their citizenship status violates the anti-discrimination provision of the INA.    

“Employers cannot discriminate against qualified U.S. workers because they prefer to hire visa holders,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband of the Civil Rights Division. “This agreement is part of the Civil Rights Division’s continuing commitment to protect U.S. workers from discrimination, and we look forward to working with El Expreso as a partner in compliance.”

Under the settlement, El Expreso must engage in enhanced recruiting and job advertising efforts to attract qualified U.S. workers before using temporary visa programs. El Expreso must also set aside $197,500 to pay any wages lost by U.S. workers whose applications it improperly rejected or ignored, pay $31,500 in civil penalties to the United States, and be subject to monitoring compliance by the Department of Justice.

Under the Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative, the Civil Rights Division has opened dozens of investigations, filed one lawsuit, and reached settlement agreements with six employers. Since the Initiative’s inception, employers have agreed to pay or have distributed nearly $1 million in back pay to affected U.S. workers and civil penalties to the United States. The Division has also increased its collaboration with other federal agencies to combat discrimination and abuse by employers using foreign visa workers. 

The Division’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) is responsible for enforcing the anti-discrimination provision of the INA. Among other things, the statute prohibits citizenship status and national origin discrimination in hiring, firing, or recruitment or referral for a fee; unfair documentary practices; and retaliation and intimidation. 

More information on how employers can avoid unlawful citizenship status discrimination is available here. For more information about protections against employment discrimination under immigration laws, call IER’s worker hotline at 1-800-255-7688 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); call IER’s employer hotline at 1-800-255-8155 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); sign up for a free webinar; email IER@usdoj.gov; or visit IER’s English and Spanish websites. Subscribe to GovDelivery to receive updates from IER.

Applicants or employees who believe they were subjected to: discrimination based on their citizenship, immigration status, or national origin in hiring, firing, or recruitment or referral for a fee; discrimination in the employment eligibility verification process (Form I-9 and E-Verify) based on their citizenship, immigration status or national origin; or retaliation can file a charge or contact IER’s worker hotline for assistance.

A Texas man was sentenced on Wednesday to 27 years in federal prison for his role in a large-scale jewelry robbery, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox.

At a trial in Dallas last October, Treveon Dominique Anderson, 28, of Houston Texas, was convicted of conspiring with 13 other individuals to rob Tilak Jewelers in Irving, Texas. Shortly after the robbery, evidence showed, Mr. Anderson and his co-conspirators returned to Houston and began selling the stolen jewelry to “fences” there.

Thanks to the dogged work of the FBI’s Violent Crime Squad, all involved – including the three fences – have been identified and charged.

Mr. Anderson, who has been in custody since his arrest in February 2016, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery, one count of interference with commerce by robbery, one count of using, carrying, and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence, and two counts of kidnapping. 

According to the testimony at trial, in the early morning hours on November 17, 2013, Mr. Anderson and 12 co-conspirators traveled from Houston to the Dallas area to rob Tilak Jewelers in Irving, Texas.

After arriving in Dallas, they stole a cargo van and a minivan. Then, while three of the conspirators positioned themselves outside the jewelry store to watch for law enforcement, Mr. Anderson, along with five other coconspirators, drove together in the stolen cargo van to Tilak Jewelers.

Once there, the conspirators disguised their identities with gloves, long-sleeved shirts, pants, and items covering their faces. One conspirator then smashed the jewelry store’s locked glass door with a hammer.

After gaining entry, as Mr. Anderson and two others brandished handguns, the conspirators restrained the owners of the jewelry store with zip-ties, smashed numerous jewelry display cases, and stole jewelry.

After securing the jewelry, they fled the scene in the stolen cargo van, which they abandoned at a predetermined location, where another conspirator was waiting in the stolen minivan. They were then driven to another predetermined location, where yet another conspirator was waiting in a switch vehicle.

After a short drive in the switch vehicle, the group handed off the stolen jewelry to another conspirator for transportation to Houston, where the Tilak tags were removed during a brief stop at a Houston strip club. 

Mr. Anderson’s codefendants include:  Afraybeom Traverom Jackson, 27, Joshua Deunte Caldwell, 26, Dominique Pearson, 25, Hilton Murdock Aitch, 56, Irving Tyrone Flanagan, 47, Larry Solomon, 42, Terrence Lynn Thompson, 53, Anthony Ray Turner, Jr, 25, Michael Cornelious, 27, Xavier Rashad Ross, 25, Vanlisa Scott, 47, and Jimmy Hatchett, 54.  Out of the 13, 11 pled guilty and two -- Anderson and Jimmy Hatchett – were convicted after trial. One passed away before he could be brought to justice. Three fences have also been charged with lying to FBI Special Agents during the investigation. Two have pleaded guilty.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Irving Police Department, and Houston Police Department conducted in the investigation. U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade presided over the trial. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Walt Junker, John DeLaGarza, and Keith Robinson prosecuted the case. 

Senior leaders from the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) traveled to China last week to meet with Chinese prosecutors, judges, academics and other officials to promote cooperation on enforcement of environmental laws and the importance of the rule of law.

On May 20, 2019, Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jonathan D. Brightbill met with personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, including the Deputy Chief of Mission Robert Forden and the Legal Advisor of the Department of Justice to the U.S. Embassy, Richard Daynes. The visit to the Embassy included an evening presentation to the general public at the Beijing American Center about ENRD’s robust enforcement of the United States’ environmental and wildlife protection laws. The presentation was followed by a question and answer session with an audience of over 100, including area law students and interested parties. A focus of discussion was recent changes to China’s environmental enforcement laws and public interest litigation practices.

Later that week, Assistant Attorney General Clark and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brightbill addressed Chinese prosecutors, judges, academics, and other Chinese officials at the National Prosecutors College of China. They discussed the relationship of constitutional law, federalism, and the separation of powers to the practice of environmental law and enforcement in the United States, highlighting the importance of the rule of law. Mr. Clark and Mr. Brightbill also participated in a two-day conference on U.S.-China Watershed Management and Public Interest Litigation, co-sponsored by the U.S.-Asia Partnerships for Environmental Law at Vermont Law School. The Assistant Attorney General’s presentations and remarks emphasized the Trump Administration’s role in reinvigorating the ideals of individual liberty, respect for private property rights, valuing the role of state and local governments, advancing the ability of people to be self-reliant and economically productive, and the appropriate use of the United States’ abundant natural resources.

While in China, Assistant Attorney General Clark, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brightbill, and Department of Justice Legal Advisor Daynes also met with environmental enforcement officials from the Chinese Supreme People’s Procuratorate and judges of China’s Supreme People’s Court. The Assistant Attorney General and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General also lectured at the Law School of the China University of Political Science and Law.

The Department of Justice today announced that it reached a settlement agreement with WesPak Inc., an agricultural company located in Dinuba, California. The settlement resolves the Department of Justice’s investigation into whether the company discriminated against workers based on their citizenship status in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) when verifying their authorization to work.

The investigation concluded that WesPak discriminated against lawful permanent resident workers by unnecessarily requiring them to re-prove their work authorization when their original documents expired, even though the workers’ original documents — such as Permanent Resident Cards — demonstrated that they were permanently authorized to work in the United States. The anti-discrimination provision of the INA prohibits employers from making unnecessary requests for documentation to prove work authorization based on a worker’s citizenship status or national origin.

Under the settlement, WesPak will pay a civil penalty to the United States, train its human resources personnel on the requirements of the INA’s anti-discrimination provision, and be subject to compliance monitoring by the Department of Justice. 

“Employers must carefully examine their procedures for reverifying continuing work authorization to ensure that they protect workers against discrimination based on citizenship status, and we are pleased with WesPak’s agreement to do so,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband of the Civil Rights Division.

The Civil Rights Division’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) is responsible for enforcing the anti-discrimination provision of the INA. Among other things, the statute prohibits discrimination against individuals who are authorized to work based on citizenship status and national origin in hiring, firing, or recruitment or referral for a fee; unfair documentary practices; retaliation; and intimidation.

