District Not Recorded

United States Attorney Trent Shores announced that a federal Grand Jury indicted 22 people for their roles in drug trafficking and money laundering operations that included the use of Casa Herrera, a local money remitter business.

The two Indictments charged Alfredo Herrera, 73, of Bartlesville, Domingo Aguirre, 60, of Tulsa, and Javier Passement, 53, of Tulsa, with violating federal money laundering and drug conspiracy statutes. Herrera is the owner and operator of Casa Herrera. Aguirre and Passement worked as employees of Casa Herrera. The Grand Jury also indicted Pedro Perez, Jr., 65, of Broken Arrow, who owns and operates Servicios Perez, another local money remitter business alleged to have laundered drug proceeds to a Mexican source of supply. The Indictments allege that these money remitter businesses distributed large quantities of methamphetamine throughout Tulsa and surrounding areas.  According to the Indictments, drug proceeds would be transmitted by wire transfer to a Mexican source of supply using “nominee names.”  A “nominee name” is used to hide the true recipient of the money.

United States Attorney Shores stated, “Drug abuse in our country is an epidemic. We must dismantle the criminal organizations bringing drugs into our communities. This Indictment is a step toward disrupting the flow of methamphetamine from Mexican sources of supply into Tulsa. Methamphetamine has inflicted too much damage on Oklahomans. My office will seek to hold these drug dealers accountable in a federal court.”

These Indictments are the result of a joint investigation involving the Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, and Tulsa Police Department.

“The Drug Enforcement Administration appreciates the extensive collaborative effort of our local, state, and federal partners that resulted in the successful federal indictment of 22 defendants in this multi-jurisdictional case which targeted a Mexico-based methamphetamine distribution organization with direct ties to Mexican Cartel sources. The dismantlement of this drug trafficking organization represents yet another outstanding example of what can be accomplished when law enforcement resources at all levels are combined and focused on a common goal,” said Richard W. Salter Jr., Assistant Special Agent in Charge DEA – Oklahoma.

Kathryn Peterson, Special Agent in Charge, FBI-Oklahoma City Division, further stated, “The Federal Bureau of Investigation remains committed to working with our local, state, and federal partners to protect the citizens of Oklahoma against organized crime and criminal actors whose illegal activities threaten the stability of the communities we serve.”

Chief Chuck Jordan of the Tulsa Police Department said, “The Tulsa Police Department will continue to protect its citizens from these violent drug cartel organizations operating in Tulsa by working in partnership with all of our federal law enforcement partners and the United States Attorney’s Office on cases such as this. The men and women of the Special Investigations Division, especially, contributed a lot of time and hard work towards this case and I’m proud of their efforts.”

The cases will be prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel-lyn A. McCormick. AUSA McCormick serves as the lead attorney for the United States Attorney’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces.

An Indictment is a formal statement of charges or alleged violations of law. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The Justice Department today announced that it reached an agreement with the City of Minneapolis to resolve its lawsuit alleging discrimination on the basis of disability and genetic information. The Justice Department’s complaint alleges that the Minneapolis Police Department failed to hire a veteran because of his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The complaint also alleges that Minneapolis violated Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) by routinely requesting and obtaining genetic information from applicants for police officer positions during the pre-employment examination process. This is the Department’s first lawsuit challenging discrimination under Title II of GINA.

Based on its investigation, the Department concluded that the Minneapolis Police Department violated the ADA by refusing to hire a veteran because of his PTSD, even though he was qualified for the job and his condition did not interfere with his ability to work. After the applicant was rejected, he was hired as a police officer at another police department and was promoted to the SWAT team. The Department also determined that Minneapolis routinely obtained genetic information, including family medical history, from applicants for police officer positions. Title II of GINA prohibits employers from requesting or requiring genetic information with respect to employees, applicants, or family members of employees or applicants.  

Under the three-year agreement, Minneapolis will pay $189,338.89 in back pay and other damages to the complainant. In addition, Minneapolis will implement policies, practices, and procedures to ensure that it does not discriminate in its hiring practices on the basis of disability, and does not request, require, or unlawfully obtain information in violation of the ADA or GINA. Minneapolis will also train Police Department employees who are involved in hiring-related personnel decisions, or who have access to applicants’ confidential medical information, on the ADA and GINA.

“Veterans who are qualified should not face discriminatory barriers to employment because they have post-traumatic stress disorder or other disabilities, and no applicant or employee should be asked to disclose genetic information unlawfully, including family medical history,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore of the Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department will continue to protect veterans and other people with disabilities from discrimination in the workplace, and we commend the Minneapolis Police Department for committing to change its policies, train staff, and compensate the complainant.”

This matter was based on a referral from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Minneapolis Area Office.

To read the settlement agreement, please click here, and to read the complaint, please click here. For more information on the Civil Rights Division, please visit www.justice.gov/crt. For more information on the Civil Rights Division’s Disability Rights Section, please call the department’s toll-free ADA Information Line at 800-514-0301 (TDD 800-514-0383) or visit www.ada.gov.

A federal court in Orlando, Florida entered a permanent injunction against Herve Erilus and Herve Erilus, LLC, barring them from preparing federal tax returns for others and owning or operating a tax preparation business, the Justice Department announced today.  The court also ordered that Herve Erilus and Herve Erilus, LLC disgorge $107,895.34, representing the ill-gotten gains that they received for the preparation of tax returns.  The order was signed by Judge John Antoon II of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. 

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a refundable tax credit available to certain low-income working people. In this case, the court found that Erilus and Herve Erilus LLC, an entity through which Erilus owns and operates a tax preparation store doing business as Travelers Tax Center, prepared tax returns that included fraudulent claims for the EITC, often based on bogus dependents, fabricated business income and expenses, and/or false filing status. The court also determined that Erilus and Herve Erilus LLC systematically and repeatedly prepared tax returns that falsely claimed: (1) education credits and (2) self-employed business income and/or expenses. The court concluded that injunctive relief and an order requiring that Erilus and Herve Erilus LLC disgorge the ill-gotten gains that they received for the preparation of tax returns making such false claims was appropriate.

The IRS has a list of steps on its website that you can take and ten tips for choosing a tax preparer. Each year, the IRS releases the top 12 scams, known as the Dirty Dozen. Return preparer fraud is one of the IRS’s Dirty Dozen Tax Scams for 2018, and taxpayers seeking a return preparer should remain vigilant. The IRS has some information on its website for choosing a return preparer and has launched a free directory of federal tax preparers.

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

Rasheed Al Jijakli, 57, a Syrian-born naturalized U.S. citizen of Walnut, California, pleaded guilty yesterday to a charge of conspiring to export U.S.-origin tactical gear to Syria in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and Syria Sanctions.  Jijakli’s guilty plea was accepted by United States District Judge James V. Selna of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

The guilty plea was announced by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney Nicola T. Hanna of the Central District of California, Assistant Director in Charge Paul D. Delacourt of the FBI’s Los Angeles Division, and Special Agent in Charge Richard Weir of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Export Enforcement Los Angeles Field Office.

In the factual basis filed as part of the plea agreement, Jijakli admitted that from April 2012 through March 2013, he conspired with other individuals to export tactical gear, including U.S.-origin laser boresighters, day and night vision rifle scopes, and other items (Tactical Gear) from the United States to Syria.  From June through July 2012, Jijakli and one of the co-conspirators (Co-conspirator 1) purchased the Tactical Gear. On July 17, 2012, Jijakli traveled from Los Angeles, California to Istanbul, Turkey with the Tactical Gear, with the intent that it would be provided to Syrian rebels training in Turkey and fighting in Syria. Jijakli provided some of the Tactical Gear, specifically the laser boresighters, to a second co-conspirator who Jijakli learned was a member of Ahrar Al-Sham. Jijakli also provided the goods to other armed Syrian insurgent groups in Syria and Turkey. In total, Jijakli and co-conspirators knowingly provided at least 43 laser boresighters, 85 day rifle scopes, 30 night vision rifle scopes, tactical flashlights, a digital monocular, 5 radios, and 1 bulletproof vest to Ahrar Al-Sham and other Syrian rebels in Syria, or with knowledge that the Tactical Gear was going to Syria. Also, in August and September 2012, Jijakli directed co-conspirators to withdraw thousands of dollars from Palmyra Corporation, where Jijakli was the Chief Executive Officer, to pay for Tactical Gear for Syrian rebels. 

Jijakli was indicted by a federal grand jury on July 14, 2017.  He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison when sentenced on December 3, 2018.  The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of Jijakli will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.

The prosecution is the result of an investigation conducted by the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Export Enforcement, and IRS Criminal Investigation. 

This is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S Attorney Mark Takla of the Central District of California and Trial Attorney Christian Ford of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.    

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island today announced a settlement agreement with the Providence public school district that will provide English language services to the district’s 8,000 students who currently lack fluency in English.  The agreement, which stems from the United States’ investigation under the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974, will ensure that these English Learner students receive the services they need to succeed in the district’s educational programs.  

Under the agreement, the district will:

• Properly identify and place English Learner students when they enroll in the district’s 41 schools, and communicate with parents about program offerings and other essential information in a language they understand; 
• Provide adequate English language services to all English Learner students so that they can become proficient in English and access grade-level core content instruction;
• Ensure appropriate services for English Learner students with disabilities;
• Secure a sufficient number of teachers who are certified in English as a Second Language, and train the administrators and teachers who implement the English Learner programs; and
• Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of its English Learner programs over time.

“The Department of Justice commends the district for cooperating throughout the investigation, and the Superintendent for his commitment to helping English Learner students succeed and thrive in school,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore. “We look forward to working together to implement this promising settlement agreement.”

“As a result of this settlement agreement, English Learner students will now receive all of the services they are legally entitled to and deserve,” said U.S. Attorney Stephen G. Dambruch for the District of Rhode Island. 

The enforcement of the Equal Educational Opportunities Act is a top priority of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.  Additional information about the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department is available on its website at www.justice.gov/crt.

A Monroe, North Carolina resident was sentenced today to 18 months in prison for attempting to interfere with the due administration of the Internal Revenue laws, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

According to court documents, between October 2007 and September 2011, Billy Darryl Floyd committed acts in order to obstruct and impede the Internal Revenue Service.  These acts include filing false income tax returns, which falsely reported that his income was zero.  Additionally, Floyd submitted fictitious “Surety Bonds” to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) attempting to satisfy his outstanding tax liability.  Floyd also disrupted the IRS sale of property seized from him to satisfy his outstanding tax liabilities by threatening IRS employees conducting the sale and threatening to sue the buyer of the property.  At the sale, Floyd falsely told potential buyers that the sale was illegal and that they would not receive good title to the property. These actions caused IRS personnel to halt the public sale of this property.  Floyd’s obstructive acts caused a tax loss of approximately $170,471.    

In addition to the term of prison imposed, U.S. District Court Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr. ordered Floyd to serve one year of supervised release and to pay $170,471 in restitution to the IRS.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman commended special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Trial Attorney Gregory Bailey of the Tax Division, who prosecuted the case.  

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

The Justice Department today announced that it has reached a settlement with Mississippi Delta Community College (MDCC) to resolve allegations that MDCC discriminated against Pamela Venton on the basis of race in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended. Title VII is a federal statute that prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, and religion. 

According to the United States’ complaint, filed today in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, MDCC did not have a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for paying Pamela Venton, who is black, a significantly lower annual salary than four of her white coworkers working in the same position with the same duties and responsibilities. Ms. Venton complained internally about the wage disparities and, while MDCC agreed to adjust her salary beginning with the next academic school year, it did not compensate Ms. Venton for her lost wages.

 “This settlement agreement reflects the Civil Rights Division’s continued commitment to vigorous enforcement of Title VII’s prohibition against race-based pay decisions,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore of the Civil Rights Division.

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, MDCC has agreed to pay $75,000 in back pay and compensatory damages to Ms. Venton. In addition, MDCC has agreed to implement appropriate training on identifying and correcting unlawful wage discrimination.

Ms. Venton originally filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC’s Jackson, Mississippi, office investigated the charges and made reasonable cause findings. After unsuccessful conciliation efforts, the EEOC referred the charges to the Justice Department. 

The United States is represented in this case by Trial Attorney Torie Atkinson of the Civil Rights Division’s Employment Litigation Section.

More information about Title VII and other federal employment laws is available on the Civil Rights Division’s website at http://www.justice.gov/crt.    

The Department of Justice today announced that it has reached a settlement agreement with Native American Community Health Center (Native Health), a private corporation located in Phoenix, Arizona. The settlement agreement resolves allegations that Native Health violated the employment rights of Commander Mario L. Islas, a Navy Reservist, under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA).     USERRA safeguards the rights of uniformed servicemembers, including Reservists, to all benefits of employment following periods of absence due to military service obligations.

Commander Islas was a Family Practice Physician for Native Health before being promoted to Medical Director in September 2014.  According to the complaint that Commander Islas filed with the Department of Labor (DOL), his military service and status as a Navy Reservist were motivating factors in Native Health’s decision not to renew his employment contract in 2016. The DOL complaint alleged that on Oct. 30, 2015, Commander Islas notified Native Health that he would be attending pre-mobilization training in December 2015 and January 2016; would be deployed overseas starting in March 2016; and would return to his position as Medical Director in early 2017. In a letter dated Jan. 25, 2016, Native Health notified Commander Islas that it would not be renewing his employment contract.    

Under the terms of the settlement, Native Health has agreed to pay Commander Islas $25,000 in monetary relief for lost wages and benefits. In addition, Native Health will provide training on servicemembers’ rights to its managers, supervisors and administrative staff, and will review and revise, if necessary, its employee handbook to ensure that current and future employees are aware of their USERRA rights.

“Members of our Navy Reserve, like Commander Islas, make many sacrifices in defense of our country, including spending months or years away from their jobs and families,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore. “The Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that our servicemembers’ employment rights are protected while they are away defending our country.”

Commander Islas initially filed his complaint with the Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS), which investigated the matter and attempted to reach a resolution between the parties. VETS referred the complaint to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Employment Litigation Section, after resolution efforts failed.

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

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division today announced the formation of the Newark/Philadelphia Regional Medicare Fraud Strike Force (Regional Strike Force), a joint law enforcement effort that brings together the resources and expertise of the Health Care Fraud Unit in the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section (HCF Unit), the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the District of New Jersey and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, as well as law enforcement partners at the FBI, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG) and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski was joined in the announcement by U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito for the District of New Jersey; U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania; Assistant Director Robert Johnson of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division; Deputy Inspector General Gary Cantrell of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) and Assistant Administrator John Martin of the DEA.

“The devastation the opioid epidemic is inflicting on communities across the country and here in the Mid-Atlantic region is staggering—and health care fraud has played a role in feeding that epidemic,” said Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski.  “It is estimated that each year tens of billions of dollars in American taxpayer money are lost to fraud, waste, abuse and improper payments.  According to the CDC, in 2016, more than 40 percent of all U.S. opioid overdose deaths involved a prescription opioid.  Our Medicare Fraud Strike Forces, which we have now expanded into Newark and Philadelphia, constitute one of our most important and effective means for containing these threats to the American people.”

“New Jersey is home to some of the best healthcare facilities and most successful pharmaceutical companies in the country,” said U.S. Attorney Carpenito.  “Unfortunately, that also means that we offer substantial targets for those who would try to defraud the health care system or try to profit from the misery of people battling addiction to opioids. We’ve already developed one robust unit to go after these criminals (the Healthcare & Government Fraud Unit), and I added another (the Opioids Unit) in February upon rejoining the office as U.S. Attorney.  The arrival of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force in our District will serve as an additional force-multiplier and enable us to do even more of these cases, further protecting the citizens of New Jersey from this kind of fraud and abuse.”

“Combatting the opioid epidemic and healthcare fraud abuses are major priorities of the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania,” said U.S. Attorney McSwain.  “Healthcare fraud schemes are driven by greed, and all American taxpayers pay the price for criminals who prey on providers and beneficiaries alike.  My Office is honored and proud to welcome the DOJ Medicare Fraud Strike Force to our District in order to attack these problems with our law enforcement partners.”

“Healthcare fraud touches every corner of the United States and not only costs taxpayers money but can have deadly consequences; it is not a victimless crime,” said FBI Assistant Director Johnson.  “Through investigations, outreach, partnerships, and education, the FBI is committed to combating health care fraud and the growing opioid epidemic that faces the United States. We look forward to the addition of the Newark/Philadelphia Regional Medicare Fraud Strike Force and continuing our work with our partners to positively impact the fight against fraud and abuse.”

