WASHINGTON—Dravo Corporation (Dravo), Desco Corporation and Desco Corporation d.b.a. Marshalltown Instruments, Inc., (Desco) have agreed to perform an interim cleanup action and pay $7.3 million to resolve their liability for certain cleanup costs relating to the contamination of the Colorado Avenue Subsite of the Hastings Ground Water Contamination Superfund Site, the Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today. (Read more)

WASHINGTON — Former lobbyist Tony C. Rudy pleaded guilty to conspiring with Jack Abramoff, Michael Scanlon and others to commit honest services fraud, mail and wire fraud, and a violation of conflict of interest post-employment restrictions, (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Virginia executive and two companies, ACS Environmental, Inc. (ACS) and Air Power Enterprises, Inc. (Air Power), were sentenced late yesterday to a substantial jail term and fines for conspiracy to defraud the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Small Business Administration (SBA), the Justice Department announced today. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Department of Justice‘s Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today announced that they are seeking comments in connection with their planned joint public hearings on how best to identify anticompetitive exclusionary conduct for purposes of antitrust enforcement under Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An Indiana ready mixed concrete producer and its president have agreed to plead guilty and pay criminal fines for fixing the price of ready mixed concrete in the Indianapolis metropolitan area, the Department of Justice announced today. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today announced an agreement with Arlington County, Va. to improve access to all aspects of civic life for persons with disabilities. The far reaching agreement was signed today at the Arlington County Board Room with County Manager Ron Carlee. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C.— The Department of Justice‘s Antitrust Division issued the following statement today after the Department announced the closing of its investigation of the proposed acquisition by Whirlpool Corporation (Whirlpool) of Maytag Corporation (Maytag): (Read more)

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales today met with tribal leaders to discuss issues of importance to Native Americans. He participated in a roundtable discussion with federal, state and tribal law enforcement regarding methamphetamine enforcement and other tribal justice issues in Indian Country while visiting the Yakama Reservation in Washington state. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A former federal prosecutor and a Department of State special agent were indicted by a federal grand jury today in Detroit on charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making false declarations in the 2003 terrorism trial United States v. Koubriti in the Eastern District of Michigan, (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C.— The former general manager of a Georgia-based chemical manufacturer has agreed to plead guilty to filing false United States federal income tax returns and participating in two conspiracies to defraud his former employer, the Department of Justice announced today. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today announced a settlement agreement under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) with NPC International, Inc. (NPC), which will make NPC‘s Pizza Hut restaurants accessible nationwide to people with disabilities. (Read more)

WASHINGTON. — Insight Public Sector, Inc., a company providing technology products and services to federal government agencies, has agreed to pay the United States $1 million to settle false claims allegations. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today jointly released a “Commentary on the Horizontal Merger Guidelines” that continues the agencies‘ ongoing efforts to increase the transparency of their decision-making processes — in this case, with regard to antitrust review of “horizontal” mergers between competing firms. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Justice Department announced today that a federal court in New Hampshire has ordered Mark G. Loll, who operates Tax-Tactics in Peterborough, N.H., to stop preparing frivolous income tax returns and to comply with future IRS requests that he provide his customer list or copies of returns he has prepared. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, DC — Shaun Hansen, former co-owner of Idaho-based telemarketing firm Mylo Enterprises, appeared in a federal court in New Hampshire today to face charges for conspiring to commit, and aiding and abetting the commission of, interstate telephone harassment relating to a scheme to jam several New Hampshire telephone lines on Election Day, 2002 (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Mohammed Rashed, a.k.a. Rashid Mohammed, has been convicted and sentenced in connection with the 1982 bombing of a Pan Am flight which killed a Japanese teenager and resulted in the injury of several other passengers, (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An employee of a government contractor working in Iraq has been arrested on a charge of offering to bribe an Iraqi police official, (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — David Inskeep pleaded guilty to a criminal misdemeanor violation of the federal Clean Water Act (CWA), the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency announced today. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Justice Department announced today that a federal court in Tampa, Florida has permanently barred a Sarasota man, Michael E. Best, from falsely promoting tax benefits in connection with the sale of a business venture or investment. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three additional current and former U.S. soldiers have pleaded guilty to participating in a widespread bribery and extortion conspiracy which operated from January 2002 through March 2004, (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Four defendants have been indicted on federal charges of running an “advance-fee” scheme that targeted U.S. victims with promises of millions of dollars, including money from an estate and from a lottery, (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A 29-count federal indictment was returned in Salt Lake City, Utah, charging Johnson Matthey, Inc. and two managers with committing conspiracy, concealment by trick, scheme and device, and Clean Water Act (CWA) violations, the Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three executives from Samsung Electronics Company Ltd., the world‘s largest manufacturer of a common computer component called dynamic random access memory (DRAM), have agreed to plead guilty and to serve jail time in the United States for participating in a global conspiracy to fix DRAM prices, the Department of Justice announced. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — New York businessmen Dov Shellef and William Rubenstein were sentenced today to 70 months and 18 months, respectively, for conspiring to evade approximately $1.9 million in excise taxes due on sales of an ozone-depleting chemical called trichlorotrifluoroethane (CFC-113), the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Fifty leaders of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) in Colombia have been indicted on charges of importing more than $25 billion worth of cocaine into the United States and other countries, the Department of Justice announced today. (Read more)