Employers can find information on how to avoid unlawful discrimination based on citizenship status or national origin here. Workers can find information about their rights under the anti-discrimination provision of the INA here. For more information about protections against employment discrimination under the INA, call IER’s worker hotline at 1-800-255-7688 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); call IER’s employer hotline at 1-800-255-8155 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); sign up for a free webinar; email IER@usdoj.gov; or visit IER’s English and Spanish websites.  Subscribe to GovDelivery to receive updates from IER.

Applicants or employees who believe they were subjected to discrimination based on their citizenship, immigration status, or national origin in hiring, firing, or recruitment or referral for a fee; discrimination in the employment eligibility verification process (Form I-9 and E-Verify) based on their citizenship, immigration status, or national origin; or retaliation can file a charge or contact IER’s worker hotline for assistance.

The Department of Justice today announced that it has reached a settlement agreement with Stanislaus County, California. The settlement resolves the Department of Justice’s investigation into whether the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department engaged in prohibited hiring practices in violation of the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

The Department’s investigation concluded that the Sheriff’s Department improperly delayed rehiring a former deputy sheriff who was a lawful permanent resident (LPR) because he was not a U.S. citizen. The INA prohibits employers from discriminating in the hiring process based on citizenship status against certain categories of individuals, including recent LPRs, unless necessary to comply with a specific legal requirement. Because the affected individual was an LPR who had applied for and was eligible for naturalization, he met all applicable citizenship requirements under California law and should have been rehired.

The investigation also concluded that Stanislaus County posted job advertisements for deputy probation officers, deputy sheriffs, trainees, and interns with language that unlawfully excluded applications from some eligible LPRs, in violation of the INA.

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Stanislaus County will pay $7,000 in civil penalties, engage in training its human resources staff on the anti-discrimination provision of the INA, and review and revise its job advertisements and questionnaires to ensure compliance with the anti-discrimination provision of the INA. The settlement agreement also acknowledges that, after receiving notice of the investigation, the Sheriff’s Department rehired the affected individual with back pay for lost wages.

“We commend Stanislaus County for its cooperation and corrective action,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband of the Civil Rights Division. “Qualified non-citizens who meet all legal citizenship requirements and wish to protect and serve their communities should not face unnecessary and unlawful barriers based on citizenship status. We are pleased that Stanislaus County has committed to ensuring compliance with the anti-discrimination provision of the INA.”

The Civil Rights Division’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) is responsible for enforcing the anti-discrimination provision of the INA. Among other things, the statute prohibits discrimination against individuals who are authorized to work based on citizenship status and national origin in hiring, firing, or recruitment or referral for a fee; unfair documentary practices; retaliation; and intimidation.

Employers can find information on how to avoid unlawful discrimination based on citizenship status or national origin here. Workers can find information about their rights under the anti-discrimination provision of the INA here. For more information about protections against employment discrimination under the INA, call IER’s worker hotline at 1-800-255-7688 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); call IER’s employer hotline at 1-800-255-8155 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); sign up for a free webinar; email IER@usdoj.gov; or visit IER’s English and Spanish websites. Subscribe to GovDelivery to receive updates from IER.

Applicants or employees who believe they were subjected to discrimination based on their citizenship, immigration status, or national origin in hiring, firing, or recruitment or referral for a fee; discrimination in the employment eligibility verification process (Form I-9 and E-Verify) based on their citizenship, immigration status, or national origin; or retaliation can file a charge or contact IER’s worker hotline for assistance.

"Today we remember that our freedom was bought at a price," Attorney General William P. Barr said. "Over the course of our history, countless Americans have willingly laid down their lives so that the people of this great nation could continue to live in peace, prosperity, and liberty. We owe them a debt of gratitude that we can never fully repay. Today, I join with all Americans in pausing to remember them, honoring their sacrifice, and resolving to preserve the precious freedom and order that these heroes so selflessly won for each of us."

A Texas couple was convicted yesterday of conspiracy and tax charges by a federal jury in Austin, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

Michael Herman and his wife, Cynthia Herman were convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States by impeding the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and of filing false individual income tax returns for tax years 2010 and 2011. The jury also convicted Michael Herman of filing false 2010 through 2012 corporate income tax returns. 

According to the evidence introduced at trial, the Hermans owned and operated three establishments: Cindy’s Gone Hog Wild, a restaurant and bar in Travis County, Texas, and two restaurants in Bastrop County, Texas, Cindy’s Downtown and Hasler Brothers Steakhouse. The Hermans skimmed cash from the restaurants by depositing only a portion of the restaurants’ cash receipts into their business bank accounts and reported only those deposits on the corporate and individual income tax returns. The evidence at trial showed that the Hermans failed to deposit approximately $570,000 in cash receipts into their business bank accounts. The Hermans also paid for personal expenses out of the business accounts, including repair of their personal swimming pool, utilities for their home, and the salary of a household employee. Michael Herman signed and filed the false 2010 through 2012 income tax returns filed on behalf of Cindy’s Gone Hog Wild Inc.

U.S. District Court Judge Xavier Rodriguez has not set a sentencing date. The Hermans each face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison on the conspiracy charge and three years in prison on each of the false tax return charges. They also face a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman thanked agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Trial Attorneys Robert A. Kemins and David Zisserson, who are prosecuting the case. Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman also thanked the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas for their substantial assistance.

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

WASHINGTON – Attorney General William P. Barr issued the following statement:

"Jeffrey Rosen is a distinguished lawyer who has served at the highest levels of government and the private sector," said Attorney General William P. Barr. "As an attorney, he has more than 35 years’ experience litigating complex matters in state and federal courts across the country, including as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis. He supervised more than 400 attorneys while serving as General Counsel at the Department of Transportation and also served as General Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor at the White House Office of Management and Budget. In his most recent position, he served as Deputy Secretary of Transportation, where he successfully led 50,000 employees.  His years of outstanding legal and management experience will make him an excellent Deputy Attorney General.”   

The Department of Justice today honored Detective Christie Hirota and five other members of the Sacramento Valley, California, High Tech Crimes Task Force for their investigation that resulted in the timely arrest of a sexual predator who victimized at least five children and who had a foster child in his care at the time of his arrest.

Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed O’Callaghan, Office of Justice Programs Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Matt Dummermuth, and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Administrator Caren Harp presented Hirota and other task force members with the Missing Children’s Child Protection Award during the Justice Department’s National Missing Children’s Day ceremony. The award recognizes the extraordinary efforts of law enforcement officers who make a significant investigative or program contribution to protect children from abuse or victimization.

Other task force members recognized included:

• Detective James Williams, Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department
• Detective Melinda Gobron, Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department

• Special Agent Scott Schofield, FBI, Sacramento Field Office

• Investigator George Vasiliou, California Highway Patrol
• Detective Avis Beery, Sacramento Police Department

“The vigilance of this task force proves that there is a critical need for dedicated and timely investigative work in the fight to stop child exploitation,” said Administrator Caren Harp. “The Justice Department commends the Sacramento Valley High Tech Crimes Task Force for bringing this sex offender to justice and their commitment to stopping further child victimization.”

Hirota led a task force investigation into the suspect immediately after patrol officers received a Secure Digital (SD) memory card containing imagery of a partially-clothed boy from an acquaintance of the suspect. Through police and social service reports, Detective Hirota discovered that the suspect had a history of troubling behavior with boys, and that he currently had a foster child in his home. Just after midnight, Detective Hirota received a search warrant, which led to the seizure and subsequent review of multiple digital storage devices containing pornographic images of the suspect’s foster children. Within 48 hours of the initial patrol officers’ report, the task force’s investigation led to the suspect’s arrest on the charge of molesting four children.

The Department also recognized 11 other law enforcement officers for their investigations of child predators who sexually assaulted children, or created or viewed child pornography, as well as two firefighters who found a lost six-year-old boy. Harp also recognized Madison Dozier, a fifth grader at Reiley Elementary School in Alexandria, Kentucky, as the 20th winner of the National Missing Children’s Day poster contest.    