 “Fraudulent activity remains a significant threat to federal health care programs’ stability and the millions of beneficiaries who rely on such programs,” said HHS-OIG Deputy Inspector General Cantrell.  “This joint initiative enables us to marshal resources with other law enforcement agencies, resulting in even more impressive investigative outcomes against health care fraud.  As members of the Strike Force, OIG will continue to play a vital role in fighting health care fraud and holding criminals accountable.”

“DEA is committed to ending the opioid crisis occurring in our communities and preventing prescription drug misuse,” said DEA Assistant Administrator Martin.  “Together with our law enforcement partners, we will work to bring down those medical professionals who seek to do harm while ensuring that patients have adequate access to critical medications.”

Prior to this announcement, the HCF Unit operated Medicare Fraud Strike Force’s in 10 cities across the United States including Miami, Florida; Los Angeles, California; Detroit, Michigan; Houston, Texas; Brooklyn, New York; Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana; Tampa, Florida; Chicago, Illinois; and Dallas, Texas, along with a Corporate Strike Force located in Washington, D.C.  The Strike Forces represent a partnership between the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney’s Offices, the FBI and HHS-OIG. 

The Regional Strike Force will be made up of prosecutors and data analysts with the HCF Unit, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the District of New Jersey and Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and special agents with the FBI, HHS-OIG and DEA.  In addition, the Regional Strike Force will work closely with other various federal law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and IRS Criminal Investigation, and State Medicaid Fraud Control Units.  The Strike Force will focus its efforts on aggressively investigating and prosecuting cases involving fraud, waste, and abuse within our federal health care programs, and cases involving illegal prescribing and distribution of opioids and other dangerous narcotics. 

In June, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex M. Azar III noted the success of the Strike Force model while announcing the largest ever health care fraud enforcement action involving 601 charged defendants across 58 federal districts, including 165 doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in health care fraud schemes involving more than $2 billion in false billings.  Of those charged, 162 defendants, including 76 doctors, were charged for their roles in prescribing and distributing opioids and other dangerous narcotics.  More information can be obtained at https://www.justice.gov/opa/documents-and-resources-june-28-2018.

The Strike Force operations are part of a joint initiative between the Department of Justice and HHS to focus their efforts to prevent and deter fraud and enforce current anti-fraud laws around the country.  Since its inception in March 2007, the prosecutors in the 10 Medicare Fraud Strike Force locations have charged over 3,700 defendants who collectively have falsely billed the Medicare program for over $14 billion.

Joseph Mahmoud Dibee, 50, of Seattle, Washington, an accused domestic terrorist and 12-year fugitive, has been apprehended and returned to the United States to face federal criminal charges in Oregon, California and Washington State.

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, Assistant Director Michael McGarrity of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams for the District of Oregon, and Special Agent in Charge Renn Cannon of the FBI in Oregon made the announcement.

“Whatever the motivation, terrorism is simply unacceptable,” said Assistant Attorney General Demers. “Domestic terrorism is no exception. Because of the close cooperation between our international and intergovernmental partners, Dibee will now face the consequences for his crimes. This should send a clear message to all other criminals on the run: no matter how long it takes, we will find you and we will bring you to justice.”

“We will always continue in our mission to locate and bring to justice those who threaten our national security or seek to harm the American people,” said FBI Assistant Director McGarrity. “We thank all of the agents, analysts, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, who have worked tirelessly on this case over the years.”

“More than two decades ago, a loosely affiliated group of environmental extremists set out to express their views using force, violence, sabotage, mass destruction, intimidation, and coercion,” said U.S. Attorney Williams. “Thankfully no innocent lives were taken by these senseless acts. Today we recognize the FBI’s unwavering pursuit of justice in returning longstanding fugitive Joseph Dibee. Dibee will now, as many of his co-conspirators have before, face the consequences of his actions. Using violent means to express one’s views will never be tolerated nor forgotten. We will bring every last person responsible for these crimes to justice.”

“Every act of violence comes with a choice—a choice to do harm,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Cannon. “A choice to do what may be irreparable damage to a family, a business, or a researcher’s life work. A choice to risk the lives of the firefighters who will respond to an incident. Most of the defendants in the FBI's long-running Operation BACKFIRE investigation have answered for those decisions they made with significant prison sentences and millions of dollars in fines. Mr. Dibee, who traveled the world to avoid capture, will now, finally, have to answer to the allegations of violence he faces.”

Dibee, an American citizen, is charged in the District of Oregon with one count of conspiracy to commit arson, one count of conspiracy to commit arson and destruction of an energy facility, and one count of arson. He also faces one count each of conspiracy to commit arson, possession of an unregistered firearm, and possession of a destructive device in furtherance of a crime of violence in the Western District of Washington and one count each of conspiracy to commit arson, arson of a government building, and possession of a destructive device in furtherance of a crime of violence in the Eastern District of California.

Dibee will make an initial appearance in federal court today at 1:30 p.m. before a federal magistrate judge in the District of Oregon. The government will seek his continued detention.

According to court documents, federal authorities learned Dibee was traveling through Central America on his way to Russia with a planned stop in Cuba. With the assistance of the Cuban authorities, particularly the Ministries of the Interior and Exterior, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security including the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations and the U.S. Embassy in Havana, the FBI arranged for Cuban authorities to detain Dibee before he boarded a plane bound for Russia, and return him to the United States. Dibee fled the United States in December 2005.

In 2006, a federal grand jury in Oregon indicted Dibee and 12 coconspirators as part of Operation BACKFIRE, a long-running FBI domestic terrorism investigation. The conspirators, known as “The Family,” have been linked to more than 40 criminal acts ranging from vandalism to arson between 1995 and 2001, causing more than $45 million in damages.

Many of the Dibee’s crimes were linked to the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) or the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). Dibee’s “captured” poster can be seen at https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/dt/joseph-mahmoud-dibee.

One fugitive remains at large from Operation BACKFIRE. Josephine Sunshine Overaker, an American citizen believed to be either 43 or 46 years old, fled to Europe in late 2001. Overaker faces 19 felony charges including conspiracy to commit arson, conspiracy to commit arson and destruction of an energy facility, attempted arson, and arson in the District of Oregon, the Western District of Washington, and the District of Colorado. Overaker speaks fluent Spanish and may seek employment as a firefighter, midwife, sheep tender, or masseuse. The FBI continues to offer a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to her arrest.

An indictment is only an accusation of a crime and defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Geoffrey Barrow of the District of Oregon, Andrew Friedman and Thomas Woods of the Western District of Washington and Heiko Coppola of the Eastern District of California, along with Trial Attorney David Cora of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.

Real estate investor Christopher Graeve pleaded guilty today in West Palm Beach, in connection with an ongoing investigation into bid rigging at online public foreclosure auctions in Florida, the Department of Justice announced.  Graeve is the second real estate investor to plead guilty in this investigation.  

Felony charges of bid rigging were filed against Graeve on November 2, 2017, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.  According to court documents, from around January 2012 through around June 2015, Graeve conspired with others to rig bids during online foreclosure auctions in Palm Beach County, Florida.

“Real estate investors who deal in foreclosed properties should be on notice that the Division will not tolerate the subversion of competition in foreclosure auctions,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.  “The Division will continue to prosecute antitrust violations that occur at these auctions, and will hold individuals who engage in this conduct accountable.”

“Real estate investors who think they can swindle the system to line their pockets with ill-gotten gains beware,” said Special Agent in Charge Robert F. Lasky of the FBI Miami’s Field Office. “The FBI and our law enforcement partners will vigorously investigate such schemes.”

The Department said that the primary purpose of the conspiracy was to suppress and restrain competition in order to obtain selected real estate offered at online foreclosure auctions at non-competitive prices.  When real estate properties are sold at these auctions, the proceeds are used to pay off the mortgage and other debt attached to the property, with any remaining proceeds available to the homeowner.  According to court documents, the conspiracy artificially lowered the price paid at auction for such homes.  In the past several years, the Division and its law enforcement partners have secured convictions of more than 100 individuals for rigging public mortgage foreclosure auctions in six different states, including Florida.  

The investigation is being conducted by the Antitrust Division’s Washington Criminal I Section and the FBI’s Miami Division – West Palm Beach Resident Agency.  Anyone with information concerning bid rigging or fraud related to public real estate foreclosure auctions should contact the Washington Criminal I Section of the Antitrust Division at 202-307-6694, call the Antitrust Division’s Citizen Complaint Center at 888-647-3258, or visit www.justice.gov/atr/report-violations.

The Department of Justice today announced awards totaling more than $3.4 billion to fund thousands of local victim assistance programs across the country and to help compensate victims in every state for crime-related losses. Distributed through two grant programs administered by the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), a component of the Department’s Office of Justice Programs, the awards surpass every other single-year grant amount in the program’s 34-year history.                                                                                                                

The grants are supported by the Crime Victims Fund, a repository of federal criminal fines, fees, and special assessments. The fund includes zero tax dollars.   

"I’ve been in or around law enforcement for nearly 40 years and some of the strongest and most inspiring people I have met have been survivors of crime," said Attorney General Sessions. "We must ensure that this Department is always responsive to their needs and working for them. Today the Department continues its support by offering billions of dollars in services for crime victims. Through this grant funding from the Crime Victims Fund, we are helping victims walk the long and difficult road to recovery."

Most of the funds – more than $3.3 billion – are being awarded to states under the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) Victim Assistance Formula Grant Program and will support local government and community-based victim services. In 2017, VOCA grants funded more than 6,700 local organizations across the country. Over the last two years, VOCA-funded programs have reached more than 5.2 million victims, providing services ranging from emergency shelter and transportation to crisis counseling, long-term therapy, and civil legal assistance.     

Victim compensation programs, operating in all 50 states, two territories, and the District of Columbia, are receiving almost $129 million to reimburse victims and survivors for medical fees, lost income, dependent care, funeral expenses, and other costs. This compensation is often a lifeline to victims who face enormous financial setbacks on top of the emotional strife they experience.

“Americans suffer from millions of violent acts every year, and only a fraction of victims get the help they so desperately need and deserve,” said OVC Director Darlene Hutchinson. “This historically large funding will vastly expand the network of services available, allowing state and local officials to determine where resources are needed so that survivors in every corner of our country have a place they can turn to for support.”

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

Today, a federal court in Miami, Florida permanently enjoined Jean-Philippe Boursiquot and Roberton Boursiquot from preparing federal income tax returns for others. The Court also entered judgments against Jean-Philippe Boursiquot and Roberton Boursiquot and in favor of the United States in the amounts of $250,000 and $100,000, respectively, on the United States’ claim for the disgorgement of ill-gotten fees they charged customers for the preparation of federal tax returns. The Boursiquots consented to the injunction order and money judgments. In May 2018, the Court also entered an injunction order against B&C Royalty Multi-Services, Inc., which operated in Oakland Park, Florida, and RBS Flamboyant Solutions, Inc., which operated in Hollywood, Florida, prohibiting both corporations from preparing federal income tax returns for others.

The complaint alleges that Jean-Philippe Boursiquot, Roberton Boursiquot, and their corporations, B&C Royalty Multi-Services, Inc. and RBS Flamboyant Solutions, Inc., continually claimed education credits for taxpayers who did not incur qualifying expenses.  The complaint also alleges that they fabricated business income or expenses in order to qualify for the earned income credit.

It is further alleged that the Boursiquots and their corporations charged their customers exorbitant fees without the customers’ knowledge and quoted refunds to customers that were substantially smaller than the refunds requested on the returns filed with the IRS.  They would then allegedly pocket the excess as preparation fees, often without the customers’ knowledge according to the complaint. 

The IRS has a list of steps on its website that you can take and ten tips for choosing a tax preparer. Each year, the IRS releases the top 12 scams, known as the Dirty Dozen. Return preparer fraud is one of the IRS’s Dirty Dozen Tax Scams for 2018, and taxpayers seeking a return preparer should remain vigilant. The IRS has some information on its website for choosing a return preparer and has launched a free directory of federal tax preparers.

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

A Colorado business owner pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to impair and impede the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for his role in a $7.2 million renewable fuel tax credit scheme, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

According to court documents, Calvin Glover of Parker, Colorado, owned Colorado-based renewable fuel company, Shintan, Inc.  Glover conspired with others to file more than $7 million in false claims for refundable fuel tax credits with the IRS.  Glover signed at least 23 false tax returns that claimed over $7.2 million in bogus refundable biodiesel mixture tax credits. Based on these false claims, the IRS issued over $7 million in refunds to Shintan Inc. After receiving the refunds checks, Glover deposited the checks into a bank account that he controlled and then transferred the proceeds to his co-conspirators.  

In response to two grand jury subpoenas issued during the investigation, Glover provided false documents and information to investigators and met with co-conspirators to concoct a false story,  all intended to obstruct the IRS’ ongoing criminal investigation. 

Glover faces a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison, as well as a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman thanked special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation and Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division, who investigated the case, and Tax Division Trial Attorneys Leslie A. Goemaat and Arthur J. Ewenczyk, who are prosecuting the case.

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

Adam W. Purinton, of Olathe, Kansas, was sentenced today to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the February 2017 killing of Indian national Srinivas Kuchibhotla, and shooting of two other men – Indian national Alok Madasani and Kansas resident Ian Grillot – at Austins Bar & Grill in Olathe, announced Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore of the Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney Stephen R. McAllister of the District of Kansas, and FBI Kansas City Special Agent in Charge Darrin Jones.

Earlier this year, Purinton pleaded guilty in federal court to hate crime and firearm offenses arising out of the shooting. At his federal guilty-plea hearing, Purinton admitted in open court that he targeted and shot Kuchibhotla and Madasani because of their race, color, and national origin, and that he shot Grillot during an attempt to flee the scene of the crime. Purinton has also pleaded guilty in state court to charges of murder and attempted murder, and has been sentenced to a term of life imprisonment in state prison.

Sunayana Dumala, the widow of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, addressed Purinton in her victim-impact statement: “My husband was more than what you chose to address him as. Always kind, caring, and respectful to others. Srinu and I came to the United States of America full of dreams and aspirations. . . . Now, my American Dream – and that of Srinu’s – is broken. If you could have kept your anger inside and spoke to my husband softly, Srinu would have been more than happy to share his background and help you understand that not every brown skinned person is suspicious or evil, but kind, smart and contributing to America. Instead you chose to rage and bully in anger and when you were stopped, you decided to take their lives. . . . [U]se the time that is being given to you to educate yourself and inform others who are still out in the open and stop them from killing innocent people as you did - choosing violence over kindness.”

"The crimes at issue in this case are detestable," Attorney General Sessions said. "The defendant acted with clear premeditation in murdering one man, and attempting to murder a second man, simply because of their race, religion, and national origin. As a result, a promising young life has been tragically cut short, and other lives have been filled with suffering. Securing this sentence is important not only to the victims and their loved ones, but also to our justice system and our nation as a whole. I want to thank the FBI, our fabulous DOJ attorneys Tris Hunt, David Zabel, and Christopher Perras, as well as our partners at the Olathe Police Department for their hard work on this case. While we cannot undo the irreparable harm that this defendant has done, some measure of justice for the victims' families has been achieved. Such hateful crimes will remain a priority for the Department of Justice."

"No matter who you are, what you believe, or how you worship, you should be able to live without fear of becoming a victim of hate crimes. We hope today's sentencing brings some closure for the victims and their families," said U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister for the District of Kansas.

"Today's sentencing speaks to the gravity of this senseless crime and reaffirms the FBI's continued commitment to bring those responsible to justice," said FBI Kansas City Special Agent in Charge Darrin Jones. 

This case was investigated jointly by the Olathe (KS) Police Department and the Kansas City Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Tris Hunt and David Zabel of the District of Kansas, and Trial Attorney Christopher J. Perras of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

The Justice Department today announced that it has reached a settlement with Rose Acre Farms Inc. (Rose Acre), which is based in Indiana and is one of the largest egg producers in the United States. The settlement resolves a long-standing lawsuit filed by the Justice Department alleging that Rose Acre violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by discriminating against work-authorized non-U.S. citizens when verifying their work authorization.  

