Today, the Mexican government extradited 10 major drug defendants to the United States. Those defendants, whose charges are listed separately below, are accused of being associated with some of the most notorious Mexican drug trafficking organizations, including the Gulf Cartel, the Arellano Felix Organization and the Sinaloa Cartel. (Read more)

The Department filed a lawsuit on behalf of Randall A. Slocum, an Air Force Reservist, against the City of Iola, Kan., alleging violations of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA). (Read more)

Saleh Elahwal, 55, of Matawan, New Jersey, pleaded guilty today in Manhattan federal court to providing material support to Hizballah, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. According to the count (Count Two) of the Superseding Indictment to which Elahwal pleaded guilty, and statements made during his guilty plea proceeding before United States District Judge Richard M. Berman: (Read more)

The Department filed a lawsuit against the Alabama Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation (DMHMR), alleging that it refused to promptly reemploy a serviceman returning to work in violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA). Subject to certain limitations, USERRA requires that individuals who leave their jobs to serve in the U.S. military be timely reemployed by their civilian employers in the same position, or in a comparable position to the position that they would have held had they not left to serve in the military. (Read more)

Ben-Ami Kadish pleaded guilty earlier today to a one-count information charging him with participating in a conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of the Government of Israel. (Read more)

Raymond Roy of San Juan Capistrano, Calif., today became the sixth defendant to plead guilty for his involvement in a global child pornography trafficking enterprise. (Read more)

John A. Rapanos and related defendants have agreed to pay a civil penalty and recreate approximately 100 acres of wetlands and buffer areas to resolve violations of the Clean Water Act at three sites in Midland and Bay counties, Michigan. (Read more)

A criminal complaint was filed today charging Mouyad Mahmoud Darwish, age 47, formerly of Maryland, with conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government, specifically, as an agent of Iraq. (Read more)

Richard Hendryx, 78, of Morristown, Ariz., pleaded guilty today to traveling in foreign commerce with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with children.  (Read more)

Spartan Motors and its subsidiary, Spartan Chassis, have agreed to pay the United States $1.7 million to resolve allegations that it paid kickbacks to an employee of Force Protection Inc. to receive the subcontract to provide chassis for armored vehicles for the United States Military. (Read more)

President George W. Bush granted pardons to 19 individuals and commutation of sentence to one individual. (Read more)

A criminal information was filed today in federal court charging a wholly owned subsidiary of ExxonMobil Corporation with violating the criminal provisions of the Clean Water Act in connection with a spill of approximately 15,000 gallons of diesel oil into the Mystic River from ExxonMobil’s oil terminal in Everett, Mass. (Read more)

A member of an Afghan Taliban cell was sentenced today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to two terms of life in prison on drug and narco-terrorism charges. (Read more)

A major in the U.S. Army Reserve, Theresa Jeanne Baker, pleaded guilty today for her role in two bribery schemes involving U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) contracts at Camp Victory, Iraq. (Read more)

The Department today announced the filing of a lawsuit against the County of Muskegon, Mich. alleging discrimination against a former employee by subjecting her to a hostile work environment. (Read more)

A jury in New Jersey today convicted five men on charges they plotted to kill members of the U.S. military. (Read more)

Saubhe Jassim Al-Dellemy, age 67, an Iraqi national living in Maryland, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government, specifically, as an agent of Iraq. (Read more)

Fiat S.p.A. (Fiat), an Italian corporation based in Turin, Italy, has agreed to a $7 million penalty for illegal kickbacks paid to officials of the former Iraqi government by three of its subsidiaries. (Read more)

Alaska State Senator John Cowdery, 78, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to bribe another Alaska state legislator. (Read more)

A federal jury in Washington convicted David H. Safavian, the former chief of staff for the General Services Administration (GSA), of obstructing a GSA internal investigation and making false statements. (Read more)

A former executive and a consultant of Willbros International Inc. (WII), a subsidiary of Houston-based Willbros Group Inc. (Willbros), have been charged in connection with a conspiracy to pay more than $6 million in bribes to government officials in Nigeria and Ecuador. (Read more)

Christopher Huxoll, an 18-year member of the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department, pleaded guilty today to one count of aggravated assault for striking an unarmed man in the face with his riot baton during a march in 2005. Huxoll faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison when he is sentenced by Judge Russell F. Canan on March 6, 2009. (Read more)

Corey Davis, the ring-leader of a sex-trafficking ring that spanned at least three states, was sentenced today in federal court in Bridgeport, Conn., on federal civil rights charges for organizing and leading the sex-trafficking operation that exploited as many as 20 women, included minors. Davis was sentenced to 293 months in prison followed by a lifetime term of supervised release. In addition Davis was ordered to pay a fine of $200,000. (Read more)