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

The Office of Justice Programs, directed by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Matt M. Dummermuth, provides federal leadership, grants and resources to improve the nation’s capacity to prevent and reduce crime, assist victims and enhance the rule of law by strengthening the criminal justice system. More information about OJP and its components can be found at www.ojp.gov.

The Department of Justice today recognized 17 law enforcement officers from California, Florida, and Texas, as well as two firefighters from Tennessee, for their efforts to find missing children and bring child sexual predators and child pornographers to justice.

Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed O’Callaghan, Office of Justice Programs (OJP) Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Matt Dummermuth, and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Administrator Caren Harp presented the awards during the Department’s National Missing Children’s Day ceremony.

“Those recognized today epitomize the dedication of law enforcement officers, investigative officials, and private citizens who make a difference in the lives of children every day,” said Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed O’Callaghan. “Their vigilant and selfless actions remind us of our responsibility to protect children and bring to justice those who attempt to exploit them. The Department of Justice is proud to honor these champions of justice and public safety.”

The ceremony, hosted by OJJDP, included recognition of Madison Dozier, a fifth grader at Reiley Elementary School in Alexandria, Kentucky, this year’s National Missing Children’s Day poster contest winner.    

The following awards were presented:

Attorney General’s Special Commendation: This commendation recognizes the extraordinary efforts and significant investigative or program contributions of an Internet Crimes Against Children task force or affiliate agency, or an individual assigned to either.

Recipient: Detective Lorraine Szczepanik of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office and South Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, whose timely investigation into a person suspected of viewing and sharing child pornography online led to the discovery of thousands of images and videos of child victims, as well as online conversations that led to the identification of three additional child pornographers.  

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

Recipients: Six members of the Round Rock, Texas, Police Department; three special agents from the San Antonio FBI Field Office (Austin and Laredo Resident Agencies); and a Texas Ranger from Austin collaboratively investigated and tracked down a suspect who kidnapped two missing sisters, ages 7 and 14, from their home in Round Rock. The sisters were found unharmed 700 miles away when the suspect was pulled over following issuance of an AMBER Alert and other alerts in Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado.

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

Recipients: Detective Christie Hirota and five other members of the Sacramento Valley, California, High Tech Crimes Task Force led an investigation that resulted in the arrest, just 48 hours after receipt of the initial report, of a foster parent who abused his foster children and produced child pornography. 

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

Recipients: Firefighters Aaron Woods and Michael Webb of the Blount County, Tennessee, Fire Department led a seven-hour portion of a 22-hour search across 2,000 acres of rugged, wooded terrain—on foot and by air—to find a six-year-old boy and his dog less than 24 hours after they were reported missing.

Other speakers at the ceremony included John F. Clark, president and chief executive officer of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, and Yvonne Ambrose, founder of the Desiree Foundation Against Sex Trafficking.

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

In 2018, there were 424,066 missing children entries in the FBI’s National Crime Information Center. Additional information about National Missing Children’s Day is available online. 

The Office of Justice Programs, directed by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Matt M. Dummermuth, provides federal leadership, grants and resources to improve the nation’s capacity to prevent and reduce crime, assist victims and enhance the rule of law by strengthening the criminal justice system. More information about OJP and its components can be found at www.ojp.gov.

The Department of Justice today honored 10 Texas-based law enforcement officers who rescued two sisters abducted from their home in Round Rock, Texas.

Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed O’Callaghan, Office of Justice Programs Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Matt Dummermuth, and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Administrator Caren Harp presented the officers with the 2019 Missing Children’s Law Enforcement Award during the Justice Department’s National Missing Children’s Day ceremony. This award recognizes the extraordinary efforts of law enforcement officers who have made a significant investigative or program contribution to the safety of children. 

On New Year’s Eve 2017, officers responded to a homicide scene in Round Rock, Texas. A woman had been murdered, and her 7- and 14-year-old daughters were missing. After an AMBER Alert was issued, credible sightings of the girls were also reported in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, which led officials to issue alerts in all three states.

Through a combination of digital evidence, forensic processing, cell phone analysis, interviews, surveillance images and tips from the public, investigators discovered the suspect’s location. On Jan. 3, 2018, the sisters were found unharmed when the suspect was apprehended during a traffic stop near La Veta, Colorado—700 miles away from their home. The suspect had a long criminal history, including charges of attempted murder, rape, and child pornography. He was arrested and extradited to Texas, where he was subsequently convicted on two federal counts of kidnapping, one count of transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and one count of travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct. He was sentenced May 21, in Austin, Texas, to life in federal prison.

Award recipients include officers from Round Rock, Austin, and Laredo, Texas.

Officers from the Round Rock Police Department:

• Sergeant Darin Bayles
• Detective Bernardo Villegas
• Lieutenant Robert Drawbaugh
• Crime Scene Specialist Kerie McKown
• Detective Robert Watts (Retired)
• Detective Kevin Bender

Officers from the FBI San Antonio Field Office, Austin Resident Agency:

• Special Agent Sean M. Mullen
• Special Agent Jacob E. Baillie

Officer from the FBI San Antonio Field Office, Laredo Resident Agency (now with the FBI’s Honolulu Field Office):

• Special Agent Andrew Masters

Officer from the Texas Ranger Division, Texas Department of Public Safety, Austin:

• Ranger Gary Phillips

“This collaborative team of law enforcement officers from multiple cities and states worked around the clock during this four-day manhunt,” said Administrator Caren Harp. “The Department of Justice praises their swift efforts in rescuing these children and bringing this individual to justice.”

The Department also recognized seven other law enforcement officers for their investigations of child sexual predators who sexually assaulted children, or created or viewed child pornography, as well as two firefighters who found a lost six-year-old boy. Harp also recognized Madison Dozier, a fifth grader at Reiley Elementary School in Alexandria, Kentucky, as the 20th winner of the National Missing Children’s Day poster contest.

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

The Office of Justice Programs, directed by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Matt M. Dummermuth, provides federal leadership, grants and resources to improve the nation’s capacity to prevent and reduce crime, assist victims and enhance the rule of law by strengthening the criminal justice system. More information about OJP and its components can be found at www.ojp.gov.

The Department of Justice today recognized two Tennessee-based firefighters who led a seven-hour search that led to the discovery of a missing six-year-old boy and his dog.

Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed O’Callaghan, Office of Justice Programs Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Matt Dummermuth, and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Administrator Caren Harp presented the Missing Children’s Citizen Award to Firefighters Aaron Woods and Michael Webb of the Blount County Fire Department in Maryville, Tennessee, during the Department’s National Missing Children’s Day ceremony. This award recognizes private citizens for extraordinary acts that lead to the safe recovery of missing or abducted children.

“The exhaustive search led by Mr. Woods and Mr. Webb as part of a broader effort to find this missing child epitomizes their dedication to duty and ‘others before self’ attitude,” said Administrator Caren Harp. “The Department of Justice applauds these brave firefighters, along with those law enforcement and Tennessee National Guardsmen who quickly mobilized and tirelessly searched to bring this boy and his dog home safely.”

After the Blount County, Tennessee, Fire Department was notified of the missing boy on April 23, 2018, the department organized a search of approximately 100 participants, including first responders from the local sheriff’s department, fire department, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, and Army National Guard. The 22-hour-search spanned 2,000 acres of rugged, wooded terrain—on foot and by air—on and around Chilhowee Mountain and the Top of the World Community Recreation Center, where the child was last seen. Woods and Webb led a team of reinforcements to continue the search. After seven additional hours, the firefighters found the boy and his dog and ensured the boy received immediate medical treatment for exposure.

The Department also recognized 17 law enforcement officers for their investigations of child predators who sexually assaulted children, or created, viewed, and/or distributed child pornography. Harp also recognized Madison Dozier, a fifth grader at Reiley Elementary School in Alexandria, Kentucky, as the 20th winner of the National Missing Children’s Day poster contest.    