The Department’s amended complaint, filed on Nov. 7, 2012, alleged that from at least June 2009 to Dec. 22, 2011, Rose Acre routinely required work-authorized non-U.S. citizens to present a Permanent Resident Card or Employment Authorization Document to prove their work authorization, but did not require specific documents from U.S. citizens. All work-authorized individuals, whether U.S. citizens or non-U.S. citizens, have the right to choose which valid documentation to present to prove they are authorized to work. The antidiscrimination provision of the INA prohibits employers from subjecting employees to unnecessary documentary demands based on employees’ citizenship or national origin. 

“The INA makes clear that when employers verify the identity and work authorization of employees, they must not treat employees differently based on their citizenship or national origin,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore of the Civil Rights Division. “This case demonstrates the Department’s commitment to ensuring that employers implement the employment eligibility verification process in a manner that is non-discriminatory.”

Under the settlement, Rose Acre will pay a civil penalty of $70,000; train its employees on the INA’s anti-discrimination provision; and be subject to departmental monitoring for two years.  

The Division’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER), formerly known as the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices, is responsible for enforcing the antidiscrimination provision of the INA.  The statute prohibits, among other things, citizenship, immigration status, and national origin discrimination in hiring, firing, or recruitment or referral for a fee; unfair documentary practices; retaliation and intimidation.   

For more information about protections against employment discrimination under immigration laws, call 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.

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

WASHINGTON, D.C. – El Departamento de Justicia hoy anunció que ha alcanzado un acuerdo  con Rose Acre Farms, Inc. («Rose Acre»), uno de los principales productores de huevos en los Estados Unidos cuya sede se encuentra en Indiana.  El acuerdo resuelve un pleito entablado desde hace mucho tiempo por el Departamento de Justicia, en el cual este alega que Rose Acre vulneró la ley de Inmigración y Nacionalidad (INA, por sus siglas en inglés) al discriminar a trabajadores que no eran ciudadanos de los EE. UU pero que sí disponían de permiso para trabajar a la hora de verificar su autorización para trabajar.

La denuncia enmendada del Departamento, que se presentó el 7 de noviembre del 2012, alegó que desde al menos junio del 2009 hasta el 22 de diciembre del 2011, Rose Acre, de forma rutinaria, requirió que trabajadores que no eran ciudadanos de los EE. UU. pero que sí disponían de permiso para trabajar presentaran una tarjeta de residencia permanente o documento de autorización para demostrar su autorización para trabajar, mientras que no requerían documentos específicos a ciudadanos estadounidenses. Todos aquellos individuos con autorización, ya sean ciudadanos o no, tienen el derecho a elegir cuáles documentos válidos desean presentar para demostrar que están autorizados para trabajar. La disposición antidiscriminatoria de la INA prohíbe que los empleadores sometan a sus empleados a requisitos documentales innecesarios con base en la ciudadanía o nacionalidad de origen de los mismos.

«La INA deja claro que cuando los empleadores verifican la identidad y autorización para trabajar de sus empleados, ellos no pueden tratar a los empleados de una forma diferente por motivos de su ciudadanía o nacionalidad de origen», declaró el Fiscal General Auxiliar en funciones, John Gore, de la División de Derechos Civiles. «Este caso demuestra el compromiso del Departamento a asegurar que los empleadores implementen el proceso de verificación de la elegibilidad para trabajar de una forma que no sea discriminatoria».

Conforme el acuerdo, Rose Acre pagará sanciones civiles que ascienden a $70,000, capacitará a sus empleados en cuanto a la disposición antidiscriminatoria de la INA y se someterá a la supervisión por parte del Departamento durante dos años.  

La Sección de Derechos de Inmigrantes y Empleados (IER, por sus siglas en inglés), que anteriormente se conocía como la Oficina del Consejero Especial para Prácticas Injustas en el Empleo Relacionadas a Inmigración, que pertenece a 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.  

Aquellos postulantes o empleados que creen haber sido sometidos a otros requisitos documentales por motivos de su nacionalidad de origen o su estatus migratorio o de ciudadanía en los procesos de contratación, despido o reclutamiento o recomendación por comisión deben llamar a la línea directa de la IER para trabajadores para pedir ayuda.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued the following statement on Friday’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) order in the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia: "We strongly disagree with the district court’s decision on Friday in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) case.  The executive branch’s authority to simply rescind a policy, established only by a letter from the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, is clearly established. The Department of Justice will take every lawful measure to vindicate the Department of Homeland Security’s lawful rescission of DACA.

"The last administration violated its duty to enforce our immigration laws by directing and implementing a categorical, multipronged non-enforcement immigration policy for a massive group of illegal aliens. This wrongful action left DACA open to the same legal challenges that effectively invalidated another program they established—Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA). DAPA’s implementation was blocked by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and never entered into effect. These two policies declared by officials of the previous administration—by policy letters only—had been considered by Congress and rejected. 

"The Trump Administration’s action to withdraw the policy letters simply reestablished the legal policies consistent with the law. Not only did the Trump Administration have the authority to withdraw this guidance letter, it had a duty to do so. As former President Obama previously said, the changes they attempted to effect through this policy letter can only be lawfully achieved by congressional action. The judicial branch has no power to eviscerate the lawful directives of Congress—nor to enjoin the executive branch from enforcing such mandates. 

"We have recently witnessed a number of decisions in which courts have improperly used judicial power to steer, enjoin, modify, and direct executive policy.  This ignores the wisdom of our Founders and transfers policy making questions from the constitutionally empowered and politically accountable branches to the judicial branch.  It also improperly undermines this Administration’s ability to protect our nation, its borders, and its citizens.  The Trump Administration and this Department of Justice will continue to aggressively defend the executive branch's lawful authority and duty to ensure a lawful system of immigration for our country."

A federal grand jury has returned an indictment, which was unsealed today, charging a Roanoke, Virginia tax return preparer with aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns and filing a false personal tax return, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Thomas T. Cullen for the Western District of Virginia.

According to the indictment, Saint Julien Pierre owned and operated a tax return preparation business, JP Tax Services, LLC in Roanoke.  The indictment alleges Pierre aided and assisted in the preparation of 2013 and 2014 tax returns for his clients that falsely claimed residential energy credits, fuel tax credits, and itemized deductions, including, charitable contributions and unreimbursed employee expenses, in order to fraudulently increase their refunds.  The indictment further charges Pierre with filing a false 2013 tax return for himself, on which he fraudulently sought the same fuel tax credit that he falsely claimed on his clients’ returns.

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

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Cullen thanked special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, Tax Division Trial Attorney Lauren A. Archer and Assistant United States Attorney Charlene R. Day of the Western District of Virginia, who are prosecuting the case.

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

Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore, U.S. Attorney Benjamin G. Greenberg for the Southern District of Florida, Katherine Fernandez Rundle, Miami-Dade State Attorney, Robert F. Lasky, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office, and Troy Walker, Special Agent in Charge, Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), today announced that former Biscayne Park Police Officers Charlie Dayoub and Raul Fernandez pleaded guilty today to depriving a 16-year old juvenile, “T.D.,” of his Civil Rights by falsely arresting T.D. for four unsolved burglaries.

As noted at the hearing and in court filings, on June 13, 2013, former officers Dayoub and Fernandez were both working on duty for the Village of Biscayne Park Police Department. On June 13, their supervisor instructed them to unlawfully arrest and falsely charge T.D., a juvenile previously known to Chief RA and Dayoub, for unsolved burglaries that had occurred in Biscayne Park. Dayoub and Fernandez complied with Chief RA’s instructions and falsely arrested T.D. Fernandez wrote narratives containing fabricated information in support of the four arrest affidavits that falsely claimed an investigation revealed that T.D. had committed the four burglaries. Dayoub signed and attested that the contents of the affidavits were true even though he, like the supervisor and Fernandez, knew that no evidence existed to substantiate the arrest. T.D. was subsequently arrested for the four burglaries.

Dayoub and Fernandez both pleaded guilty to count two of a superseding indictment charging each defendant with deprivation of T.D.’s civil rights, under color of law, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 242. The defendants are both facing up to one year of incarceration as a result of their guilty pleas. The Court set the sentencing date for both of the defendants on Oct. 16.

This case is being investigated by the FBI, including the FBI Miami Area Corruption Task Force, and FDLE, and assisted by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Harry C. Wallace, Jr., Department of Justice Trial Attorney Donald W. Tunnage, and Assistant State Attorney Trent Reichling.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.

A North Carolina man was sentenced yesterday to one year and one day in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release for his role in dog fighting activities, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey H. Wood of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, U.S. Attorney Matthew G.T. Martin for the Middle District of North Carolina and Special Agent in Charge Bethanne M. Dinkins for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General.

On Jan. 12, Brexton Redell Lloyd, 54, of Eagle Springs, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy and two felony counts of possession and training a dog intended for use in an animal fighting venture, contrary to the animal fighting provisions of the federal Animal Welfare Act.  

According to documents filed with the court, Lloyd participated with Justin “Jay” Love and others in a multi-state dog fighting conspiracy. These documents describe Lloyd and Love’s attempt to set up a dog fight between Lloyd and an unknown opponent in October 2015 and Lloyd’s breeding and training activities. Court documents further note that last year, federal agents seized 13 pitbull-type dogs from Lloyd’s residence. Ten of the dogs were secured outdoors by excessive chains, wearing thick collars, and positioned so that each dog was out of reach of any other dog. The other dogs were housed individually in pens. The water in the dogs’ bowls was frozen. Two of the four adult dogs seized exhibited scars consistent with dog fighting, and a third adult dog had four fractured teeth. In addition to the dogs, agents seized items related to training dogs for dog fighting purposes, including: a spring pole, a dog harness, and a hanging scale. Agents also seized veterinary supplies, including intravenous fluids, intravenous administration sets stated for “Veterinary Use Only,” injectable and other antibiotics, a 100-count package of syringes, blood-clotting medications such as Blood Stop Powder, and a skin stapler. 

“Animal cruelty like the conduct in this case has no place in a civilized society,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Wood. “Yesterday’s sentencing sends a strong message that we are bringing to justice those who engage in illegal dog fighting and that anyone who engages in this conduct does so at the risk of significant jail time.”

“Dog fighting isn’t entertainment, it’s organized crime, and it has no place in our society,” said United States Attorney Matthew G.T. Martin for the Middle District of North Carolina.  Martin added, “I thank our law enforcement partners at the Department of Agriculture, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Moore County Sheriff’s Office, and the N.C. State Highway Patrol for their exceptional coordination in bringing this defendant to justice.”

“The provisions of the Animal Welfare Act were designed to protect animals from being used in illegal fighting ventures, which often entail other forms of criminal activity involving drugs, firearms and gambling,” said Special Agent in Charge Dinkins for USDA OIG. “Together with the Department of Justice, animal fighting is an investigative priority for USDA OIG, and we will work with our law enforcement partners to investigate and assist in the criminal prosecution of those who participate in animal fighting ventures.”

This case is part of Operation Grand Champion, a coordinated effort across numerous federal judicial districts to combat organized dog fighting. The phrase “Grand Champion” is used by dog fighters to refer to a dog with more than five dog fighting “victories.” To date, over one hundred dogs have been rescued as part of Operation Grand Champion, and either surrendered or forfeited to the government. The Humane Society of the United States assisted with the care of the dogs seized by federal law enforcement.

This case was investigated by USDA OIG and FBI, with assistance from the Moore County Sheriff’s Office and the North Carolina Highway Patrol, and was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Erica H. Pencak of the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney JoAnna G. McFadden of the Middle District of North Carolina. 

          SHAWN N. ANDERSON, United States Attorney for the Districts of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, announced that defendant JOSEPH B. PANGELINAN JR. was sentenced by Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood, District Court of Guam, for the crime of Receipt of Child Pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(2) and (b)(1). Pangelinan previously pled guilty to the charge and admitted to utilizing a peer- to-peer (P2P) network to receive approximately 2,280 images and 17 movies that depicted the sexual abuse of young children.  The Court ordered 97 months imprisonment, five years of supervised release, $17,000 in restitution for the child victims, and forfeiture of a computer. Pangelinan was also ordered to register with the Sex Offender Registry in any jurisdiction in which he lives, works or attends school.  Under federal law, his period of registration will extend for 25 years.

          U.S. Attorney Anderson states, “Our office will continue to aggressively pursue child predators under the Project Safe Childhood initiative. Unfortunately, victims of child pornography suffer for many years from the trauma of abuse and the repeated distribution of depictions of the crime. I applaud the hard work of our federal law enforcement partners at Homeland Security Investigations in bringing this defendant to justice.”

          Assistant Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) John Duenas said, “Today’s prison sentence is fitting for someone who robs children of their innocence and continues to sexually exploit them by producing and trading the illegal images with predators around the world. Investigating this type of criminal activity is a priority for HSI and we will continue to dedicate our resources to identify and bring to justice other child predators who victimize children in this same manner.”

          The U.S. Attorney additionally reminds defendants who have committed sexual abuse of children that, under federal and local law, all sex offenders have a duty to register and keep their registration current with the Sex Offender Registry in their jurisdiction. Sex offenders who travel to Guam and who reside on Guam must inform the Guam Sex Offender Registry where they reside, work, or attend school. They must also periodically update their registration information. The U.S. Attorney notes that the Sex Offender Registry was created in order to protect the public by protecting victims, preventing further victimization and informing the public of the whereabouts of sex offenders. Guam’s Sex Offender Registry can be found online at www.guamcourts.org (link is external).

          U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood (PSC) Initiative is a nationwide commitment to aggressively prosecute defendants who engage in the sexual victimization of children and adults, possess or receive child pornography, and sex offenders who fail to register with the jurisdiction’s Sex Offender Registry. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.

          The investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations. The case was prosecuted by Rosetta San Nicolas, an Assistant United States Attorney for the United States Attorney’s Office in the District of Guam.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a settlement agreement with Anchor Glass Container Corporation today that will resolve alleged Clean Air Act violations at all six of Anchor’s container glass manufacturing facilities located in Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Minnesota, New York and Oklahoma and improve the company’s compliance with federal [and state] clean air laws. Under the proposed settlement, Anchor will install pollution controls to cut emissions of nitrogen oxide (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and particulate matter (PM) at its container glass manufacturing facilities. The states of Indiana and Oklahoma participated in the settlement.

“In this settlement, Anchor Glass Container Corporation has agreed to bring all of its manufacturing facilities into compliance with Clean Air Act requirements, which will help reduce harmful air pollutants to ensure the health and safety of communities in six states,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey H. Wood for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “The Justice Department will continue to work closely with the EPA and to partner with states to ensure compliance with federal clean air laws nationwide.”

“Under the terms of today’s settlement, Anchor Glass Container Corporation will take steps to reduce harmful air emissions from its facilities,” said Susan Bodine, EPA’s Assistant Administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.  “The resulting pollution reductions will mean cleaner and clearer air for communities in six states.” 

“Protecting the health and safety of Indiana residents is one of my office’s top priorities,” said Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill. “Settlements such as this one help ensure that future generations will breathe cleaner air, and I’m grateful for the collaboration of our federal and state partners in bringing about this positive result.”

“I am pleased with the results of the settlement and hopeful this will help protect Oklahoma’s future,” said Executive Director Scott Thompson for the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.

Today’s settlement resolves allegations that Anchor violated the Clean Air Act when it failed to seek permits for New Source Review major modifications at its container glass facilities. Anchor’s facilities manufacture beer bottles, liquor bottles, other beverage bottles, jars, and other glass containers. 

Under this settlement, Anchor will implement pollution controls to reduce its NOx emissions at nine of its eleven furnaces (two furnaces already have pollution controls installed), and the company will meet more stringent NOx emissions limits at all of its furnaces. Anchor will also implement pollution controls and take other actions to reduce SO2 and PM emissions. The settlement also requires Anchor to install and operate continuous emissions monitors for NOx and SO2 at all eleven of its glass furnaces and to install continuous opacity monitors required by the Clean Air Act.  The company will spend approximately $40 million in implementing these pollution reduction changes to its facilities.

This settlement will result in substantial reductions of NOx, SO2 and PM emissions at Anchor’s plants. NOx emissions will be reduced by over 2,000 tons per year, SO2 emissions will be reduced by over 700 tons per year and PM emissions will be reduced by over 100 tons per year. Additionally, Anchor will complete two mitigation projects, a woodburning appliance change-out project and a project to repower, retrofit, or replace vehicle diesel engines, further reducing NOx, SO2, and PM emissions.

As part of this settlement, Anchor will also pay a $1.1 million civil penalty. 

