Esteban Lopez Estrada, a Mexican national, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Denver to 24 months in prison for his participation in the sale and smuggling of sea turtle and other exotic skins and skin products into the United States from Mexico, the Justice Department announced today.  (Read more)

Patrick Rowan, Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security, today announced the formal launch of the Office of Intelligence within the Justice Department’s National Security Division (NSD).  The reorganization creates three new sections within the Office of Intelligence dedicated to the NSD’s three primary intelligence related functions – operations, oversight and litigation. (Read more)

the Department of Justice announced that Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division Alice S. Fisher will end her current service to the Department on May 23, 2008. Ms. Fisher has served in the position for nearly three years, making her one of the longest serving Assistant Attorneys General in recent Criminal Division history. (Read more)

Former Grant County Detention Center (GCDC) Deputy Jailer Jack Powell of Covington, Ky., pleaded guilty today to conspiring with another former GCDC employee to obstruct a federal investigation into a civil rights offense, announced Grace Chung Becker, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Powell pleaded guilty in federal court in Gulfport, Miss. The case had been transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi on April 14, 2008.   (Read more)

A federal jury in Miami convicted dermatologist Ana Caos, M.D., late yesterday of Medicare fraud, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta of the Southern District of Florida announced today. (Read more)

The National Navigation Company (NNC) pleaded guilty and was sentenced today in U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon for 15 felony charges, the Justice Department announced.  The company, based in Cairo, Egypt, admitted to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships and making false statements to federal officials.  (Read more)

David M. Fish, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., to 30 months in prison on charges of criminal copyright infringement and circumvention. (Read more)

The Department of Justice announced today that it will require Regal Cinemas Inc. (Regal)  and Consolidated Theatres Holding GP (Consolidated) to divest movie theater assets in three North Carolina metropolitan areas in order to proceed with their proposed $210 million merger (Read more)

Carlos Leal Barragan, of Ciudad Guzman, Mexico, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado to serve 16 months in prison and three years supervised release in connection with his sale and smuggling of internationally protected sea turtle skins and sea turtle products from Mexico to the United States, the Justice Department announced. (Read more)

Two brothers, Victor Omar Lopez and Oscar Mondragon, were sentenced for their roles in a scheme to smuggle Central American women and girls into the United States and hold them in a condition of forced labor in bars and cantinas in the Houston area, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Grace C. Becker and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas Don DeGabrielle.  U.S. District Judge Vanessa D. Gilmore sentenced Lopez to 109 months in prison followed by three years of probation and ordered that he, jointly with his co-defendants, pay $1.7 million in restitution to the victims.  Mondragon was sentenced to 180 months of imprisonment and was ordered to pay, jointly and severally with his co-defendants, over $1.1 million of the total of over $1.7 million in restitution awarded in the case. (Read more)

Stepan Bondarenko, 38, of Philadelphia became the second defendant to plead guilty for his involvement in a vast global child pornography trafficking enterprise, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida Gregory R. Miller and FBI Executive Assistant Director J. Stephen Tidwell announced today. (Read more)

The Justice Department today announced that Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey has appointed Ronald L. Rodgers to serve as the U.S. Pardon Attorney.  Rodgers will oversee the Office of the Pardon Attorney, which is responsible for reviewing petitions for executive clemency and preparing recommendations for the President. (Read more)

WASHINGTON - Jeremiah Munsen, 18, of Colfax, La., pled guilty today to a federal hate crime for his role in using nooses to threaten marchers who participated in the “Jena Six” civil rights rally, announced Grace Chung Becker, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, and Donald W. Washington, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana. (Read more)

WASHINGTON – Ciro Bustos-Rosales, a  citizen of Mexico, was  sentenced today in federal court in Columbia, S.C., for his role in a sex trafficking ring involving at least one teenage girl.  Bustos-Rosales was sentenced to 70 months in prison, ordered to pay restitution to the victims of his crimes in an amount of $52,500, and placed on supervised release for the rest of his life. As a condition of supervised release, U.S. District Judge Joseph F. Anderson Jr. ordered that Bustos-Rosales be surrendered to immigration officials for deportation proceedings and further ordered that Bustos-Rosales not return to the United States while on supervised release. The sentencing for Bustos-Rosales’ co-defendant, Jesus Perez-Laguna, also set for today, was continued after Perez-Laguna complained that he was not prepared to go forward with sentencing.   (Read more)

