District Not Recorded

The annual meeting of the five Attorneys General from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States was held this year by video conference on Dec. 2 and 3, 2021.

Though it is the second time the COVID-19 pandemic has prevented the Quintet from meeting in person, the Attorneys General were able to meet virtually to progress this important work.

The meeting, chaired by the Hon. David Parker from New Zealand, brought together the Hon. Michaelia Cash (Australia), the Hon. David Lametti (Canada), the Hon. Suella Braverman QC MP (England and Wales) and the Hon. Merrick Garland (the United States of America) to discuss and share information about complex legal issues, in which they have a mutual interest. 

“The opportunities for cooperation among our five countries are both wide-ranging and vital to our success in promoting access to justice for all in light of the COVID-19 pandemic; protecting our democratic institutions; and countering the threat of terrorism,” said U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The United States Department of Justice thanks New Zealand for bringing us together virtually this year, and we look forward to hosting next year’s Quintet.”

“Working closely with our international partners is essential as we face common challenges and strive to keep our citizens safe,” said New Zealand Attorney General David Parker.

“Collaboration among Quintet partners is essential to addressing shared legal challenges in our respective justice systems,” said Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada David Lametti. “This year’s discussions included valuable exchanges on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of upholding the rule of law and the promotion of access to justice for all.”

“It’s been an honor to meet my Quintet counterparts and discuss our shared goals to protect the safety of our citizens,” said Attorney General for England and Wales Suella Braverman. “We stand together in the face of challenges like the pandemic, terrorism and foreign interference, bound by a mutual respect for the rule of law.”

“It is invaluable to have the opportunity to discuss priorities such as enhancing our approach to foreign influence and foreign interference and collaborating further to strengthen our frameworks across borders,” said Australia Attorney General Michaelia Cash.

The Attorneys General discussed their respective institutions’ responses to the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, ways to enhance cooperation to address foreign influence and foreign interference in democratic processes, and the approaches each country takes in seeking to prevent terrorist acts.

The Quintet Communiqué jointly issued at the conclusion of the meeting is available here: /media/1179586/dl?inline

St. Thomas, USVI — United States Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert announced today that federal, state, local and territorial law enforcement and prosecutors were honored in a virtual Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) ceremony this morning. The awards ceremony included presentation of the OCDETF National Award for Outstanding Investigation to the District of the Virgin Islands OCDETF Program for Operation Py Beto Kilo. Awards presenters included OCDETF Executive Office and Regional Office personnel, representatives from the Drug Enforcement Administration, USVI Superior Court Judge and former federal prosecutor Alphonso Andrews, and VIPD Assistant Commissioner Elskoe.

The awards ceremony acknowledged the contributions of 48 law enforcement officers, agents and prosecutors who contributed to the successful multi-year investigation, disruption, and dismantlement of a notorious drug trafficking organization that transported hundred-kilo cocaine loads from Colombia through Venezuela on fishing vessels across the Caribbean to St. Croix, Puerto Rico and Florida.

Operation Py Beto Kilo lead to the June 26, 2018 conviction at trial of drug kingpin Sergio Quinone-Davila and five codefendants on cocaine-related charges. The investigation ultimately resulted in convictions for 14 defendants, and seizure of 87 kilograms of cocaine and 8 boats.

According to U.S. Attorney Shappert, "Today’s ceremony acknowledges the tremendous contributions of dedicated law enforcement agencies and prosecution offices that work collaboratively to disrupt and dismantle major drug organizations. National recognition of our efforts in the Virgin Islands is a testament to the excellent work and dedication of our OCDETF Task Force partners."

Established in 1982, OCDETF is the largest anti-crime task force in the United States. It operates as an independent component of the U.S. Department of Justice and is the centerpiece of the Attorney General’s strategy to combat transnational organized crime. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

A federal jury convicted a Texas woman today for defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) of over $1.9 million in loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Lola Shalewa Barbara Kasali, 24, of Houston, submitted two fraudulent loan applications to two different lenders on behalf of her companies, Lola’s Level and Charm Hair Extensions. Through these loan applications, Kasali sought over $3.8 million in PPP loan funds. Kasali falsely represented the number of employees and payroll expenses in each of the PPP loan applications. To support these applications, Kasali also submitted fraudulent tax records. Kasali ultimately received over $1.9 million in PPP loan funds. The Justice Department, along with its law enforcement partners, seized the funds that Kasali fraudulently obtained.

Kasali was convicted of two counts of making false statements to a financial institution and two counts of bank fraud. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 25, 2022, and faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison for each count of conviction. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer Lowery for the Southern District of Texas; Special Agent in Charge Catherine Huber of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General (FHFA-OIG) – Central Region; Special Agent in Charge Sharon Johnson of the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General (SBA-OIG) – Central Region; and Acting Inspector in Charge Dana Carter of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) – Houston Division made the announcement.

FHFA-OIG, SBA-OIG, and the USPIS investigated the case.

Assistant Chief Jonathan Robell of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Trial Attorney Matthew Grisier of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Forfeiture Section are prosecuting the case, with assistance from Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim McAlister of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s prosecution of fraud schemes that exploit the PPP. Since the inception of the CARES Act, the Fraud Section has prosecuted over 150 defendants in more than 95 criminal cases and has seized over $75 million in cash proceeds derived from fraudulently obtained PPP funds, as well as numerous real estate properties and luxury items purchased with such proceeds. More information can be found at https://www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/ppp-fraud.

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

The U.S. Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) today announced awards to 11 Indian Tribal governments to support them in exercising special domestic violence criminal jurisdiction (SDVCJ). The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (VAWA 2013) recognized the authority of tribes to exercise SDVCJ over certain defendants, regardless of their Indian or non-Indian status, who commit crimes of domestic violence or dating violence or violate certain protection orders in Indian country.  

“We heard from tribal leaders that they need access to funds to support the day-to-day costs of SDVCJ, and I’m pleased to announce OVW is issuing eleven awards to implementing tribes to defray these costs,” said OVW Principal Deputy Director Allison Randall. “OVW is dedicated to working with tribes to address challenges in protecting victims and responding to offenders in their communities, as well as supporting tribal sovereignty."

The recipients of today’s one-year awards under OVW’s Tribal Jurisdiction Program are: Chickasaw Nation, Oklahoma; Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, North Carolina; Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, Montana; Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Oklahoma; Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi, Michigan; Pascua Yaqui Tribe, Arizona; Port Gamble S’klallam Tribe, Washington; Pueblo of Santa Clara, New Mexico; Seminole Nation of Oklahoma; the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma; and the Tulalip Tribes of Washington.

OVW’s Tribal Jurisdiction Program was authorized under VAWA 2013 and supports tribes with jurisdiction over Indian country in exercising SDVCJ. Tribal Jurisdiction Program funds may be used to strengthen tribal criminal justice systems, provide indigent criminal defense, conduct jury trials and provide services and applicable rights to crime victims. Costs could include, but are not necessarily limited to, incarceration costs (including medical care) for non-Indian SDVCJ defendants, trial costs for SDVCJ cases, defense counsel costs, costs associated with empaneling a jury for an SDVCJ trial, batterer’s intervention or other pre- or post-conviction supervision or programming costs and related training and technical assistance.

About the Office on Violence Against Women

The Office on Violence Against Women provides leadership in developing the nation’s capacity to reduce violence through the implementation of the Violence Against Women Act and subsequent legislation. Created in 1995, OVW administers financial and technical assistance to communities across the country that are developing programs, policies and practices aimed at ending domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking. In addition to overseeing federal grant programs, OVW undertakes initiatives in response to special needs identified by communities facing acute challenges. Learn more at www.justice.gov/ovw.

Today, Brian Anthony Gilbert, 34, of Owings Mills, Maryland, was sentenced to a total of 540 months, or 45 years, in federal prison, followed by lifetime supervised release, for two counts of production and one count of possession of child pornography. Upon his release from prison, Gilbert is required to register as a sex offender.

“Not only did the defendant commit egregious acts of abuse against two children in his community, but he also recorded and exploited the abuse and trauma of young victims on the Dark Web,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Today’s sentence demonstrates our commitment to protecting children from threats. I commend the professionalism of our agents and law enforcement partners in bringing Brian Gilbert to justice.”

“There are no words to adequately express how disturbing this case truly is,” said U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron for the District of Maryland.  “This sentence sends a clear message that we will bring to justice those who victimize innocent children.”

“When the most vulnerable of our citizens – our children – are victimized we will do everything in our power to hold the perpetrators accountable and to protect others from harm,” said Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Sobocinski of the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office. “Not only did the abuser harm two innocent children, but he furthered their victimization by distributing heinous materials online. Mr. Gilbert will now spend a significant time behind bars.”

According to court documents, in August 2020, Gilbert uploaded and advertised at least two video files to an online bulletin board dedicated to child pornography hosted on the Tor network, a computer network specifically designed to facilitate anonymous communication over the internet. The videos were approximately 10 minutes and 15 minutes in length, respectively, and depicted sexual acts between Gilbert and an approximately seven-year-old female victim (Victim 1). In Gilbert’s posts to the online bulletin board, he admits to having produced both videos.

As detailed in his plea agreement, on Sept. 11, 2020, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Gilbert’s residence while he was present. During the execution of the search warrant, Gilbert waived his rights and informed law enforcement that he video-recorded sexual acts between himself and Victim 1 in his bedroom and at Victim 1’s residence approximately five times between January 2019 and August 2020. He also stated he recorded sexual acts between himself and another victim, who was approximately two-years old (Victim 2) at the time. Gilbert further told law enforcement that he distributed the child sexual abuse material, which he produced, on the Tor network.

During the execution of the search warrant, law enforcement seized electronic devices from Gilbert’s bedroom. A subsequent forensic analysis of Gilbert’s electronic devices revealed over 2,000 files of child pornography. Among those files were six videos of Gilbert engaging in sexual acts with Victim 1 and Victim 2 in Gilbert’s bedroom or in Victim 1’s residence. Some of the child pornography located on Gilbert’s devices included pre-pubescent children under the age of 12 as well as sadistic or masochistic conduct, including the use of instruments or tools on children, and sexual acts between adults and children.  

The FBI investigated the case, with valuable assistance provided by the Prince George’s County Police Department.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph R. Baldwin for the District of Maryland, and Trial Attorneys Jessica Urban and Alicia Bove of the Justice Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ 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.justice.gov/psc.

The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) today signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to enshrine the collaboration between the agencies to protect the employment rights provided to servicemembers by the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA). The Department of Labor (DOL) and the Department of Justice seek to enhance the cooperative efforts of the two agencies in the investigation, litigation and resolution of employment and reemployment related claims brought by our nations servicemembers and veterans under USERRA.

The new MOU between DOL and Department of Justice is the first between the two agencies since 2004. It updates investigative and referral protocols and procedures, updates information sharing protocols and procedures, and if preliminary investigation of a charge reveals that immediate action is needed to prevent further harm, permits VETS to expedite the referral of a USERRA claim. In those cases, VETS will provide the Department of Justice with the investigative file and preliminary determination and the Department of Justice and VETS will work collaboratively to obtain a prompt and fair resolution of the complaint.

“Servicemembers and veterans have made great sacrifices to guarantee the freedoms and liberties that all Americans enjoy,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “They are guaranteed the right to civilian employment free from discrimination based on their military service and prompt reemployment following their military deployments. Through our strong partnership with the Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service we will continue to identify USERRA claims, prosecute employers who violate the law, seek relief for victims and fight to eliminate discrimination based on military service from the workplace.”

“The Department of Labor’s Veterans Employment and Training Service has worked collaboratively with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division for a long time to protect service members’ and veterans’ employment and reemployment rights under USERRA,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary James Rodriguez for Policy for Veterans’ Employment and Training Service. “This Memorandum of Understanding further cements our long-standing relationship with the Department of Justice to ensure that service members, veterans and employers fully understand their respective rights and obligations under the law. Together, we will continue to act swiftly if and when those rights are compromised to make them whole.”

USERRA entitles servicemembers to return to their civilian employment upon completion of their military service with the seniority, status and rate of pay that they would have obtained had they remained continuously employed by their civilian employer. USERRA also prohibits discrimination based on present, past and future military service. The Attorney General has authority to bring lawsuits against private, state and local government employers for violations of USERRA only upon receiving complaint referrals from VETS. Prior to referral, VETS investigates and attempts to resolve servicemember complaints. If the Attorney General is reasonably satisfied that the servicemember is entitled to relief, the Attorney General may commence an action in federal court on behalf of the servicemember. Since the Civil Rights Division assumed USERRA enforcement authority in 2004, it has filed 105 lawsuits and favorably resolved 193 complaints through consent decrees or private settlements. 

The Department of Justice gives high priority to the enforcement of servicemembers’ rights under USERRA. The MOU and additional information about USERRA can be found on the Justice Department’s websites at www.justice.gov/crt-military/employment-rights-userra and www.justice.gov/servicemembers as well as on the Department of Labor’s (DOL) website at www.dol.gov/vets/programs/userra.

The Department of Justice is issuing an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) in the Federal Register to seek public comment to help inform the Department’s decision-making prior to its issuance of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). Through this process, the Department is seeking preliminary input from the public on the regulations as a whole and in response to 19 specific questions set forth in the ANPRM.

FARA requires persons in the United States who are acting as agents of foreign principals and engaged in certain specified activities to make periodic public disclosures of their relationship with the foreign principal, as well as activities, receipts and disbursements in support of those activities. Disclosure of the required information facilitates evaluation by the government and the American people of the activities of such persons in light of their function as foreign agents. The act gives the Attorney General the authority to issue regulations, which were last amended in 2007.

“The effective and efficient enforcement of FARA is critical to facilitate transparency about foreign influence efforts and to support our democracy,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “We are pleased to begin the rulemaking process by soliciting input from the wide array of stakeholders in FARA, including public interest groups that rely on disclosures under FARA to support their mission.”

The Department is considering changes to key regulations, including those relating to the scope of agency; the commercial exemption; and exemptions for persons qualified to practice law as well as for those engaged only in religious, scholastic or scientific pursuits. The Department is also considering changes that would modernize its regulations relating to labeling informational materials in light of the significant technological changes that have occurred since the regulations were last amended more than a decade ago. Modernization of FARA’s implementing regulations will further facilitate the Department’s focus on FARA enforcement to ensure transparency in U.S. democratic processes.

The Department welcomes comments from attorneys practicing law in this area, public interest and transparency groups, and anyone else with an interest in the proper administration and enforcement of FARA’s disclosure and labeling requirements.

Please note: The text of the ANPRM, as signed by the Assistant Attorney General for National Security, has been posted to FARA.gov, but the official version of the ANPRM will be as it is published in the Federal Register.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division announced today that it has concluded an investigation into whether the State of Iowa subjects residents of Glenwood and Woodward Resource Centers, two state-run institutions for individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities (IDD) in Glenwood and Woodward, Iowa, respectively, to unnecessary institutionalization in violation of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). 

The Justice Department determined that there is reasonable cause to believe Iowa fails to provide services to residents of the Resource Centers, or those at serious risk of institutionalization, in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs. Iowa’s system of care for people with IDD is heavily biased toward institutions. Critical services and support that would allow Resource Center residents to live in their own homes and communities, such as behavioral, crisis and physical health supports, are often unavailable outside the Resource Centers. Iowa also fails to provide Resource Center residents and their guardians with sufficient information about community options. Consequently, many Resource Center residents who could receive, and do not oppose the receipt of, services in the community are needlessly segregated in institutions.   