NOx, SO2 and PM, three key pollutants emitted from glass manufacturing plants, have numerous adverse effects on human health and are significant contributors to acid rain, smog, and haze. The pollutants are converted in the air into fine particles of particulate matter that can cause severe respiratory and cardiovascular impacts and premature death. Reducing these harmful air pollutants will benefit the communities located near the Anchor plants, particularly communities disproportionately impacted by environmental risks and vulnerable populations, including children.

The proposed consent decree was lodged today in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida and is subject to a 30-day public comment period and final court approval. Information about submitting a public comment is available at: www.justice.gov/enrd/consent-decree/us-et-al-v-anchor-glass-container-corporation 

For more information about the settlement: www.epa.gov/enforcement/anchor-glass-container-corporation-clean-air-act-settlement

NOTE: The settlement agreement can be found here.

The Justice Department today reached a settlement agreement with the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) to resolve allegations that it violated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by denying deaf and hard of hearing individuals full and equal opportunities to participate in and benefit from PPD’s programs, services, and activities. Specifically, the Department alleged that PPD did not take appropriate steps to ensure that communications with deaf and hard of hearing individuals were as effective as communications with others, and did not provide auxiliary aids and services that were necessary to ensure the provision of effective communication.

The Department initiated an investigation in response to a complaint that PPD had not provided effective communication to a deaf detainee. In the course of its investigation, the Department interviewed a number of deaf individuals—ranging from detainees to crime victims—who contended that PPD denied them effective communication. The Department also interviewed PPD representatives and reviewed PPD’s policies and practices relating to the provision of auxiliary aids and services to individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. Based on the investigation, the Department determined that PPD had not met its obligations to provide effective communication as required by the ADA.

“Deaf and hard of hearing individuals are entitled to full and equal opportunities to communicate with police officers and to benefit from police services,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore. “We commend the Philadelphia Police Department, which is taking steps to ensure that Philadelphia’s deaf and hard of hearing community members are provided effective communication and auxiliary services.”

The ADA mandates that public entities, such as PPD, take appropriate steps to ensure that communications with people with disabilities are as effective as communications with others. In meeting the effective communication obligation, public entities are not required to take any action that would result in a fundamental alteration in the nature of their service, program or activity or in undue financial and administrative burdens.

PPD represents that since the Department’s investigation, it has been steadfast in its efforts to improve its provision of effective communication. PPD has developed comprehensive ADA policies and practices, including policies that help law enforcement personnel understand how to secure appropriate auxiliary aids and services for deaf and hard of hearing individuals. PPD has also developed a comprehensive training program to educate its personnel on the ADA’s effective communication obligation. PPD further asserts that it is ensuring reliable access to American Sign Language interpreters.

Under the three-year agreement, PPD will adopt ADA policies and procedures on effective communication and appropriate auxiliary aids or services, train personnel on the ADA, provide accessible telephone equipment, and pay eight aggrieved individuals a total of $97,500.

Those interested in finding out more about this settlement or the ADA may call the Justice Department’s toll-free ADA information line at 800-514-0301 or 800-514-0383 (TDD), or access its ADA website at www.ada.gov. ADA complaints may be filed online at http://www.ada.gov/complaint/.

As part of The Department of Justice’s review of nearly 1,300 legacy antitrust judgments, the Antitrust Division today announced that it has opened a review of the Paramount Consent Decrees, which for over seventy years have regulated how certain movie studios distribute films to movie theatres.  The purpose of the review is to determine whether or not the decrees should be terminated or modified.  

The Antitrust Division announced in April its initiative to terminate legacy antitrust judgments, stating that it would review all such judgments to identify those that no longer serve to protect competition.  The initiative was undertaken because many of the final judgments that the Division entered into from the earliest days of the Sherman Act until the late 1970s do not include sunset provisions or express termination dates.  Consequently, those judgments are perpetual, regardless of whether there have been subsequent industry or technological changes that might make those judgments either ineffective in protecting competition or even anticompetitive themselves.  

In particular, the Paramount Decrees have regulated how certain movie studios distribute films to movie theatres since the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Paramount, 334 U.S. 131 (1948).  For example, the decrees ban various motion picture distribution practices, including block booking (bundling multiple films into one theatre license), circuit dealing (entering into one license that covered all theatres in a theatre circuit), resale price maintenance (setting minimum prices on movie tickets), and granting overbroad clearances (exclusive film licenses for specific geographic areas).  Given that these decrees do not have any sunset provisions or termination dates, the Division will thoroughly review them to determine whether they still serve the American public and are still effective in protecting competition in the motion picture industry.  

“The Paramount Decrees have been on the books with no sunset provisions since 1949.  Much has changed in the motion picture industry since that time,” said Makan Delrahim, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.  “It is high time that these and other legacy judgments are examined to determine whether they still serve to protect competition.  Today, we take an important step forward in the process of reviewing the Paramount Decrees.”   

Since the district court entered the Paramount Decrees, the motion picture industry has undergone considerable change.  None of the Paramount defendants own a significant number of movie theatres.  Additionally, unlike seventy years ago, most metropolitan areas today have more than one movie theatre.  The first-run movie palaces of the 1930s and 40s that had one screen and showed one movie at a time, today have been replaced by multiplex theatres that have multiple screens showing movies from many different distributors at the same time.  Finally, consumers today are no longer limited to watching motion pictures in theatres.  New technology has created many different distribution and viewing platforms that did not exist when the decrees were entered into.  After an initial theatre run, today’s consumers can view motion pictures on cable and broadcast television, DVDs, and over the Internet through streaming services.  

As a consequence of all of these changes, and the fact that the decrees have been in place for over seventy years, the Department has opened a review to determine whether the decrees should be modified or terminated.

The Antitrust Division has posted an invitation for public comment on its public website (https://www.justice.gov/atr/paramount-decree-review), inviting interested persons, including motion picture producers, distributors, and exhibitors, to provide the Division with information or comments relevant to whether the Paramount Consent Decrees still are necessary to protect competition in the motion picture industry.  The period for public comment ends October 4, 2018.*

* The original version of this release stated the public comment period is 30 days, which has been extended to 60 days.

The Department of Justice is pleased to announce expansion of the Tribal Access Program (TAP), a program providing federally recognized Tribes the ability to access and exchange data with the national crime information databases for both civil and criminal purposes.  

The department will accept applications from Aug. 1 to Oct. 1, 2018.  Interested Tribes may apply by using this link: www.justice.gov/tribal/tribal-access-program-fy-2019-application. Tribes that are selected for participation will be notified by Oct. 15, 2018, and deployment activities will begin shortly thereafter; deployment to all selected Tribes will be completed by Sept. 30, 2019.

“President Trump and Attorney General Sessions are committed to reducing violent crime in Indian Country,” said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. “Today’s announcement is another example of this commitment and the administration’s efforts to ensure Tribal police have access to the innovative tools and resources they need to ensure public safety and promote the rule of law.” 

“The Tribal Access Program has been instrumental in ensuring tribal protection orders are entered into federal criminal databases. This alerts law enforcement departments throughout the nation to their existence, and prevents covered individuals from illegally purchasing firearms. TAP also provides an easy platform for entering sex offender registrations into the National Sex Offender Registry. In short, it is a critical law enforcement and public safety tool for Indian country,” noted Woodrow Star, Chairman of the Law and Order Committee and Member of the Board of Trustees, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.   

TAP is funded by the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART), the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) and for 2019, the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC).  Given the funding sources, eligible tribes must have a sex offender registry authorized by the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, a law enforcement agency that is not a Bureau of Indian Affairs direct service agency, or will utilize the TAP system to assist in providing services to victims of crime.

Under TAP, Tribes have successfully begun entering information directly into the federal databases, resulting in nearly 600 sex offender registrations and over 550 sex offender check-ins, nearly 300 instances of data entry that would prohibit someone from being able to purchase a firearm, over 1000 orders of protection entered or modified and over 4,200 finger-print based record checks for civil purposes that include employment, tribal housing placement and personnel/volunteers who have regular contact with or control over Indian children.

For FY19, the Department of Justice offers TAP services through one of the following two methods:

• TAP-LIGHT:  The department provides software that provides full access (both query and entry capabilities) to national crime information databases such as National Criminal Information Center (NCIC), the Interstate Identification Index (III) and the International Justice and Public Safety Network (Nlets) for both criminal and civil purposes; and
• TAP-FULL: The department provides the same basic capabilities as TAP-LIGHT listed above, and also provides an additional hardware/software solution in the form of a kiosk-workstation that provides the ability to submit and query fingerprint-based transactions via FBI’s Next Generation Identification (NGI) for both criminal and civil purposes.

Criminal agencies that may participate include law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, criminal courts, jails, and probation departments.  Civil agencies and programs that may participate include agencies whose staff/volunteers have contact with or control over Indian children; public housing agencies; child support enforcement agencies; Head Start programs; social service agencies that investigate allegations of abuse, neglect, and exploitation of children; civil courts that issue orders of protection, restraining orders, or other keep away orders and sex offender registration programs.

TAP supports Tribes in analyzing their needs for national crime information and provides appropriate solutions, including a state-of-the-art biometric/biographic kiosk workstation with capabilities to process finger and palm prints, take mugshots and submit records to national databases, as well as the ability to access Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) systems for criminal and civil purposes through the Department of Justice’s Criminal Justice Information Network.  TAP, which is managed by DOJ’s Chief Information Officer, provides specialized training and assistance for participating Tribes, including computer-based training, and on-site instruction, as well as a 24x7 Help Desk.  

By September 2018, TAP will be deployed to 47 tribes (both TAP-FULL and TAP-LIGHT) with over 180 Tribal criminal justice and civil agencies participating. 

For more information about TAP, click here + www.justice.gov/tribal/tribal-access-program-tap. 

For a list of the 47 Tribes currently participating in tap, click here.  + www.justice.gov/file/1001376/download. 

A Detroit-area physician pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances for his participation in a scheme to unlawfully distribute more than 23,000 pills of Oxycodone. 

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider of the Eastern District of Michigan, Special Agent in Charge Timothy Slater of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office, Special Agent in Charge Lamont Pugh III of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Chicago Regional Office and Timothy J. Plancon of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)’s Detroit Field Office made the announcement.

Alex Kafi, M.D., 70, of West Bloomfield, Michigan, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances before U.S. District Judge Victoria A. Roberts of the Eastern District of Michigan.  Sentencing has been scheduled for Jan. 9, 2019 before Judge Roberts.   

As part of his guilty plea, Kafi admitted that from 2013 through May 2017, he engaged in a scheme where he wrote medically unnecessary prescriptions for Oxycodone in exchange for cash.  Kafi wrote these fraudulent prescriptions often without ever meeting or communicating with the patient.  Instead, Kafi conspired with patient marketers, who provided lists of patients to Kafi, along with $300 per prescription of Oxycodone.  Kafi admitted the scheme involved approximately 693,000 mg of Oxycodone and he agreed to forfeit $617,208.00, which were proceeds of his criminal activity.  

This case was investigated by the FBI, HHS-OIG and the DEA.  Trial Attorney Steven Scott of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section is prosecuting the case.  

The Fraud Section leads the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which is part of a joint initiative between the Department of Justice and HHS to focus their efforts to prevent and deter fraud and enforce current anti-fraud laws around the country.  The Medicare Fraud Strike Force operates in nine locations nationwide.  Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force has charged over 3,500 defendants who collectively have falsely billed the Medicare program for over $12.5 billion.  

          SHAWN N. ANDERSON, United States Attorney for the Districts of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, announced that defendant LOVELIA C. MENDOZA, age 36, from Dededo, was sentenced in District Court to an eight-year term of imprisonment, to be followed by five years of supervised release, for Possession with Intent to Distribute Fifty Grams or More of Methamphetamine. The Court also ordered Mendoza to pay a mandatory $100 assessment fee. In addition, defendants convicted of a federal drug offense may no longer qualify for certain federal benefits.

          On April 17, 2017, agents and task force officers with the Drug Enforcement Administration conducted a search of Mendoza’s residence.   They discovered approximately 537.19 net grams of methamphetamine hydrochloride (“ice”) and approximately 30 gross grams of cocaine. Mendoza was also in possession of $98,555.00 in United States currency, Western Union receipts, plastic Ziploc bags, two fabricated glass pipes, digital scales, a "Pringles" container(s) with a hidden compartment, cut plastic straws, a Sony digital camera, thumb drive, Samsung tablet, Samsung cellular phone, and other digital devices.  The evidence revealed that Mendoza possessed the drugs with the intent to distribute them to another person. On May 18, 2017, Mendoza pled guilty to the charge of Possession with Intent to Distribute Fifty Grams or More of Methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1).

          This prosecution was the result of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation. The OCDETF program provides supplemental federal funding to federal and local agencies involved in the investigation of drug-related crimes. The Drug Enforcement Administration was the lead investigative agency.  Assistance was also provided by the Superior Court of Guam Probation Office. Assistant United States Attorney Rosetta San Nicolas prosecuted this case for the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Guam.

The Department of Justice announced today that it has signed an Addendum to a non-prosecution agreement with Bank Lombard Odier & Co., Ltd., of Zurich Switzerland.  The original non-prosecution agreement was signed on December 31, 2015. 

The Swiss Bank Program, which was announced on August 29, 2013, provided a path for Swiss banks to resolve potential criminal liabilities in the United States relating to offshore banking services provided to United States taxpayers.  Swiss banks eligible to enter the program were required to advise the Department by December 31, 2013, that they had reason to believe that they had committed tax-related criminal offenses in connection with undeclared U.S.-related accounts.  Swiss banks participating in the program were required to make a complete disclosure of their cross-border activities, provide detailed information on an account-by-account basis for accounts in which U.S. taxpayers had a direct or indirect interest, cooperate in treaty requests for account information, and provide detailed information about the transfer of funds into and out of U.S.-related accounts, including undeclared accounts, that identifies the sending and receiving banks involved in the transactions. 

The Department executed non-prosecution agreements with 80 banks between March 2015 and January 2016.  The Department imposed a total of more than $1.36 billion in Swiss Bank Program penalties, including more than $99 million in penalties from Lombard Odier.  Pursuant to today’s agreement, an addendum to Lombard Odier’s non-prosecution agreement, Lombard Odier will pay to the Department an additional sum of $5,300,000, and will provide to the Department supplemental information regarding its U.S.-related account population, which now includes 88 additional accounts.  

Every bank that signed a non-prosecution agreement in the Swiss Bank Program had represented that it had disclosed all of its U.S.-related accounts that were open at each bank between August 1, 2008, and December 31, 2014.  Each bank also represented that it would, during the term of the non-prosecution agreement, continue to disclose all material information relating to its U.S.-related accounts.  In reaching today’s agreement, Lombard Odier acknowledges that there were certain additional U.S.-related accounts that it knew about, or should have known about, but that were not disclosed to the Department at the time of the signing of the non-prosecution agreement.  Lombard Odier provided early self-disclosure of their unreported U.S.-related accounts and has fully cooperated with the Department.   

“The Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service have capitalized on information obtained under the Swiss Bank Program to analyze the flow of money of U.S. tax evaders from closed Swiss bank accounts to banks in other countries.  As a result, the Department has learned more about the methods of those who continue to evade their tax obligations and those institutions that assist them,” said Richard E. Zuckerman, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice’s Tax Division.  “I urge any banks that aided and abetted in these schemes, or that have received money from closed Swiss bank accounts owned or controlled by persons or entities that are U.S. related, to contact the Tax Division and disclose complete and accurate information about these activities before they are contacted by the Division or the IRS.” 

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman thanked Trial Attorney Kimberly M. Shartar, who served as counsel on this matter, as well as Senior Counsel for International Tax Matters and Coordinator of the Swiss Bank Program Thomas J. Sawyer, Senior Litigation Counsel Nanette L. Davis, and Attorney Kimberle E. Dodd of the Tax Division.

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

A federal grand jury sitting in the Eastern District of Michigan returned an indictment today charging a Walled Lake, Michigan restaurant owner with 24 counts of failing to account for and pay over employment taxes and one count of willful failure to file an income tax return, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

According to the indictment, Johni Semma owned Bayside Sports Bar & Grill (“Bayside”), a restaurant, and The Coliseum, an adult entertainment business.   As the owner of Bayside, Semma was allegedly responsible for collecting and paying over Bayside’s employment taxes.   The indictment charges that during 2008 to 2015, Bayside accrued employment tax liabilities of more than $1 million and that Semma withheld those taxes from the pay of the restaurant’s employees.  Semma then allegedly failed to fully pay over the amounts he withheld to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). 