The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Division, announced today that in light of the acquittals of three New York City police officers in State Supreme Court in Queens, N.Y., they will conduct an independent review of the facts and circumstances surrounding the Nov. 25, 2006, shooting of Sean Bell and two others that resulted in the death of Mr. Bell. (Read more)

WASHINGTON – On April 22, 2008, former World Bank employee, Ramendra Basu, a national of India and a permanent legal resident alien of the United States, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for conspiring to steer World Bank contracts to consultants in exchange for kickbacks and assisting a contractor in bribing a foreign official in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, announced Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division. (Read more)

Willoughby Warren Colonna IV, 28, of Chesapeake, Va., pleaded guilty today in Norfolk, Va., to one count of transporting child pornography via the Internet, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Chuck Rosenberg announced. Colonna was then sentenced to serve 12 years in prison, to be followed by ten years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment. He was immediately taken into custody. (Read more)

A Taiwanese manufacturer and three American corporations will pay a $2 million civil penalty for allegedly importing and distributing approximately 200,000 chainsaws in the U.S. that failed to meet federal air pollution standards, the Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency announced today.  The companies also agreed to spend approximately $5 million on projects to reduce air pollution. (Read more)

A federal jury in Miami convicted the owner of a Miami pharmacy for his role in a $3 million Medicare fraud scheme and for money laundering, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta of the Southern District of Florida announced today. (Read more)

Former Florida Department of Corrections Supervisory Corrections Officer Wilton Joseph Fontenot was sentenced today in federal court in Jacksonville, Fla., for the felony offense of falsifying an official report related to a civil rights investigation.  Fontenot was sentenced to 15 months in prison and 24 months of post-incarceration supervised release. (Read more)

Conspiracy charges were filed today in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., against Benjamin Rowner and Jay H. Soled, former owners of DeltaNet Inc., for their role in defrauding the E-Rate program. (Read more)

The Department of Justice announced today that the former senior vice president of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMS), Andrew Bodnar, was indicted for his role in lying to the federal government about a patent deal involving the popular blood-thinning drug, Plavix, used by heart attack, stroke and other patients. (Read more)

Rodolfo Wanseele Paciello, 40, one of five foreign nationals accused of acting and conspiring to act as an agent of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ("Venezuela") within the United States without prior notification to the Attorney General of the United States, pleaded guilty earlier today to acting as an unregistered Venezuelan agent before U.S. District Court Judge Joan Lenard in Miami. (Read more)

Today Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey announced a new strategy in the fight against international organized crime that will address this growing threat to U.S. security and stability. The Law Enforcement Strategy to Combat International Organized Crime (the strategy) was developed following an October 2007 International Organized Crime Threat Assessment (IOC Threat Assessment) and will address the demand for a strategic, targeted and concerted U.S. response to combat the identified threats. This strategy builds on the broad foundation the Administration has developed in recent years to enhance information sharing, and to secure U.S. borders and financial systems from a variety of transnational threats. (Read more)

Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey today awarded the high honor of the Attorney General's Medallion to Lawrence Baca, former Deputy Director of the Department's Office of Tribal Justice, for his dedicated service related to the Civil Rights of American Indians. (Read more)

Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Grace Chung Becker and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Oklahoma Sheldon J. Sperling announced today that Jarrod Anthony Yates, a former Sequoyah County, Okla., corrections officer, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Muskogee, Okla., for violating the civil rights of an inmate. (Read more)

Daniel Curran, 53, of Boynton Beach, Fla., was sentenced to 41 months in prison in connection with a $30 million scheme to defraud the Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank) of the United States, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor of the District of Columbia announced today. (Read more)

Today, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging John Joseph Cota, a U.S. Coast Guard and California licensed ship pilot, with making false statements to the Coast Guard concerning his medications and medical conditions in 2006 and 2007.  The false statements arose from annual physical examinations that pilots are required to complete every year to maintain their pilot’s license. (Read more)

A Ghanaian man pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and alien smuggling in connection with his role in smuggling East Africans to the United States, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeffrey A. Taylor, and Assistant Secretary Julie L. Myers of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced today. (Read more)

Michael J. Garcia, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Mark J. Mershon, the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), and Weysan Dun, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the Newark Office of the FBI, in conjunction with the U.S. Army, announced today the arrest of Ben-Ami Kadish on charges that he participated in a conspiracy to disclose to the Government of Israel documents related to the national defense of the United States and, in connection with that unauthorized disclosure, that he participated in a conspiracy to act as an agent of the Government of Israel. According to the Complaint filed in Manhattan federal court: (Read more)