“People with disabilities should not be unlawfully isolated and unreasonably denied access to the community-based services they need,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Civil Rights Division will actively defend the rights of individuals with disabilities to participate fully in community life.”

The department’s investigation was conducted under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA) and Title II of the ADA. Consistent with CRIPA’s statutory requirements and Title II’s regulations, the department provided the state with a written notice setting out the department’s conclusions and the supporting facts. The department also notified the state of the minimum remedial measures necessary to address the alleged violations. 

The department’s investigation involved extensive review and analysis of documents; interviews of staff and management at the Resource Centers, Iowa’s Department of Human Services, and stakeholders; and observation of support planning meetings. The department also conducted tours of Glenwood Resource Center (Glenwood). 

Today’s announcement concludes the second, and final, phase of the department’s investigation. The department initiated the investigation in November 2019. The first phase was conducted by the Civil Rights Division and the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa and focused on conditions at Glenwood. On Dec. 22, 2020, the department notified the State that the department had reasonable cause to believe that these conditions violate the federal rights of the people living there and that these violations are pursuant to a pattern or practice of resistance to the full enjoyment of rights protected by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.  

Additional information about the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department is available on its website at www.justice.gov/crt.

A Pennsylvania man was sentenced today to three years in prison for his unlawful distribution of controlled substances.

According to court documents, Timothy F. Shawl, M.D., 62, of Garnet Valley, wrote prescriptions for controlled substances totaling approximately 20,811 oxycodone pills for certain patients without seeing, treating, or examining them. One patient overdosed and died on Jan. 7, 2019, just three days after Shawl last prescribed oxycodone for her despite not treating or examining her in at least five years. Shawl pleaded guilty to five counts of unlawful distribution of controlled substances on Jan. 21, 2020.

“By prescribing controlled substances to patients without any medical oversight, the defendant violated his professional and moral obligation to his patients,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The defendant’s conduct had devastating consequences including to at least one patient who suffered an overdose and death as a result of the defendant’s prescriptions. The Department of Justice is committed to combating the opioid epidemic and that includes prosecuting the people who enable it.”

“The defendant in today’s case neglected his sworn responsibility to do no harm and recklessly contributed to the nation’s opioid epidemic,” said Acting Assistant Director Jay Greenberg of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “The human consequences in these cases are tragic, and the FBI is devoted to investigating doctors who prescribe controlled substances without legitimate medical reason to do so. Rest assured, the FBI will work tirelessly with our partners to bring justice to victims and those who have tragically lost loved ones because of unlawful distribution.”

The FBI’s Philadelphia Division investigated the case, with assistance from Health Care Fraud Task Force officers from the Philadelphia Police Department and Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General.

Trial Attorney Debra Jaroslawicz of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case.

Today, the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the European Commission launched the EU-U.S. Joint Technology Competition Policy Dialogue (Joint Dialogue) to reaffirm a longstanding tradition of close cooperation in antitrust enforcement and policy.

The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan and Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager of the European Commission issued a joint statement at the conclusion of the inaugural EU-U.S. Joint Technology Competition Policy Dialogue. Through the Joint Dialogue, and other cooperation efforts, the agencies are committed to ensuring and promoting fair competition and vigorous enforcement which benefits consumers, businesses and workers on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Department of Justice today announced it has reached a settlement agreement with Microsoft Corporation resolving allegations that the company discriminated against non-U.S. citizens based on their citizenship status during the early stages of Microsoft’s hiring process by asking them for unnecessary, specific immigration documents to prove they could work for the company without needing its sponsorship for work visas. The settlement also resolves claims that the company discriminated against lawful permanent residents whom the company asked for more or different documents than legally required, to reverify their continuing permission to work in the United States.  

The department’s independent investigation began after a Microsoft applicant’s spouse called IER’s hotline to report that the company asked her husband for his Permanent Resident Card while he was applying for a job at Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington, facility. The investigation found evidence that the company repeatedly asked lawful permanent residents, refugees and asylees to undergo an evaluation of their need for Microsoft to sponsor them for an employment-based visa even though they do not require sponsorship to work in the United States. The investigation determined that the company discriminated against at least six lawful permanent residents based on their immigration status during this visa evaluation process, by asking them to show a Permanent Resident Card to prove they had permission to work without employer sponsorship. The investigation also determined that from at least June 2019 until at least January 2020, Microsoft routinely sent emails to lawful permanent residents asking them for documents to confirm their continued work authorization even though they had already provided documents showing permanent work authorization.

The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) requires employers to verify a worker’s permission to work in the United States. But the law also prohibits employers from asking for documents when not required or from limiting or specifying the types of valid documentation a worker is allowed to show to prove permission to work, because of a worker’s citizenship, immigration status, or national origin. Under the settlement, Microsoft will overhaul parts of its hiring process to ensure the company is not unlawfully requiring non-U.S. citizen job applicants, including those with permanent authorization to work, to provide specific immigration documents to prove they do not require sponsorship for a work visa. The settlement also requires the company to stop sending emails requesting documents to reverify work authorization to workers whose work authorization should not be reverified. Additionally, the settlement requires the company to allow workers who need to show their continued work authorization to provide their choice of documentation that is acceptable for that purpose. Microsoft also must pay civil penalties to the United States and train its employees who are responsible for verifying and reverifying workers’ permission to work in the United States. The settlement also requires Microsoft to be subject to departmental monitoring and reporting requirements. 

“The Department of Justice will continue, through investigations and settlements such as this one, to ensure that all non-U.S. citizens who are authorized to work can pursue job opportunities without facing unlawful discrimination,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The department also hopes that this settlement will inspire other employers to ensure that their own policies and practices are not discriminatory.”

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

Learn more about IER’s work and how to get assistance through this brief video. More information on how employers can avoid unfair documentary practices is available here. Applicants or employees who believe they were discriminated against based on their citizenship, immigration status or national origin in hiring, firing, recruitment or during the employment eligibility verification process (Form I-9 and E-Verify) or subjected to retaliation, may file a charge. The public can also 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); email IER@usdoj.gov; sign up for a free webinar; or visit IER’s English and Spanish websites. Subscribe to GovDelivery to receive updates from IER. View the Spanish translation of this press release here.

El Departamento de Justicia anunció hoy que ha llegado a un acuerdo conciliatorio con Microsoft Corporation que resuelve alegatos de que la compañía había discriminado a no ciudadanos de los EE. UU. por motivos de su estatus de ciudadanía en las fases iniciales del proceso de contratación de Microsoft al pedirles documentos migratorios específicos e innecesarios para demostrar que podían trabajar para la compañía sin que la compañía tuviera que patrocinar una visa laboral. Asimismo, el acuerdo resuelve acusaciones de que la compañía había discriminado a residentes permanentes legales al pedirles documentos adicionales o diferentes a los que por ley deben pedir para fines relacionados con la reverificación de su permiso continuo para trabajar en los Estados Unidos.  

La investigación independiente del Departamento comenzó después de que la mujer de un postulante de Microsoft llamó a la línea directa de la IER para informarle que la compañía le había pedido a su marido su Tarjeta de Residente Permanente al solicitar un puesto en las oficinas de Microsoft en Redmond, Washington. La investigación halló pruebas de que la compañía había pedido, en repetidas ocasiones, que residentes permanentes legales, refugiados y asilados se sometieran a una evaluación de su necesidad de patrocinio de una visa laboral por parte de Microsoft, a pesar de que ellos no requieren ningún tipo de patrocinio para poder trabajar en los Estados Unidos. La investigación determinó que la compañía discriminó al menos a seis residentes permanentes legales por motivos de su estatus migratorio durante este proceso de evaluación de visas cuando les pidió que presentasen su Tarjeta de Residente Permanente para demostrar que tenían permiso para trabajar sin la necesidad ser patrocinados por el empleador. Más aún, la investigación determinó que, desde al menos  junio del 2019 hasta al menos enero del 2020, Microsoft envió, de forma habitual, correos electrónicos a residentes permanentes legales para pedirles documentos para confirmar que disponían de una autorización continua para trabajar, a pesar de que ya habían presentado documentos que demostraban una autorización permanente para trabajar.

La Ley de Inmigración y Nacionalidad (INA, por sus siglas en inglés) requiere que los empleadores verifiquen el permiso del trabajador para trabajar en los Estados Unidos. Por otra parte, la ley también prohíbe que los empleadores pidan documentos cuando no tienen el requisito de pedirlos o que restrinjan o especifiquen los tipos de documentación válida que se le permite al trabajador presentar para demostrar que cuenta con permiso para trabajar, por motivos de la ciudadanía, el estatus migratorio o la nacionalidad de origen de tal trabajador. Conforme el acuerdo, Microsoft revisará partes de su proceso de contratación para garantizar que la compañía no esté requiriendo, de modo ilegal, a solicitantes de trabajo que no son ciudadanos de los EE. UU. que presenten documentos migratorios específicos para demostrar que no necesitan ser patrocinados para una visa laboral. El acuerdo también requiere que la compañía pare de enviar correos electrónicos para pedir documentos con el fin de reverificar la autorización para trabajar de trabajadores cuya autorización para trabajar no debe ser reverificada. Además, el acuerdo requiere que la compañía permita a trabajadores que necesiten demostrar una autorización continua para trabajar que presenten el documento aceptable que quieran para tal fin. Microsoft también deberá pagar una sanción civil a los Estados Unidos y capacitar a sus empleados responsables de la verificación y reverificación del permiso de los trabajadores para trabajar en los Estados Unidos. Más aún, el acuerdo requiere que Microsoft se someta a los requisitos de declaración y supervisión del Departamento. 

«Mediante investigaciones y conciliaciones como esta, el Departamento de Justicia seguirá garantizando que todo no ciudadano de los EE. UU. que disponga de autorización para trabajar pueda perseguir oportunidades laborales sin enfrentarse a discriminación ilícita», afirmó Kristen Clarke, la Fiscal General Auxiliar de la División de Derechos Civiles. «El Departamento también espera que este acuerdo inspire a otros empleadores a asegurar que sus propias políticas y prácticas no sean discriminatorias».

La Sección de Derechos de Inmigrantes y Empleados de la División de Derechos Civiles es responsable de hacer cumplir la disposición antidiscriminatoria de la INA. La ley prohíbe la discriminación por motivos de estatus migratorio o nacionalidad de origen en los procesos de contratación, despido o reclutamiento o recomendación por comisión; prácticas documentales injustas; y represalias e intimidación.   

Hay más información aquí sobre cómo los empleadores pueden evitar las prácticas documentales injustas. Aquellos aspirantes o empleados que creen haber sido discriminados por motivos de su estatus migratorio, ciudadanía o nacionalidad de origen en los procesos de contratación, despido, reclutamiento o verificación de la elegibilidad para trabajar (Formulario I-9 e E-Verify) o sujetos a represalias pueden presentar una denuncia. El público también puede llamar a la línea directa de la IER para trabajadores al 1-800-255-7688 (1-800-237-2515, TTY para personas con discapacidades auditivas); llamar a la línea directa de la IER para empleadores al 1-800-255-8155 (1-800-237-2515, TTY para personas con discapacidades auditivas); enviar un correo electrónico a IER@usdoj.gov; inscribirse a un seminario en línea gratuito; o visitar los sitios web de la IER en inglés o español. Para recibir las últimas noticias de la IER, inscríbase a GovDelivery. Para visualizar la versión en inglés de este comunicado de prensa, haga clic aquí.

Download Settlement Agreement.pdf

The Department of Justice announced today that it is requesting public comment on a new draft policy statement concerning standards-essential patents (SEPs) that seeks to promote good-faith licensing negotiations and addresses the scope of remedies available to patent owners that have agreed to license their essential technologies on reasonable and non-discriminatory or fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (F/RAND) terms. The Justice Department worked with U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in responding to President Biden’s recent Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy, which encouraged the agencies to review the 2019 Policy Statement on Remedies for Standards-Essential Patents Subject to Voluntary F/RAND Commitments to ensure that it adequately promoted competition. Together the agencies, after consulting with the Federal Trade Commission, are now issuing a revised draft statement for public comment.

“The department looks forward to working with our agency partners,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “We are committed to taking a principled, transparent, and balanced approach at the intersection of intellectual property and antitrust law.”

The draft statement is open to public comment for 30 days and provides a framework to facilitate good-faith licensing negotiation between SEP owners and potential licensees. It also discusses what remedies may be available when SEPs subject to voluntary F/RAND commitments are infringed. The draft statement indicates that good-faith negotiation that leads to widespread and efficient licensing between SEP holders and those who seek to implement standardized technologies can help to promote technology innovation, further consumer choice, and enable industry competitiveness. The draft statement will not be finalized until the agencies consider all stakeholder input.

In particular, the agencies are interested in comments addressing the following questions:

1. Should the 2019 Policy Statement on Remedies for Standards-Essential Patents Subject to Voluntary F/RAND Commitments be revised?
2. Does the draft revised statement appropriately balance the interests of patent holders and implementers in the voluntary consensus standards process, consistent with the prevailing legal framework for assessing infringement remedies?
3. Does the draft revised statement address the competition concerns about the potential for extension of market power beyond appropriate patent scope identified in the July 9, 2021 Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy?
4. In your experience, has the possibility of injunctive relief been a significant factor in negotiations over SEPs subject to a voluntary F/RAND commitment? If so, how often have you experienced this?
5. Are other challenges typically present in negotiating a SEP license? If so, what information should be provided or exchanged as a practical matter to make negotiation more efficient and transparent?
6. Are small business owners and small inventors impacted by perceived licensing inefficiencies involving SEPs? If so, how can licensing be made more efficient and transparent for small businesses and small inventors that either own, or seek to license, SEPs?
7. Will the licensing considerations set forth in the draft revised Statement promote a useful framework for good-faith F/RAND licensing negotiations? In what ways could the framework be improved? How can any framework for good-faith negotiations, and this framework in particular, better support the intellectual property rights policies of standards-setting organizations?
8. What other impacts, if any, would the draft revised statement have on standards-setting organizations and contributors to the standards development process?
9. The draft revised statement discusses fact patterns intended to indicate when a potential licensee is willing or unwilling to take a F/RAND license. Are there other examples of willingness or unwillingness that should be included in the statement?
10. Have prior executive branch policy statements on SEPs been used by courts, other authorities, or in licensing negotiations? If so, what effect has the use of those statements had on the licensing process, outcomes, or resolutions?
11. Are there resources or information that the U.S. government could provide/develop to help inform businesses about licensing SEPs subject to a voluntary F/RAND commitment?

Interested parties, including attorneys, economists, academics, consumer groups, industry stakeholders or other members of the public may submit public comments to Regulations.gov until Jan. 5, 2022. Information about the draft revised statement can also be found on the Antitrust Division’s website.

The pipeline company responsible for the discharge of 29 million gallons of oil-contaminated “produced water” – a waste product of hydraulic fracturing – was sentenced to pay a $15 million criminal fine and serve a three year period of probation today by U.S. District Court Judge Daniel M. Traynor in Williston, North Dakota.

Summit Midstream Partners LLC pleaded guilty to criminal charges that it violated the Clean Water Act, as amended by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, by negligently causing the discharge into U.S. waters in 2014, and deliberately failing to immediately report the spill to federal authorities as required. More than 700,000 barrels were discharged thereby contaminating Blacktail Creek and nearby land and groundwater. By law, the federal fines in this case will go to the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund used to respond and clean up future oil spills.