The indictment further alleges that in 2012, Semma sold The Coliseum for more than $6 million with approximately $3.5 million of the purchase price paid during 2012.  Despite receiving considerable income from the sale of The Coliseum and other sources, Semma allegedly did not file a 2012 income tax return. 

If convicted, Semma faces a statutory maximum of five years in prison for each count of failure to pay over the employment taxes.  He faces a statutory maximum of one year in prison for the one count of willful failure to file his income tax return.  In addition, he faces a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties.  An indictment is an accusation.  A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman commended special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Tax Division Trial Attorneys Kenneth Vert and Brittney Campbell, who are prosecuting the case.

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

Today, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the Department of Labor (DOL) expanded their collaboration to better protect U.S. workers from discrimination by employers that prefer to hire temporary visa workers over qualified U.S. workers. This new partnership, memorialized in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), establishes protocols for the agencies to share information, refer matters between them, and train each other’s employees, with the goal of better protecting U.S. workers. This partnership will enhance the Civil Rights Division’s efforts to stop companies from discriminating against U.S. workers and assist the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration in identifying noncompliance with its foreign labor certification process. 

In 2017, the Civil Rights Division launched the Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative, which is aimed at targeting, investigating, and taking enforcement measures against companies that discriminate against U.S. workers in favor of foreign visa workers. Under this Initiative, the Civil Rights Division has opened dozens of investigations; filed one lawsuit; and reached settlement agreements with three employers. Since the Initiative’s inception, employers have agreed to pay or distributed over $285,000 in back pay to affected U.S. workers. The Employment and Training Administration has assisted the Division’s efforts under this Initiative and today’s partnership expands and formalizes that relationship.

The Civil Rights Division has also increased its collaboration with other federal agencies, including the Departments of State and Homeland Security, to combat discrimination and abuse by employers improperly using temporary visa workers. Today’s MOU expands on the Division’s existing partnership with DOL. In 2017, the Division entered into a similar ongoing partnership with DOL’s Wage and Hour Division to combat discrimination and violations of other federal worker protection laws by facilitating the agencies’ information sharing. 

“Employers should hire workers based on their skills, experience, and authorization to work; not based on discriminatory preferences that violate the law,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore of the Civil Rights Division. “Our partnership with DOL, formalized today, significantly enhances the Civil Rights Division’s ability to identify employers that favor temporary visa holders over U.S. workers who can do the job.”

“Streamlining the process for information sharing between the Department of Labor and the Department of Justice will help protect U.S. workers from unlawful discrimination,” said Rosemary Lahasky, Deputy Assistant Secretary for DOL’s Employment and Training Administration. “This partnership will help ensure U.S. workers are prioritized to fill jobs.”

The Employment and Training Administration’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) has statutory and regulatory authority to certify employers seeking certain employment-based visas, including H-2A and H-2B visas.  These visa programs require employers to first seek and hire available U.S. workers before hiring visa workers.

The Civil Rights Division’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) is responsible for enforcing the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act.  Among other things, the statute prohibits citizenship status and national origin discrimination in hiring, firing, or recruitment or referral for a fee; unfair documentary practices; retaliation; and intimidation.  An employer that prefers to hire temporary visa workers over available, qualified U.S. workers may be discriminating in violation of this law.

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

For more information on OFLC and its activities, please visit https://www.foreignlaborcert.doleta.gov

A Charlottesville, Virginia man was sentenced today to 276 months in prison for production of child pornography, announced Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Thomas T. Cullen of the Western District of Virginia and Special Agent in Charge Patrick J. Lechleitner of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations Washington, D.C. field office.

Richard Wellbeloved-Stone, 57, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia to one count of production of child pornography.  Senior U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon presided over the sentencing and ordered him to serve a lifetime of supervised release following his prison sentence.  

Wellbeloved-Stone, a high school teacher in Charlottesville, was discovered by law enforcement after chatting online with an undercover agent from the United Kingdom about sexually abusing a young child.  A search warrant executed at Wellbeloved-Stone’s home recovered several images of child pornography produced by Wellbeloved-Stone of at least two young minor victims.

“As a high school science teacher, the defendant held a position of great trust in our society – a trust he abused when he produced horrific images of young children,” said Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski.  “Today’s sentence reflects the unwavering commitment of our prosecutors and law enforcement partners to combat child pornography and to hold offenders accountable for their deplorable crimes.”

“This defendant, through his heinous acts, betrayed the trust of the Charlottesville community,” said U.S. Attorney Cullen. “We are grateful for the hard work of our federal, state, and local law-enforcement partners in bringing him to justice and making our community safer.”

“Child predators are the worst type of criminals,” said HSI Special Agent in Charge Lechleitner.  “They prey on innocent children for their own self-gratification.  While we can’t undo Wellbeloved-Stone’s actions, today’s sentence ensures he can’t victimize anyone else.” 

This case was investigated by HSI Washington, D.C., the Charlottesville Police Department, the Virginia State Police, the Albemarle County Police Department and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section’s (CEOS) High Technology Investigative Unit.

This case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Leslie Williams Fisher of the Criminal Division’s CEOS and Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Healey.

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

The Department of Justice announced today that Swiss-based Mirelis Holding S.A. reached a resolution with the Tax Division. 

“The agreement reached today demonstrates the Department’s resolve toward ending the practice of using Swiss bank accounts to evade one’s taxes,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division. “The Department will continue to pursue culpable banks and asset management and investment advisory firms that assist U.S. clients in their concealment of assets and the evasion of their U.S. tax obligations.”

According to the terms of the non-prosecution agreement signed today, Mirelis Holding S.A. (formerly known as Mirelis InvestTrust S.A.) agrees to cooperate in any related criminal or civil proceedings, demonstrate its implementation of controls to stop misconduct involving undeclared U.S. accounts, and pay $10.245 million to the United States, in return for the Department’s agreement not to prosecute this entity for tax-related criminal offenses.

Mirelis operated as a Geneva-based securities trading institution licensed by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (“FINMA”).  Mirelis was established in 1997 to provide independent portfolio and asset management services following the sale of a minority ownership interest held by Mirelis’s controlling family and associates in Société Bancaire Julius Baer S.A. After its establishment, Mirelis was initially permitted to offer its independent portfolio and asset management services to certain clients of the Geneva branch of Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd (which was formerly Société Bancaire Julius Baer S.A.) with whom the employees or officers of Mirelis had a previous relationship. The assets of clients who accepted the offer of Mirelis’s asset management services remained custodied at the Geneva branch of Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd. (“Julius Baer”), which has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice.  In addition to providing services to individuals and entities based in Switzerland, at all relevant times, Mirelis provided custodial and independent portfolio and asset management services to U.S. taxpayer-clients.

At the end of 2012, Mirelis and Atlas Capital S.A. (“Atlas”), another securities trading institution based in Geneva licensed by FINMA, entered into a share purchase agreement, pursuant to which Mirelis acquired, and subsequently merged with Atlas effective in May of 2013.  Mirelis continued to serve clients as both an independent asset manager and as a custodian until May of 2014 when Mirelis transferred its activities to Hyposwiss Private Bank Genève S.A. (“Hyposwiss”), a Swiss private bank that has entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the Department,  pursuant to a reverse merger and acquisition of Hyposwiss by Mirelis.

During the Applicable Period, August 1, 2008, through December 31, 2014, the aggregate maximum balance of the assets under management of Mirelis’s U.S. taxpayer-clients was in 2008 and was approximately $315 million, consisting of both assets held in custody at Mirelis and assets held at third-party depository institutions.  Mirelis provided custodial account services for approximately 177 U.S. Related Accounts  and portfolio and asset management services to an additional approximately 95 U.S. Related Accounts that were custodied at third-party banks.  Following the transfer of its activities to Hyposwiss in 2014, Mirelis ceased to conduct any of its former activities (including its provision of independent portfolio and asset management services and its custody of client assets) except for the custody of the accounts of 17 U.S. taxpayer-clients on a temporary basis prior to closure.

Since it began its operations, Mirelis was aware that its U.S. taxpayer-clients had a legal duty to report to the IRS, pay taxes on the basis of, all of the income, including income earned in accounts at Mirelis.  Despite being aware of the obligations of its U.S. taxpayer-clients to report to the IRS and pay taxes on income earned in accounts maintained outside of the United States, Mirelis opened, maintained, and serviced accounts for U.S. taxpayer-clients where Mirelis knew or had reason to know that the U.S. taxpayer-clients were not complying with these obligations or were using their accounts outside of the United States to evade U.S. taxes and reporting requirements, filing false tax returns with the IRS, and/or concealing assets maintained outside of the United States from the IRS (hereinafter, “undeclared assets”).

On several occasions, Mirelis facilitated the concealment of U.S. taxpayer-clients’ undeclared accounts through the closure of accounts and transfer of account funds (in whole or in part and temporarily or permanently) to other accounts held at Mirelis where the named account holder and/or beneficial owner were not U.S. persons and may or may not have been related to the U.S. taxpayer-client.

On at least four occasions, in or about 2011 or 2012, Mirelis facilitated the introduction of U.S. taxpayer-clients to the Singapore-based representatives of a trust company, who advised the U.S. taxpayer-clients to create non-U.S. trusts and fund non-U.S. life insurance policies.  Mirelis agreed to accept and effect the transfer of the funds held in the U.S. taxpayer-clients’ accounts pursuant to instructions despite knowing or having reason to know that these U.S. taxpayer-clients were likely to use the advice received from the trust company to conceal their ownership of undeclared assets. The funds were transferred to accounts at a third-party depository financial institution outside of Switzerland in the name of a non-U.S. life insurance company that had issued policies owned by the non-U.S. trusts created by Mirelis’s U.S. taxpayer-clients. Mirelis provided independent portfolio and asset management services for these accounts and listed the account holders and clients as the life insurance company. In all four instances, Mirelis believes that the U.S. taxpayer-clients subsequently entered into an offshore voluntary disclosure program (the “OVDP”) offered by the IRS.

In order to reduce the chances of undeclared accounts being discovered, Mirelis opened and falsely designated at least one account as a non-U.S. account when it knew the account holder was in fact a U.S. person. Prior to August 2008, Mirelis opened an account using the client’s U.S. passport. When this account was closed in 2009, the account holder withdrew all funds in cash. In 2010, Mirelis opened another account for the same client, but this time used the client’s non-U.S. passport. The account documents were completed without mention of the client’s U.S. citizenship, which was then known to Mirelis.

On at least five occasions, Mirelis effected the transfer of funds from one U.S.  Related Account owned or beneficially owned by individual U.S. taxpayer-clients to other U.S. Related Accounts maintained at Mirelis owned by U.S. limited liability companies, which in turn were owned by U.S. trusts with U.S. beneficiaries. The accounts owned by the limited liability companies were all later closed and the custody of their funds transferred to another Swiss bank (a so-called Category 1 bank) while the independent portfolio and asset management services were provided by Mirelis Advisors, a wholly owned subsidiary that is a registered investment adviser with the SEC.  Mirelis effected these transfers without knowing or checking whether the U.S. taxpayer-clients of the original accounts were compliant with their U.S. tax and reporting obligations.

In order to assist U.S. taxpayer-clients for whom Mirelis provided independent portfolio and asset management services, Mirelis agreed to accept custody of at least eight U.S. Related Accounts from Julius Baer, despite knowing that the beneficial owners of such accounts were U.S. taxpayers, that the accounts held undeclared assets, and that the accounts were being terminated by Julius Baer due to the U.S. taxpayer-client’s U.S. citizenship or residency.  Mirelis agreed to accept these accounts at least in part on the assurances of its U.S. taxpayer-clients that they would enter into the OVDP.  Mirelis’s Management Committee put in place a special policy for such accounts requiring the provision of IRS Forms W-9 and waivers of bank secrecy under the QI regime; however, in certain instances, the Form W-9 was not signed or the account did not hold U.S. securities. At least seven of the U.S. taxpayer-clients associated with these accounts ultimately entered into the OVDP.

Even after instituting a policy to only serve U.S. taxpayer-clients in full compliance with U.S. tax and securities laws in 2010, during a transition period of one year, Mirelis continued to provide both custodial and independent portfolio and asset management services to U.S. taxpayer-clients despite knowing or having reason to know that the U.S. taxpayer-clients were not in full compliance with their U.S. tax and information reporting obligations with respect to several accounts maintained at Mirelis and several accounts maintained at third-party banks.

The services provided by Mirelis to its clients also included a number of  traditional Swiss banking services that Mirelis knew or had reason to know could and did in fact assist its U.S. taxpayer-clients in holding undeclared assets, including providing “hold-mail” services whereby Mirelis would hold all account correspondence and statements at its offices until physically retrieved by the client in Switzerland.  In addition, Mirelis provided or assisted in the provision of “numbered” account services whereby the account holder’s name was replaced on all correspondence with just  the account number or a code name even though Mirelis’s internal records would show the name and identity of the account holder.  These services aided in reducing or eliminating paper trails and beneficial ownership information for undeclared accounts and assets of certain of Mirelis’s U.S. taxpayer-clients. 

Mirelis also assisted in the establishment of trusts and entities (collectively, “structures”) for U.S. taxpayer-clients with both accounts maintained at Mirelis and accounts maintained at third-party depository financial institutions, in particular at a Category 1 Bank, by making referrals to known purveyors of such structures both within and outside of Switzerland.  Mirelis knew or had reason to know that these purveyors often operated structures in contravention of corporate formalities and/or Mirelis’s own policies and procedures and that one purpose of these structures was to add an additional layer of nominal ownership to conceal the U.S. taxpayer-clients’ ownership of undeclared accounts.

With respect to at least 24 U.S. Related Accounts maintained by Mirelis, Mirelis obtained or accepted IRS Forms W-8BEN (or substitute self-certification forms) from these entity account holders that falsely indicated the beneficial owner of the undeclared account was the non-U.S. entity itself and not the U.S. taxpayer-client. These false Forms W-8BEN directly contradicted the Swiss Forms A that Mirelis obtained identifying the U.S. taxpayer-clients as the true beneficial owners of the accounts.  Despite knowing that one of the purposes of these arrangements was to further conceal the ownership of undeclared accounts, Mirelis did not contest the claims made on the Forms W-8BEN or equivalent.

With respect to its asset management services to U.S. taxpayer-clients, Mirelis’s responsibility was solely to manage the investment of the assets of the external U.S. taxpayer-clients held on deposit at the third-party financial institutions. Those institutions undertook all other aspects of managing the client relationship, including the responsibility for procuring, updating, and maintaining all “know your customer” and anti-money laundering and terrorism financing information regarding account holder and beneficial owner.

Mirelis, in connection with the due diligence performed following the Atlas acquisition, learned, among other things, that Atlas provided hold mail and numbered account services, assisted in the establishment of structures for U.S. persons, accepted (or did not contest) false IRS Forms W-8BEN regarding the true beneficial ownership of the account; and opened at least 107 accounts in the names of Panamanian corporations in which the beneficial owners were U.S. persons.  Most of those 107 accounts were established by one Swiss attorney. 

Mirelis took remedial steps starting in 2011 with respect to its then-existing U.S. taxpayer-clients, including implementing a new cross-border policy in June 2011, encouraging clients to enter the OVDP, and shifting its declared clients to its then-newly SEC-registered subsidiary, Mirelis Advisors, S.A.

Mirelis submitted a letter of intent to participate as a Category 2 bank in the Department’s Swiss Bank Program in December 2013.  Although it was ultimately determined that Mirelis was not eligible for the Swiss Bank Program due to its structure as both an asset management firm and a bank, Mirelis is required under today’s agreement to fully comply with the obligations imposed under the terms of that program.  Mirelis has fully cooperated with the Department of Justice in this investigation, including undertaking a separate and thorough review of the provision of independent portfolio and asset management services to U.S. taxpayer-clients with accounts maintained at third-party depository financial institutions and encouraging a significant number of its remaining non-compliant U.S. taxpayer-clients to participate, or provide proof of prior participation, in OVDP covering many of the U.S. Related Accounts maintained by Mirelis during the Applicable Period. 