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

The Office of Justice Programs, directed by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Matt M. Dummermuth, provides federal leadership, grants and resources to improve the nation’s capacity to prevent and reduce crime, assist victims and enhance the rule of law by strengthening the criminal justice system. More information about OJP and its components can be found at www.ojp.gov.

The Department of Justice today recognized Detective Lorraine Szczepanik of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for her investigation and subsequent arrest of three local child pornographers and the identification of a fourth suspect. Three were prosecuted, pleading guilty to possession of child pornography and receiving prison sentences. A case is pending against the fourth suspect.

Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed O’Callaghan, Office of Justice Programs Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Matt Dummermuth, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Administrator Caren Harp presented the Attorney General’s Special Commendation to Szczepanik during the Department’s National Missing Children’s Day ceremony. The special commendation recognizes Internet Crimes Against Children task forces, affiliate agencies, or an individual assigned to either for making significant investigative or program contributions.

“Detective Szczepanik’s thoroughness in her investigation helped bring not one, but at least three perpetrators of internet-based crimes against children to justice,” said Administrator Care Harp. “The Department of Justice applauds her efforts and stands with the South Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force as we continue to improve public safety for America’s children.”

Szczepanik’s investigation led her to the first suspect after two separate cyber tips reported child pornography use on Google and Tumblr. The suspect admitted his guilt in downloading and viewing child pornography. A search of his digital devices, along with a partial forensic examination, revealed thousands of pornographic images and videos of infants and toddlers, as well as online conversations that identified the three other pornographers.    

The Department also recognized 16 other law enforcement officers for their investigations of child predators who sexually assaulted children, or created or viewed child pornography, as well as two firefighters who found a lost six-year-old boy. Harp also recognized Madison Dozier, a fifth grader at Reiley Elementary School in Alexandria, Kentucky, as the 20th winner of the National Missing Children’s Day poster contest.    

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

The Office of Justice Programs, directed by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Matt M. Dummermuth, provides federal leadership, grants and resources to improve the nation’s capacity to prevent and reduce crime, assist victims and enhance the rule of law by strengthening the criminal justice system. More information about OJP and its components can be found at www.ojp.gov.

Four individuals in Flint, Michigan, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to impede the lawful functions of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and steal from an organization receiving federal funds, announced Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

Jayson Rosett, Robert Rosett, Carol Almeranti, and Karen Miller each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to defraud the United States by impeding the lawful functions of the IRS and one count of conspiring to commit theft from an organization receiving federal funds.  

According to court documents, from July 2012 through April 2018, Jayson Rosett, a resident of Bloomfield Hills, Robert Rosett, a resident of Boca Raton, Florida, Carol Almeranti, a resident of Farmington Hills, and Karen Miller, a resident of St. Clair Shores, engaged in a scheme in which Almeranti and Miller stole traffic crash reports from the Detroit Police Department (DPD) and delivered them to the Rosetts for regular cash payments. Many of the stolen DPD crash reports were marked “unapproved” and were not publicly available. Jayson Rosett and others used the stolen reports to solicit crash victims for clients of a business Rosett operated, including personal injury lawyers, chiropractors, and healthcare professionals.

United States District Court Judge Matthew F. Leitman scheduled sentencing for Jayson Rosett on Oct. 1, for Carol Almeranti and Karen Miller on Oct. 3, and for Robert Rosett on Oct. 8. All four defendants face a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each individual count of conspiring to defraud the United States and conspiring to commit theft from an organization receiving federal funds. Each defendant also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Goldberg thanked special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Tax Division Trial Attorneys Mark McDonald and William Guappone, who are prosecuting the case.

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

A federal court entered a consent decree of permanent injunction requiring a multi-site outsourcing compounding pharmacy, headquartered in Illinois, to comply with provisions of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) while manufacturing, holding, and distributing drugs.

In a complaint filed May 20, 2019, at the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the United States alleged that PharMedium Services LLC (PharMedium) violated the Act by distributing adulterated, misbranded, and unapproved new drugs in interstate commerce. As described in the complaint, PharMedium operated four registered outsourcing facilities in Tennessee, Mississippi, Texas, and New Jersey. According to the complaint, PharMedium’s drugs were adulterated because they were prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby they may have been contaminated with filth or rendered injurious to health and because PharMedium failed to comply with current good manufacturing practices. The complaint also alleged that PharMedium distributed unapproved new drugs and misbranded drugs because PharMedium failed to comply with all of the requirements for drugs compounded in a registered outsourcing facility.

As a result of FDA inspections, PharMedium voluntarily ceased operations at one facility in Memphis, Tennessee. The company also agreed to be bound by a consent decree filed with the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. In addition, Scott Aladeen, PharMedium’s new president, and Warren Horton, PharMedium’s new vice president for Quality and Research & Development, are named in the complaint and consent decree as the individuals responsible for establishing and maintaining PharMedium’s current and future compliance with the Act.

“The Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that compounding pharmacies follow safety laws that protect consumers,” said Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division. “We will continue to work with the FDA to ensure that drugs are manufactured and distributed appropriately under the law.”

“PharMedium exposed patients across the United States to risk of receiving a harmful drug, which we find unacceptable,” said Acting FDA Commissioner Ned Sharpless M.D. “We will continue to take appropriate enforcement actions when compounding pharmacies and outsourcing facilities produce drugs under substandard conditions or use inappropriate practices that could lead to serious harm to patients.”

The consent decree entered by the court permanently enjoins the defendants from violating the Act. As part of the settlement, PharMedium may not manufacture, hold, or distribute its drugs from the Memphis facility unless PharMedium complies with specific remedial measures set forth in the consent decree. PharMedium must also comply with remedial measures to ensure compliance with the Act at its other facilities and at its headquarters in Illinois.

Trial attorneys Shannon Pedersen and Claude Scott of the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch represented the United States, along with the assistance of Associate Chief Counsel Laura Akowuah of the FDA’s Office of Chief Counsel and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.

Additional information about the Consumer Protection Branch and its enforcement efforts may be found at http://www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch. For more information about the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, visit its website at https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil.

President Donald J. Trump and Attorney General William P. Barr today awarded the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor to 14 recipients – two posthumously – who exhibited exceptional courage in saving and protecting others and whose heroic actions went above and beyond the call of duty. The Medal of Valor, authorized by the Public Safety Medal of Valor Act of 2001, is awarded by the President to public safety officers nominated by the directors of their employing agencies and recommended by the Medal of Valor Review Board. The Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance oversees the Medal of Valor.  

“The work that first responders do every day is heroic, and each one of them deserves our gratitude,” said Attorney General William P. Barr. “Even among these selfless public servants, some have distinguished themselves through exceptional acts of valor. Today, the men and women of the Department of Justice are proud to join with President Trump in honoring 14 first responders who did just that, including two who gave their lives in the line of duty. These brave Americans exemplify what serving as a first responder is all about: selflessness, poise, and sacrifice.” 

Today’s recipients of the Medal of Valor include the following officers:

• Fallen Officer Sergeant Verdell Smith Sr., City of Memphis Police Department, Tennessee, for giving his own life to save the lives of civilians in the path of a driver speeding recklessly through a crowd
• Fallen Officer Brent Thompson, Dallas Area Rapid Transit Police Department, Texas, for giving his life while engaging a mass shooter at a protest march and saving the lives of countless civilians and fellow officers
• Lieutenant Xavier Torres, Retired; Sergeant Seth Chapman; Sergeant Terry Smith Jr., Retired; Sergeant Thomas Avila III; and Sergeant Rocky Wenrick; Corporal Andrew Rodriguez Jr., Retired; and Senior Officer Carlos Plascencia, Azusa Police Department, California; and Detective Manuel Campos, Irwindale Police Department, California, for placing themselves in mortal danger and saving the lives of civilians and fellow officers during a mass shooting incident on Election Day, 2016
• University Law Enforcement Officer Alan Horujko, Ohio State University Police Division, for risking his life to save the lives of several civilians from a driver who sped through a crowd and then emerged from his car to attack pedestrians with a knife
• Senior Trooper Nicholas Cederberg, Oregon State Police, for placing himself in the line of fire and suffering life-threatening injuries in order to bring a murderer to justice
• Fire Captain Dustin Moore and Firefighter Paramedic Andrew Freisner, Lenexa Fire Department, Kansas, for risking their lives to rescue a family from a burning apartment building

“These 14 recipients represent a proud tradition of service, one that has been ennobled by their valiant actions,” said Office of Justice Programs Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Matt M. Dummermuth, whose office oversees BJA. “We stand in awe of these extraordinary public servants and are inspired by their courageous example.”