“Summit is being held criminally accountable for its crimes of negligently discharging more than 29 million gallons over more than 4 months and then knowingly failing to report the discharge,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “Summit gave misleading and incomplete statements to the government about the duration and size of the spill. Through the civil and criminal cases, Summit is being held responsible for its misconduct and must implement more rigorous environmental management to prevent and detect future spills as a condition of probation.”

“The defendant in this case failed to take adequate measures to detect a spill of oil-contaminated water from their pipeline and provided incomplete and misleading information to government officials on the duration and volume of the spill,” said Acting Assistant Administrator Larry Starfield of the EPA’s Office of the Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “Investigations revealed that the spill occurred over 143 days and released more than 29 million gallons of contaminated waters into the environment, including tributaries of the Missouri River. This case sends a clear message that EPA and our law enforcement partners will hold responsible companies that fail to take appropriate steps to detect and prevent spills.”

A detailed statement of facts has been filed in court and is publicly available here. According to the factual admission agreed to by the company, “Summit’s negligence included the design, construction and operation of the Marmon Water Gathering System pipeline, as well as the negligent failure to find and stop the spill after learning of objective signs of a leak.” Summit started pipeline operations without meters at both ends of the pipeline to conduct “line balancing” or otherwise having a reliable leak detection system in place. “Even after the company learned of major drops in pressure and volume – objective signs of a leak – the company negligently continued operations and thus caused millions of additional gallons to be discharged into U.S. waters without learning the cause or pausing operations,” according to the joint factual statement.

The criminal fine is in addition to a $20 million civil penalty imposed on Summit Midstream Partners LLC and a related company, Meadowlark Midstream Company LLC, to resolve civil violations of the Clean Water Act and North Dakota water pollution control laws. On Sept. 28, the civil consent decree was approved by the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota.

The criminal investigation was conducted by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division. EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, EPA Region 8, the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality, the North Dakota Industrial Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Department of Interior and the North Dakota Department of Game and Fish provided assistance to the criminal investigation.

The criminal case was prosecuted by Senior Litigation Counsel Richard A. Udell, Senior Trial Attorney Christopher J. Costantini, Trial Attorneys Stephen J. Foster and Erica H. Pencak of the Environmental Crimes Section of the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resource Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Delorme.

The Justice Department announced today it has reached an agreement with the Town of Wolcott, Connecticut, to settle a lawsuit alleging that the Town violated the Fair Housing Act when it refused to allow the operation of a group home for adults with disabilities in a residential neighborhood.

The settlement, which still must be approved by the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, resolves a lawsuit that the department filed in December 2020. Today’s settlement also resolves a related suit brought by the housing provider and property owner of the proposed group home, SELF Inc. and L&R Realty Inc. The department’s lawsuit arose from a complaint that SELF and L&R Realty filed with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which referred the matter to the Justice Department.

“Local governments do not have the right to use zoning laws and restrictions as a vehicle to discriminate against people with disabilities,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Individuals with disabilities have the right to equal housing opportunities, and the Department of Justice is committed to vigorous enforcement of federal law to stop municipalities from violating this right.”

“Wolcott’s town officials attempted to prohibit the operation of a home that would establish a place where persons with disabilities can live productive lives,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Leonard C Boyle of the District of Connecticut. “This type of discrimination is unacceptable. The settlement agreement and future action required by the Town should serve as fair warning to other municipalities that our office is committed to pursuing violations of the Fair Housing Act in Connecticut.”

“Towns don’t have the right to enact zoning laws that make housing for persons with disabilities unavailable,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Demetria McCain of HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. “HUD commends the Justice Department for holding municipalities accountable for violating our nation’s housing laws and we look forward to working together to do even more to protect the rights of persons with disabilities.”

The department’s lawsuit alleged that the Town of Wolcott violated the Fair Housing Act when it denied a special use permit to L&R Realty and SELF, which sought to open a residence for 13 adults with mental health disabilities. At the time, the Town’s zoning regulations permitted the operation of community residences of up to 15 adults with disabilities so long as certain conditions were satisfied, and the United States alleged that the Town’s permit denial was because of the disabilities of the proposed residents. The complaint also alleged that, after learning about the proposed group home, the Town amended its zoning regulations to prohibit any community residence for adults with disabilities from operating in the Town.

Under the settlement, the Town will allow SELF’s group home to operate with up to 13 residents and will amend its zoning regulations to comply with federal anti-discrimination laws, including permitting group homes for persons with disabilities in residential districts, with the same size limitations applied to families of similar size, and implementing a reasonable accommodation policy. The Town will also pay $350,000 in monetary damages to SELF and L&R Realty, as well as $10,000 to the United States. The Town also agreed to take a number of other actions to guard against housing discrimination, including training Town officials and employees about their obligations under federal law, designating a fair housing compliance officer, and reporting periodically to the Justice Department.

The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing based on disability, race, color, religion, national origin, sex and familial status. More information about the Civil Rights Division and the laws it enforces is available at www.justice.gov/crt. Individuals who believe that they may have been victims of housing discrimination can call the Justice Department at 1-833-591-0291, or submit a report online at civilrights.justice.gov. Individuals may also contact HUD at 1-800-669-9777 or through its website at https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/fair_housing_equal_opp. Individuals may also report housing discrimination, and other forms of discrimination against persons with disabilities, to the U.S. Attorney’s Office at 203-821-3700.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced today that it has filed a lawsuit under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act against the State of Texas and the Texas Secretary of State, challenging the State’s redistricting plans for the Texas congressional delegation and the Texas House of Representatives. 

“Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act requires that state voting laws – including laws that draw electoral maps – provide eligible voters with an equal opportunity to participate in the democratic process and elect representatives of their choosing,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The complaint we filed today alleges that Texas has violated Section 2 by creating redistricting plans that deny or abridge the rights of Latino and Black voters to vote on account of their race, color or membership in a language minority group.”

The United States’ complaint contends that Texas’ redistricting plan for its congressional delegation violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act because it has the discriminatory purpose of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race, color or membership in a language minority group in that it deliberately minimizes the voting strength of minority communities. The lawsuit also claims that Texas violated Section 2 because its congressional redistricting plan has the discriminatory result of leading to an inequality in the opportunities for minority voters to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice.

The United States’ complaint further contends that Texas’ State House redistricting plan violates Section 2 because it results in minority voters having less opportunity than other citizens to participate in the political process and elect legislators of their choice.

The United States’ complaint asks the court to prohibit Texas from conducting elections under the challenged plans and asks the court to order Texas to devise and implement new plans that comply with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The complaint also asks the court to establish interim plans pending a lawful state redistricting.

On Sept. 1, the department issued guidance under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, for redistricting and methods of electing government bodies.

More information about the Voting Rights Act and other federal voting laws is available on the Department of Justice’s website at https://www.justice.gov/crt/voting-section. 

Complaints about discriminatory voting practices may be reported to the Civil Rights Division through the internet reporting portal at https://civilrights.justice.gov or by telephone at 1-800-253-3931.

The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Mississippi announced today that it has closed its investigation into a witness’s alleged recantation of her account of the events leading up to the murder of Emmett Till. The investigation was conducted in conjunction with the Mississippi District Attorney’s Office, Fourth District. Till’s murder is one of the most infamous acts of racial violence in our country’s history.

Today, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, Acting U.S. Attorney Clay Joyner, District Attorney W. Dewayne Richardson and career attorneys and employees from the Civil Rights Division and the FBI met with members of Till’s family, including a family member who had been a witness to the events preceding Till’s abduction and murder. The purpose of the meeting was to explain the reasons for closing the investigation and to give the family an opportunity to ask questions about the department’s investigation and conclusions.

The department conducted the investigation as part of its Cold Case Initiative and pursuant to the passage of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act (Till Act). The Cold Case Initiative is a comprehensive effort to identify and investigate racially motivated murders committed decades ago. As in all federal cases, the department may only bring a case with laws that were enacted at the time of the crime and are still within the statute of limitations. However, under the Till Act, the federal government is authorized to assist state and local jurisdictions with investigating and, where possible, prosecuting such crimes.

Because there were no federal hate crime statutes at the time of Till’s death, the case was not then opened for federal investigation. In 2004, the department opened an investigation into Till’s murder as part of its Cold Case Initiative, but determined after a thorough review that it lacked jurisdiction to bring federal charges.

The department reopened the matter in 2017 after a professor alleged in a book he had written that a white woman, who was a witness to crucial events leading up to Till’s abduction and murder, had recanted her previous accounts of those events. In response, the department and the FBI examined whether the woman had recanted and, if so, whether she had information that would allow prosecution of any living person.

In the summer of 1955, the 14-year-old Till traveled from Chicago to Money, Mississippi, to visit relatives. He stayed with family members in their home just east of Money. On Aug. 24, 1955, Till and approximately six other youths drove to a store in Money. A witness indicated that, contrary to long-standing belief about the events in and near the store, no one challenged Till to speak to or flirt with a white woman who was at the store. Nor did Till show a photo of a white girl to the men standing outside the store. Rather, Till bought some items in the store and left with one of his companions without incident. According to this witness, the woman then left the store, unhurried and undisturbed, at which time Till whistled at her. Till’s companions, aware of the dangers posed to Black men perceived to have violated the unwritten, racist code prevalent in the Jim Crow South, hurried to get Till away from the store.

A few days later, in the early morning hours of Aug. 28, Roy Bryant, his half-brother John William (J.W.) Milam, and at least one other person abducted Till from the home of his relatives. Three days later, a teenager fishing in the Tallahatchie River discovered Till’s brutally beaten body floating in the river. Till’s assailants had weighed him down with a 75-pound cotton gin fan, which they tied to his body with barbed wire.

State officials charged Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam with murder; they were tried the following month and acquitted by an all-white jury. During the trial, the woman at the store testified under oath, but not in front of the jury, that Till had propositioned her and physically touched her hand, arm and waist while they were both inside the store. Following their acquittals, both Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam confessed to kidnapping and murdering Till in an account published in Look magazine in January 1956.

In early 2017, new information emerged suggesting that the woman may have confessed to a professor, who later wrote a book about Till’s murder, that the account she provided to the state court in 1955 was untrue. Specifically, the professor asserted that, during a 2008 interview with the woman, she handed him a transcript of her sworn 1955 testimony and said, “[t]hat part’s not true.” If credible, the professor’s assertion suggests that the woman lied in state court and confessed to having done so. The alleged recantation raised questions about whether the woman would be willing to acknowledge to federal authorities that her prior versions of events had been untruthful and whether she now would provide new and accurate information relating to the abduction and murder of Till.  

The woman however, when asked about the alleged recantation, denied to the FBI that she ever recanted her testimony and provided no information beyond what was uncovered during the previous federal investigation. Although lying to the FBI is a federal offense, there is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she lied to the FBI when she denied having recanted to the professor. There is insufficient evidence to prove that she ever told the professor that any part of her testimony was untrue. Although the professor represented that he had recorded two interviews with her, he provided the FBI with only one recording, which did not contain any recantation. In addition, although an assistant transcribed the two recordings, neither transcript contained the alleged recantation. The professor also provided inconsistent explanations about whether the missing recording included the alleged recantation or whether, instead, the woman made the key admission before he began recording the interview.

A federal prosecution of the woman would be complicated by the fact that, according to the professor’s account, when she said “that part’s not true,” she did not expressly reference her state court testimony or refer to any specific part of that testimony. Rather, the professor stated that he understood her to be referring to her allegation that Till physically accosted her in the store from the context of their conversation. It would thus be impossible for prosecutors to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the woman intentionally recanted all or part of her state court testimony, and that she then lied to the FBI when she denied having done so.

Even if the government could prove that she recanted her prior state court testimony, the federal government could not prosecute her for perjury for her 1955 testimony. Perjury in state court is not a federal offense. Moreover, the statute of limitations, a deadline for bringing a prosecution, expired in 1960 on any state perjury offense. Similarly, the five-year statute of limitations has expired on any claim that she lied to the FBI during the 2004 investigation. However, in closing this matter without prosecution, the government does not take the position that the state court testimony the woman gave in 1955 was truthful or accurate. There remains considerable doubt as to the credibility of her version of events, which is contradicted by others who were with Till at the time, including the account of a living witness.

The government’s re-investigation found no new evidence suggesting that either the woman or any other living person was involved in Till’s abduction and murder. Even if such evidence could be developed, no federal hate crime laws existed in 1955, and the statute of limitations has run on the only civil rights statutes that were in effect at that time. As such, even if a living suspect could now be identified, a federal prosecution for Till’s abduction and murder would not be possible. A copy of the memorandum explaining the reasons for closing the investigation is available at: Emmett Till | CRT | Department of Justice.

The Department of Justice remains committed to identifying and investigating racially motivated crimes of violence committed decades ago through its Cold Case Initiative, and through the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act and its reauthorization. Those who have information related to an unsolved or un-vindicated cold case that occurred on or before Dec. 31, 1979, and have reason to believe are hate crimes or crimes that would violate other civil rights law should contact the Civil Rights Division’s Cold Case Unit.

The Department of Justice, FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and five other federal law enforcement agencies announced the completion of the fourth annual Money Mule Initiative, which targeted networks of individuals through which international fraudsters obtain proceeds of fraud schemes. These individuals, sometimes referred to as money mules, receive money from fraud victims and forward the illicit funds, often to overseas perpetrators. 

By receiving and transferring illicit funds, money mules facilitate a wide range of fraud schemes, including those that often predominately impact older Americans — like romance scams and lottery fraud — and those that target companies through business e-mail compromise schemes. Money mules also assist the theft of funds earmarked for pandemic relief, including unemployment insurance and small business loan funds. Some money mules are aware that their actions facilitate international fraud schemes. Others, however, first interact with fraud schemes as victims and may be unaware that their actions are furthering criminal activity.         

U.S. law enforcement took action to address 4,750 money mules over the last 10 weeks; enforcement actions occurred in every state in the country. These actions more than doubled the number of actions taken during last year’s effort. Agencies are also conducting outreach to educate the public about how fraudsters use money mules and how to avoid unknowingly assisting fraud by receiving and transferring money.

“Without money mules, many foreign fraudsters targeting American consumers, businesses and pandemic relief funds could not reap the proceeds of their schemes,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. “The department and its partners will use every tool at our disposal — consumer education, disruption and prosecution — to cripple foreign fraudsters’ ability to get money from victims’ pockets to perpetrators’ bank accounts.”

Law Enforcement Actions

The department’s Consumer Protection Branch and the FBI led the initiative with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Other participating agencies were the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General, U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. The campaign was conducted simultaneously with a Europol initiative, the European Money Mule Action (EMMA). Additionally, in several districts, including the District of Arizona and the Northern District of Georgia, federal law enforcement have been working closely with their state and local law enforcement counterparts.

“This year’s Money Mule Initiative successfully halted the activity of hundreds of money mules worldwide thanks to the persistence and partnership of the FBI and our federal, state, local and international partners,” said Executive Assistant Director Brian Turner of the FBI's Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Branch. “Money mules make it easier for criminals to hide their activity, and harder for law enforcement to follow their tracks. Today’s announcement is an unmistakable warning for those who move money for criminal enterprises: even if you don’t know you’re committing a crime, acting as a money mule is illegal and punishable, and the FBI and our partners will use all available tools to disrupt the flow of funds to criminal networks.”