Holly Refining & Marketing has agreed to spend more than $17 million in new and upgraded pollution controls at its refinery in Woods Cross, Utah, and pay a $120,000 civil penalty, the Justice Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today.  The settlement, which resolves alleged violations of the Clean Air Act by Holly, is expected to reduce air pollution by more than 420 tons of harmful emissions annually.     (Read more)

A jury in Cincinnati ruled on Friday that Fifth Third Bancorp is not entitled to a $5.6 million tax refund for its 1997 tax year, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today.  Fifth Third was seeking to take tax deductions that related to complex leasing transactions involving passenger rail cars. (Read more)

The Justice Department announced today that on April 22, 2008, it will monitor the presidential primary election in the Philadelphia, Pa., to ensure compliance with federal voting rights laws.  In April 2007, the Justice Department reached a settlement agreement with Philadelphia related to allegations that the city had violated the Voting Rights Act, the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), and the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). (Read more)

An indictment by a federal grand jury in San Francisco was unsealed today against a Canadian night vision goggles manufacturing firm and two of its executives for their role in a scheme to defraud the U.S. military in the supply of equipment for the Iraqi army, the Department of Justice announced. (Read more)

Grace Chung  Becker, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, together with Patrick Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Robert D. Grant, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Division of the FBI, announced today that Michael Murphy, a sergeant with the Forest Park Police Department, pleaded guilty in federal court to using excessive force against a man in Forest Park, Ill.   (Read more)

Matthew Carl Berry was convicted on federal tax fraud charges yesterday following a jury trial in Riverside, Calif., the Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today.  Berry, of Rialto, Calif., was indicted on September 13, 2006, for one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and three counts of filing false income tax returns for his personal taxes during the years of the conspiracy.  The evidence at trial showed that defendant Berry conspired with Karen Berry, Carla Berry, Ivan Johnson and Valerie Dixon, each of whom already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and false preparation charges. (Read more)

The Department of Justice announced today that it has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Patrick Anson, a member of the New York Air National Guard, against the New York State Department of Correctional Services (NYSDOCS) alleging violations of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA).  Also filed with the complaint is a settlement agreement reached by the Justice Department and NYSDOCS that, if approved by the court, will resolve the United States’ claims on behalf of Anson. (Read more)

Touro Infirmary, a New Orleans Hospital, has agreed to pay the United States $1.75 million to settle allegations that it submitted false claims to the Medicare program, the Department of Justice announced today. (Read more)

The Justice Department announced that a federal grand jury in San Antonio, Texas,  has returned a seven-count indictment today, charging former Bexar County Adult Detention Center (BCADC) Corrections Officer Brandit Franco with federal civil rights violations for using excessive force against two inmates in 2006. Deputy U.S. Marshal Benjamin Bates was also indicted for his misconduct related to the grand jury investigation of the incident. (Read more)

The Department of Justice hosted a ceremony today celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act, enacted on April 11, 1968, and the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose tragic death spurred passage of the Act. The keynote speaker for the event, held in the Great Hall of the Robert F. Kennedy Justice Building, was Stephen J. Pollak, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division when the Act became law.  Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip and Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Grace Chung Becker also gave remarks. (Read more)

Gons Gutierrez Nachman, 42, a U.S. Department of State Foreign Service Officer, pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography as well as misusing his U.S. diplomatic passport, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and Chuck Rosenberg, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia announced today. (Read more)

A former employee of a Long Island, N.Y., defense contractor pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to rig bids on military contracts for Navy straps that are used to secure munitions and other supplies, the Department of Justice announced today. (Read more)

A former U.S. executive of Manuli Rubber Industries SpA, a Milan, Italy-based marine hose manufacturer, has agreed to plead guilty and serve jail time for participating in a conspiracy to rig bids, fix prices and allocate market shares of marine hose in the United States and elsewhere, the Department of Justice announced today. (Read more)

Warren Weber, 56, of Boise, Idaho, pleaded guilty today to charges concerning his involvement in a vast global child pornography trafficking enterprise, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida Gregory R. Miller and FBI Executive Assistant Director J. Stephen Tidwell announced. (Read more)