Four defendants were sentenced today in federal district court in Fort Meyers, Fla., after pleading guilty to a scheme to enslave Mexican and Guatemalan nationals and compel their labor as farmworkers. (Read more)

Three defendants were sentenced to prison today for their roles in an online copyright infringement scheme involving the sale of counterfeit software worth $2.5 million. (Read more)

The Department has entered an agreement with the State of Illinois to bring the State into compliance with federal voting laws that require public assistance agencies to offer their clients the opportunity to register to vote. The agreement provides that the Illinois Department of Human Security (DHS), the primary state agency in charge of disbursing public assistance, must take steps to ensure compliance with federal law within the next 90 days. (Read more)

A former State Department employee was sentenced today to 12 months of probation and ordered to perform 50 hours of community service for illegally accessing hundreds of confidential passport application files. (Read more)

Francisco Cortes-Meza, 25, a/k/a “Paco”, of Mexico, pleaded guilty today in federal district court to sex trafficking offenses involving a young Mexican woman. (Read more)

Timothy Lloyd Christenbury, 46, of Charlotte, N.C., has been charged by a federal grand jury and arrested for possession of child pornography. (Read more)

Justin Sigler, 19, of Natchitoches, La., pleaded guilty today to conspiring with two other individuals to violate the civil rights of an African-American man in Lena, La. (Read more)

Patrick Rowan, Assistant Attorney for National Security, and A. Brian Albritton, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, announced that Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, a resident of Tampa and native of Egypt, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday to 15 years imprisonment on a charge that he provided material support to terrorists. Mohamed entered a guilty plea to this charge on June 18, 2008. (Read more)

The Department filed a civil antitrust lawsuit today against Microsemi Corporation alleging that through its acquisition of Semicoa Inc. assets, Microsemi eliminated or reduced competition in the development, manufacture and sale of certain semiconductor devices used in military and space programs essential to the security of the United States. The Department alleges that as a result of the transaction, prices for these products have increased and likely will continue to increase and that there is likely to be lower quality service. (Read more)

Miami physician’s assistant was sentenced today to 14 years in prison in connection with his role in a $119 million HIV-infusion Medicare fraud scheme (Read more)

Johnathan Mosman, 47 of Waterbury, Conn., today became the fifth defendant to plead guilty for his involvement in a vast global child pornography trafficking enterprise. (Read more)

John Duane Green of Hernando, Fla., was indicted today by a federal grand jury in St. Croix, the U.S. Virgin Islands, on charges of transporting and possessing child pornography. (Read more)

The United States has asked a federal court in Oklahoma to order the state of Oklahoma to pay more than $21 million due under a contract with the Army Corps of Engineers for the construction of Sardis Lake reservoir. (Read more)

Bradley Douglas Highbarger, 35, of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, was sentenced today to 75 months in prison for receipt of child pornography. (Read more)

A Miami physician and nurse were sentenced today to 30 years and seven years in prison, respectively, in connection with their roles in an $11 million HIV infusion fraud scheme. (Read more)

The Department filed of a lawsuit against Ronnie Lee, Sheriff of Hendry County, Fla., and the Hendry County Board of County Commissioners, alleging that the Hendry County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) is engaged in a pattern or practice of sex discrimination, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin and religion. (Read more)

ExxonMobil has agreed to pay nearly $6.1 million in civil penalties for violating the terms of a 2005 court-approved Clean Air Act agreement. (Read more)

Robert Wayne Webb was sentenced today to one year and one day in prison by Judge Edward Lodge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho for knowingly storing hazardous waste without first obtaining a permit at a storage facility in Rathdrum, Idaho, and a private residence in Spokane, Wash. (Read more)

The former chief executive officer of General Re Corporation (Gen Re) was sentenced today for his role in a fraudulent scheme to manipulate AIG’s financial statements. (Read more)

Two San Bernardino County, Calif., medical company chief executive officers (CEOs) were charged in a seven-count indictment unsealed today for their alleged roles in a Medicare fraud scheme involving unnecessary durable medical equipment. (Read more)

Madison Lee Oden, a former executive with Sterling McCall Automotive Group in Houston, and Richard Duane Davis, former owner of Skydive Houston in Waller, Texas, were sentenced to 15 months and 36 months in prison, respectively, by U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes in Houston. (Read more)

John Wrenshall, 62, was arrested today on charges of conspiring to travel in foreign commerce with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with children; aiding and abetting sex tourism; and conspiracy to produce, production of, and distribution of child pornography. (Read more)

This morning in Federal District Court here in the District of Columbia, Siemens AG, a German corporation which did businesses across the globe, and three of its subsidiaries, pled guilty to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. (Read more)