“The U.S. Postal Inspection Service takes great pride in our history of protecting the public from being deceived by scammers,” said Chief Postal Inspector Gary Barksdale for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. “We work hard to safeguard vulnerable consumers through aggressive criminal investigations, as well as proactive consumer outreach, as part of our mission to protect those who might fall victim to cleverly designed deceptive offers. The Money Mule Initiative is another example of our law enforcement commitment, and that of our law enforcement partners, to vigorously pursue individuals who knowingly or unknowingly participate in criminal activity of this nature; bring them to justice and stop them in their tracks from victimizing the American public.”

The thousands of actions taken by law enforcement ranged from warning letters to civil and administrative actions, to criminal prosecutions. Law enforcement served approximately 4,670 letters warning individuals that their actions were facilitating fraud schemes. These letters outlined the potential consequences for transferring money acquired illegally. Civil or administrative actions were filed against 11 individuals, and through seizures and voluntary return of funds, law enforcement obtained nearly $3.7 million in fraud proceeds.

Additionally, more than 30 individuals were criminally charged for their roles in receiving and forwarding victim payments or otherwise laundering fraud proceeds. These cases included:

• The Consumer Protection Branch and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California charged four individuals who laundered gift cards purchased by fraud victims.
• Two U.S. Attorney’s Offices, the District of Rhode Island and the Western District of Pennsylvania, indicted individuals who, among other conduct, personally collected money from grandparent scam victims.
• The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee charged an individual who facilitated the theft of unemployment insurance funds.
• The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York indicted a ring of individuals who laundered money for romance scams and business email compromise fraud schemes.

The charges also consisted of cases brought against individuals who facilitated business email compromise schemes, including charges brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Eastern District of Virginia, the Eastern District of Wisconsin and the Western District of Kentucky. Additional charges were brought against money mules by U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Northern District of Georgia, the Eastern District of Louisiana, and the District of Nebraska.

Criminal charges are merely allegations. Defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Community Outreach and Prevention

Agencies also turned their attention to educating the public about how fraudsters recruit individuals to serve as money mules, signs of money mule activity and steps that should be taken if someone has unknowingly facilitated fraud by moving money.

These efforts included:

• U.S. Postal Inspection Service created fliers that were displayed in post offices across the country during the Money Mule Initiative.
• FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) released a money mule public service announcement.
• The Department of Labor Office of Inspector General provided information about money mule activity to state work force agencies.
• The Department’s Elder Justice Coordinators educated their communities about money mule’s activity.
• Members of the Attorney General’s Coronavirus Fraud Enforcement Task Force used outreach materials created by the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) to educate the public about the use of money mules to steal pandemic relief funds.

Other government agencies joining the public awareness effort included the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which created new money mule scam awareness materials, as well as the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Community Living and AmeriCorps Seniors. By increasing awareness of money mule activity, these efforts and others sought to prevent individuals from becoming involved in money mule activity.

For more information on money mules, please visit https://www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch/money-mule-initiative.

Information about the Department of Justice’s Elder Fraud Initiative is available at www.justice.gov/elderjustice. Additional information about the Consumer Protection Branch and its elder fraud enforcement efforts may be found at www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch. If you or someone you know is age 60 or older and has been a victim of financial fraud, help is available at the National Elder Fraud Hotline: 1-833-FRAUD-11 (1-833-372-8311).    

The Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus. Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

Leadership of the Department of Justice Antitrust Division and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) attended meetings in London this week as part of the Competition Enforcers Summit, which took place under the 2021 G7 Digital and Technology Track in connection with the United Kingdom’s G7 presidency. The U.S. agencies expressed their appreciation to the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for hosting them during this event, and for the opportunity to meet in person with the CMA to discuss cooperation between our respective jurisdictions. Following the meeting’s conclusion, the UK CMA, the FTC, and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice issue this joint statement.

This week’s Competition Enforcers Summit underscored the similar challenges we face as enforcement agencies. Our meetings highlighted the close relationship among our agencies, underscored that we each view this relationship as a critical element of our respective enforcement programs, and affirmed our intent to strengthening collaboration and coordination with one another.

New and evolving challenges require us to innovate in how we accomplish our missions. And in today’s global economy, our agencies often review the same mergers or confront similar potentially anticompetitive conduct. Given the many parallel investigations, we are committed to working closely together to promote fully informed decision-making and to facilitate best practices on pursuing effective remedies. We also welcome working with other agencies both individually and collectively.

We share common goals and are dedicated to close and regular engagement both at the agency head and staff level, as priorities and resources allow. Deeper recognition of our common cause of tackling anticompetitive conduct and mergers opens up possibilities for us to implement robust cross-border enforcement regimes and achieve success in ways that would elude individual agencies working alone.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and U.S. Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) announced today that the Justice Department has opened a pattern or practice investigation into the Mount Vernon Police Department (MVPD). The investigation will assess whether MVPD engages in a pattern or practice of discriminatory policing. The investigation will also assess MVPD’s use of force, strip and body cavity searches, and how it handles evidence. 

The department will conduct a comprehensive review of MVPD’s systems of accountability, including complaint intake, investigation, review, disposition and discipline. SDNY and the Civil Rights Division will also reach out to community groups and members of the public to learn about their experiences with the MVPD.

Prior to the announcement, department officials informed Mount Vernon Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard, MVPD Chief Marcel Olifiers, City Council President Marcus A. Griffith, Commissioner of Public Safety Glenn Scott, and Corporation Counsel Brian Johnson of the investigation. 

“An effective and accountable police department is a hallmark of a healthy and well-functioning democracy,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke. “The Civil Rights Division is committed to ensuring that law enforcement agencies across our country use their authority in a manner that is constitutional, transparent and free from discrimination.”

“Police officers have tough jobs, and so many do their work honorably, lawfully, and with distinction, respecting the rights of the citizens they have sworn to protect,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams. “But when officers break the law, they violate their oath and undermine a community’s trust. We ask that anyone who has information relevant to the investigation into the Mount Vernon Police Department to contact the Department of Justice via email at community.mvpd@usdoj.gov or to call (866) 985-1378.”

The investigation is being conducted pursuant to the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which prohibits state and local governments from engaging in a pattern or practice of conduct by law enforcement officers that deprives individuals of rights protected by the Constitution or federal law. The Act allows the department to remedy such misconduct through civil litigation. This is the seventy-fourth investigation of a law enforcement agency conducted pursuant to this statute since it was enacted in 1994. The department will be assessing law enforcement practices under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, as well as the Safe Streets Act of 1968; and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Special Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division, in Washington, D.C., will conduct this investigation.  Individuals with relevant information are encouraged to contact the department via email at community.mvpd@usdoj.gov or by calling the toll free phone at (866)-985-1378. Individuals can also report civil rights violations regarding this or other matters using the Civil Rights Division’s new reporting portal, available at www.civilrights.justice.gov.

Information specific to the Civil Rights Division’s Police Reform Work can be found here: . Additional information about the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York is available on its website at https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny. Additional information about the Civil Rights Division is available on its website at www.justice.gov/crt.

Today the White House released the 2021 National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking, which lays out a broad-based, multi-disciplinary, whole-of-government approach to addressing this crime and its harmful impacts on crime victims, their communities and our national security. The Action Plan calls upon the U.S. Department of Justice and its partners across the Executive Branch to implement a number of Priority Actions to enhance U.S. efforts to combat human trafficking.

“Human trafficking is an insidious crime that impacts some of the most vulnerable people in our country and around the world,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “Vindicating the rights of human trafficking victims and other vulnerable individuals ranks among the highest priorities of the Department of Justice. The department welcomes the issuance of this National Action Plan, which will streamline coordination among federal anti-trafficking partners, strengthening our ability to seek justice for victims and hold perpetrators accountable. We are committed to using every tool at our disposal to prevent human trafficking; increase detection, investigation and prosecution of human trafficking crimes; and expand support and services to protect and empower survivors.”

“Human trafficking is an intolerable affront to ideals of liberty, justice and individual rights that disproportionately impacts vulnerable individuals and marginalized communities, including people of color, migrants and refugees, LQBTQI+ people and people living with disabilities,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “This National Action Plan, developed through extensive collaboration among leading anti-trafficking experts, reflects the Civil Rights Division's steadfast commitment to making our nation’s fight against human trafficking more effective than ever before. We will use every available tool to hold perpetrators of human trafficking accountable for their crimes while pursuing justice on behalf of survivors.”

“Human trafficking exploits adults and children at the most fundamental levels – targeting dignity, self-governance, even freedom,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “These are crimes that call upon our most fundamental instincts to protect survivors and prosecute offenders. Through this National Action Plan the Justice Department, alongside its public and private partners, commits once again to answer this call, re-focus our efforts and deliver justice.”

Attorney General Garland has already taken steps to deepen and strengthen the department’s work alongside our federal partners to assess the threat presented by human trafficking and mitigate the vulnerabilities that expose victims to exploitation and abuse. The department’s anti-trafficking experts worked closely with law enforcement and intelligence community agencies throughout 2021 to produce a comprehensive, interagency Human Trafficking Intelligence Assessment. This interagency Intelligence Assessment, finalized in July 2021, continues to inform Executive Branch policies, strategies and priorities in response to complex, evolving human trafficking threats.

Furthermore, in June 2021, the Attorney General launched Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA), in partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other law enforcement agencies, to combat smuggling and trafficking in persons from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico. The Task Force is working within the United States and with our foreign partners to dismantle criminal networks that subject smuggled migrants to dangerous, abusive and exploitive conditions and that engage in human trafficking. 

The department is grateful to survivor experts, including the U.S. Advisory Council, and other stakeholders who were consulted for their expertise during the development of the National Action Plan. The plan emphasizes the use of victim-centered and trauma-informed approaches that are necessary for success in all of our anti-trafficking efforts. The department will play a lead role in implementing the following Priority Actions, among others:

• Expand interagency enforcement initiatives aimed at increasing high impact prosecutions of forced labor, sex trafficking of adults by force, fraud or coercion and transnational sex trafficking, and work with the Department of Homeland Security to launch a labor trafficking enforcement initiative.
• Engage relevant stakeholders, including state, local, tribal and territorial law enforcement and survivors and survivor organizations, to strengthen their prosecutions related to child sex trafficking.
• Dismantle organized criminal human trafficking enterprises by targeting their financial networks, communication systems and other infrastructure, and by targeting facilitators of human trafficking.
• Develop improved technology for human trafficking interdiction and identify technical barriers impeding investigations.
• Enhance capabilities to locate children who are missing, including those who have run away from foster care, and are vulnerable to human trafficking.
• Ensure the safety and well-being of human trafficking victims in the course of FBI investigations by using and promoting a victim-centered, trauma-informed approach among all federal, state, local, territorial and tribal law enforcement partners.
• Conduct comprehensive training covering the collection of restitution and transfer of forfeited funds to victims.
• Prioritize the Office for Victims of Crime’s housing program to support safe, stable housing options for human trafficking victims.
• Consider enhancements to the model task forces program to increase collaboration between victim services, law enforcement, and community and survivor stakeholders.
• Seek to establish federally-funded human trafficking task forces that are sustainable and state, tribal, territorial or locally-led.
• Release a self-guided training on integrating trauma-informed engagement in supporting individuals and communities impacted by human trafficking.
• Support research and develop the evidence needed to better prevent and respond to trafficking in persons in the United States.

To view the National Action Plan, click here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/National-Action-Plan-to-Combat-Human-Trafficking.pdf

Two California hospice facility owners were arrested today in Los Angeles on criminal charges related to their alleged participation in a kickback and health care fraud scheme.

According to court documents, Oganes Doganyan, 49, of Northridge, and Kristine Arutyunyan, 38, of Glendale, paid illegal kickbacks for the referral of Medicare beneficiary information that could be used to bill for purported hospice services. Doganyan and Arutyunyan also caused false and fraudulent claims to be billed to Medicare for hospice services that were medically unnecessary, not eligible for reimbursement, and not provided, including for services purportedly provided to Medicare beneficiaries who did not exist.

Doganyan and Arutyunyan are charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud, health care fraud, conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks, and paying kickbacks. If convicted, Doganyan and Arutyunyan each face a maximum total penalty of 35 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Tracy L. Wilkison of the Central District of California; Acting Assistant Director Jay Greenberg of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division; Assistant Director in Charge Kristi K. Johnson of the FBI Los Angeles Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Timothy B. DeFrancesca of the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG), Los Angeles Regional Office, made the announcement.

The FBI Los Angeles Field Office and HHS-OIG are investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Justin Givens and Helen Lee of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case.

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

Una corte federal del Distrito de Columbia divulgó la acusación formal contra Juan Carlos Valencia González, alias “Pelón”, “Tricky Tres”, “O3”, “El 3”, “JP”, y “Pelacas”. Ayer, el Departamento de Estado anunció una recompensa de hasta 5 millones de dólares por información que conduzca a su arresto y sentencia.

Un gran jurado en el Distrito de Columbia remitió la acusación en contra de Juan Carlos Valencia González el 8 de octubre de 2020. De acuerdo a los documentos de la corte, al menos desde principios de 2007, Valencia González conspiró con otros para importar más de cinco kilogramos de cocaína y 500 gramos o más de metanfetaminas a los Estados Unidos desde el extranjero. Los documentos de la corte también alegan que Valencia González portó y utilizó un arma de fuego para llevar a cabo sus operaciones de narcotráfico.

“Estados Unidos está comprometido a trabajar con nuestros socios globales para ir en contra de las grandes organizaciones narcotraficantes,” dijo el Procurador Adjunto Kenneth A. Polite Jr. de la División Criminal del Departamento de Justicia. “Estas organizaciones dañan a nuestras comunidades, y las fuerzas de ley estadounidenses se enfocarán en estos individuos responsables por la proliferación de drogas peligrosas en Estados Unidos, sin importar donde residan.”

“El Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación es una de las organizaciones narcotraficantes más violentas y prolíficas de México, y ha estado inundando a Estados Unidos con fentanilo y metanfetaminas, causando sobredosis y muerte a tantos estadounidenses,” dijo la Administradora de la DEA Anne Milgram. “El anuncio de la recompensa hecho hoy subraya el compromiso de los EEUU. por ir tras los individuos y organizaciones que causan el mayor daño a nuestras comunidades.”

Este caso es parte de la operación “Pinky y Cerebro,” la cual recibió apoyo del Fuerza de Trabajo contra las Drogas y el Crimen Organizado (OCDETF). La división de la DEA en Los Ángeles está investigando el caso.

Los fiscales Kirk Handrich, Kate Naseef, y Kaitlin Sahni de la División Criminal sobre Narcóticos y Drogas Peligrosas están llevando el caso. La oficina de Relaciones Internacionales de la División Criminal apoyó significativamente.

Las acusaciones son meramente alegatos y todos los acusados se presumen inocentes hasta que se demuestre su culpabilidad más allá de duda razonable en una corte de ley.

En Ingles: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/reward-offered-mexican-national-indicted-international-cocaine-and-methamphetamine

A federal court in the District of Columbia unsealed an indictment earlier this year against Juan Carlos Valencia Gonzalez, aka Pelon, Tricky Tres, O3, El 3, JP, and Pelacas. Yesterday, the U.S. Department of State announced a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest and conviction.

A grand jury in the District of Columbia returned an indictment against Juan Carlos Valencia Gonzalez on Oct. 8, 2020. According to court documents, beginning in as early as 2007, Valencia Gonzalez conspired with others to import more than five kilograms of cocaine and 500 grams or more of methamphetamine into the United States from a foreign country. Court documents further allege that Valencia Gonzalez carried, used, and possessed a firearm in furtherance of his drug trafficking. 