WASHINGTON D.C. — The Justice Department announced today that it has filed two lawsuits in federal court in Charlotte, North Carolina, to stop Jerry O. Adams and Demetria S. Adams from preparing income tax returns for others. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today announced a joint consent decree with Town Sports International, Inc. (TSI), and its Wellesley, Massachusetts, camp location to resolve a lawsuit filed by parents of a child with insulin-dependant diabetes. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Japanese firm, CMET Inc., has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $100,000 criminal fine for conspiring to obstruct justice in connection with the settlement of a merger case, the Department of Justice announced today. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Jeffery L. Springer of Phoenix, Arizona was sentenced today to three years of probation, $2,000 in fines, and $75,000 in restitution to victims for violating the Clean Air Act (CAA), the Department of Justice announced today. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Justice Department announced today that it has filed a civil injunction suit in federal court in Seattle to block a disbarred Seattle lawyer from promoting alleged tax-fraud schemes. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Justice Department today filed a civil injunction suit seeking to bar Frank Eugene Ellena, of Kamiah, Idaho, from marketing alleged tax scams involving sham trusts and corporations. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Executive Relocation International Inc. (Executive), a freight forwarder headquartered in Woodbridge, Virginia, has agreed to plead guilty, and to pay a $72,600 criminal fine for its participation in a conspiracy to restrain trade, the Department of Justice announced today. The charge relates to Executive‘s participation in a Department of Defense (DOD) program to transport the household goods of military and civilian DOD personnel from Germany and Italy to the United States. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Gheevarghese Pappen, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employee was arrested today in Atlanta for soliciting and accepting bribes while detailed to the U.S. Army Area Support Group, Host Nation Office at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Justice Department announced today that a federal court in Cincinnati has issued a preliminary injunction barring Batavia, Ohio resident Richard Standring, and his business, VIP Sales, from marketing, selling, or promoting an IRS document “decoding” tax scheme. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today announced that it has reached an agreement with North Carolina officials that will help ensure that military and overseas voters have an opportunity to participate fully in the State‘s 2006 second primary election, if one becomes necessary. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Riverside has issued a temporary restraining order barring N.C.K. Services, Inc., a tax preparation firm based in Rialto, and all three of its return preparers—Karen and Carla Berry of Rialto, and Ivan Johnson of San Bernardino—from preparing federal income tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The third of three co-defendants in a case investigated by a task force to combat child prostitution has been sentenced in the Southern District of Florida to 14 years in prison, (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States has reached a landmark settlement with the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) requiring the MWRA to implement significant improvements in Boston‘s sewage collection system, the Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today. (Read more)

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales today issued an 89-page report detailing the Justice Department‘s record successes in the fight to abolish human trafficking. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C.—A private Internet “chat room” used worldwide to facilitate the trading of thousands of images of child pornography — including streaming videos of live molestations — was infiltrated in an undercover investigation, resulting in charges against 27 individuals to date in the United States, Canada, Australia and Great Britain, (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales will present remarks on human trafficking to the Freedom Network USA Conference TODAY, MARCH 15, 2006 at 2:00 P.M. CST. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Corpus Christi Day Cruise, Ltd., operator of the M/V Texas Treasure, has pleaded guilty to obstructing a U.S. Coast Guard investigation into whether the ship had illegally discharged waste oil and deliberately bypassed its pollution prevention equipment, the Justice Department announced today. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Justice Department announced today that a federal court in Wichita, Kansas, has permanently barred Harrold E. Jones and Evelyn Johnson from preparing tax returns for others. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and Julie Myers, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will hold a press conference on a criminal matter WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15, 2006 at 12:20 P.M. CST. (Read more)

“The Justice Department is in the process of carefully reviewing Judge Brinkema‘s decision and we have requested and obtained a court recess until Monday." (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Solvay S.A. (Solvay), a Belgian company, and Akzo Nobel Chemicals International B.V. (Akzo Nobel), a Dutch company, have agreed to plead guilty and to pay a total of more than $72 million in criminal fines for their participation in international price-fixing cartels in the chemicals industry, the Department of Justice announced today. (Read more)

The USA PATRIOT Act provides valuable tools for law enforcement that help keep America safe from the threat of terrorism. One important provision contained in the recent bill is the creation of a new National Security Division at the Department of Justice (DOJ). (Read more)