The Department of Justice today announced that it has reached an agreement with American Airlines that, if approved by the U.S. District Court in Dallas, will resolve the Department’s class action lawsuit against the nation’s largest commercial air carrier, alleging it violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA).  The Department’s complaint, filed in 2006, alleges that American did not allow three named plaintiff pilots, and a class of similarly situated pilots, to accrue vacation and sick leave benefits while on military leave to the same extent as pilots on comparable forms of non-military leave.  (Read more)

Portage, Mich., resident John A. Campbell, a former partner in and resident director of the Kalamazoo, Mich., office of the law firm of Miller, Canfield, Paddock & Stone, P.L.C., pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, the Department of Justice announced today.? Campbell?s client, Oskar Ren? Poch, of Hickory Corners, Mich., pleaded guilty to one count of a corruptly endeavoring to obstruct the administration of the Internal Revenue laws.? Poch owned and operated Trillium Staffing, an employee-leasing company in Kalamazoo.? The Honorable Janet T. Neff of the U.S. District Court scheduled Poch?s sentencing for Oct. 21, 2008.? No date has been set for Campbell?s sentencing. (Read more)

The Justice Department announced today that it has settled a Voting Rights Act lawsuit against the Osceola County, Fla., School Board.  The Justice Department simultaneously filed a complaint and consent decree today settling the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Orlando. (Read more)

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in coordination with the U.S. Department of Justice and an array of other local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, today arrested more than 280 foreign nationals employed at Pilgrim’s Pride plants in five states who are suspected of committing identity theft and other criminal violations in order to obtain their jobs. (Read more)

Federal charges have been filed against the man who was discovered to have possessed ricin in his Las Vegas hotel room in February, announced Gregory A. Brower, United States Attorney for the District of Nevada. (Read more)

At the seventh annual International Competition Network (ICN) conference in Kyoto, Japan, the ICN adopted new Recommended Practices to improve merger analysis and assessment of unilateral conduct, the Department of Justice announced today. (Read more)

Tokyo-based Japan Airlines International Co. Ltd. (JAL) has agreed to plead guilty and pay a $110 million criminal fine for its role in a conspiracy to fix rates for international cargo shipments, the Department of Justice announced today. (Read more)

Scott Carpenter, 44, of Dundalk, Md., has pleaded guilty to child pornography charges, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein of the District of Maryland announced today. (Read more)

Danny M. Chien, a Taiwanese citizen and resident of Shanghai, China, and Style Craft Furniture Co., Ltd., were each indicted today by a federal grand jury in Newark, N.J., on one count of smuggling, announced Ronald J. Tenpas, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and Christopher J. Christie, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. (Read more)

On April15, 2008, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee, James R. Dedrick, and Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security, Patrick Rowan, announced that Daniel Max Sherman pled guilty to conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. Section 2778), in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371. Sherman, 37, formerly of Knoxville, currently resides in Littleton, Colorado. He is a physicist who formerly worked at Atmospheric Glow Technologies, Incorporated, a Knoxville-based technology company. (Read more)

A board-certified radiologist, Fred Steinberg, M.D., his imaging centers and related entities in Palm Beach County, Fla., have reached a settlement with the United States to resolve allegations of health care fraud, the Justice Department announced today. Under the terms of the settlement, the U.S. recovered $7 million.  (Read more)

An Oregon federal court has permanently barred John Fitzgerald of Portland and his three daughters—Marilyn Dial, Martha Farr Sharp and Karen Gray—from marketing a tax fraud scheme involving sham nonprofit corporations that customers used to evade federal taxes, the Justice Department announced today.  The civil injunction order also bars Noreen McCausland, a family associate, from promoting the scheme. (Read more)

 Lance Kendall Bonner of Dallas, Texas, a former police officer with Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), pleaded guilty today in federal court to violating the civil rights of a Dallas woman, the Department of Justice announced. (Read more)

A federal judge in Detroit has permanently barred Eric D. Parrish of Ecorse, Mich., from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. The complaint in the civil injunction suit alleged that Parrish’s Detroit business, E Professionals, claimed bogus deductions and credits on customers’ federal income tax returns.  The court found that Parrish repeatedly engaged in misconduct subject to penalties under federal tax laws, thus warranting the permanent ban on return preparation.  (Read more)