“The United States is committed to working with our global partners to pursue large scale drug trafficking organizations,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “These organizations target and damage our communities, and U.S. law enforcement will target those individuals responsible for the proliferation of dangerous drugs here at home, no matter where they reside.”

“CJNG is one of Mexico’s most violent and prolific drug trafficking organizations, which has been flooding the United States with fentanyl and methamphetamine, causing the overdose and death of countless Americans,” said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. “Today’s reward announcement underscores the U.S. government’s commitment to pursuing the individuals and organizations that are causing the most harm in our communities.”

This case is part of “Operation Pinky and the Brain,” which was supported by the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). The DEA’s Los Angeles Field Division is investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Kirk Handrich, Kate Naseef, and Kaitlin Sahni of the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section are prosecuting the case. The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provided significant assistance.  

The allegations of a criminal indictment are merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

En Español: https://www.justice.gov/espanol/pr/se-ofrece-recompensa-por-ciudadano-mexicano-que-enfrenta-cargos-por-tr-fico-internacional

On World AIDS Day, the Department of Justice reaffirms the rights of people living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) to live free from stigma and discrimination. Through enforcement of civil rights laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and by educating the public about their rights and responsibilities through outreach and technical assistance, the department remains committed to protecting and advancing the rights of people living with HIV and AIDS.

“The Department of Justice plays a pivotal role in safeguarding the civil rights of people living with HIV and AIDS,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Civil Rights Division. “Together with our federal partners and those in communities across America, the department remains steadfast in its commitment to eradicate unlawful treatment of those living with HIV and AIDS, recognizing in particular the disproportionate impact of HIV on communities of color, including Black and Latino communities. In doing so, the department will renew our fight against the spread of unfounded stereotypes and misinformation about the disease while celebrating the advances that allow people with HIV to live long and productive lives.”

Over the past year, the department has continued vigorously to enforce the ADA to combat HIV discrimination and the still-pervasive attitudinal barriers that people living with HIV and AIDS experience daily — particularly in accessing health care services. The department’s enforcement efforts seek equal opportunity and dignity in all aspects of life for those living with HIV and AIDS.

• In January, the department filed two lawsuits alleging that obstetrician-gynecologist doctors in California refused to provide routine medical care to a patient on the basis of her HIV status. The complaints alleged that when the patient tried to make an appointment with one of the doctors, she was told that the doctor could not see her because she had HIV and the other doctor denied the patient a Pap smear, a regular preventative procedure, because he deemed her a “high risk” patient. https://www.ada.gov/anucha_comp.html; https://www.ada.gov/jamaluddin_comp.html
• In June, the department entered into a settlement agreement with a dental practice with multiple locations in North Carolina after an investigation substantiated that the practice refused to accept a new patient with HIV who was seeking routine dental care, and required certain laboratory results from patients with HIV before deciding whether to provide care. The agreement requires the practice to pay compensatory damages to the individual, provide training and implement a non-discrimination policy. https://www.ada.gov/night_and_day_sa.html
• In February, the department entered into a settlement agreement with a surgical practice in Michigan after an investigation by the Justice Department and the Department of Health and Human Services substantiated allegations that the practice turned away a prospective patient because of the person’s HIV status. The agreement requires the practice to pay compensatory damages to the individual, provide training and implement non-discrimination policies and practices. https://www.ada.gov/great_lakes_surgical_sa.html
• In February, the department entered into a settlement agreement with the Nevada Department of Corrections to resolve systemic discrimination in its correctional practices. The department’s investigation found that the State impermissibly isolated and segregated inmates with HIV, failed to keep their HIV status confidential and denied them equal employment opportunities as well as classification and housing at lower custody levels. Under the settlement, Nevada agreed to develop or amend its policies and procedures to ensure equal and integrated housing, classification and employment opportunities; to provide training on the ADA to staff; and to implement an ADA grievance procedure. https://www.ada.gov/nv_doc_sa.html
• In June, the department entered into a settlement agreement with a nail salon in North Carolina that denied services to an individual living with HIV and inappropriately requested medical documentation. The agreement requires the salon to pay monetary damages to the individual, provide training and adopt a non-discrimination policy. https://www.ada.gov/diva_nails.pdf

In addition to enforcement efforts, the department continues to engage in outreach to educate people living with HIV and AIDS, businesses, state and local governments and public entities on their rights and responsibilities under the ADA. The department also provides technical assistance and responds to questions from individuals and covered entities through our ADA Information Line at 800-514-0301 (voice) or 800-514-0383 (TTY).

On World AIDS Day 2021, and every day, the department remains dedicated to eradicating discrimination against those living with HIV and AIDS. Through comprehensive enforcement of our civil rights laws and the provision of outreach and technical assistance, the department will continue to lead efforts to ensure that all people living with HIV and AIDS can share fully in all that our country has to offer.

To learn more about the department’s work, please visit www.ada.gov/hiv.

Kristofer Landell and Stephanie Laskin were sentenced today before U.S. District Judge Thomas J. McAvoy sitting in Binghamton, New York, for conspiring to violate Clean Air Act regulations that control the safe removal, handling and disposal of asbestos.

Judge McAvoy sentenced Landell and Laskin to eight months and ten months of incarceration respectively, as well as three years of supervised release, during which time defendants must surrender any asbestos-related licenses. Co-defendants Roger Osterhoudt, Gunay Yakup and Madeline Alonge were all sentenced to three years’ probation in early November. All five defendants were further ordered to pay approximately $399,000 in restitution to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its costs related to cleaning up the now-contaminated site in Kingston, New York, known as the “Tech City property.” The defendants may also be ordered to pay additional monies to members of the community who were potentially exposed to hazardous air pollutants as a result of the defendants’ conspiracy.

According to court-filed documents, Landell, Laskin, Yakup, and Alonge engaged in a year-long conspiracy to violate federal and New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) regulations intended to prevent human exposure to asbestos. More specifically, between 2015 and 2016, Landell and Laskin both permitted, and in some cases directed, abatement workers to remove asbestos from the TechCity Property illegally by stripping regulated asbestos containing materials without properly containing the work area and removing the asbestos dry, thus allowing airborne fibers to escape into the surrounding environment. In an effort to conceal those crimes, Landell, acting in his capacity as an air- and project-monitor, concealed these violations by fabricating and falsifying paperwork required by EPA and the State of New York. The conspirators also engaged in other efforts to deceive authorities, such as by failing to conduct air-monitoring and falsifying at least one NYSDOL-required “final air clearance.” Despite the defendants’ efforts to conceal their crimes, NYSDOL inspectors found numerous violations during the course of the year-long project and issued notices of violation. Conditions at the TechCity Property deteriorated until NYSDOL shut down operations in August 2016 and directed the defendants and their companies to cease all work. Notwithstanding this NYSDOL order, the defendants continued operations for a short time, prompting a criminal investigation. 

In his plea agreement, Osterhoudt, the Vice President of Property Management for TechCity, admitted that as a result of the defendants’ illegal asbestos removal, there was likely a release of asbestos contamination into the environment that placed others at an increased risk of death or serious bodily injury. Asbestos has been determined to cause lung cancer, asbestosis and mesothelioma, an invariably fatal disease. Given that EPA has determined that there is no safe level of exposure to asbestos, the United States has endeavored to identify all those persons in close proximity to the illegal asbestos operations during the TechCity project and is seeking restitution on behalf of all those potentially exposed to airborne asbestos contamination during the relevant time period. That process is ongoing. 

Special agents of the EPA investigated the case with the assistance of New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and information provided by the NYSDOL Asbestos Control Bureau and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The case was prosecuted by Todd W. Gleason and Gary N. Donner of the Environmental Crimes Section.

A Philadelphia man was sentenced today to seven years in prison for conspiring to defraud the IRS and assisting others in filing false income tax returns.

On July 16, Albert Upshur, aka Kelinde Jaha, and a co-conspirator, Yolonda Thompson, aka Qhama Al, were found guilty at a bench trial of one count each of conspiring to defraud the IRS and eight counts each of helping others to file false tax returns. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, between 2009 and 2015, Upshur and Thompson attempted to obtain millions of dollars for themselves and other participants in a fraudulent debt relief scheme they referred to as the Debt Payoff Process. As part of the scheme, Thompson and Upshur formed the Yolonda Denise Thompson Living Trust (the Thompson Trust). Participants in the Debt Payoff Process were told that if they paid money to Upshur and filed tax returns and other documents Thompson prepared for them, they could access funds from the Thompson Trust to pay off their mortgages and other debts. In reality, the tax returns that Thompson prepared and participants filed with the IRS fraudulently claimed income tax refunds that the scheme participants were not entitled to receive. The false tax returns collectively sought fraudulent IRS refunds of more than $300 million.

The evidence at trial also established that after the IRS began to investigate the Debt Payoff Process, Upshur and Thompson attempted to obtain money from the IRS by other fraudulent means, including using checks drawn on closed bank accounts and trying to use financial instruments such as fictitious bonds. The defendants also continued to file false tax returns for themselves and others after the IRS assessed civil penalties against them and notified them that they were under criminal investigation.

In addition to the term of imprisonment, U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone ordered Upshur to serve one year of supervised release. Thompson is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 15, 2022.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division made the announcement. He thanked U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, which provided support in the investigation and prosecution of this case. 

IRS-Criminal Investigation investigated the case.

Trial Attorneys Melissa S. Siskind and Kathryn D. Carpenter of the Justice Department’s Tax Division prosecuted the case.

In a proposed consent decree lodged today in U.S. District Court, Louisville Gas & Electric Company (LG&E) has agreed to permanent emission limits for the sulfuric acid mist that it emits from its Mill Creek Station, located in Jefferson County, Kentucky. LG&E also agreed to perform a congressionally authorized diesel-emissions reduction supplemental environmental project aimed at reducing ground-level emissions to resolve allegations that it emitted too much sulfuric acid mist in violation of the Clean Air Act.

The complaint, filed in July 2020, alleges that LG&E failed to timely install and operate emission control technology and operated its facility, including its boilers and nitrogen oxide controls, in a manner that exacerbated sulfuric acid mist emissions. As a result, the utility’s coal combustion operations emitted high levels of sulfuric acid mist, affecting the surrounding community and violating certain federally enforceable general provisions of Kentucky’s Clean Air Act State Implementation Plan.

“This settlement will ensure that this utility permanently controls emissions of a harmful air pollutant,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “This agreement demonstrates the Justice Department’s and EPA’s continuing efforts, together with our local partners, to reduce harmful air pollution caused by poor air pollution control practices.”

“By establishing a permanent limit on emissions of sulfuric acid mist from Louisville Gas & Electric’s Mill Creek facility, this settlement will help protect future air quality for local communities,” said Acting Assistant Administrator Larry Starfield for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.  “An additional provision of the settlement will improve local air quality, including in historically underserved communities, by reducing diesel emissions from the company’s truck fleet.”

“These permanent emissions limits continue the work of protecting the air for the people of Louisville,” said Director Rachael Hamilton of the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District (LMAPCD). “This settlement will have a positive impact on air quality, and it could not have been done without the combined efforts of the Justice Department, EPA, Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell and his office, and our own staff at LMAPCD.”

As part of the settlement, the company will also pay a $750,000 civil penalty and will incorporate into its service fleet trucks that use battery rather than diesel power when performing power line maintenance or construction. The project will reduce ground-level emissions of nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, sulfur dioxides and other pollutants. The project also will reduce emissions of approximately 180,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per year. Because the settlement requires all of the trucks to be stationed at LG&E’s service center in Auburndale, the benefits of the project will be realized in the surrounding communities, including historically underserved communities.

The consent decree, lodged in the Western District Court of Kentucky, is subject to a 30-day public comment period and final court approval. The consent decree will be available for viewing at https://www.justice.gov/enrd/consent-decrees.

A Louisiana man pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to defraud the IRS.

According to court documents, from 2011 to April 2018, Randall Lackey of Jefferson Parish conspired to defraud the IRS by concealing his own income and the income of others. Lackey worked as an employee for two commercial construction companies, SES Construction Consulting Group (SES) and Global Technical Solutions (GTS). To hide his income from the IRS, Lackey had his SES and GTS wages paid to R&O Renovations and Reconstructions (R&O), a company he owned. For the 2012 through 2017 tax years, Lackey did not file corporate income tax returns for R&O or personal income tax returns with the IRS. Lackey’s co-conspirators furthered the scheme by falsely classifying Lackey as a contractor of SES and GTS rather than an employee. As a result, Lackey had no taxes withheld from his paycheck and SES and GTS avoided paying employment taxes on his wages. Lackey and other members of the conspiracy also hired workers who lacked proper documentation and were not authorized to work in the United States, and then paid them in cash “off the books.”

Lackey is scheduled to be sentenced on March 16, 2022, and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. He also faces a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Other members of the conspiracy, Randy Farrell, the current owner of SES and GTS; Mathew Reck, the former co-owner of SES and GTS; and two other employees of SES and GTS, Dawn Farrell Ruiz and David Farrell (Randy Farrell’s sister and brother), all previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the IRS. Reck is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 12, 2022. Randy Farrell, David Farrell, and Farrell Ruiz are all scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 9, 2022.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana made the announcement.

IRS-Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys William Montague and Parker Tobin of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Moses of the Eastern District of Louisiana are prosecuting the case.

The Department of Justice Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced an agenda for their upcoming virtual workshop regarding competition in labor markets.

First announced on Oct. 27, “Making Competition Work: Promoting Competition in Labor Markets,” will take place from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 6, and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Dec. 7, and will be webcast on the FTC’s website.

Over two days, a series of panels, presentations, and remarks will address competition issues affecting labor markets and the welfare of workers, including: labor monopsony; the increased use of restrictive contractual clauses in labor agreements, including non-competes and non-disclosure agreements; the perspectives of workers on the state of competition; information sharing and benchmarking activity among competing employers; the role of other federal agencies in ensuring fair competition in labor markets; and the relationship between antitrust law and collective bargaining efforts in the “gig economy.” Panelists will be invited to discuss potential steps antitrust enforcers can take to better target enforcement resources, improve public guidance, and pursue a whole-of-government approach to ensuring fair competition for workers and consumers by leveraging interagency resources. Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Antitrust Division, FTC Chair Lina Khan, and Special Assistant to the President Tim Wu will deliver remarks, among others.

“The Department of Justice is thrilled to work alongside its colleagues at the FTC to address these timely issues that are fundamental to the health of our economy and the livelihoods of American workers,” said Assistant Attorney General Kanter.

A recording of the workshop will be available on the Antitrust Division’s website and the FTC’s website. In addition to the agenda, a list of speakers, and instructions for accessing the webcast will be available on the event page. The Department of Justice Antitrust Division and the FTC invite comments from the public on the topics covered by this workshop. Interested parties may submit public comments online through Dec. 20 at Regulations.gov.

The Justice Department today announced that it has secured a settlement agreement with Hy-Vee Inc. that will help people with disabilities get information about COVID-19 vaccinations and book their vaccination appointments online. The Hy-Vee supermarket chain has more than 280 stores in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Today’s resolution is the department’s second agreement on this critical issue, following a November 2021 announcement of its settlement with Rite Aid Corporation.  

Hy-Vee’s COVID-19 Vaccine Registration Portal, currently located at www.hy-vee.com/my-pharmacy/covid-vaccine, was not accessible to some people with disabilities, including those who use screen reader software and those who have a hard time using a mouse. For instance, people who used screen readers would not hear the questions on the medical screening forms, and people who used the tab key instead of a mouse could not select available appointment times.    