WASHINGTON D.C. — Jonathan Corey Sawyer of Camas, Washington, was sentenced in Tacoma today to 15 months in prison and 2 years of supervised release for illegally importing and exporting rare reptiles, the Department of Justice announced today. According to court records, Sawyer illegally smuggled more than 230 reptiles in an eight month period. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Justice Department announced today that a federal court in Saint Paul has issued a temporary restraining order barring Nash Sonibare, who operates Liberty Financial Group in St. Paul, from preparing federal income tax returns for others. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today announced that it has filed a lawsuit to protect the opportunity of military and overseas voters to participate fully in the 2006 federal primary elections in Alabama. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department announced today that a federal court in Phoenix has permanently barred a Mesa, Arizona couple from promoting a tax-fraud scheme. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Four additional current and former U.S. soldiers have agreed to plead guilty to participating in a widespread bribery and extortion conspiracy which operated from January 2002 through March 2004, (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Justice Department announced today that a federal court in Minneapolis has permanently barred John R. Bartels, who operates John‘s Tax Service in St. Paul, from preparing federal income tax returns for others. The permanent injunction, to which Bartels consented, was entered by Judge Ann D. Montgomery of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Puerto Rico Administration of Corrections (PRAC) has agreed to construct a safe drinking water supply system—at a projected cost of $1 million—to provide safe drinking water to the rural community of La Sapia, in Orocovis, Puerto Rico, to resolve violations of a consent decree entered in 1997, the Department of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C.—A federal appeals court today affirmed a lower court ruling revoking the naturalized U.S. citizenship of an Iowa man based on his participation in the persecution of civilians while serving as an armed SS guard at two notorious Nazi concentration camps during World War II, (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A New Hampshire woman has pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 — a federal law designed to crack down on the transmission of bulk, unsolicited commercial electronic mail messages...the third-ever conviction related to the transmission of obscene e-mails (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Justice Department announced today that it has sued two Las Vegas-based promoters of an alleged sham-trust tax scheme that the complaint alleges has caused an estimated $31 million in losses to the federal treasury. The suit alleges that Reinhold Sommerstedt and Daniel Young of Las Vegas sold sham-trust packages to customers for as much as $14,500 and helped their customers hide their income from the IRS in Caribbean bank accounts. (Read more)

The Justice Department today announced that on March 7, it will monitor primary elections in Brazos, Ector, Hale and Travis Counties, Texas, to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Justice Department today asked a federal court to permanently bar Joyce M. Stone, Charles J. Freed and Julie Shaffer, all of Hillsdale, Michigan, from preparing federal income tax returns for others. The government‘s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan in Grand Rapids, alleges that the defendants prepared customers‘ income tax returns claiming improper deductions, including improper deductions for fictitious or inflated charitable contributions and employee expenses. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three Colombian nationals — Ricardo Mauricio Bernal Palacios, 39, Juan Manual Bernal Palacios, 44, and Camilo Andres Ortiz Echeverri, 36 — were named in a 49-count indictment returned by a grand jury and unsealed today in the Southern District of Florida, and were arrested on March 2 by law enforcement authorities in Bogotá, Colombia, (Read more)

“Since the terrible attacks of September 11, 2001, the Department of Justice‘s highest priority has been to protect Americans by preventing acts of terrorism. I applaud Congress for reauthorizing each and every expiring provision of the USA PATRIOT Act and providing additional tools to fight terrorism and other serious crimes." (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Colorado man who served as the former national operator of several sexually-oriented businesses has been sentenced to 13 months in prison on federal obscenity and tax charges, (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department asked a federal court in Nashville, Tennessee, today to bar Susan Ann Sperl and Randall Thompson from preparing federal income tax returns for others. The lawsuit alleges that the defendants falsely advise customers that they can deduct personal expenses on their federal income tax returns by falsely claiming to have home-based businesses. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Justice Department announced today that a federal court has barred Angelique Tinder of Houston, Texas, formerly of Rockford, Illinois, from preparing federal income tax returns for others. The permanent injunction, to which Tinder consented, was entered by Judge Philip G. Reinhard of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal grand jury in the Middle District of Alabama returned a five-count indictment charging Jeffrey H. Stayton, 55, and William Curtis Childree, 67, with two counts each of honest services fraud and one count each of bribery, (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Jaron Brice, a 27-year-old Washington, D.C. man, has been convicted by a federal jury in the District of Columbia on nine counts related to his illegal sex trafficking operation that involved the prostitution and sexual assault of females as young as 14 years old (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. ‑ The Justice Department announced today that it has filed suit against the State of New York alleging violations of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, in Albany. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Four Korean executives from a major manufacturer of a common computer component — dynamic random access memory (DRAM) — have agreed to plead guilty and to serve jail time in the United States for participating in a global conspiracy to fix DRAM prices, the Department of Justice announced. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, DC — Kenneth Kwak, 34, of Chantilly, Va., pleaded guilty today in the District of Columbia federal court before U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth to a one-count information charging him with unauthorized access to a protected computer in furtherance of a criminal or tortious act... (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Justice Department announced today that a federal court has barred Salvador G. Ruiz from preparing federal income tax returns for others. The government complaint filed in the civil injunction case alleges that Ruiz, of Lebanon, Ohio, prepared at least 47 false or fraudulent returns over the past several years claiming deductions for fabricated charitable contributions, business losses and expenses. (Read more)