Mario Simbaqueba Bonilla, 40, a Colombian citizen, was sentenced today to nine years in prison, resulting from his guilty plea to a 16-count indictment involving a complex computer fraud scheme victimizing more than 600 people, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta for the Southern District of Florida, the U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service announced today. Simbaqueba Bonilla was also sentenced to three years supervised release upon his release from prison and ordered to pay restitution of $347,000. (Read more)

Wallace A. Ward, 26, of Spring Lake, N.C., a former Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) employee who worked in Afghanistan, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 26 months in prison for conspiring to receive bribes, making false statements and filing false claims, announced Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg for the Eastern District of Virginia. (Read more)

A Pennsylvania general contractor for residential and commercial buildings pleaded guilty today to conspiring to defraud New York Presbyterian Hospital (NYPH) for his role in a conspiracy to pay kickbacks to a former senior purchasing official at NYPH. (Read more)

The Department of Justice announced today it will not challenge a proposal by the Media Ratings Council (MRC) relating to the auditing and accrediting of products that measure the size and demographics of an audience. (Read more)

Protective Products International Inc. (PPI) has agreed to pay the United States $960,000 to resolve allegations it violated the False Claims Act by supplying defective Zylon bulletproof vests, the Justice Department announced today.  As part of the agreement, PPI has pledged its cooperation in the government’s ongoing investigation of other entities that manufactured and sold Zylon vests purchased by the government. (Read more)

Assistant Attorney General Thomas O. Barnett will participate in the seventh annual International Competition Network (ICN) Conference in Kyoto, Japan, April 14–16, 2008, when senior government antitrust officials, private sector antitrust experts from around the world, and representatives from intergovernmental organizations will discuss competition issues. (Read more)

The Department of Justice Antitrust Division today released the 2002 through 2007 Supplement to the “Digest of Business Reviews.” (Read more)

A U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) contractor from Baltimore pleaded guilty today to conspiring to steal competitive information concerning contracts to supply fuel to DOD aircraft at locations worldwide, the Department of Justice announced. (Read more)

Forty years ago, this Nation made a commitment to provide for fair access to housing throughout the United States with the enactment of the Fair Housing Act.  The original Act, passed only days after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., made it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, or religion in the sale, rental or financing of housing.  On several occasions since that time, we have reaffirmed and expanded our country’s dedication to the principle of fair housing, extending the Act’s protections to include sex, disability, and familial status and providing for much-needed enforcement tools. (Read more)

A former special agent with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General (OIG) was sentenced in Tucson today in connection with the theft of more than $1 million. (Read more)

Medicaid Dental Center (MDC), a privately-owned chain of dental clinics in North Carolina previously known as Smile Starters and Carolina Dental Center, has reached a settlement with the United States and North Carolina to resolve False Claims Act allegations, the Justice Department announced today. Under the agreement, MDC agreed to pay $10,050,000 to resolve allegations that it caused false or fraudulent claims for payment to be presented to the North Carolina Medicaid program by billing for medically unnecessary dental services performed on indigent children. (Read more)

Christopher M. Lanoue, a former deputy with the Charleston County, S.C., Sheriff’s Office, pleaded guilty today in federal court in Charleston to using excessive force during an arrest, the Justice Department announced. (Read more)

A producer of allegedly obscene movies and two companies owned by him have been charged by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., with operating an obscenity distribution business and related offenses, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division announced today. (Read more)

The Justice Department announced today that Calvert Properties Inc. has agreed to pay $250,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging that its former president, Harold Calvert, of Richmond, Mo., sexually harassed female tenants in violation of the Fair Housing Act. (Read more)

The United States has filed civil injunction complaints in three federal courts on the east and west coasts, seeking to bar promotions of alleged tax-fraud schemes, the Justice Department announced today. The government complaints and other court papers allege that a multi-level marketing organization called Pinnacle Quest International (PQI) and a number of individuals and organizations currently or formerly affiliated with it are promoting a variety of fraudulent tax defier schemes. (Read more)

Today Nathan J. Hochman, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, announced the creation of the National Tax Defier Initiative or TAXDEF.  The purpose of this initiative is to reaffirm and reinvigorate the Tax Division’s commitment to investigate, pursue and, where appropriate, prosecute those who take concrete action to defy and deny the fundamental validity of the tax laws. (Read more)

The Justice Department today announced that on Tuesday, April 8, 2008, it will monitor the municipal election in the City of Walnut, Calif., to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act. (Read more)