A former Vice President of Business Development for a Canada-based company that treats and disposes of contaminated soils pleaded guilty today to participating in a fraud conspiracy at an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-designated Superfund site located in Manville, N.J. (Read more)

The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) announced that Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey administered the oath of office to five new members of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) at an investiture ceremony held today at EOIR Headquarters. (Read more)

The Department reached a resolution in its investigation of Homecomings Financial, LLC (Homecomings), under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA). The SCRA suspends or modifies certain civil obligations of individuals serving on active duty in the military. (Read more)

The president of a southern California company pleaded guilty to engaging in a conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud by depriving a manufacturing company of the honest services of its employee. (Read more)

Two related investment funds will pay civil penalties totaling $800,000 to settle charges that they violated premerger reporting requirements. (Read more)

Siemens Aktiengesellschaft (Siemens AG), a German corporation, and three of its subsidiaries today pleaded guilty to violations of and charges related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. (Read more)

Crime is increasingly, and, criminals are increasingly, a global problem, and our solutions therefore have to be global as well. And the kind of international cooperation that we've been talking about today, which has been happening daily, is vital to our success. (Read more)

A second U.S. citizen charged in connection with the operation of a series of fraudulent business opportunities was arrested on Friday, Dec. 12, in Costa Rica following his indictment by a Miami federal grand jury on Nov. 20, 2008. (Read more)

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit today rejected taxpayers Michael and Marla Sklars’ argument that they were entitled to claim deductions for tuition and fees paid to their children’s Orthodox Jewish day schools. (Read more)

Today, Diego Montoya-Sanchez, a/k/a Don Diego, a former FBI top-ten most wanted fugitive and principal leader of the Norte Valle Cartel (NVC), has been extradited from Colombia to the United States to face federal charges. Montoya-Sanchez faces drug-trafficking related charges in the Southern District of Florida and the District of Columbia. (Read more)

The Department today filed a lawsuit against the City of Bonita Springs, Fla., alleging that the City discriminated against an African-American employee, Joseph W. Johnson, by subjecting him to a racially hostile work environment. (Read more)

A former lobbyist pleaded guilty today to conspiring with others to commit honest services fraud. (Read more)

Loren Jay Adams, 45, of Indianapolis was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Martinsburg, W.Va., to 33 months in prison for violating federal obscenity laws. (Read more)

The Department reached a settlement today with the District of Columbia to improve accessibility for individuals with disabilities in the City’s homeless shelter program under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). (Read more)

Today, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, speaking after a joint United States and European Union (EU) ministerial meeting, highlighted "Operation Joint Hammer" – the U.S. component of an ongoing global enforcement operation targeting transnational rings of child pornographers. (Read more)

The United States has filed a lawsuit against tax preparers Michael J. Singleton and his wife, Ladonna Singleton, seeking to bar them from preparing federal tax returns for others. (Read more)

Joseph H. Smith, a CPA and attorney, was sentenced today to a year and a day in prison today by U.S. District Judge Ann Aldrich for his participation in a scheme to defraud the Internal Revenue Service. (Read more)

The PNC Financial Services Group Inc. and National City Corporation have agreed to sell 61 of National City’s branch banking offices in western Pennsylvania, with deposits that totaled approximately $4.1 billion as of June 30, 2008, in order to resolve competitive concerns about the companies’ pending merger. (Read more)

A former South Carolina school district official was sentenced to serve two years in jail and to pay $468,496 in restitution for using the mail to submit fraudulent applications for E-Rate funding on behalf of Bamberg County School District One in Bamberg, S.C. (Read more)

The United States has filed a lawsuit against a Coatesville, Pa., woman and two family members to bar them permanently from preparing federal income tax returns for others. The government’s civil injunction suit alleges that Chalamar Muhammad, her husband Curtis Muhammad and her mother Doranna Muhammad prepared federal income tax returns for customers claiming fabricated deductions and credits. (Read more)

An Arizona man was sentenced today to 220 months in prison after he was previously convicted on multiple child pornography charges. (Read more)

A Tokyo executive of a rubber products manufacturing company pleaded guilty and was sentenced to serve two years in jail and to pay an $80,000 criminal fine for participating in two conspiracies to rig bids and bribe foreign government officials affecting the sale of marine hose and other industrial rubber products manufactured by the company and sold throughout the world. (Read more)

Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey has announced the appointment of David L. Neal as Vice Chairman of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), effective January 5, 2009. (Read more)

A former Supreme Court Justice of the Third Judicial Circuit of the State of New York was charged today with attempted extortion and federal program bribery. (Read more)