While U.S. account holders at Mirelis who have not yet declared their accounts to the IRS may still be eligible to participate in the IRS Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program, the price of such disclosure has increased.  Most U.S. taxpayers who enter the IRS Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program to resolve undeclared offshore accounts will pay a penalty equal to 27.5 percent of the high value of the accounts.  On Aug. 4, 2014, the IRS increased the penalty to 50 percent if, at the time the taxpayer initiated their disclosure, either a foreign financial institution at which the taxpayer had an account or a facilitator who helped the taxpayer establish or maintain an offshore arrangement had been publicly identified as being under investigation, the recipient of a John Doe summons or cooperating with a government investigation, including the execution of a deferred prosecution agreement or non-prosecution agreement.  With today’s announcement of this non-prosecution agreement, noncompliant U.S. clients of Mirelis must now pay that 50 percent penalty to the IRS if they wish to enter the IRS Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program.  The IRS recently announced that the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program will close on September 28, 2018.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division thanked the IRS and in particular, IRS-Criminal Investigation and the IRS Large Business & International Division for their substantial assistance.  Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman also thanked Trial Attorneys Charles M. Duffy and Henry C. Darmstadter, who served as counsel on this matter, as well as Senior Counsel for International Tax Matters and Coordinator of the Swiss Bank Program Thomas J. Sawyer, Senior Litigation Counsel Nanette L. Davis, and Attorney Kimberle E. Dodd.

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

The Department of Justice today announced that it has reached a settlement agreement with the City of Jacksonville, Florida (the “City”) to resolve allegations that the City’s promotional practices for positions in the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department (JFRD) violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII is a federal law that prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, or religion. The proposed settlement agreement, which must still be approved by a federal judge, finalizes an agreement in principle reached by the parties in January 2017. 

In a joint motion filed by the parties today in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, the Justice Department, the City, the International Association of Fire Firefighters (the “Union”), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and various private plaintiffs asked the court to enter a provisional order that sets out the terms of the settlement agreement. Under the terms of the settlement, the City agrees to develop new promotional examinations for the selection of certain positions in the JFRD. The City also will offer settlement promotions to qualified African Americans and will establish a $4.9 million settlement fund for eligible claimants.

“The Justice Department is committed to enforcing Title VII to remove unlawful discriminatory barriers.  The Settlement Agreement announced today ensures that all promotional candidates in the JFRD are given a fair opportunity to compete for advancement,” said John Gore, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division. 

The proposed settlement agreement will resolve the complaint filed by the Justice Department in federal court on April 23, 2012, a separate lawsuit filed against the Union by the EEOC, and claims brought against the City and/or Union by various private plaintiffs, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Jacksonville Branch, and the Jacksonville Brotherhood of Firefighters.   

This matter was handled for the United States by Jay Adelstein, Hector Ruiz, Brian McEntire, Jeremy Monteiro, Sharyn Tejani, and Clare Geller, all current or former attorneys in the Civil Rights’ Division’s Employment Litigation Section. Additional information about Title VII and other federal employment laws is available on the Civil Rights Division’s website at https://www.justice.gov/crt

WASHINGTON - A Coral Springs, Florida, tire retailer was sentenced today in the Southern District of Florida for conspiracy to defraud the Government, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Benjamin G. Greenberg for the Southern District of Florida. 

Nestor Bastidas, 53, of Coral Springs, was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison for conspiring to impede and impair the Internal Revenue Service with respect to excise taxes on tires.

According to documents and information provided to the court, Bastidas owned and operated The Fat Tires, Co., a tire retailer located in Coral Springs, Florida.  Under federal law, tires marked for highway use are subject to federal excise tax.  A tire importer is liable for the excise tax when the tires are sold.  The importer typically passes on the cost of the excise tax to their customers and tire retailers.  The law, however, provides for a refund of the excise tax if tires are exported overseas rather than sold domestically.  

Bastidas purchased taxable tires from Banlu, Inc. and Banlu Tires, Inc., tire importers owned by co-conspirator Angel Gomez.  Bastidas then purchased false bills of lading from International Trade-Logistics Services, Inc., a logistics company owned by another co-conspirator,Luis Gomez.  The false bills of lading purported to show that the tires were exported offshore to the Dominican Republic and elsewhere.  Both co‑conspirators knew, however, that Bastidas never exported tires.  Bastidas gave Angel Gomez the false bills of lading, and Angel Gomez did not charge Bastidas the excise taxes due on the tires.  Angel Gomez, then, filed with the IRS false Forms 720, Quarterly Federal Excise Tax Returns, which did not report the sale of the tires to Bastidas. Bastidas also purchased tires from, and submitted false bills of lading to, other tire importers from February 2013 through June 2016.  Bastidas’ submission of false bills of lading caused a loss to the United States of approximately $335,000.

In addition to the term of imprisonment, U.S. District Court Chief Judge K. Michael Moore ordered Bastidas to serve three years of supervised release and pay $335,174 in restitution to the IRS.     

Bastidas previously entered a guilty plea on April 25, 2018.  Luis Gomez pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the Government on May 23, 2018 and is scheduled to be sentenced on August 8, 2018.  Angel Gomez entered his guilty plea to the same conspiracy charge on June 13, 2018, and is scheduled to be sentenced on August 22, 2018.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Greenberg commended special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, who investigated the case, and Tax Division Trial Attorney Mara Strier, Tax Division Assistant Chief Greg Tortella, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Larsen, who prosecuted the case.

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

The Justice Department announced today that Sorensen Gross Construction Company (Sorensen) and its corporate vice president, Khalil Saab, have agreed to pay $2.481 million to resolve allegations that they submitted false claims for payment under a construction contract funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

“Contractors who misrepresent their eligibility for government contracts undermine the government procurement process,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Chad A. Readler of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The Justice Department will take action to protect that process, including safeguards designed to create American jobs.”

The settlement announced today resolves allegations related to a contract between Sorensen, a Michigan-based U.S. company, and the Jordan Government’s Ministry of Public Works and Housing (Ministry) for a project to build or renovate 16 schools in Aqaba, Jordan (Aqaba Project) that was financed by USAID.  In addition to funding the Aqaba Project, USAID approved the solicitation for bids, prequalified bidders, and approved the selection of Sorensen as the prime contractor and the terms of its contract with the Ministry.   Pursuant to the contract, Sorensen could not subcontract more than 50 percent of the work on the Aqaba Project, and any subcontract valued at more than $100,000 had to be preapproved by USAID and the Ministry. In addition, the contract limited subcontracts with Jordanian companies to $5 million. 

The United States contends that Sorensen subcontracted almost the entirety of the work on the Aqaba Project to a local Jordanian company, Concorde, in violation of the contract terms.  The United States further contends that Sorensen and Mr. Saab falsely certified that Sorensen was performing work under the contract and that Sorensen invoiced USAID for work performed by Concorde.  Sorensen then transferred payments it received from USAID to Concorde for the work that Concorde performed. 

“USAID OIG remains committed to helping protect U.S. government investments in overseas development projects,” said USAID Inspector General Ann Calvaresi Barr.  “Complying with project specifications is not enough, if contracts are not awarded fairly and for a reasonable, competitive price.  Arrangements hidden from USAID regarding actual subcontracting percentages disadvantage the U.S. taxpayer as well as project beneficiaries.  We thank the DOJ Civil Fraud Section for partnering with us to ensure this violation was properly addressed.”

This case was handled by the Justice Department’s Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch, and the USAID, Office of Inspector General.  The claims settled in this case are allegations only; there has been no determination of liability.

The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the IRS’s assertion of transferee liability against the former shareholders of a closely held corporation who participated in a so-called “Midco” transaction, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Travis A. Greaves of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

In a Midco transaction, the shareholders of a closely held corporation owning appreciated assets seek to “cash out” without bearing the full tax burden resulting from the conversion of the assets to cash.  They do so by purporting to sell their stock to a Midco promoter for an amount far greater than the after-tax value of the corporation, based on the promoter’s professed ability to eliminate the corporation’s taxable gain resulting from the asset sale.  But the promoter’s gain-elimination strategy is false, and by the time the IRS discovers the ploy, the corporation no longer has any assets.

In Slone v. Commissioner, the IRS sought to collect the corporation’s unpaid tax from the former (selling) shareholders as the deemed recipients of a fraudulent transfer by the corporation, arguing that the stock sale should be disregarded and the transaction recharacterized as, in substance, a liquidating distribution by the corporation to the former shareholders.  The Ninth Circuit, reversing the U.S. Tax Court, agreed with the IRS’s characterization of the substance of the transaction and held that such substance controls for purposes of both federal tax law and the applicable (Arizona) fraudulent-transfer law. 

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Greaves thanked Tax Division attorneys Francesca Ugolini and Arthur Catterall, who handled the case on appeal for the government.

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

The Justice Department today filed a denaturalization lawsuit against the former leader of a drug organization responsible for conspiring to distribute more than 40 kilograms of cocaine and 1,600 kilograms of marijuana, conduct he allegedly concealed during his naturalization proceedings. The civil complaint was filed in federal court in the Northern District of Florida.

“It is important for the Department of Justice to protect the integrity of the naturalization process,” said Acting Associate Attorney General Jesse Panuccio. “In this case, the defendant allegedly concealed his serious criminal activity—large-scale drug trafficking that put the health and safety of our communities at risk.  We cannot tolerate, and will zealously pursue, this kind of fraudulent activity.”

Melchor Munoz aka Melchor Munoz-Correa, 42, a native of Mexico, was convicted pursuant to a guilty plea in 2012 of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine and 100 kilograms or more of marijuana, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(A)(ii), and (b)(1)(B)(vii). As admitted in his criminal proceedings, Munoz distributed to co-conspirators an average of 80 pounds of marijuana on approximately 60 separate occasions between 2008 and 2010, keeping 400 to 500 pounds of marijuana, gallon zip-lock bags of methamphetamine, and multiple blocks of cocaine on hand most of the time. In 2012, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida found that Munoz was a leader of the drug organization and sentenced him to 188 months’ imprisonment and five years of supervised release.  Munoz is currently serving his sentence at a federal prison in Jesup, Georgia.

Although Munoz’s crimes began while he was a permanent resident of the United States, he was not arrested and his criminal proceedings did not occur until after he had naturalized. The civil denaturalization complaint alleges that Munoz concealed and affirmatively misrepresented his criminal conduct throughout his naturalization proceedings, and that his application would have been denied had immigration authorities known about his drug conspiracy. 

“This criminal led a drug organization responsible for conspiring to distribute massive amounts of cocaine and marijuana, all while he defrauded the government during his naturalization process,” said Derek Benner, HSI Deputy Executive  Associate Director. “Today he is being held accountable for his lies and stands to lose one of the greatest benefits our country offers, citizenship, which he obtained by defrauding immigration authorities.”

The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Civil Division’s Office of Immigration Litigation, District Court Section (OIL-DCS). The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Ari Nazarov of OIL-DCS, with support from ICE’s Orlando Office of the Chief Counsel and ICE-HSI Tallahassee.

The claims made in the complaint are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.

A former police officer with the Village of Biscayne Park pleaded guilty today in federal court in Miami to conspiracy to deprive a person of his civil rights and deprivation of civil rights under color of law. Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division; Benjamin G. Greenberg, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; Katherine Fernandez Rundle, Miami-Dade State Attorney; Robert F. Lasky, Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Miami Field Office; and Troy Walker, Special Agent in Charge, Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), made the announcement. 

Guillermo Ravelo, 37, of Miami, Florida, was charged by a superseding information with depriving a person of his civil rights under color of law, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 242 (Count 1); and conspiracy to deprive a person of his civil rights, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 241 (Count 2). For each count, Ravelo faces a statutory maximum sentence of ten years in prison, three years of supervised release, and up to a $250,000 fine.  His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 4 before U.S. District Court Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga in Miami.

According to the allegations contained in the information, on Jan. 23, 2013 and Feb. 26, 2014, at the direction of a Biscayne Park Police Department Supervisor, Ravelo falsely arrested a victim identified as “C.D.” and another victim identified as “E.B.”  C.D. was charged with two residential burglaries, and E.B. was charged with five vehicle burglaries; despite the supervisor and Ravelo knowing that no evidence existed linking either of the victims to these crimes. In a separate incident, on April 7, 2013, Ravelo responded to a request for assistance from another Biscayne Park police officer who had conducted a traffic stop.  During the arrest of the driver, Ravelo assaulted the driver by striking him with his fists while the victim was handcuffed and caused bodily injury.

This case is being investigated by the FBI, including the FBI Miami Area Corruption Task Force, and FDLE, and assisted by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.  This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Harry C. Wallace, Jr., Department of Justice Trial Attorney Donald W. Tunnage, and Assistant State Attorney Trent Reichling.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.

A federal grand jury in New Orleans, Louisiana, returned a six-count human trafficking and hate crime indictment relating to the abuse of D.P., a 22-year-old woman with disabilities, in Amite, Louisiana. Raylaine Knope, 42, Terry J. Knope, II, 45, Jody Lambert, 23, and Taylor Knope, 20, are charged with one count of conspiring to obtain the forced labor of D.P., in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1594(b); one count of forced labor, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1589; and one count of using force and threats of force to interfere with D.P.’s federal Fair Housing Act rights because of her disability, in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 3631. Raylaine Knope and Terry J. Knope, II are also charged with one count of attempted sex trafficking of D.P., in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1591 and 1594(a); and Terry J. Knope, II is charged with one count of a hate crime for shooting D.P. with a BB gun because of her disability, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 249(a)(2), and one count of theft of government funds for stealing D.P.’s federal disability benefits, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 641. In addition, in a related matter, Bridget Lambert, 21, was separately charged in a one-count Bill of Information for conspiring to obtain the forced labor of D.P., in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371.

The forced labor, forced labor conspiracy, and Fair Housing Act charges against Raylaine Knope, Terry J. Knope, II, Jody Lambert, and Taylor Knope carry a statutory maximum penalty of life imprisonment. The sex trafficking charge against Raylaine Knope and Terry J. Knope, II, carries a mandatory minimum penalty of fifteen years imprisonment, with a statutory maximum penalty of life imprisonment. The hate crime charge and the theft of government funds charge against Terry J. Knope, II, each carry a statutory maximum penalty of ten years imprisonment. The separate conspiracy charge against Bridget Lambert carries a statutory maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment.

An indictment and a bill of information are formal accusations of criminal conduct, not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

This case was investigated by the FBI Field Office in New Orleans, Louisiana, and is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Risa Berkower and Nicholas Reddick of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and Assistant United States Attorney Julia Evans, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Two former employees of Deutsche Bank AG, a global financial institution, were charged in an indictment returned by a Chicago federal grand jury yesterday with engaging in fraudulent and manipulative trading involving precious metals futures contracts, announced Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Assistant Director in Charge William Sweeney of the FBI’s New York Field Office.

James Vorley, 38, of the United Kingdom, and Cedric Chanu, 39, of France and the United Arab Emirates, were each charged in the Northern District of Illinois with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution and one count of wire fraud affecting a financial institution.  

The indictment alleges that Vorley and Chanu, who were employed as traders at Deutsche Bank AG—Vorley based in London; Chanu based in London and Singapore—engaged in a years-long conspiracy to defraud other traders on the Commodity Exchange Inc., which was an exchange run by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group.  The defendants and their co-conspirators, including former Deutsche Bank AG trader David Liew, are alleged to have defrauded other traders by placing fraudulent orders that they did not intend to execute in order to create the appearance of false supply and demand and to induce other traders to trade at prices, quantities and times that they otherwise would not have traded.  The indictment further alleges that Vorley, Chanu, Liew and others placed such fraudulent and manipulative orders by themselves and in coordination with other traders at Deutsche Bank AG, including each other.

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

This case was investigated by the FBI’s New York Field Office.  Assistant Deputy Chief Carol Sipperly and Trial Attorneys Michael T. O’Neill and Cory E. Jacobs of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case.

Individuals who believe that they may be a victim in this case should visit the Fraud Section’s Victim Witness website for more information.

The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit yesterday upheld the validity of amendments to the cost-sharing regulation under I.R.C. § 482 (Treas. Reg. § 1.482-7), announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Travis A. Greaves of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.  The regulatory amendments clarified that (1) the term “costs” under § 1.482-7 includes stock-based compensation costs, and (2) a cost-sharing arrangement produces results that are consistent with an arm’s-length result if, and only if, each controlled participant’s share of the costs of intangible development equals its share of reasonably anticipated benefits attributable to such development.