“Individuals with disabilities must be able to get potentially lifesaving healthcare like COVID-19 vaccines on equal terms, without sacrificing their privacy or independence,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Ensuring that people with disabilities can schedule COVID-19 vaccination appointments the same way that people without disabilities can is not only a public health necessity, but a key civil rights issue under the Americans with Disabilities Act.” 

Under today’s settlement, Hy-Vee will make content about the COVID-19 vaccine, including the forms for scheduling an appointment to get the vaccine, conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), Version 2.1, Level AA. WCAG is a set of voluntary industry guidelines for making information on a website accessible to users with disabilities. Hy-Vee also must regularly test the pages of its website about vaccine scheduling and information and quickly fix any problems that keep people with disabilities from being able to use these pages.

This matter was handled jointly by the Disability Rights Section of the Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa. Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires public accommodations like drugstores and grocery stores to provide individuals with disabilities with full and equal enjoyment of goods and services, such as vaccines. The ADA also requires public accommodations to ensure effective communication with people with disabilities, including by using auxiliary aids and services like accessible technology.

For more information on the Civil Rights Division, please visit www.justice.gov/crt. For more information on the ADA, please call the department’s toll-free ADA Information Line at 800-514-0301 (TDD 800-514-0383) or visit www.ada.gov. ADA complaints may be filed online at www.ada.gov/complaint.

The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland announced today a settlement agreement with the Frederick County Public School District in Maryland to address the discriminatory use of seclusion and restraint against students with disabilities.

The department’s investigation found that the school district unnecessarily and repeatedly secluded and restrained students as young as five years old in violation of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Under the settlement, Frederick County will end the use of seclusion, overhaul its restraint practices, and train staff on use of appropriate behavioral interventions for students with disabilities.

The investigation, opened in October 2020, revealed thousands of incidents of seclusion and restraint in just two and a half school years. Although students with disabilities make up only 10.8% of students enrolled in the district, every single student the district secluded was a student with disabilities, as were 99% — all but one — of the students the district restrained. The district routinely resorted to seclusion and restraint in non-emergency situations instead of using appropriate behavior interventions tailored to individual students’ needs. The investigation found that these practices often intensified students’ distress, with some students engaging in self-harm and showing other signs of trauma while in seclusion.

“We cannot stand by and watch schools put children with disabilities in isolation thousands of times and call it public education,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The district’s unlawful use of seclusion and restraint did not help students; it led to heightened distress and denied them access to a safe and positive learning environment. Frederick County Public Schools understand the significant work ahead under this agreement and we will ensure that they institute all the institutional reforms necessary to comply with the law.”

“Every child should feel safe and protected while in school,” said U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron of the District Maryland. “The use of seclusion rooms and unjustified physical restraints on young people, particularly those with disabilities, falls painfully short of a school district’s responsibility to support the safety, health, and educational needs of its students. Students with disabilities deserve a school environment rooted in positive, preventive, and supportive classroom strategies. We appreciate Frederick County Public School District’s cooperation in this investigation and are pleased that the district has agreed to take comprehensive steps to ensure that students with disabilities receive equal educational opportunities.”

The school district cooperated fully throughout the investigation. Under the settlement agreement, the school district will take proactive steps to ensure that its practices do not discriminate against students with disabilities. The district will, among other things:

• prohibit the use of seclusion;
• report all instances of restraint and evaluate whether they were justified;
• designate trained staff to collect and analyze restraint data and oversee the creation of appropriate behavior intervention plans;
• deliver appropriate training and resources to help schools implement the agreement;
• design and implement procedures for handling complaints about restraint;
• offer counseling and compensatory education services to students with disabilities who were subjected to the district’s discriminatory practices; and
• hire an administrator to supervise school-based staff and ensure the district’s compliance with the agreement and Title II of the ADA.

The investigation was conducted jointly by the Civil Rights Division’s Educational Opportunities Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, as part of a division initiative to address unlawful segregation, seclusion, and restraint of students with disabilities in public schools. Enforcement of Title II of the ADA is a priority of the Civil Rights Division. Additional information about the Civil Rights Division is available on its website at www.justice.gov/crt, and additional information about the work of the Educational Opportunities Section is available at https://www.justice.gov/crt/educational-opportunities-section. 

Members of the public may report possible civil rights violations at www.civilrights.justice.gov/.  

View the letter here. View the agreement here. 

BANGOR, Maine: A Hartland, Maine, man was sentenced today in federal court for conspiring to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl and possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking, U.S. Attorney Darcie N. McElwee announced.

U.S. District Judge Lance E. Walker sentenced Nicholas Culver, 41, to 14 years in prison and  five years of supervised release. Culver pleaded guilty on December 10, 2018.

According to court records, between January 1, 2018 and July 17, 2018, Culver, on a weekly basis, obtained fentanyl from an out-of-state source of supply that he would then bring back to a residence in central Maine for distribution. On the day of his arrest, Culver was in possession of a 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol, approximately 30 grams of fentanyl and proceeds of drug trafficking. Culver admitted to carrying the gun to deter people from robbing him during drug deals.

During the sentencing hearing, Judge Walker found that Culver was responsible for “a staggering amount of some of the most lethal poison in the illicit drug market.”

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case. 

This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at www.justice.gov/OCDETF.

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The former chief financial officer of Roadrunner Transportation Systems Inc. (Roadrunner), a publicly-traded trucking and logistics company formerly headquartered in Cudahy, Wisconsin, was sentenced yesterday in the Eastern District of Wisconsin to 24 months in prison for his role in a complex securities and accounting fraud scheme.

According to court documents and evidence produced at trial, Peter R. Armbruster, 62, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, participated in a sophisticated accounting fraud scheme that resulted in Roadrunner filing materially false financial statements with the SEC for the third quarter of 2016. Evidence presented at trial showed that Armbruster inflated Roadrunner’s reported income by misrepresenting Roadrunner’s expenses. His actions caused the investing public to lose tens of millions of dollars when Roadrunner eventually announced that it would need to restate its previously filed financial statements, triggering a sharp drop in the company’s stock. On July 29, following an 11-day trial, a jury convicted Armbruster of four counts of violating federal securities laws, including misleading a public company’s auditors, securities fraud, and keeping false books and records. 

“This sentence reflects the serious harm an executive caused by deliberately misleading shareholders, auditors, and the general public about the financial health of a publicly traded company,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “People deserve better from corporate management. The Criminal Division remains committed to fighting white-collar crime, protecting investors, and safeguarding the integrity of our markets from C-suite executives who commit accounting and securities fraud.”

“Peter Armbruster failed to honestly perform his corporate duties, costing investors tens of millions of dollars in losses,” said Acting Assistant Director Jay Greenberg of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “Corporate fraud remains a top priority for the FBI, as stamping out illegal activity like this scheme is essential to preserving confidence in our collective ability to invest for a brighter tomorrow. This sentencing shows that the FBI and our law enforcement partners vigilantly protect American investors from corporate fraud while holding accountable those who undermine our way of life.” 

“This sentencing sends a strong message that those who commit transportation-related financial fraud will be held accountable,” said Special Agent in Charge Andrea M. Kropf of the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General, Midwestern Region. “Together with our law enforcement and prosecutorial partners, we will continue to identify, investigate, and pursue those who perpetrate complex criminal schemes for profit.”

The FBI’s Milwaukee Division and the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General are investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Emily Scruggs and Kyle Hankey and Acting Principal Assistant Chief Justin Weitz of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Caitlin R. Cottingham, formerly of the Fraud Section, provided valuable assistance.

Houston, Texas-based Kirby Inland Marine LP has agreed to pay $15.3 million in damages and assessment costs under the Oil Pollution Act to resolve federal and state claims for injuries to natural resources resulting from an oil spill from a Kirby barge, after a collision Kirby caused. 

The United States and Texas concurrently filed a civil complaint along with a proposed consent decree. The complaint seeks money damages and costs under the Oil Pollution Act for injuries to natural resources resulting from Kirby’s March 2014 discharge of approximately 4,000 barrels (168,000 gallons) of oil from one of its barges into the Houston Ship Channel at the Texas City “Y” crossing. The complaint alleges that the spill resulted from a collision that occurred while a Kirby towboat, the Miss Susan, attempted to push two 300-foot-long oil barges across the Houston Ship Channel in front of the oncoming M/V Summer Wind, a 585-foot-long deep-draft bulk cargo ship that was already underway in the Channel.

The oil flowed from the Houston Ship Channel into Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, polluting waters and washing onshore from the collision site down to Padre Island National Seashore near Corpus Christi. The oil spill caused significant impacts and injuries to the Texas coastline including the wildlife refuge on Matagorda Island, and to aquatic and terrestrial habitats, as well as to dolphins and migratory birds. The oil spill also forced the closure of the Houston Ship Channel and disrupted recreational uses of the Texas coastline, resulting in lost recreational opportunities from Galveston-area beaches to beaches as far south as Padre Island National Seashore. Kirby, the Coast Guard, and the State were involved in extensive response and cleanup efforts, and Kirby has cooperated in the assessment of injuries to natural resources.

“All oil transporters must take care to operate safely and prevent spills into our nation’s waters,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “This case illustrates that the stakes are high, the harms are serious, and the United States and its state partners will diligently pursue and secure compensation for injuries to natural resources resulting from oil spills.”

“We are pleased to join our co-trustees to restore vital habitats, dolphins, birds and recreational areas injured by this oil spill,” said Director Nicole LeBoeuf of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s National Ocean Service. “Local communities and economies depend on resilient coastal ecosystems, and we look forward to working with the public on projects to restore them.”

“The Texas City Y oil spill impacted shoreline and marsh habitat on Matagorda Island, which is part of the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge,” said Amy Lueders, the Service’s Southwest Regional Director. “This settlement will provide for restoration of these injured resources as well as helping to recover shorebirds and other birds and their habitats impacted by the oil and cleanup activities.”

Under the proposed consent decree, Kirby will pay $15.3 million as natural resource damages for the spill, which the federal and State trustees will jointly use to plan, design and perform projects to restore or ameliorate the impacts to dolphins and other aquatic life, birds, beaches, marshes, and recreational uses along the Texas coast. Kirby also has been paying the federal and State trustees for their assessment work and will reimburse the last remaining unpaid costs, as required under the Oil Pollution Act.

Today’s action was filed by the Department of Justice and the Office of the Texas Attorney General on behalf of the federal and State trustees for natural resources. The designated federal trustees for the natural resources impacted by Kirby’s oil spill are the U.S. Department of Commerce through the NOAA and the U.S. Department of the Interior through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service. The designated State trustees are the Texas General Land Office, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The federal and State trustees have worked together to perform their injury assessment work and are engaged in joint restoration planning efforts.

In a related Clean Water Act enforcement action in 2016, the United States on behalf of the Coast Guard secured a settlement with Kirby for $4.9 million in civil penalties and injunctive relief measures to improve the company’s operations to help prevent future spills.

The proposed consent decree is subject to a 30-day public comment period and court review and approval. A copy of the consent decree is available on the Department of Justice website at www.justice.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html. 

The wife of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, leader of the Mexican drug-trafficking organization known as the Sinaloa Cartel, was sentenced today to 36 months in prison followed by four years of supervised release for charges related to international drug trafficking, money laundering, and a criminal violation of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (the Kingpin Act).  

Emma Coronel Aispuro, 32, a dual U.S.-Mexican citizen, pleaded guilty on June 10 to a three-count criminal information. According to court documents, Coronel Aispuro conspired with Guzman Loera and other members of the Sinaloa cartel to traffic five kilograms or more of cocaine, one kilogram or more of heroin, 500 grams or more of methamphetamine, and 1,000 kilograms or more of marijuana, knowing that these narcotics would be transported into and distributed in the United States. She also conspired to launder the proceeds of that narcotics trafficking and engaged in transactions and dealings in the property of her husband, Guzman Loera, who the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control had designated a Significant Foreign Narcotics Trafficker.

Court documents indicate that beginning in or about 2011 and continuing to at least Jan. 19, 2017, Coronel Aispuro was a co-conspirator in the activities of the Sinaloa Cartel, an organization which was led by her husband, Guzman Loera. Notably, after Guzman Loera was captured by Mexican authorities on Feb. 22, 2014, Coronel Aispuro played a critical role in facilitating his escape from a Mexican prison, which ultimately occurred on July 11, 2015, by conducting planning meetings with other co-conspirators and by coordinating the movement of drug proceeds to finance the escape. To facilitate the escape, Coronel Aispuro assisted in the purchase of a property near the prison and provided Guzman Loera with a watch that contained a GPS tracking device, allowing co-conspirators to dig a tunnel from that nearby property, under the prison, to Guzman Loera’s cell. Coronel Aispuro even relayed messages from Guzman Loera to other members of the Sinaloa Cartel regarding the operation of their illicit activities while he was detained.

At the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras also entered a forfeiture money judgment against Coronel Aispuro in the amount of $1,499,970, representing proceeds of and property obtained by Coronel Aispuro as a result of her drug-trafficking activities.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Acting Assistant Director Jay Greenberg of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division made the announcement.

This investigation was conducted by the FBI’s Washington Field Office with significant assistance from other FBI Field Offices, the Drug Enforcement Administration and Homeland Security Investigations. The Justice Department thanks the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of the Treasury for their support and contributions to the case.

Deputy Chief Anthony Nardozzi and Assistant Deputy Chief Kate Wagner of the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section prosecuted the case.

Hagatña, Guam - SHAWN N. ANDERSON, United States Attorney for the Districts of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, announced that defendant Kwong Yau Lam, age 67, a citizen of Hong Kong and U.S. permanent resident of Guam, was sentenced in the U.S. District Court of Guam to one year probation for Distribution and Sale of Unregistered Pesticide, in violation of 7 U.S.C. §§ 136j(a)(1)(A) and 136l(b)(1)(B), and Conspiracy to Distribute and Sell Unregistered Pesticide, in violation of l8 U.S.C. § 371. The Court also ordered a mandatory $150.00 special assessment fee.

Beginning in March 2020, Kwong Yau Lam sold products marketed as “Virus Shut Out Cards” that were not registered and authorized by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  Upon hanging a card from a lanyard, it purportedly protected the consumer from viruses. On the contrary, it offered no proven protection from viruses, including COVID-19. 

Lam sold 100 Virus Shut Out Cards to three merchants in Guam and told them that the product protected people from viruses.  Lam ordered three more boxes containing 900 pieces from his relative in Hong Kong. U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Honolulu, Hawaii, seized two boxes from that order.  After the seizure, agents with Homeland Security Investigations interviewed Lam. He told the agents that he did not get approval from any government agency to import the Virus Shut Out Cards from Hong Kong, and that he had not sold any cards in Guam.  Lam lied when he made this statement because evidence showed that he sold the cards to merchants.

“This case is another shocking example of a false claim made to consumers during the initial stages of the pandemic,” said U.S. Attorney Anderson.  “The defendant preyed upon consumers who were justifiably concerned for their personal health and safety due to COVID-19.  This was made worse by the potential harmful effects of the product itself.” 

“Public safety is a top priority for Homeland Security Investigations,” said Special Agent in Charge John F. Tobon. “We will continue to pursue those who rob and hurt the people in our communities and make sure they are held accountable for exploiting a pandemic for profit.”

“Unregistered pesticide products that make fraudulent COVID-19 protection claims pose serious public health dangers,” said Special Agent in Charge Scot Adair of EPA’s criminal enforcement

program in Guam. “Today’s sentencing demonstrates that EPA and our law enforcement partners are committed to protecting the American people from harmful products.”