The Justice Department announced today that Brian Forbes of Hartford, Conn., was sentenced today to 156 months in prison for his involvement in a sex trafficking ring that victimized minor girls and coerced young women to engage in commercial sex acts against their will. Forbes was also ordered to serve 3 years of supervised release and to pay $16,339 in restitution to his victims. Forbes was charged in a 64-count superseding indictment, along with nine other co-defendants, on Aug. 8, 2006. Mr. Forbes pleaded guilty on March 4, 2007, to three counts of sex trafficking of minors, two counts of sex trafficking adult women (through force, fraud, or coercion) and one count of conspiracy to use interstate facilities to promote prostitution. (Read more)

ConocoPhillips, an international energy company, has agreed to pay a $1.2 million civil penalty to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Water Act related to over 2,000 effluent discharges from a petroleum refinery it operates in Borger, Texas, the Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced. (Read more)

PACCSHIP, the operator and manager of approximately ten ships that regularly carry goods between Asia and ports in the United States, pleaded guilty today and was sentenced to pay a $1.7 million fine for crimes related to improper transfers and discharges of oil-contaminated waste from two of its ships, announced Ronald J. Tenpas, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department‘s Environment and Natural Resources Division and George E. B. Holding, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina. (Read more)

HOUSTON - Rozina Mohd Ali pleaded guilty and was sentenced today in federal district court in Houston, Texas, for her role in holding an Indonesian woman in forced labor as a domestic servant, the Justice Department has announced. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Ali, 43, of Sugarland, Texas, will spend one year and a day in prison and will pay the victim $72,676 in restitution. (Read more)

A federal court in Seattle has permanently shut down a nationwide “warehouse bank” tax defier scheme used to help customers evade federal taxes, the Justice Department announced today. The warehouse bank, known as Olympic Business Systems, was operated by Des Moines, Wash., resident Robert Arant. (Read more)

Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Grace Chung Becker and U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Patrick Fitzgerald announced today that Chicago police officer William Cozzi was indicted yesterday by a federal grand jury in Chicago for violating the civil rights of a restrained man. (Read more)

Miami resident Rita Campos Ramirez, 60, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for her role in a $170 million scheme to defraud Medicare, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta of the Southern District of Florida announced today. The scheme represents the largest known individual case of Medicare fraud in the history of the program. (Read more)

Phuong Quoc Truong, also known as John Truong and “Pai Gow” John, pleaded guilty today in San Diego to conspiring to participate in the conduct of the affairs of a racketeering enterprise, the “Tran Organization,” in a scheme to cheat at least 16 casinos across the country out of millions of dollars, Criminal Division Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California Karen P. Hewitt, and U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington Jeffrey C. Sullivan announced today. (Read more)

Seven Miami-area residents have been indicted in connection with an $11 million Medicare fraud scheme involving HIV infusion clinics, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta of the Southern District of Florida announced today. (Read more)

Defendants Olga Mondragon and Maria Fuentes were sentenced today for their roles in a scheme to smuggle Central American women and girls into the United States and hold them in a condition of forced labor in bars and cantinas in the Houston area, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General for Justice Department‘s Civil Rights Grace C. Becker and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas Don DeGabrielle. (Read more)

The Justice Department announced today that Shanaya Hicks of Bloomfield, Conn., was sentenced today to 46 months in prison for her involvement in a prostitution ring that victimized minor girls and coerced young women to engage in commercial sex acts against their will. (Read more)

The United States has intervened in a whistleblower suit accusing The Christ Hospital, The Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati and The Ohio Heart Health Center of defrauding federal health care programs, the Justice Department announced today. The lawsuit alleges that Christ Hospital, a full service Cincinnati-based hospital and formerly a member of The Health Alliance, and Ohio Heart, the largest cardiology group in that region of Ohio, devised a scheme that provided cardiologists improper financial incentives in exchange for generating revenue for the hospital. (Read more)

The Department of Justice announced today that the Montana Board of Realty Regulation has voted to repeal a rule forbidding real estate brokers from offering rebates and other incentives to their customers. The Board took this action in response to an investigation by the Department‘s Antitrust Division. (Read more)

Former professional wrestler Harrison Norris Jr., 42, a/k/a “Hardbody Harrison,” from Cartersville, Ga., was sentenced today to life in prison and lifetime supervised release for committing multiple violations of federal sex trafficking and forced labor statutes in connection with a scheme to force women into prostitution. He was also sentenced to pay a $2,400 special assessment. (Read more)