In the consolidated cases, Altera Corporation & Subsidiaries v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Case Nos. 16-70496 & 16-70497, the Ninth Circuit reversed a decision of the U.S. Tax Court, and held that the regulatory amendments were both procedurally valid under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and substantively valid under the test set forth in Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Res. Def. Council, Inc., 461 U.S. 837 (1984).  The court held that the amendments satisfied the APA because Treasury’s rationale could be “reasonably discerned” from the preambles to the proposed and final amendments, each of which referred extensively to the legislative history of the 1986 amendment of § 482.  The court further held that the amendments were substantively valid under Chevron’s two-step analysis because (1) § 482 does not speak directly to the matters covered by the regulatory amendments, and (2) the regulatory amendments represent a permissible construction of § 482 since they are “entirely consistent with Congress’s rationale for amending § 482 [in 1986] in the first place.”

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman thanked Tax Division attorneys Richard Farber and Arthur Catterall, who handled the case on appeal for the government.

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

Rashad Sabree, 37, of Boston, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty today in federal court in District of Maine to two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney Halsey B. Frank of the District of Maine, Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Boston Division, and Peter C. Fitzhugh, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Boston.

According to court documents, the defendant coerced two young women to engage in commercial sex acts in Maine between December 2015 and Jan. 5, 2016, by exploiting their heroin addictions, verbally abusing them, and threatening them with violence. The defendant controlled the victims by supplying them with just enough heroin to avoid opiate withdrawal, which involves severe pain and physical sickness, and then threatening to cut off their supply and cause them to suffer withdrawal if they refused to engage in commercial sex. On Jan. 5, 2016, a motorist called 911 after observing the defendant striking one of the victims while driving on I-95 towards Massachusetts, resulting in the defendant’s arrest.

“This defendant committed sex trafficking by exploiting the opioid addictions of these women, using their vulnerability to coerce them into commercial sex for his gain,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore. “The Department of Justice will continue to work tirelessly to seek justice on behalf of victims and survivors of human trafficking.”

“This case demonstrates the important role that the public can play in helping to protect those who are vulnerable,” said U.S. Attorney Frank.  “We encourage the public to say something if they see something. Here, thankfully, a good citizen did just that.”

“This defendant preyed on the addictions of his victims and brutally exploited them in a scheme driven by cruelty and greed,” said Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Boston Division. “With today's plea, Sabree is accepting responsibility for his crimes, while his victims continue to recover from the abuse suffered at his hands. This case demonstrates the FBI's unwavering commitment to work with our law enforcement partners to hold sex traffickers like him accountable.”

“Homeland Security Investigations is proud to have assisted in this investigation, a case  which clearly exposes the false claim that commercial sex trafficking is a so-called “victimless crime,” said Peter C. Fitzhugh, Special Agent in Charge, U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s HSI Boston. “Close law enforcement coordination in this case has allowed justice to be done to the perpetrators of these vicious crimes and to, hopefully, provide some measure of compensation for the victims.”  

In accordance with the plea agreement, the defendant faces a sentence of 15 to 17 years in prison. He is further subject to a maximum fine of $250,000 and mandatory restitution to the victims. Sentencing will be scheduled on a later date after the U.S. Probation Office completes its presentence investigation report.

The District of Maine is one of six districts designated through a competitive, nationwide selection process as a Phase II Anti-Trafficking Coordination Team (ACTeam), through the interagency ACTeam Initiative of the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Labor. ACTeams focus on developing high-impact human trafficking investigations and prosecutions involving forced labor, international sex trafficking and sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion through interagency collaboration among federal prosecutors and federal investigative agencies.

The case was investigated by the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s HSI, and the Biddeford Police Department, with assistance from the Maine State Police and the Sanford, Kittery, and Portland Police Departments. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Julia Lipez and Trial Attorney William E. Nolan of the Civil Rights Division’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit.

Good morning and thank you Marc Nichols for that gracious introduction, and thanks to both you and Jeannine D’Amico Lemker for co-hosting this important event.

It is truly a pleasure to be here with all of you as part of the ACI’s 9th Global Forum on Anti-Corruption Compliance in High Risk Markets.

I’ve always admired ACI’s mission and programs.  Just last year, while still in private practice, I participated in the ACI’s 34th International Conference on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).  While I wear a different hat today, it is wonderful to be back.

In fact, today is particularly meaningful for me, as this marks my first time at an event like this since joining the Department of Justice as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Division.

In my current role, I am tasked with overseeing both the Fraud Section, which houses the FCPA Unit, as well as the Appellate Section.

And, of course, we recently marked a particularly important milestone for the Criminal Division, as our newest Assistant Attorney General (AAG), Brian Benczkowski, was confirmed and took the reins of our Division just a few short days ago.  

Under Brian’s leadership, we will continue the Division’s commitment to the rule of law, along with our efforts to ensure fairness and consistency in our investigations and resolutions, particularly as it relates to corporate enforcement and compliance.

Before I move on to my substantive remarks, let me say a word about Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Cronan, who did an amazing job managing the Division as our Acting AAG since last year, overseeing many key developments, including the largest healthcare fraud takedown in the Department’s long history. 

Today, I plan to focus on our efforts to investigate and stamp out global corruption, with a particular focus on implications for mergers and acquisitions.

As I think we can all agree, corruption is a virus that saps scarce resources and undermines public trust.

Corruption also harms law-abiding companies by tilting the playing field in favor of companies who are willing to break the rules to get ahead.  

As our Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General have both made abundantly clear, fighting corruption and ensuring a level playing field for law-abiding companies remains a significant priority for the Department. 

At the same time, we are striving to make sure that our robust approach to fighting corruption, and corporate enforcement generally, is done in a way that is also fair and just.

We at the Department fully recognize that even within otherwise good companies, ones with robust compliance programs and strong cultures of compliance, there can exist one or a few bad apples.  Similarly, we understand that through acquisitions, otherwise law-abiding companies can sometimes inherit problems that are not of their own making.

These are some of the reasons why we continue to hold individual wrongdoers responsible for corporate criminal conduct, demonstrating our continued focus on individual accountability.  

In this regard, we’ve announced guilty pleas by 10 individuals in foreign bribery cases so far this year.  

In the sprawling and ever-growing investigation and prosecution of corruption at Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, we have announced charges against five additional former foreign officials this year, and we announced the 12th guilty plea in the case just two weeks ago.

Moreover, criminal prosecutions of corporations continue where misconduct was particularly serious or pervasive, but at the same time, we are working to avoid imposing excessive corporate penalties that harm innocent shareholders, employees, and other stakeholders.

On the FCPA corporate front, we’ve resolved five corporate FCPA cases this year, resulting in $512 million in corporate U.S. criminal fines, penalties, and forfeiture.  

Among these resolutions was the matter involving Societe Generale, the first ever coordinated resolution with French authorities.  This case marks a continuation of our efforts to work more closely with our foreign counterparts, both in terms of investigations and as it relates to our resolutions.

And we are striving to give credit where credit is due.

For example, in the FCPA resolution with TLI, the U.S. nuclear transportation company, the company received more lenient treatment due to its significant cooperation and remediation.

On the individual prosecutions front, the Department has secured guilty pleas by the company’s former co-President and the foreign official who received the bribes, and has indicted the other co-President.

While resolutions like these are important, we have also been making great strides in the way we are approaching FCPA and other corporate enforcement matters.

As you all know, last year we revised the Department’s guidelines with regard to FCPA enforcement by making what was previously the FCPA self-disclosure pilot program permanent.  

This change enshrines our approach to FCPA enforcement in the U.S. Attorneys Manual as the FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy.

Since its roll out, Department leadership has spoken extensively on the Policy, so I’m not going to spend much time on it, except to point out how the Policy furthers our commitment to rewarding companies that try to do the right thing.

This means companies that promptly report misconduct, fully cooperate with the Department, and enact effective remedial measures after misconduct is detected will be presumed eligible for a declination of prosecution, subject to disgorgement of ill-gotten gains.

The Policy also includes incentives for companies that fail to promptly self-disclose, but otherwise meet the Policy’s cooperation and remediation terms.

While it is still early to gauge the full effectiveness of the Policy, we were pleased to reach the first corporate declination under the FCPA Policy earlier this year in declining prosecution against Dunn & Bradstreet.  

In that case, the company engaged in responsible corporate conduct after discovering misconduct in connection with hiring practices by its acquired subsidiaries in China.  Because the company satisfied the rigorous requirements of the Policy, the company received a declination and the Department gave the company credit for its disgorgement as part of a $9 million payment in a related SEC administrative proceeding.

Credit for disgorgement to the SEC points to another recent policy change under this Administration – this one involving a perceived practice of “piling on” by the various enforcement agencies in corporate settlements by imposing duplicative fines and other financial penalties. 

Importantly, this new policy for greater coordination and to avoid “piling on” is now enshrined in the U.S. Attorneys Manual, and applies across the Department.

A perfect example of putting the anti-piling on policy into practice is the resolution I mentioned involving Societe Generale.

In that case, the Department credited 50 percent of the fine to French authorities in connection with the FCPA portion of the resolution.

Moreover, to better inform the public, companies and compliance professionals, we are making declination letters public for cases that are resolved under the FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy, as we did in connection with the pilot program.

In the case of Dunn & Bradstreet, some of the factors that led to the declination include:

• the fact that the company identified the misconduct and promptly and voluntary self-disclosed the conduct to the Department; 
• the thorough internal investigation undertaken by the company; 
• its full cooperation in the matter, including identifying all individuals involved in or responsible for the misconduct, providing the Department all facts relating to that misconduct, making current and former employees available for interviews, and translating foreign language documents to English; 
• enhancements to its compliance program and its internal accounting controls; 
• full remediation, including terminating the employment of 11 individuals involved in the misconduct in China, including an officer of the China subsidiary and other senior employees of one subsidiary, and disciplining other employees by reducing bonuses, reducing salaries, lowering performance reviews, and formally reprimanding them; 
• and disgorgement to the SEC.

 As a result, the company avoided criminal sanctions.

From my experience as a defense attorney, I think it is fair to say this is a just resolution for the company.

I know firsthand the difficult decisions that management must make when they uncover misconduct.

Senior management and boards of directors have to weigh many factors when deciding how to respond to misconduct, and whether to self-report.

In the past, many of these decisions were made in a relative vacuum in the sense that no one could predict in any concrete way how the Department would respond.  While the facts of every case will be different, and will be the primary drivers as to the outcome, we are doing what we can to give clarity in terms of how companies will be treated.

Because companies are rational actors, driven by market and financial factors, it was often an impediment to decision-making not to know what consequences a company might face if it chose to self-report and cooperate with the government.  

The Department’s new policies and revised approach to FCPA and corporate enforcement are purposely designed to speak to well-functioning, good corporate actors and inspire rationale decision-making in favor of greater reporting and cooperation.  We hope to incentivize companies to invest in effective compliance programs and robust control systems to prevent misconduct and, in the event of a detected violation, to take full advantage of our enforcement approach.

By fostering a climate in which companies are fairly and predictably treated when they report misconduct, we hope to increase self-reporting and individual accountability — an outcome that is beneficial both for companies and the Department.  

While we have made great strides in the past year and a half relating to the Department’s approach to corporate enforcement, and the FCPA in particular, one area where we would like to do better is with regard to mergers and acquisitions, particularly when such activity relates to high-risk industries and market.

Currently, the DoJ/SEC Resource Guide to the FCPA, which was released in 2012, provides some guidance on this.  In particular, the Guide recognizes that in the past the Department and SEC have declined to take action where companies voluntarily disclosed and remediated, and cooperated with the government. 

The Guide also notes that “a successor company’s voluntary disclosure, appropriate due diligence, and implementation of an effective compliance program may also decrease the likelihood of an enforcement action regarding an acquired company’s post-acquisition conduct when pre-acquisition due diligence is not possible.”

Furthermore, after laying out several M&A best practices, the Guide states that the “DOJ . . . will give meaningful credit to companies who undertake these actions, and, in appropriate circumstances, DOJ . . . may consequently decline to bring enforcement actions.”

While these policies are sound, I know from experience that “may” decline is a significant sticking point for corporate management when deciding whether and how to proceed with a potential merger or acquisition. There is a big difference between a theoretical outcome and one that is concrete and presumptively available. 

At the Department, we know that there are many benefits when law-abiding companies with robust compliance programs are the ones to enter high-risk markets or, in appropriate cases, take over otherwise problematic companies.

Not only can the acquiring company help to uncover wrongdoing, but more importantly the acquiring company is in a position to right the ship by applying strong compliance practices to the acquired company.

We want to encourage this sort of activity.  We certainly don’t want the specter of enforcement to be a risk factor that impedes such activity by good actors, and instead cedes the field to non-compliant companies. At bottom, it makes good economic sense and helps stamp out corruption when the Department adopts policies that foster greater corporate compliance.

When an acquiring company conducts robust due diligence that unearths wrongdoing, reports that conduct to the Department, and engages in remedial measures, including extending already robust compliance to the acquired company, it frees up resources for the Department that may have otherwise been expended investigating the acquired company.

These resources can then be directed to other cases, not only in the FCPA context, but also to other areas such as opioid enforcement, human trafficking, and crimes impacting vulnerable victims, like children and the elderly.

For these reasons, I want to make clear that we intend to apply the principles contained in the FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy to successor companies that uncover wrongdoing in connection with mergers and acquisitions and thereafter disclose that wrongdoing and provide cooperation, consistent with the terms of the Policy.

We believe this approach provides companies and their advisors greater certainty when deciding whether to go forward with a foreign acquisition or merger, as well as in determining how to approach wrongdoing discovered subsequent to a deal.

We are fully cognizant that in some instances an acquiring company has limited access to a target company’s data and records, perhaps even more so when the target company is in a high risk jurisdiction.

In those instances, if an acquiring company unearths wrongdoing subsequent to the acquisition, we want to encourage its leadership to take the steps outlined in the FCPA Policy, and when they do, we want to reward them, accordingly for stepping up, being transparent, and reporting and remediating the problems they inherited.

Similarly, when an acquiring company encounters corruption issues during the due diligence process, we would encourage it to come to the Department for guidance through our FCPA Opinion Procedures before moving forward with an acquisition. Although it may take a little more time – and we can, to a degree, expedite our analysis based on timing needs – it sometimes makes sense to slow down to assess risks.  In particular with high risk mergers and acquisitions, let me repeat the famous line from the English playwright, William Congreve:  “Married in haste, we can repent at leisure.”  

On the Fraud Section’s FCPA website, we currently post Opinion Procedure Releases going back to 1993.  But not enough companies are taking advantage of this process.  I’ve recently reviewed the list, and the most recent incident of use is from 2014.  That shouldn’t be the case.  But for purposes of today, that release is illustrative of the value of engaging in the opinion process.

In that case, a multinational company headquartered in the U.S. sought an opinion on whether the Department would bring an enforcement action against it if it acquired a foreign consumer products company.  The acquiring company conducted pre-acquisition due diligence on the target and uncovered evidence of apparent improper payments.  The acquirer took pre-closing steps to remediate the target’s anti-corruption issues, and anticipated fully integrating the target into its compliance and reporting structure within one year of closing.

While the opinion recognized that there was no U.S. nexus to the conduct, which would have precluded prosecution, in any event, the opinion also pointed to the fact that no contracts or assets acquired through bribery would remain in operation post-acquisition, and that no financial benefit would be derived from such contracts.  Based on these facts, the opinion concluded that the Department would not take any action against the acquiring company.

In our view, the opinion process is a tremendous resource and we want to encourage greater use of it going forward.  

Moreover, when a company relies on this procedure on the front end, but later uncovers wrongdoing post-acquisition, we want management and the company’s advisors to feel comfortable disclosing it to the Department, knowing that they will be treated fairly under the principles of the FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy. 

This is not to say that wrongdoers will be getting a pass for corrupt behavior that occurred in the past in an acquired entity. Far from it. The Department continues to focus on individual accountability, and those responsible for past wrongdoing or the concealment of wrongdoing will continue to be investigated and prosecuted. 

As advisors and compliance professionals, you are on the front lines of detecting and preventing corruption and other misconduct.  

You are at tasked with advising your companies and your clients to ensure that businesses operate in compliance with the law. As such, you are often put in the position of evaluating risk in time-sensitive transactions.   

In that role, one thing I hope you will take away from my comments and those of my colleagues is that the Department of Justice should be viewed as a partner, not just an adversary.  

When business and industry work with the Department, rather than against it, our public institutions and our country are stronger for it.

With that, I am happy to take a few questions, as time allows.

A Concord, Virginia man was sentenced to prison today for tax and currency structuring charges, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Thomas T. Cullen for the Western District of Virginia.

Barry Edwards, 54, was sentenced to 36 months in prison on one count of filing a fraudulent 2013 tax return and one count of conspiring to structure cash transactions.