Under Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), the EPA regulates the production, sale, distribution and use of pesticides in the United States.  A pesticide is any substance intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest, which includes viruses.  Pesticides must be registered with the EPA. Toamit Virus Shut Out was not registered, and it is illegal to distribute or sell unregistered pesticides.  Lam imported the pesticide from China and later sold it to individuals in Guam.

The EPA has taken steps to block the importation and sale of Toamit Virus Shut Out in the United States: EPA Administrator Wheeler Talks with Retailers and Third-Party Marketplace Platforms to Discuss Steps to Protect American Consumers from Fraudulent Coronavirus Disinfectant Claims and U.S. EPA Acts to Protect the Public from Unregistered “Virus Shut Out” Product Imported into Honolulu and Guam.

This case was a joint investigation led by U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations in conjunction with U.S. Customs & Border Protection, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Guam Customs & Quarantine Agency, and the Guam Environmental Protection Agency. The prosecution of this case was handled by Marivic P. David, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Guam.

Anyone with general information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

An Illinois woman was sentenced yesterday in the Northern District of Illinois to 56 months in prison and ordered to pay $6.3 million in restitution for her participation in a conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud.

According to court documents, and the evidence presented at trial, Angelita Newton, 43, of Chicago, worked at Care Specialists, a home health care company owned by Ferdinand Echavia and later his wife, Ma Luisa Echavia. While operating between 2011 and 2017, Care Specialists fraudulently billed Medicare at least $6.3 million. At trial, the government demonstrated that around 90% of the patients were not homebound and did not qualify for the types of care that Care Specialists billed Medicare for. Further, many patients received cash bribes to receive home health “visits,” some of which were performed in the visiting nurse’s car. Newton facilitated the conspiracy by falsifying patient visit records which were used to support claims billed to Medicare and was convicted by a federal jury on Feb. 14, 2020.

In addition to issuing Newton’s sentence today, Judge Virginia Kendall previously sentenced three others involved in the conspiracy. On Oct. 21, 2021, Ferdinand Echavia was sentenced to 84 months’ confinement and three years’ supervised release. On Nov. 5, 2021, Ma Luisa Echavia was sentenced to 60 months’ confinement and three years’ supervised release. Another participant in the conspiracy, Reginald Onate, who pleaded guilty and cooperated with the government throughout the investigation, was sentenced to a term of three years’ probation.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting Assistant Director Jay Greenberg of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, and Special Agent in Charge Mario Pinto of the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG) made the announcement.

The FBI Chicago Field Office and HHS-OIG investigated the case.

Trial Attorney Leslie S. Garthwaite of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Mott (formerly of the Fraud Section) prosecuted the case.

Today, Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Department of Justice Antitrust Division and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina M. Khan participated in a Competition Enforcers Summit (Summit) as part of the 2021 G7 Digital and Technology Track. The Summit, hosted by the UK Competition and Markets Authority, explored how competition agencies are approaching the challenges posed by digital markets.

The Summit offered a unique opportunity for international competition agencies to discuss common areas of interest and opportunities for potential collaboration on issues such as large digital platforms, app stores, online marketplaces, digital advertising, mobile ecosystems, cloud computing and algorithms. The participating delegates were from the G7 competition authorities in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the United States, plus the European Commission and 2021 G7 invitees from Australia, India, South Africa and South Korea.

“There is a great deal of urgency among global competition law enforcement authorities to confront the daunting challenges presented by data-driven technologies,” said Assistant Attorney General Kanter. “This Summit is an important step forward in our effort to ensure that our antitrust law enforcement tools are fit for purpose in a modern digital economy and reflect market realities.”

“As competition enforcers around the world tackle unlawful conduct in digital markets, we face similar challenges and opportunities. Coming together through the G7 to collectively learn from these experiences and share expertise can boost our anti-monopoly work worldwide,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “Together, the FTC and its G7 partners seek to deepen our knowledge, refine our tools, and redouble our enforcement efforts to target unfair methods of competition in digital markets.”

The Summit also provided an opportunity to consider areas for increased cooperation and coordination among competition agencies and reflect on how best to use agency skills, knowledge and resources to deal with challenges in digital markets.

Marking 35 years since Congress passed the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), the Department of Justice today announced a settlement with Gap Inc. (Gap), resolving claims that Gap violated this law by routinely discriminating against certain non-U.S. citizens working for the company.

“Thirty-five years ago, Congress passed a law prohibiting employers from discriminating against workers because of their citizenship, immigration status, or national origin, and from retaliating against them for asserting their rights,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The division continues to vigorously enforce the law – holding thousands of employers accountable for violations, collecting millions of dollars in civil penalties and back pay and obtaining relief for countless victims of discrimination. This settlement with Gap underscores the division’s work over the last 35 years to end unlawful employment discrimination.”

The settlement with Gap resolves claims that the company discriminated against certain non-U.S. citizens (including lawful permanent residents, refugees and asylees) and naturalized U.S. citizens because of their current or prior immigration status. The department found that Gap discriminated against workers by reverifying their permission to work, even though there was no legal reason to do so. The department also determined that Gap discriminated against some non-U.S. citizens because of their immigration status by requesting that they provide specific documents to confirm that they still had permission to work. The department concluded that Gap’s reliance on an electronic human resource management system (which had electronic Form I-9 functions) contributed to the company’s discriminatory conduct. As part of the settlement, Gap will pay $73,263 in civil penalties, provide back wages to an asylee and a lawful permanent resident who lost work because of Gap’s practices, train thousands of its employees nationwide, ensure that its electronic programs are compliant with applicable rules, and be subject to monitoring and reporting requirements.  

The INA prohibits employers from unnecessarily reverifying a worker’s permission to work, or specifying the types of documentation a worker is allowed to show to prove permission to work, because of the worker’s citizenship, immigration status or national origin. As a result, even when an employer has a legal requirement to check that a worker still has permission to work, the employer must allow the worker to present whichever acceptable documentation the worker chooses.

In the past five years alone, the division’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) has reached more than 100 settlements to resolve discrimination claims under the INA. In addition to resolving claims involving discrimination in verifying an employee’s legal permission to work, the division has worked tirelessly to resolve matters involving employers that refused to hire non-U.S. citizens because of their immigration status; disqualified workers from consideration based on their national origin; rejected U.S. workers due to a preference for temporary visa holders; and retaliated against workers for asserting their legal rights. Just last month, the division secured a landmark settlement with Facebook resolving claims that the company discriminated against U.S. workers (including U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, asylees, refugees and recent lawful permanent residents) because it had a hiring preference for temporary visa holders for certain positions. As part of its enforcement program, over the last five years, the division has secured more than $11.5 million in back pay for discrimination victims under the INA.

The division has also worked to educate the public about this law to prevent violations from occurring in the first place. This effort has included conducting more than 600 presentations or webinars in the last five years and helping tens of thousands of callers to a free hotline for workers and employers. The division was able to return workers to their jobs in the last five years by providing informal assistance in response to calls received over the hotline.

Learn more about IER’s work and how to get assistance through this brief video. Applicants or employees who believe they were discriminated against based on their citizenship, immigration status or national origin in hiring, firing, recruitment or during the employment eligibility verification process (Form I-9 and E-Verify) or subjected to retaliation, may file a charge. The public can also 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); email IER@usdoj.gov; sign up for a free webinar; or visit IER’s English and Spanish websites. Subscribe to GovDelivery to receive updates from IER. View the Spanish translation of this press release here.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Como parte de la celebración del 35º aniversario de la aprobación por congreso de la disposición antidiscriminatoria de la ley de Inmigración y Nacionalidad (INA, por sus siglas en inglés), el Departamento de Justicia anunció hoy un acuerdo con Gap, Inc. (Gap), que resuelve acusaciones de que Gap vulneró esta ley al discriminar, de forma rutinaria, a ciertos no ciudadanos de los EE. UU. que trabajan para la compañía.

«Hace 35 años, el Congreso aprobó una ley que prohibió la discriminación por parte de empleadores a trabajadores por motivos de su ciudadanía, estatus migratorio o nacionalidad de origen, así como la toma de represalias en su contra por hacer valer sus derechos», comentó Kristen Clarke, la Fiscal Federal Auxiliar de la División de Derechos Civiles. «La División sigue haciendo cumplir la ley con firmeza y ha hecho a miles de empleadores rendir cuentas de sus infracciones, ha recaudado millones de dólares por concepto de sanciones civiles y pagos retroactivos y ha obtenido compensación para innumerables víctimas de discriminación.  Este acuerdo de hoy con Gap resalta el trabajo de la División a lo largo de los últimos 35 años para poner fin a la discriminación ilícita en el empleo».

El acuerdo con Gap resuelve acusaciones de que la compañía había discriminado a ciertos no ciudadanos de los EE. UU. (entre ellos residentes permanentes legales, refugiados y asilados) y ciudadanos naturalizados de los EE. UU. debido a su estatus migratorio actual o previo. Asimismo, el Departamento halló que Gap había discriminado a trabajadores al reverificar su permiso para trabajar a pesar de no tener ninguna razón legal por hacerlo. El Departamento también determinó que Gap había discriminado a algunos no ciudadanos de los EE. UU. por motivos de su estatus migratorio al pedir que presentasen documentos específicos para confirmar que todavía disponían de permiso para trabajar. El Departamento concluyó que la dependencia de Gap de un sistema electrónico de gestión de recursos humanos (que tenía funciones especiales para formularios I-9 electrónicos) contribuyó a la conducta discriminatoria de la compañía. Como parte del acuerdo, Gap pagará $73,263 por concepto de sanciones civiles, ofrecerá pagos retroactivos a un asilado y un residente permanente legal que perdieron horas laborales debido a las prácticas de Gap, capacitará a miles de sus empleados por todo el país, asegurará que sus programas electrónicos cumplan con las normas aplicables y se someterá a los requisitos de supervisión y declaración. 

La INA prohíbe que los empleadores reverifiquen innecesariamente el permiso para trabajar de un trabajador o que especifiquen los tipos de documentación que el trabajador puede presentar para demostrar que tiene permiso para trabajar, con base en la ciudadanía, estatus migratorio o nacionalidad de origen de tal trabajador. Como resultado, incluso cuando un empleador tiene el requisito legal de comprobar que un trabajador siga contando con permiso para trabajar, el empleador debe permitir al trabajador presentar cualquier documentación válida que él mismo elija.

Solamente en los últimos cinco años, la Sección de Derechos de Inmigrantes y Empleados (IER, por sus siglas en inglés), de la División, ha llegado a más de 100 acuerdos que resuelven acusaciones de discriminación en virtud de la INA. Además de resolver acusaciones que involucran la discriminación a la hora de comprobar el permiso legal para trabajar de un empleado, la División ha trabajado sin tregua por resolver asuntos relacionados con empleadores que se negaron a contratar a no ciudadanos de los EE. UU. por motivos de su estatus migratorio; se negaron a considerar a trabajadores por motivos de su nacionalidad de origen; rechazaron a trabajadores en este país debido a una preferencia por individuos con visas temporales; y tomaron represalias contra trabajadores por hacer valer sus derechos legales. Solo el mes pasado, la División llegó a un acuerdo histórico con Facebook que resolvió acusaciones de que la compañía estaba discriminando a trabajadores en este país (incluyendo a ciudadanos de los EE. UU., nacionales de los EE. UU., asilados, refugiados y residentes permanentes legales recientes) porque daba preferencia en la contratación para ciertos puestos a personas con visas temporales. Como parte de su programa de aplicación de la ley, durante los últimos cinco años, la División ha conseguido más de $11.5 millones por concepto de pagos retroactivos para víctimas de discriminación al amparo de la INA.

La División también se ha esforzado por educar al público en cuanto a esta ley, con el fin de prevenir que ocurran infracciones desde el principio. Este esfuerzo ha incluido la celebración de más 600 presentaciones o seminarios en línea a lo largo de los últimos cinco años y ayuda proporcionada a decenas de miles de interlocutores a una línea directa gratuita para trabajadores y empleadores.  Asimismo, la División ha logrado devolver a trabajadores a sus puestos en los últimos cinco años tras brindar ayuda informal como respuesta a llamadas recibidas a la línea directa.

Aquellos aspirantes o empleados que creen haber sido discriminados por motivos de su estatus migratorio, ciudadanía o nacionalidad de origen en los procesos de contratación, despido, reclutamiento o verificación de la elegibilidad para trabajar (Formulario I-9 e E-Verify) o sujetos a represalias pueden presentar una denuncia. El público también puede llamar a la línea directa de la IER para trabajadores al 1-800-255-7688 (1-800-237-2515, TTY para personas con discapacidades auditivas); llamar a la línea directa de la IER para empleadores al 1-800-255-8155 (1-800-237-2515, TTY para personas con discapacidades auditivas); enviar un correo electrónico a IER@usdoj.gov; inscribirse a un seminario en línea gratuito; o visitar los sitios web de la IER en inglés o español. Para recibir las últimas noticias de la IER, inscríbase a GovDelivery.

Download Settlement Agreement.pdf

Yesterday, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar and the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs hosted a regional bilateral meeting in Tijuana, Mexico to discuss security cooperation matters. Specifically, the two delegations discussed deepening coordination on fighting human smuggling and firearms trafficking in the region. 

The U.S. delegation was led by Ambassador Salazar and Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Counselor for International Affairs Bruce Swartz, and included Acting U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman for the Southern District of California and California Attorney General Rob Bonta, as well as representatives from the FBI; U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF); Homeland Security Investigations; U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Border Patrol; the Justice Department’s Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT) and the San Diego District Attorney’s Office. 

The Mexican delegation, led by Undersecretary of Public Security Ricardo Mejia (SSPC), included representatives of the Mexican Prosecutor General’s Office (FGR), the Baja California Attorney General’s Office, the Army (SEDENA), the Navy, (SEMAR), the National Migration Institute (INAMI), National Intelligence Center (CNI), the National Guard, and the Foreign Ministry (SRE).  

The two delegations discussed how they could build on and further strengthen existing coordination of enforcement efforts and information-sharing, in order to combat arms trafficking and human smuggling. 

Both agreed to continue to identify, investigate, and prosecute individuals responsible for the illegal exportation of firearms that are ending up in the hands of violent cartels and criminal organizations.

The U.S. and Mexico law enforcement partners committed to enhanced information sharing and future coordination meetings.  

As the holiday travel season commences, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland today directed U.S. Attorneys to prioritize prosecution of federal crimes occurring on commercial aircraft that endanger the safety of passengers, flight crews and flight attendants. Federal law prohibits assaults, intimidation and threats of violence that interfere with flight crews and flight attendants, as well as other enumerated criminal acts that occur during flight. 

“Passengers who assault, intimidate or threaten violence against flight crews and flight attendants do more than harm those employees; they prevent the performance of critical duties that help ensure safe air travel,” said Attorney General Garland. “Similarly, when passengers commit violent acts against other passengers in the close confines of a commercial aircraft, the conduct endangers everyone aboard.”

The memorandum also highlights an information-sharing protocol between the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Justice Department, which helps ensure the department is notified about criminal conduct occurring on commercial aircraft. The protocol has already resulted in the referral of dozens of incidents by the FAA to the FBI for investigation.

“The Department of Justice is committed to using its resources to do its part to prevent violence, intimidation, threats of violence and other criminal behavior that endangers the safety of passengers, flight crews and flight attendants on commercial aircraft,” said Attorney General Garland.

The Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust lawsuit today to stop United States Sugar Corporation (U.S. Sugar) from acquiring its rival, Imperial Sugar Company (Imperial Sugar). The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, alleges that the transaction would leave an overwhelming majority of refined sugar sales across the Southeast in the hands of only two producers. As a result, American businesses and consumers would pay more for refined sugar, a significant input for many foods and beverages.

“Robust antitrust enforcement is an essential pillar of the Justice Department’s commitment to ensuring economic opportunity and fairness for all,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “We will not hesitate to challenge anticompetitive mergers that would harm American consumers and businesses alike.”

“U.S. Sugar and Imperial Sugar are already multibillion-dollar corporations and are seeking to further consolidate an already cozy sugar industry. Their merger would eliminate aggressive competition in the supply of refined sugar that leads to lower prices, better quality, and more reliable service,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “This deal substantially lessens competition at a time when global supply chain challenges already threaten steady access to important commodities and goods. The department’s lawsuit seeks to preserve the important competition between U.S. Sugar and Imperial Sugar and protect the resiliency of American domestic sugar supply.”  

According to the department’s complaint, U.S. Sugar operates a large sugar refinery in Florida, and sells all of its refined sugar through United Sugars Corporation (United Sugars), a marketing cooperative owned by U.S. Sugar and three other refined sugar producers. Imperial Sugar operates its own sugar refinery in Georgia, and sells its refined sugar directly to customers. American Sugar Refining, known more commonly by its “Domino” brand name, is the other producer supplying a significant share of refined sugar in the southeastern United States. The complaint further alleges that United Sugars and Imperial Sugar compete head-to-head to supply refined sugar to customers across the Southeast in states stretching from Mississippi to Delaware. This competition has resulted in lower prices, better-quality products and more reliable service for customers across the region.

If U.S. Sugar is permitted to acquire Imperial Sugar, Imperial’s production would be folded into the United Sugars cooperative, leaving two significant sugar producers in the region. As alleged in the complaint, because transportation costs make up a significant portion of the total price customers pay for refined sugar, the nearest sugar producers tend to be a customer’s best competitive options. The complaint alleges that U.S. Sugar’s proposed acquisition of Imperial Sugar will further consolidate an already concentrated market for refined sugar. If the transaction is allowed to proceed, United Sugars and Domino would control the vast majority of refined sugar sales in the region, enhancing the likelihood going forward that they will coordinate with each other and refrain from competing aggressively.

U.S. Sugar, a Delaware corporation headquartered in Florida, is the world’s largest vertically-integrated cane sugar milling and refining operation. U.S. Sugar is one of four member-owners of United Sugars. In 2020, U.S. Sugar received payments of $533 million from United Sugars, representing the company’s share of United Sugars’s net sales.

United Sugars, a Minnesota corporation headquartered in Minnesota, markets and sells all of the refined sugar produced by its four member-owners — U.S. Sugar, American Crystal Sugar Company, Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative, and Wyoming Sugar Company. Its member-owners operate a total of nine sugar refineries located in Florida, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. United Sugars’s revenues were $1.8 billion in 2020. 

Imperial Sugar, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Louis Dreyfus Company LLC, is a producer of refined sugar in the United States and independently markets and sells its products on its own behalf. Imperial Sugar has a refinery in Savannah, Georgia, and an intermediate sugar transfer and liquification facility in Ludlow, Kentucky. Imperial Sugar’s revenues were over $700 million in 2020. 

Louis Dreyfus Company LLC, a Delaware corporation headquartered in the Netherlands, is a worldwide leader in sugar trading and merchandising and among the largest cane sugar refiners in the world. In 2020, the company had over $33 billion in net sales.     

The Justice Department announced today that it has secured a settlement resolving allegations that Worcester, Massachusetts, landlord Mohan Prashad and his maintenance worker, David Besaw, violated the Fair Housing Act by sexually harassing female tenants. The settlement also resolves claims against Lanaton LLC and Savton LLC, which, along with Prashad, owned the properties where the harassment occurred.

Under the consent decree, which still must be approved by the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, defendants are required to pay $65,000 to compensate individuals harmed by the harassment and a $10,000 civil penalty, and vacate a judgment that defendants had obtained against a former tenant in housing court. The consent decree bars future discrimination and retaliation, requires that property management responsibilities be turned over to one or more individuals approved by the United States, mandates the implementation of a sexual harassment policy and complaint procedure and Fair Housing Act training, and requires detailed reporting regarding property management activities and compliance with the terms of the consent decree.  The consent decree also bars Prashad and Besaw from participating in property management responsibilities at residential rental properties.

“Sexually harassing tenants in their homes and retaliating against those who lodge complaints are egregious forms of sex discrimination that violate the Fair Housing Act,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department is committed to safeguarding the rights of vulnerable tenants who are subjected to sexual harassment or retaliatory evictions because of their sex.”

“The sexual harassment of tenants is an appalling abuse of economic and social power that warrants serious consequences,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Nathaniel R. Mendell of the District of Massachusetts. “Everyone has a right to feel safe and secure in their home, and the Fair Housing Act gives us the tools to enforce that for tenants. My office will continue to enforce these important civil rights laws to protect vulnerable individuals, hold violators accountable and secure justice for victims.”

The lawsuit, filed in 2019, alleged that since at least 2009, Prashad subjected female tenants to harassment that included making unwelcome sexual advances and comments, making unscheduled and frequent visits to certain tenant units without legitimate property management reasons for the visits, and taking adverse actions against tenants who resisted his sexual overtures. The complaint further alleged that Besaw sexually harassed and assaulted tenants and that Prashad, after receiving notice of Besaw’s harassment, retaliated against one tenant by filing an eviction action against her and failed to take action to prevent Besaw from engaging in additional sexual harassment.

The case was jointly litigated by the Civil Rights Division and the Civil Rights Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts. The Justice Department’s Sexual Harassment in Housing Initiative is led by the Civil Rights Division, in coordination with U.S. Attorney’s Offices across the country. The goal of the department’s initiative is to address and raise awareness about sexual harassment by landlords, property managers, maintenance workers, loan officers, or other people who have control over housing. Since launching the initiative in October 2017, the Department of Justice has filed 23 lawsuits alleging sexual harassment in housing and recovered over $4.9 million for victims of such harassment.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division enforces the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability and familial status. More information about the Civil Rights Division and the laws it enforces is available at http://www.justice.gov/crt. Individuals may report sexual harassment or other forms of housing discrimination by calling the Justice Department’s Housing Discrimination Tip Line at 1-833-591-0291, or submitting a report online. Individuals may also report such discrimination by contacting HUD at 1-800-669-9777 or by filing a complaint online.  

The United States lodged with the U.S. District Court of Eastern Virginia today a proposed modification of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2010 consent decree with the Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) to require implementation of a comprehensive set of improvements to the sewer system to resolve longstanding problems with sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs). SSOs are releases of untreated or partially-treated sewage from a municipal sanitary sewer. They are especially prominent in older sewage systems due to deteriorating pipes and outdated sewage treatment systems. The HRSD sewer system serves 18 municipalities with 1.7 million residents.

“This modification to the consent decree will ensure that the sanitation district continues to take active measures to improve the sewer system for Hampton Roads and the surrounding region, resulting in a cleaner, safer Chesapeake Bay,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “This modification will help ensure local communities’ access to the Chesapeake Bay for recreation as well as for commercial shell fishing.”

“Today’s modification requires Hampton Roads Sanitation District to address the decades long problem of sanitary sewer overflows,” said Acting Assistant Administrator Larry Starfield, for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “EPA and the State of Virginia worked with the HRSD to develop a long-term solution that will improve water quality for all communities, including those that are historically underserved and overburdened by pollution.”

Specifically, the modification will incorporate and enforce projects and schedules that are included in HRSD’s Regional Wet Weather Management Plan. Under the wet weather plan, HRSD will spend about $410 million between 2020 and 2040 on 15 priority projects to improve HRSD’s system and greatly reduce the frequency and volume of SSOs.

The projects are scattered throughout the Hampton Roads region in Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, Williamsburg and York County. They will help protect water quality in the Elizabeth River, James River, Nansemond River and York River, as well as the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

HRSD, as part of an integrated plan with its wet weather projects, will also implement a $2.2 billion aquifer replenishment project – known as Sustainable Water Infrastructure for Tomorrow or SWIFT. This project will involve injecting treated wastewater into an underground aquifer rather than discharging it to local surface waters, reducing wastewater discharges to the Chesapeake Bay by 90%.

Once the modification is finalized and approved by the court, HRSD would be required to complete six of the projects by 2030 and the remaining nine projects by 2040. These projects focus on increasing the capacity of the regional sanitary sewer system. Projects will include upgrading and replacing pump stations and installing multiple wastewater storage facilities. 

For more information on SSOs, visit: https://www.epa.gov/npdes/sanitary-sewer-overflows-ssos.

The modification to the consent decree, lodged today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, is subject to a 30-day public comment period and approval by the federal court. A copy of the modification to the consent decree is available on the Justice Department website at http://www.usdoj.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html.

A federal court enjoined a California company from distributing adulterated sterile animal drugs in violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA), the Department of Justice announced.

In a complaint filed on Oct. 27, 2020 in the Central District of California, the United States alleged that multiple inspections by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) repeatedly showed that Med-Pharmex Inc. (MPX) manufactured and distributed animal drugs under conditions that fell short of the minimum regulatory requirements to ensure safety and quality, including a failure to maintain sterility. According to the complaint, the FDA issued a warning letter to MPX in 2017 regarding numerous deficiencies found at the company. The complaint further alleged that the company failed to adequately investigate reports regarding the death or illness of animals receiving certain MPX drugs, and failed to properly clean and disinfect areas used to manufacture sterile drugs, as required by the FDCA. MPX and company president Gerald P. Macedo agreed to settle the suit and to be bound by a consent decree of permanent injunction that resolves the case.

“Companies that distribute animal drugs must abide by the FDCA and all applicable regulations to help ensure the safety of these products,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The department will continue to work closely with the FDA to enforce these important requirements.”

“Ensuring FDA-approved animal medications are safe, effective and manufactured using current good manufacturing practices is a crucial part of the FDA’s mission to protect human and animal health,” said Director Steven M. Solomon DVM, MPH, of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine. “The FDA will continue to pursue actions against those who put animal patients in harm’s way by manufacturing and distributing adulterated animal drug products.”

The consent decree entered by the court requires, among other things, that the defendants refrain from manufacturing, processing, packing, holding and distributing any sterile drugs manufactured at MPX’s facilities, unless and until the FDA determines that the defendants’ sterile operations are in compliance with the court’s order, the FDCA and related regulations.  The consent decree also gives the FDA authority to order the defendants to take corrective actions with respect to both sterile and non-sterile products if additional violations are identified.       

The government was represented by Trial Attorney Rachel E. Baron of the Justice Department’s Consumer Protection Branch, with the assistance of Charlotte F. Hinkle and Michael Shane of the FDA’s Office of Chief Counsel. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California provided assistance.

Additional information about the Consumer Protection Branch and its enforcement efforts may be found at http://www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco of the U.S. Department of Justice, together with colleagues from the National Security Division and the Criminal Division, met yesterday with UK Home Secretary Priti Patel in Washington, DC, to further strengthen law enforcement and national security cooperation.

In their meeting, both governments discussed their close cooperation against numerous threats to their countries’ collective security, including with respect to combating terrorism, cybercrime, and illicit finance.  

Both the Deputy Attorney General and the Home Secretary committed and agreed to heighten the focus on illicit use of cryptocurrency and ransomware, as well as to continue the dialogue about emerging threats to national security. 

WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice today announced more than $139 million in grant funding through the department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) COPS Hiring Program (CHP).  The awards provide direct funding to 183 law enforcement agencies across the nation, allowing those agencies to hire 1,066 additional full-time law enforcement professionals. In the Districts of Guam and Northern Mariana Islands were awarded funding totaling $1,451,527.

“We are committed to providing police departments with the resources needed to help ensure community safety and build community trust,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland.  “The grants we are announcing today will enable law enforcement agencies across the country to hire more than 1,000 additional officers to support vitally important community oriented policing programs.”

“Our office supports the efforts of Guam and CNMI law enforcement toward effective policing,” stated United States Attorney Shawn N. Anderson.  “The COPS Hiring Program will have a significant impact in our districts.  We look forward to promoting additional partnerships as these opportunities arise.”

The following districts of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands received awards:

• Guam Police Department                         $ 778,800
• Department of Public Safety                    $ 672,727

CHP is a competitive award program intended to reduce crime and advance public safety through community policing. CHP provides funds directly to law enforcement agencies to hire new or rehire additional career law enforcement officers, thereby increasing their community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts. Of the 183 agencies awarded grants today, approximately half will use the funding to focus on building legitimacy and trust between law enforcement and communities; 41 agencies will seek to address high rates of gun violence; 21 will focus on other areas of violence; and 19 will focus CHP resources on combating hate and domestic extremism or supporting police-based responses to persons in crisis.  The complete list of awards can be found here. 

Since its creation in 1994, COPS has invested more than $14 billion to advance community policing, including grants awarded to more than 13,000 state, local and Tribal law enforcement agencies to fund the hiring and redeployment of more than 135,000 officers. CHP, COPS’ flagship program, continues to be in demand today: In FY21, COPS received 590 applications requesting nearly 3,000 law enforcement positions. For FY22, President Biden has requested $537 million for CHP, an increase of $300 million.

To learn more about CHP, please visit https://cops.usdoj.gov/chp.  For additional information about the COPS Office, please visit www.cops.usdoj.gov.

The COPS Office is the federal component of the Department of Justice responsible for advancing community policing nationwide. The only Department of Justice agency with policing in its name, the COPS Office was established in 1994 and has been the cornerstone of the nation’s crime fighting strategy with grants, a variety of knowledge resource products, and training and technical assistance. Through the years, the COPS Office has become the go-to organization for law enforcement agencies across the country and continues to listen to the field and provide the resources that are needed to reduce crime and build trust between law enforcement and the communities served.

The Justice Department announced today that a federal grand jury returned a three-count indictment charging a former Kay County Oklahoma supervisory corrections officer with federal civil rights violations.

The indictment alleges that on May 18, 2017, Matthew Ware, while acting in his official capacity as a supervisory corrections officer of the Kay County Detention Center (KCDC) in Newkirk, Oklahoma, was deliberately indifferent to a substantial risk of serious harm to two pretrial detainees, identified in the indictment only as D.W. and M.M. According to the indictment, Ware ordered KCDC corrections officers to move D.W. and M.M. to a cell row housing inmates whom Ware knew posed a danger to D.W. and M.M., and then ordering corrections officers to unlock the jail cells of D.W., M.M. and those other inmates at the same time. Corrections officers followed Ware’s orders, and D.W. and M.M. were physically attacked by the other inmates. D.W. and M.M. sustained bodily injury as a result.

The indictment further alleges that on Jan. 31, 2018, Ware, while acting in his official capacity as a supervisory corrections officer of the KCDC, violated the constitutional rights of a pretrial detainee, identified in the indictment only as C.D., by ordering KCDC corrections officers to apply restraints to C.D. in an unreasonable manner. C.D. sustained bodily injury as a result.

If convicted, Ware faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $ 250,000 on each count.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and Acting U.S. Attorney Robert Troester for the Western District of Oklahoma made the announcement.

The case was investigated by the Oklahoma City FBI Field Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Julia Barry of the Western District of Oklahoma and Trial Attorney Laura Gilson of the Civil Rights Division are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.