“Public safety officers report to work each day knowing full well the risks inherent in the jobs they undertake, yet they do not shrink from their duty,” said BJA Director Jon Adler. “By standing tall in the face of danger, these brave men and women have done their communities an immeasurable service and they have done their profession tremendous credit.”

Including today’s awardees, a total of 139 medals have been presented since the first recipients were honored in 2003. More information about the award and today’s recipients, the Medal of Valor Review Board members and the nomination process can be found here: www.ojp.gov/medalofvalor. 

A federal grand jury in the Northern District of Georgia has returned a three-count indictment against a former commissioner in DeKalb County, Georgia, for extorting bribe payments from a DeKalb County subcontractor.  Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division made the announcement.

Sharon Barnes Sutton, 59, of Stone Mountain, Georgia, was arraigned on an indictment that charges her with two counts of extortion and one count of federal program bribery by U.S. Magistrate Judge Russell G. Vineyard for the Northern District of Georgia.

According to the allegations in the indictment, Barnes Sutton was an elected member of the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners (“the DeKalb Board”), representing District No. 4 of DeKalb County.  The DeKalb Board is comprised of seven elected, part-time commissioners.  Among other functions, the DeKalb Board appropriates funds for infrastructure development within the county, and a simple majority of four commissioners is needed to award public contracts for any such project.  The indictment alleges that, during the relevant time period, Barnes Sutton also chaired the DeKalb Board’s subcommittee on Finance, Audit, and Budget, which undertook preliminary reviews of contracts, and was a member of the DeKalb Board’s subcommittee on Public Works and Infrastructure.

The indictment further alleges that, in May 2014, Barnes Sutton approached an individual whose company had received a sizeable procurement award from the DeKalb Board in connection with the construction of a wastewater treatment plant.  Barnes Sutton demanded monthly payments of $500 from this individual, later increasing her demand to $1,000.  The individual made the first $500 payment in June 2016 at a restaurant in Decatur, Georgia.  The indictment further alleges that Barnes Sutton asked the individual to meet her at the restaurant and brought her son along so that her son would receive the cash payment on her behalf.  The individual made the second $500 cash payment at Barnes Sutton’s residence in July 2014.  The FBI disrupted Barnes Sutton’s continued demands in August 2014.

The indictment is the result of an ongoing investigation by the FBI’s Atlanta Field Office and the DeKalb County Police Department, and is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Amanda R. Vaughn and Victor R. Salgado of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section.

The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

The Department of Justice announced today that it has filed an unopposed motion to intervene in a private antitrust class action challenging alleged agreements between Duke University (Duke) and the University of North Carolina (UNC) not to compete for each other’s medical faculty.  At the same time, the Department joined the parties’ proposed settlement agreement for the limited purpose of obtaining the right to enforce an injunction designed to prevent the maintenance or recurrence of any unlawful no-poach agreements.  If approved by the court, the settlement would give the United States the right to enforce an injunction and certain compliance and reporting requirements against Duke.  The case is Seaman v. Duke University and Duke University Health System, Case No. 15-cv-00462, in the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.

Under the terms of the proposed settlement, Duke is prohibited from entering, maintaining, or enforcing unlawful no-poach agreements for five years.  The settlement, if approved by the court, also requires Duke to implement rigorous notification and compliance measures to preclude its entry into these types of anticompetitive agreements in the future. 

“Dr. Seaman’s class action challenged alleged anticompetitive conduct occurring at the intersection of two important sectors of the U.S. economy: healthcare and higher education,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.  “Today’s filings, along with the Statement of Interest we filed in March, make clear that the Antitrust Division will use all of its enforcement and advocacy tools to ensure that labor markets across the economy are free from anticompetitive conduct and that workers receive the benefits of robust competition for their labor.”

On June 9, 2015, Dr. Danielle Seaman, an assistant professor at Duke University School of Medicine, filed a class action alleging that Duke and UNC agreed not to permit lateral hiring of faculty between the universities.  Her complaint further alleged that the universities’ agreement violates Section 1 of the Sherman Act by eliminating competition for faculty, restricting their mobility, and suppressing their compensation.  In 2018, the court certified a class comprised of faculty members with an academic appointment at the Duke or UNC Schools of Medicine.

In March 2019, the Department’s Antitrust Division filed a Statement of Interest in this lawsuit addressing the proper application of the antitrust laws, including the standard for judging the legality of alleged no-poach agreements under the Sherman Act.  In April 2019, the litigants announced an agreement to settle the case.  The Department sought to intervene in the litigation for the limited purpose of joining the proposed settlement and thereby obtaining the right to enforce any injunctive relief entered by the court against Duke. 

“I would like to thank our colleagues at the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of North Carolina for their assistance,” said Assistant Attorney General Delrahim. “In addition, we commend the litigants for working cooperatively with us throughout the resolution of this matter, including for agreeing to permit the United States to seek to intervene in this settlement.  Permitting the United States to become part of this settlement agreement in this private antitrust case, and thereby to obtain all of the relief and protections it likely would have sought after a lengthy investigation, demonstrates the benefits that can be obtained efficiently for the American worker when public and private enforcement work in tandem.”

Duke is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina.  It has several schools and institutes, including the Duke University School of Medicine.

Attorney General William P. Barr today announced the third annual Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in Policing. 

The Attorney General’s Award recognizes individual state, local or tribal sworn, rank- and-file police officers, deputies and troopers for exceptional efforts in community policing. The awarded officer(s), deputy(ies) or troopers will have demonstrated active engagement with the community in one of three areas: criminal investigations, field operations, or innovations in policing.

“Law enforcement officers put their safety and lives on the line every day for our protection," Attorney General William P. Barr said. "They have a noble calling, and we are grateful to every officer in this country. But some officers have gone above and beyond the call of duty and deserve to be recognized for particular acts of valor and dedication. Today I am pleased to announce the third annual Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in Policing, which recognizes the accomplishments of outstanding state and local officers who have proven themselves to be some of the nation’s finest."

President Donald J. Trump established clear directives for the Department of Justice – with three Executive Orders – demonstrating his strong support of the law enforcement community. These Executive Orders commit the Department to working in tandem with state and local law enforcement to restore the rule of law, reduce violent crime, dismantle criminal gangs, and combat the growing drug epidemic. Today the Department of Justice continues to support the President’s directive to honor law enforcement officers by announcing the third annual Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in Policing.

Within each category, an award will be given to law enforcement agencies serving small, medium, and large jurisdictions:

• Small: Agencies serving populations of fewer than 50,000
• Medium: Agencies serving populations of 50,000 to 250,000
• Large: Agencies serving populations of more than 250,000

By distinguishing and rewarding these efforts, the Department strives to promote and sustain its national commitment to policing and to advance proactive policing practices that are fair and effective.

With the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in Policing, the Office of the Attorney General recognizes that the nation’s more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies, individual officers, deputies, and troopers are working hard to keep our communities safe.

The application for nominees can be found at: https://www.justice.gov/ag/policing-award.

Thank you for that kind introduction.  I am pleased to be here as I begin my first visit to China in any capacity.

I very much appreciate the opportunity to discuss U.S. environmental law enforcement, generally, and how the important work of the Environment Division fits into that larger framework.

Robust enforcement of our nation’s environmental and wildlife protection laws is a high priority and a vital feature of the Division’s mission.  In pursuing our enforcement mission, we strive to adhere to the fair and impartial rule of law, enhance federalism, exercise pragmatic decision-making, coordinate and collaborate with lead agencies and U.S. Attorneys, and protect the public fisc.