According to court documents and information provided to the court, Barry and his wife Joanne Edwards created two purported religious missions in 2006, which they used as nominees to receive income Barry Edwards earned selling nutritional supplements. The couple deposited this income into bank accounts held in nominee names. They then withdrew more than $475,000 in cash from these accounts, in increments less than $10,000, to evade bank-reporting requirements. The couple deposited the withdrawn funds into their own bank accounts to pay personal expenses, including car payments and their children’s tuition. Barry Edwards also used the cash to purchase a five-acre farm in Concord, Virginia. The couple jointly filed fraudulent 2013 through 2015 tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that did not fully report their income.

In addition to the term of imprisonment, U.S. District Court Judge Norman K. Moon ordered Barry Edwards to serve three years of supervised release. Mr. Edwards was also ordered to pay $7,929.00 in restitution to the IRS for unpaid taxes.

The Court previously sentenced Joanne Edwards, on May 9, 2018, to 18 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release as well as restitution for filing a fraudulent 2013 tax return and conspiring to structure cash transactions.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Thomas T. Cullen thanked special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Trial Attorney Sean Beaty of the Tax Division and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Kari Munro, who prosecuted the case.

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

Ali Saleh, 25, of Queens, New York, pleaded guilty today to two counts of attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization. 

The announcement was made by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney Richard P. Donoghue for the Eastern District of New York, Assistant Director in Charge William F. Sweeney, Jr. of the FBI’s New York Field Office, and Commissioner James P. O’Neill of the NYPD.  The plea was accepted by U.S. District Judge William F. Kuntz, II. 

“Saleh was undeterred in his many attempts to travel to join ISIS, and although he failed in these efforts, he turned his attention to assisting others online to join ISIS’s murderous mission in Syria,” said Assistant Attorney General Demers.  “I am grateful to our partners in federal law enforcement and the prosecutors who were able to apprehend and charge Saleh before he could do more damage or harm innocent Americans.”

“Ali Saleh attempted to travel to the Middle East to become an ISIS fighter, funded other foreign fighters, posted instructions to make explosive devices and transported explosive materials,” stated U.S. Attorney Donoghue.  “The defendant’s persistent efforts to aid ISIS were defeated by the outstanding work of law enforcement officers who stopped him before he could do harm.  This Office will continue to work closely with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York to keep our city safe from terrorists and prevent extremists from travelling abroad to join foreign terrorist organizations.”

“Ali Saleh was persistent in his efforts to become a foreign fighter, but his persistence did not exceed the diligence of law enforcement,” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Sweeney.  “The defendant went to great lengths to attempt to travel to the Middle East, while funding other foreign fighters in the process. As the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force continuously strives to protect citizens from potential terrorist threats, today’s plea depicts one of the many efforts to achieve this goal.”

“New Yorkers continue to benefit from the NYPD’s robust counterterrorism capabilities and strong working relationships with our law enforcement partners on the Joint Terrorism Task Force,” stated NYPD Commissioner O’Neill.  “Today’s guilty plea shows that in collaboration with the FBI and the Eastern District of New York, our skilled investigators and analysts will stop at nothing to further the critical mission of defending society from acts of terrorism wherever and however, they are being planned.”

According to court filings, Saleh was arrested after repeatedly attempting to travel to the Middle East to become a foreign fighter for ISIS.  In 2013 and thereafter, Saleh became interested in the conflict in Syria, swore an oath of allegiance to ISIS and decided to travel to the Middle East in support of ISIS.  On Aug. 25, 2014, Saleh stated online, “I’m ready to die for the Caliphate, prison is nothing.”  On Aug. 28, 2014, Saleh stated online, “Lets be clear the Muslims in the khilafah [caliphate] need help, the one who is capable to go over and help the Muslims must go and help.”  That same day, Saleh made an airline reservation to travel from New York to Turkey, a country bordering Syria.  The defendant was ultimately prevented from traveling because his parents took away his passport.

Saleh then redirected his efforts to facilitating others’ support of ISIS.  In October 2014, the defendant communicated with an ISIS supporter in Mali through an online messaging platform and sent a wire transfer in the amount of $500 to fund that person’s travel to Syria.  Around the same time period, the defendant communicated with several other individuals in an effort to facilitate their support of ISIS, including known ISIS supporters in the United Kingdom and Australia.

In July 2015, the defendant purchased fireworks containing explosive powder, hid them in a concealed compartment in the trunk of his car, and drove from Indiana towards New York City.  The fireworks contained approximately 1,196 grams of low explosive powder, consisting of both pyrotechnic material and black powder.  Law enforcement agents located a cellphone belonging to Saleh during the time frame when he acquired the explosive powder and discovered on the phone an electronic pamphlet titled, “Muslim Gangs: The Future of Muslims in the West (Ebook 1:  How to Survive in the West).”  The pamphlet provided detailed instructions on how to create a bomb using explosive powder from fireworks.  The pamphlet provided an example of a soda can grenade, and the instructions specifically stated that the soda can should be filled with “[e]xplosive powder (i.e. from Fireworks).”  Saleh posted online the pamphlet’s image of a soda can hand grenade with instructions on how to build an improvised explosive device.  Saleh’s car broke down on the way to New York City and was abandoned by the defendant.

Subsequently, on July 24, 2015, the defendant made a reservation to travel from New York to Egypt, a country bordering Libya, and went to JFK International Airport.  The defendant was ultimately denied boarding.  The defendant subsequently visited three additional international airports in Newark, Philadelphia and Indianapolis, but continued to encounter travel restrictions.  The defendant attempted to circumvent the apparent restrictions on his air travel by planning to take a train from Cleveland to Canada, where he intended to fly out to the Middle East.  After law enforcement intervention, however, the defendant did not board the train and instead returned to New York. 

After his encounters with law enforcement, Saleh changed his online social media moniker and expressed his support for ISIS under new usernames.  On Aug. 24, 2015, the defendant stated online, “I am a terrorist.”  On Sept. 1, 2015, the defendant stated online, “If they aren’t implementing shariah [Islamic law] grab ur gun and implement shariah and see how fast the world turns against u.”  That same day, the defendant also stated online, “Akhi [brother] if implementing sharia [Islamic law] is easy do it in ur neighborhood and defend it from kuffar [the infidels] and give bayah [an oath of allegiance] to IS.”

When sentenced, Saleh faces up to 35 years in prison.  The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes.  If convicted of any offense, the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant United States Attorneys Saritha Komatireddy, Margaret E. Lee and Alexander F. Mindlin of the Eastern District of New York are in charge of the prosecution, with assistance provided by Trial Attorneys Lolita Lukose and Jacqueline Barkett of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.

Preston Q. Howard, 50, of Wright City, Missouri, was sentenced today by Chief United States District Court Judge J. Randal Hall to 24 months in prison for obstructing persons in the free exercise of religious beliefs, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 247(a)(2).  The judge enhanced the sentence because Mr. Howard chose his victims based on their religion, thereby committing a hate crime. When imposing the sentence, Chief Judge Hall noted Howard’s “disturbing pattern of intolerance of many groups of people,” and the Court’s intent to afford a deterrent to similar criminal conduct by Howard and others who may believe and act as he did.

“Threats of violence based on religious beliefs have no place in our country,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore. “The Civil Rights Division will continue to work tirelessly to prosecute hate crime offenders.”

“Threats made against houses of worship are abhorrent and this Office will work tirelessly to ensure that members of all faiths may worship in peace and without intimidation,” said U.S. Attorney Bobby L. Christine. “The United States Attorney’s Office, in concert with our law enforcement partners, will work tirelessly to protect our houses of worship.”

“The FBI will not tolerate threats and intimidation against anyone because of their religion or their beliefs,” said Murang Pak, Acting Special Agent in Charge (A/SAC) of FBI Atlanta. “No one should feel they have the right to instill fear in our citizens and rob them of their sense of safety in their communities and particularly where they choose to practice their faith.”

According to information presented at Howard’s guilty plea and sentencing hearings, between June 22, 2017, and Aug. 8, 2017, Howard made numerous telephone calls to the Islamic Society of Augusta (ISA), during which he threatened to “kill,” “bomb,” “shoot,” “behead,” “slaughter,” “execute,” “light on fire,” and “murder” members of the mosque, to “hunt down” and “zone in” on Muslims, and to “blow up the mosque.” Howard admitted committing these acts and obstructing or attempting to obstruct the mosque members’ free exercise of their religious beliefs.

In response to Howard’s threats, the ISA upgraded their security system and hired off-duty officers to provide added security during services and community events. Howard was ordered to pay almost $30,000 in restitution to cover those costs. 

The FBI Atlanta Field Division investigated the case. Assistant United States Attorney Nancy Greenwood prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States, in consultation with the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division. For any questions, please contact the United States Attorney’s Office at (912) 652-4422.

In a criminal indictment unsealed in the Eastern District of Michigan today, Ibraheem Izzy Musaibli, 28, of Dearborn, Michigan, was charged with providing and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization.

The indictment was announced by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney Matthew J. Schneider of the Eastern District of Michigan and Timothy R. Slater, Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit, Michigan office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Musaibli, a natural-born U.S. citizen, was detained overseas by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and recently transferred into U.S. custody. Musaibli will be arraigned on the indictment at the federal courthouse in Detroit on Wednesday, July 25, 2018, at 1:00 p.m. EDT.

The indictment alleges that from about April 2015 through June 2018, Musaibli knowingly provided and attempted to provide material support to ISIS, in the form of personnel and services, knowing that ISIS is a terrorist organization and that ISIS engages in terrorism.

“The National Security Division will not tolerate threats to our country from terrorist organizations like ISIS—not least of all those that come from our own citizens,” said Assistant Attorney General Demers.  “Musaibli’s alleged provision of material support to ISIS put the United States at risk and may have endangered the lives of countless innocent people.  I am confident that he will face justice for his crimes, and I hope that his case sends a clear message that we will hold our citizens accountable who are apprehended overseas and tried to join a terrorist organization such as ISIS.  I am also grateful to our law enforcement and military partners who made this prosecution possible.”

“The indictment alleges that, for a substantial period of time, defendant Musaibli provided material support to ISIS — one of the most violent terrorist organizations in the world.  During that same time, American-backed coalition forces were fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria,” United States Attorney Matthew Schneider stated.  “We will vigorously prosecute anyone who provides, or even attempts to provide, support to terrorists.”  

“The indictment in this case serves as a reminder of the danger posed by those who travel overseas to join forces with ISIS,” said Timothy R. Slater, Special Agent in Charge, Detroit Division of the FBI. “The FBI is determined to find these individuals and bring them to justice.  Bringing charges in these cases will remind others what can happen if they provide assistance to foreign terrorist organizations.”

An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of criminal law and is not evidence of guilt. Every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

This case is being investigated by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Cathleen Corken and Kevin Mulcahy of the Eastern District of Michigan with assistance from the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.

Today, the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and State of West Virginia announced a settlement with CSX Transportation Inc. to resolve its liability for state and federal water pollution violations related to a 2015 oil spill caused by a train derailment in Mount Carbon, West Virginia. Under the terms of the settlement, CSX Transportation will pay penalties of $1.2 million to the United States and $1 million to West Virginia. 

“Federal law requires the transport of oil through communities like Mount Carbon to be done safely, whether by rail or any other mode. When accidents happen and public health or the environment is harmed, the Justice Department will respond with strong action in close coordination with our federal and state partners,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey H. Wood for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “Today’s settlement imposes serious fines under the Clean Water Act for the 2015 CSX train derailment in West Virginia and seeks to deter similar incidents from happening in the future. I applaud the joint efforts of DOJ, EPA, and the State of West Virginia on this case.”

“The 2015 CSX train derailment in Mount Carbon, West Virginia caused significant damage and disruption to that community,” said EPA Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Assistant Administrator Susan Bodine. “Through this settlement EPA, DOJ, and the State of West Virginia are holding CSX Transportation accountable for these consequences.”  

On February 16, 2015, a CSX Transportation train with 109 railcars carrying crude oil derailed in Mount Carbon. Twenty-seven tank cars, each containing approximately 29,000 gallons of Bakken crude oil, derailed, and about half of the tank cars ignited. The resulting explosions and fires destroyed an adjacent home and garage. Local officials declared a state of emergency, nearby water intakes were shut down, and residents in the area were evacuated.

EPA and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection joined with other federal, state, and local agencies in responding to the incident. In response to federal and state orders, CSX Transportation has taken steps to remedy the damage and disruption caused by the oil spill. Separately, under a state-negotiated provision, CSX Transportation will help improve surface water quality in the area impacted by the oil spill through a contribution of $500,000 to a state-administered fund to upgrade a water treatment facility in Fayette County, West Virginia.

Some of the oil discharged during and following the train derailment flowed into the Kanawha River and Armstrong Creek. Freshwater bodies are particularly sensitive to fuel spills, which may damage fish and bird habitat and threaten drinking water supplies. 

The proposed settlement is subject to a 30-day public comment period and final court approval. To view the consent decree or to submit a comment, visit the department’s website at: www.justice.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html. 

The Department of Justice today announced the release of a public service announcement (PSA) aimed at raising awareness and reaching victims of sexual harassment in housing. To enhance the effectiveness of the campaign, the Department has enlisted the assistance of victims to share their experiences and help convey the message that sexual harassment in housing is a violation of civil rights. The Justice Department and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) are working together to distribute the PSA. The PSA is posted on the Department’s Youtube channel and HUD’s Youtube channel.

The Department developed a 60-second video featuring three women who were injured parties in sexual harassment lawsuits brought by the Department under the Fair Housing Act. In the PSA, the women, in their own words, share the stories of how they were harassed and the impact the experience has on their lives.

One victim featured in the video, Stephanie, had a landlord who threatened to evict her if she didn’t have sex with him. “It was something that I didn’t want to do but I had to do it. I didn’t know I had a choice at that time, but now that I do, I want other people to know that they do. [I want] other women to know that they don’t have to take this. This is just uncalled for. It’s unspeakable.” Another victim, Temika, featured experienced a landlord who subjected her to unwanted sexual advances and comments, including exposing himself to her while inside her unit, causing her to scream, “Get out!” and run out of the unit.

The PSA released today is a joint effort between the Department and HUD, designed to raise awareness and make it easier for victims all over the country to find resources and report harassment. HUD distributed the video today to all Public Housing Agencies across the United States. The video is intended to air in all national media markets and will be distributed by social media to followers of the Justice Department and HUD, and amplified by other government agencies, partners, and organizations. In addition, the PSA will be circulated to fair housing groups, legal aid organizations, and other related partners across the country. The Justice Department also previewed the PSA last week at two U.S. Attorneys’ Offices in the Middle District of Florida and the District of Colorado, during separate sexual harassment in housing roundtables, engaging over 80 local law enforcement officers, fair housing organizations, universities, civil rights organizations, and other groups.  

“Unfortunately, there are still too many landlords and managers who attempt to prey on vulnerable individuals. The launch of the nationwide PSAs is an important step in proliferating the stories of brave women and men across the country in order to raise awareness and help other victims,” said John Gore, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division. “Our goal at the Justice Department is to make more people aware that no one should have to choose between a home and the right to be free from sexual harassment.”

“A person’s home is where they should feel the safest, not to live in fear of being subjected to sexual harassment,” said Anna María Farías, HUD’s Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. “This campaign will let the public know that they have help should they find themselves a victim of this type of behavior.  The Justice Department and HUD are committed to working together to address the problem and protect their housing rights.”   

In October 2017, the Justice Department launched an initiative to combat sexual harassment in housing.  In April 2018, the Department announced the nationwide rollout of the initiative, including three major components: a new HUD-DOJ Task Force to combat sexual harassment in housing, an outreach toolkit to leverage the Department’s nationwide network of U.S. Attorney’s Offices, and a public awareness campaign, including a partnership package with relevant stakeholders, launch of a social media campaign, and Public Service Announcements (PSAs) run by individual U.S. Attorney’s offices. The Department and HUD are working together to distribute the PSA as part of the Task Force’s coordinated public outreach efforts.

More information about the Civil Rights Division and the civil rights laws it enforces is available at www.justice.gov/crt. Individuals who believe that they may have been victims of sexual harassment in housing should call the Department at 1-844-380-6178, send an e-mail to fairhousing@usdoj.gov, or contact HUD at 1-800-669-9777.  If you have information or questions about any other housing discrimination, you can contact the Department at 1-800-896-7743.