Before I get into the specifics of our work, however, I’d like to provide an overview of environmental law in the United States as a reference point.

The United States’ political system is not entirely centralized.  In fact, our system of government, in many ways, structurally encourages participation by many independent actors – by states, by a range of business interests, by individuals and private interest groups of all types.

Because of our country’s political structure, Congress often seeks to exercise its powers by encouraging States to implement national programs.  This allows the federal government to set national minimum standards that the states implement and exceed where they wish.  This arrangement is commonly referred to as “cooperative federalism.”  I also support classic federalism pursuant to which certain spheres of authority are left exclusively to the States.  Indeed "left to the States" is not an accurate term, since the States are governments with general sovereign powers, whereas the federal government is confined to enumerated powers.

Cooperative federalism ensures a greater balance of authority between the US federal and state governments.  The federal government often provides states with incentives to participate in particular federal programs.

Cooperative federalism is a feature of many U.S. environmental laws.  The Clean Air Act is a good example.  The federal government sets national ambient air quality standards.  States determine how to meet those standards.  This process involves each state creating a “State Implementation Plan” that limits emissions from industry within their own State and explains how any given State will enforce any emission limitations.

The federal government can enforce limits set through this process, as can the state.  Additionally, the Clean Air Act contains a citizen suit enforcement provision.  This creates yet another level of enforcement, one that serves to both supplement and check state and federal authority.

The Environment and Natural Resources Division actively promotes joint state-federal environmental enforcement, which underlies the whole nature of federalism in general and in its cooperative form, a concept central to the structure of our federal environmental laws.  By teaming up with state partners in both enforcement and defensive cases, we combine sovereigns, reduce costs and obtain more comprehensive results.

Now I will turn to environmental law enforcement in the U.S. and where the Environment Division fits into that structure.

Environmental enforcement in the U.S. is often described from a quantitative perspective as a huge pyramid of actors and actions.

At the base of the pyramid are environmental enforcement cases brought by state and local government officials, as well as citizens and tribes.  Of these, state agencies bring the largest number each year.

States have their own court systems.  Though it’s unusual for the federal government to participate in state court, it does happen sometimes.  This sometimes involves situations where the U.S. has waived its sovereign immunity.

Their enforcement actions range from cases seeking simple citations imposing a small monetary fine, to orders directing a company to comply with the law, to civil or criminal judicial enforcement actions in state or federal court.

The next level of the pyramid includes administrative actions brought by EPA to enforce U.S. environmental laws.

But U.S. environmental statutes generally place limits on the extent of penalties or other relief that EPA and other agencies may seek in administrative enforcement actions.  This is because (a) agencies exercise only delegated judicial powers that we call "quasi-judicial" powers and (b) agencies do not provide the full measure of due process protections available in our so-called Article III Courts.

And so, for more serious violations of environmental laws in which a higher penalty is required or more extensive steps are needed to bring a defendant into compliance with the law or to respond to environmental harms resulting from a violation, EPA will refer the matter to the Justice Department for enforcement action in federal court.

ENRD also receives referrals from other federal agencies for violations of environmental laws under their agency’s jurisdiction.  For example, the U.S. Coast Guard sends us referrals for oil pollution cases.

The Division can bring either civil cases or criminal cases.  Taking those two types of cases in turn, I call it the next level simply because civil enforcement is generally less coercive though even that is not always true.  Civil injunctions can be more coercive than civil cases.  Civil cases comprise the next level of the pyramid.

Nearly all modern federal environmental laws in the U.S. have civil enforcement provisions that allow the Justice Department to seek injunctive relief, civil penalties, recovery of government response costs, enforcement of administrative orders, and other relief.

Finally, in the most serious cases involving violations of environmental laws, we pursue criminal enforcement actions, often times on top of civil enforcement, not in lieu of criminal enforcement.  Although this is the smallest group of cases (i.e., top of the pyramid), they can often provide the most deterrent value because they can result in large monetary fines, imprisonment, and ongoing monitoring of operations to ensure that the defendant complies with the law in the future.

The Division has been in existence for nearly 110 years and is built upon a history of service, integrity, and adherence to the rule of law.

We began as a very small Division created to handle all cases concerning “enforcement of the Public Land Law,” including Indian rights cases.  Initial staff consisted of 9 people -- 6 attorneys and 3 stenographers -- to carry out those responsibilities.

Many of these issues arose from an effort to balance competing interests related to westward expansion (e.g., preservation of natural spaces, resource disputes on public and tribal lands, balancing private and public property rights, and other such issues).

Our numbers grew over the course of the 20th Century to reflect our growing responsibilities under emerging environmental and natural resources laws in the U.S.

Our litigation responsibilities at present are broad and include:

Enforcing the nation’s civil and criminal pollution-control laws,

Defending environmental challenges to federal agency programs and activities,

Representing the United States in matters concerning the stewardship of the nation’s natural resources and public lands,

Acquiring real property,

Bringing and defending cases under the wildlife protection statutes, and

Litigating cases concerning the resources and rights of Indian tribes and their members.

Fiscal year 2018 – extending from October 1, 2017, through September 30, 2018 – was a successful year for the Division’s enforcement program.  ENRD obtained over $3.2 billion in injunctive relief, over $100 million in costs and over $54 million in civil penalties.  I personally negotiated the final stages of a more than one-half billion dollar case for auto-emissions cheating against Fiat Chrysler late last year.  ENRD also achieved criminal convictions of 47 defendants in 31 cases.  We secured criminal penalties totaling $48 million, and confinement totaling 65 years for 70 individuals.

I think it is fair to say that, in this Administration, we are seeing a reinvigoration of the ideals that are part of the fabric of the United States: individual liberty, respect for private property rights, prioritizing enforcement against cheating and malum in se (evil in itself) actions, not just penalizing technical violations, valuing the role of state and local governments, advancing the ability of people to be self-reliant and economically productive, and wisely using our abundant natural resources.

Much of our litigation directly supports the policy priorities of the Administration, as implemented by federal agencies.

For example, we support the Administration’s efforts to secure our Nation’s borders, and are assisting our client agencies in implementing the President’s January 2017 Executive Order directing the Secretary of Homeland Security to “immediately plan, design and construct” a “physical wall” or “barrier” along the border between Mexico and the United States.

The Division is aiding in the acquisition of land for the wall, fencing, towers, roads, infrastructure, and agent housing (along with developing associated title and appraisal work), as well as addressing legal challenges under a host of environmental, procedural, and inverse takings statutes.  The Division is supporting the acquisition of land for the project by ensuring that proper survey work and title review is completed, as well as by ensuring negotiations and consultations are conducted with landowners prior to acquisition through condemnation.  This is because the Fifth Amendment to our Constitution protects all people against unlawful takings of private property without due process of law.

ENRD is also providing expert appraisal review services in connection with land acquisitions to ensure uniformity in the valuation of the land.  This ensures uniform results to satisfy the mandate of the U.S. Constitution for just compensation in the form of market value fair to both the landowners and the citizens who must pay for this land.

This Administration is also committed to course corrections in key areas within the purview of our Division.  The President has directed new approaches to reduce regulatory burdens, especially for agriculture, energy development, infrastructure projects, and manufacturing; and to promote development of America’s energy resources, while also protecting the environment.

The Division is—and will continue to be—key to successful implementation of these new directions for the U.S.  The Division’s efforts have included managing a number of existing cases challenging agency regulations now under review in this Administration.

ENRD’s work supports our nation’s investment in infrastructure development and energy security.  Rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure is a critical part of the President’s agenda to promote job creation and grow the U.S. economy.

ENRD also continues to assist client agencies as they advance the goals of the President’s March 2017 Executive Order “Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth.”

Our Division vigorously defends the President’s energy agenda in the courts, which includes defending the Administration’s approvals for energy projects, from coast-to-coast.  This includes representing the United States in lawsuits challenging coal mining projects, oil and gas development on public lands, offshore energy production, and many other vital energy decisions by the Administration.

In our work, we aim to avoid unnecessary litigation, support the integrity of the administrative process, and conserve the resources of the courts, the agencies, and other litigants.  In doing so, we preserve the rightful prerogative of the new Administration to review the costs and benefits of regulations and to chart a new direction where appropriate.

Now that I have given you a flavor of the thousands of cases ENRD handles each year, I want to focus on our work in the enforcement arena.

ENRD is involved in many ways in wildlife protection in the U.S. and abroad.  One area of increased attention and litigation for the Division has been the wide ranging efforts to stem wildlife trafficking.

With estimated annual revenues of $10 billion or more, wildlife trafficking is one of the most profitable types of transnational organized crime, behind only drugs, counterfeiting and human trafficking.  In the past decade, wildlife trafficking has escalated into an international crisis.

ENRD implements a robust program of international activities that advances the goals of President Trump’s Executive Order on Enforcing Federal Law with Respect to Transnational Criminal Organizations and Preventing International Trafficking (Feb. 9, 2017).

Our prosecutors bring cases involving wildlife trafficking, and other transnational environmental crimes, in order to thwart criminal organizations and persons engaged in illicit activities that present a danger to public safety and national security.  Illegal trade at the scale seen in wildlife trafficking threatens security, hinders sustainable economic development and undermines the rule of law.

In addition to prosecuting these cases, Division attorneys provide critical training for law enforcement partners in other countries to help them work more effectively with us in investigating and prosecuting transnational environmental crimes.  Attorneys from the Division also participate in negotiation and implementation of trade agreements and international environmental agreements, to ensure they promote effective environmental enforcement.

Division attorneys also provide leadership in international law enforcement organizations.  For example, we work with groups such as the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) that promote international efforts to combat transnational criminal organizations.  ENRD also represents the Department on the Presidential Task Force on Wildlife Trafficking, which the Department co-chairs along with the Departments of State and the Interior.

Over the past year we continued to work closely with the other federal agencies on the Task Force to implement the requirements of the Eliminate, Neutralize, and Disrupt (or END) Wildlife Trafficking Act and develop new reports to Congress that analyze global challenges to combatting wildlife trafficking and provide a new, country-specific focus to our ongoing efforts.  We also supported the Office of the Attorney General to prepare the Attorney General at the time to lead the United States delegation and deliver the statement of the United States at the October 2018 London Conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade.  Later that month, we took the lead role in presenting the Attorney General’s Forum on Combating Poaching and Wildlife Trafficking, which assembled governmental and non-governmental leaders to assess the challenges and potential responses to this form of transnational crime.

Through the Division’s capacity-building efforts, our attorneys work to help law enforcement partners, particularly in countries where illegal poaching of wildlife and deforestation occur, to strengthen their evidence-gathering abilities and improve their judicial and prosecutorial effectiveness.  These training programs also foster positive relationships with prosecutorial counterparts, thereby increasing the Division’s ability to prosecute under U.S. criminal laws such as the Lacey Act and Endangered Species Act.

In fiscal year 2018 [October 1, 2017, through September 30, 2018], Division attorneys provided training on combatting wildlife trafficking and associated financial crimes for prosecutors, magistrates, and judges – often at the request of the State Department, other federal agencies or the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime – in countries across the globe, including Africa, Asia and Latin America.  This included prosecutor training in Malaysia that coincided with participation in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Wildlife Conference.  We also supported the Justice Department’s placement in Laos of an ENRD prosecutor as a Resident Legal Advisor focused on wildlife trafficking in the Southeast Asia region.

In addition to our wildlife trafficking work, prosecutors from the Division now lead annual pollution enforcement workshops at the State Department’s International Law Enforcement Academies (ILEAs) in Thailand, Hungary, El Salvador and Botswana.  Division attorneys also provided training for vessel pollution prosecutions in Singapore and South Africa.

Of course, as important as this work is, it comprises only a very small part of our environmental enforcement work.  Our primary focus, as you might imagine, is on domestic enforcement of U.S. environmental laws, so I will turn to that now.

The Division plays a critical role enforcing federal environmental laws, both criminally and civilly.  These include the Clean Air Act (CAA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund Law), to name just a few.  The main federal agencies the Division represents in these areas are the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG).

The Division’s attorneys help to keep our nation’s waters clean by enforcing the CWA, which is the primary federal statute protecting the quality of the nation’s water, and regulates pollution from both industrial and municipal facilities.  Together with the Oil Pollution Act, the CWA also prohibits oil spills.

The Division also requires responsible parties to clean up hazardous waste and to reimburse the government for cleanups already conducted by the United States by filing federal lawsuits under CERCLA, or the Superfund Law.

The CERCLA program operates on the principle that the cost of cleaning up a site should fall not on taxpayers, but on those responsible for the contamination.  Our CERCLA litigation primarily deals with contamination left behind by past operations.

But sometimes an agency of the federal government, such as the Defense Department or the Energy Department, is one of the entities responsible for some portion of the contamination at a site.  ENRD lawyers seek to limit the liability of the U.S. in such cases to only that portion of the contamination caused by the federal government, and to protect the taxpayers from unwarranted expenditures, by ensuring that other contributors pay their fair share.  In that situation, Division attorneys must work together to defend the interests of the United States as a whole.

ENRD enforces the Clean Air Act, which is the primary federal statute protecting the quality of the nation’s air.  The pollutants regulated under the CAA have numerous adverse effects on human health, including severe respiratory and cardiovascular impacts and premature death, and are significant contributors to acid rain, smog, and haze.

Now I would like to illustrate several of the topics I have touched upon with a recent example of a significant CAA enforcement case in which we partnered with a state to secure both penalties and injunctive relief.

On January 10, 2019, the United States and the State of California announced a settlement with Fiat Chrysler resolving alleged violations of the CAA and California law.

The United States’ case against the automaker — In Re: Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep Ecodiesel Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation (N.D. Cal.) — began in May 2017, when the Division filed a civil complaint alleging that the company had used “defeat devices” to cheat on emissions tests.

A defeat device is something — here software — that reduces the effectiveness of the emission control system during normal on-road driving conditions.  Defeat devices detect when a vehicle is being tested for compliance with emissions standards and fully activate the vehicle’s emissions controls.  During normal driving conditions, however, defeat-device software renders certain emission control systems completely or partially inoperative, greatly increasing the vehicle’s emissions.

The United States’ complaint alleged that Fiat Chrysler equipped over 100,000 3.0-liter “EcoDiesel” Ram 1500 and Jeep Grand Cherokee vehicles in model years 2014 through 2016 with illegal defeat devices.  EPA discovered the defeat devices during enhanced vehicle testing at the National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory.

If the settlement agreement is approved by the court, Fiat Chrysler will implement a recall program to repair noncompliant diesel vehicles.  To offset the air pollution emitted by the non-compliant vehicles, the settlement requires Fiat Chrysler to work with one or more vendors of aftermarket catalytic converters and improve the efficiency of 200,000 converters sold in the 47 States that do not already require the use of the California-mandated high-efficiency gasoline-vehicle catalysts.

The mitigation program under the joint U.S. and California settlement is expected to fully mitigate nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions caused by Fiat Chrysler’s violations outside of California.  The recall and mitigation project required by the joint U.S. and California settlement is estimated to cost approximately $185 million.  (The State of California has a separate settlement with Fiat Chrysler with a separate mitigation program that will fully address excess NOx from affected vehicles in California.  That mitigation project is expected to cost $19 million.)  To resolve the alleged violations of the CAA, Fiat Chrysler will pay a penalty of $305 million.  All told, as I had noted before, the total value of federal relief exceeds $500 million.

As you can see, the work of ENRD has grown in ways that no one would have imagined in 1909 when the Attorney General first established the Division.  I have offered you but a few examples of the breadth of ENRD’s work.

Thank you again for inviting me to speak with you tonight.  I welcome your questions.

At its annual conference, the International Competition Network (ICN) established a Framework on Competition Agency Procedures (CAP) that reflects the commitment by its participants to uphold fundamental procedural fairness principles and adopted Recommended Practices for Investigative Process that offer aspirational guidance and norm-setting principles on procedural fairness. The ICN also presented reports on vertical mergers, vertical restraints, competition agency design, and private enforcement, the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced today. The ICN announced that the United States will host the 2020 ICN annual conference in Los Angeles, California.

The ICN held its 18th annual conference, hosted by Colombia’s Superintendence of Industry and Commerce, on May 15-17, 2019, in Cartagena, Colombia. Nearly 500 delegates from more than 80 jurisdictions participated, including competition experts from international organizations and the legal, business, academic, and consumer communities. The Department of Justice’s delegation was headed by Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim, and FTC Chairman Joseph J. Simons led the FTC delegation. The conference highlighted the achievements of the ICN working groups on cartels, mergers, unilateral conduct, competition advocacy and agency effectiveness, and featured discussion of the challenges of digitalization.

The conference approved two significant instruments to promote and strengthen procedural fairness in competition agency proceedings. The CAP came into effect on May 15, 2019, with the ICN announcing 62 participating agencies. The CAP establishes fundamental, procedural fairness principles that address non-discrimination, transparency, notice and meaningful engagement, timely resolution, confidentiality protections, impartiality, access to information and opportunity to defend, representation by counsel, written decisions, and independent review. By joining the CAP, competition agencies affirmatively indicate their intention to adhere to the principles laid out in the Framework. The principles are further supported by implementation provisions that facilitate agency-to-agency cooperation on procedures and regular review of CAP operations. While sponsored by the ICN, the CAP is open to all competition agencies around the world, including both ICN members and agencies that are not members of the ICN.

The U.S. Department of Justice served as co-chair for the Agency Effectiveness Working Group, which developed the Recommended Practices for Investigative Process in conjunction with the FTC.  The Recommended Practices establish detailed, aspirational, procedural fairness norms for competition agency investigative tools, transparency, engagement during investigations, decision-making safeguards, and confidentiality protections. As Recommended Practices, they are the ICN highest level consensus statement on agency procedures and procedural fairness.

“The ICN has become a crucial instrument for dialogue, cooperation, and convergence within the global antitrust community,” said Assistant Attorney General Delrahim.  “The Annual Conference provides us all with an opportunity to reflect on the great progress that has been made in competition policy and enforcement around the world, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.”

On May 15, 2019, Assistant Attorney General Delrahim spoke on a panel celebrating the launch of the ICN CAP. The panel recognized the historic nature of the multilateral framework. The principles outlined by the Multilateral Framework on Procedures, as described by Assistant Attorney General Delrahim in a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations on June 1, 2018, served as a foundation for the CAP.  The CAP was adopted by the ICN on April 3, 2019, and it became open for all competition agencies to join as participants on May 1, 2019.

Chairman Simons helped lead the conference’s panel discussion of Merger Review in the 2020s. The Panel explored whether and how digitalization and globalization are likely to change merger review in the 2020s, given their continued influence on the evolution of competition policy. The FTC has for the past three years co-chaired the ICN’s Merger Working Group, which promotes convergence toward best practices in merger process and analysis and seeks to reduce the public and private costs of multijurisdictional merger reviews. This year, the Merger Working Group presented a report on vertical mergers and promoted the use of its Framework for Merger Review Cooperation, developing explanatory material on the types of documents typically exchanged in multijurisdictional merger review to support sound enforcement cooperation.

“Understanding how a market works is crucial to assessing a merger’s competitive impact, and more learning about digital markets can help refine our competition assessments. Yet digital markets do not require significant changes to our existing merger laws or analysis,” said Chairman Joseph Simons. “This is because our antitrust framework has consistently proven that it is sufficiently robust and flexible to fit new markets and new ways of doing business.”

Deputy Assistant Attorney General Roger Alford moderated a panel discussing agency effectiveness through organizational design.  The panel was part of the Agency Effectiveness Working Group project on competition agency choices in the design of their enforcement programs.

Randolph Tritell, Director of the FTC’s Office of International Affairs, led the concluding panel, showcasing how diverse competition agencies around the world benefit from implementing all types of ICN work product.

The Unilateral Conduct Working Group presented its project on vertical restraints. The project examined a series of hypothetical vertical restraints and their effect on competition and potential resulting efficiencies. 

The Cartel Working Group presented a new chapter on private enforcement for the working group’s Anti-Cartel Enforcement Manual and a report on leniency incentives.

The Advocacy Working Group compiled case studies as part of its Strategy Project, with specific examples of how agencies have developed strategies and assessed their advocacy initiatives. The working group also drafted a report on ICN member competition advocacy initiatives involving digital markets.

Created in October 2001 to increase understanding of competition policy and promote convergence toward sound antitrust enforcement around the world, the ICN, founded by 15 agencies including the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and the FTC, has grown to 139 member agencies from 126 jurisdictions, supported by a wide network of non-government advisors from around the world.

WASHINGTON – On May 2, 2019, Attorney General William P. Barr approved the creation of the State and Local Law Enforcement Coordination Section (SLEC-S) within the Office of Legislative Affairs. As of June 3, 2019, the SLEC-S will be responsible for ensuring that Department leadership is properly informed of state and local law enforcement’s top priorities, while working to ensure that the Department has an impactful presence within the state and local law enforcement community. SLEC-S will serve as the primary liaison with state and local law enforcement, and all supporting entities.

“State, local, and federal law enforcement officers are all a part of the same team," Attorney General William P. Barr said. "The events of Police Week serve as a powerful reminder that the vast majority of this team serves on the front lines — at the state and local levels. In order to further strengthen the Department of Justice's relationships with our state and local law enforcement partners, I am pleased to announce that the Department has established a State and Local Law Enforcement Coordination Section. This new Section will have primary responsibility for maintaining relationships with law enforcement throughout the country and will ensure that Department leadership maintains an active and ongoing dialogue with our law enforcement partners as we work together to develop policies designed to keep our country safe and secure.”

The SLEC-S will begin by developing a strategic plan for direct engagement between the Department and the state and local law enforcement community. The Section will work to ensure that the Department is represented at all relevant conferences and forums and that there is direct and timely outreach to survivors of fallen officers. The Section will also support Department components on relevant legislative and policy issues affecting local law enforcement partners. The Section will coordinate with the Department’s Intergovernmental and Public Liaison, who will continue to work with state Attorneys General and other state and local elected officials, and will include members from law enforcement components within the Department of Justice.

A federal grand jury in Wilmington, Delaware, returned a four-count indictment today charging Evridiki Navigation Inc., Liquimar Tankers Management Services Inc., and Nikolaos Vastardis with failing to keep accurate pollution control records, falsifying records, and obstruction of justice, the Justice Department announced.

According to the indictment, the charges stem from the falsification of records and other acts designed to conceal from the Coast Guard inspectors impermissible overboard discharges of oily bilge water from the Nigerian-flagged oil tanker, M/T Evridiki.  According to the indictment, on or about March 11, 2019, Vastardis, who was the chief engineer for the ship, failed to maintain an accurate oil record book which fully recorded both the discharge overboard of bilge water that had accumulated in machinery spaces, and any failure of the ship’s oil filtering equipment. Additionally, when the ship’s pollution control equipment was inspected by the Coast Guard, Vastardis made false statements concerning how the equipment was operated at sea, and demonstrated how the equipment was operated at sea in a manner designed to trick the equipment into reporting the discharge of oily bilge water at permissible levels.

The vessel’s management company, Liquimar Tankers Management Services; the vessel’s owner, Evridiki Navigation; and Vastardis are all charged with failing to maintain an accurate oil record book as required by the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, a U.S. law which implements the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, commonly known as MARPOL.  The defendants are also charged with falsification of records, obstruction of justice, and making false statements. 

An indictment is merely an accusation and defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

The case was investigated by the Coast Guard Investigative Service.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Edmund Falgowski of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware, and Joel La Bissonniere, Trial Attorney with the Department of Justice’s Environmental Crimes Section.