Jeffrey Pearson was arrested based on charges that he and a co-conspirator, Stephen Schultz, purported to sell beverage and greeting card business opportunities, including assistance in establishing, maintaining and operating such businesses. The charges form part of the government’s continued nationwide crackdown on business opportunity fraud. (Read more)

A multi-party settlement involving the federal government will ensure that cleanup efforts proceed at the Shpack Landfill Superfund site in the towns of Norton and Attleboro, Mass. (Read more)

The Department reached a settlement agreement under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) with Chatham University that will make its campus and services more accessible to individuals with disabilities. (Read more)

The United States has sued a Louisiana CPA, seeking to bar him and his business from claiming improper deductions on customers’ federal income tax returns. (Read more)

Wesley Lanham, 31, and Shawn Freeman, 36, both former deputy jailers at Grant County Detention Center in Kentucky, were sentenced today on federal civil rights, conspiracy and obstruction charges. Lanham was sentenced to 15 years in prison and 3 years of supervised release, and Freeman was sentenced to 14 years in prison and 3 years of supervised release. (Read more)

Juan Luis Llamas, 33, of Yuba City, Calif., was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Frank D. Whitney of the Western District of North Carolina. Judge Whitney also ordered Llamas to pay restitution of $4.2 million jointly and severally with co-conspirators. (Read more)

A former U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) employee who falsified overtime records pleaded guilty today to one count of theft of more than $90,000 through a time and attendance fraud scheme. (Read more)

A federal grand jury in the District of Colombia has indicted Carlos Marin Guarin, also known as “Pablo,” also known as Gustavo Anibal Giraldo Quinchia, a high-ranking member of the terrorist group the National Liberation Army (in Spanish the “Ejercito De Liberacion Nacional,” or “ELN” for short), in connection with two separate hostage takings of United States citizens which took place in Colombia in 1999 and 2003. (Read more)

The Department has reached a settlement agreement with urgent and primary health care provider Medbrook Medical Associates Inc., under which the company will provide sign language interpreters and other auxiliary aids and services to patients, their family members, and their companions who are deaf or hard of hearing at the Medbrook Medical Center in Bridgeport, W. Va. (Read more)

The indictment unsealed today charges five Blackwater security guards with voluntary manslaughter, attempt to commit manslaughter, and weapons violations for their alleged roles in the Sept. 16, 2007 shooting at Nisur Square in Baghdad, Iraq. (Read more)

L-3 Vertex Aerospace, a subsidiary of L-3 Communications Corp., has paid the U.S. $4 million to settle allegations that the company submitted false and inflated claims to the Army for hours worked by the firm’s employees on a contract supporting military operations by the United States in Iraq. (Read more)

A 35-count indictment was unsealed today in the District of Columbia charging five Blackwater security guards with voluntary manslaughter, attempt to commit manslaughter, and weapons violations for their alleged roles in the Sept.16, 2007, shooting at Nisur Square in Baghdad, Iraq. The defendants are charged with killing 14 unarmed civilians and wounding 20 other individuals. (Read more)

Robert W. Hopper, a Gadsden, Ala., resident, was sentenced to 200 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Charles R. Norgle of Chicago, the Department announced today. (Read more)

Haroon Amin of Upland, Calif., and Ather Ali of Diamond Bar, Calif., were arrested yesterday on charges that they conspired to defraud the United States, made various false claims for income tax refunds, and made and subscribed false income tax returns. (Read more)

A Redding, Calif., man was sentenced today in Sacramento, Calif., for one count of possession of child pornography and three violations of his supervised release conditions. (Read more)

Timothy Shawn Dunn, a Chesterton, Ind., resident, was sentenced to 210 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Charles R. Norgle, the Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today. (Read more)

Alberto Goachet, 67, a political consultant and aide to Puerto Rico Sen. Jorge De Castro Font, pleaded guilty today to participating in a conspiracy to launder illegal campaign contributions and other payments, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez announced. (Read more)

The Department has reached a settlement that will require Republic Services Inc. and Allied Waste Industries Inc. to divest commercial waste collection and disposal assets, serving 15 metropolitan areas, in order to proceed with Republic’s proposed $4.5 billion acquisition of Allied. The Department said that the transaction, as originally proposed, would have resulted in higher prices for collection of municipal solid waste from commercial businesses or disposal of waste, or both, in these areas. (Read more)

Medical transcription service provider MedQuist Inc. has paid the United States $6.6 million to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act that it overbilled federal government clients, the Department announced today. (Read more)

Johnson Matthey Inc. (JMI), a Pennsylvania corporation, was sentenced today to a $3 million criminal fine for a felony violation of the Clean Water Act by Judge Dee Benson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. (Read more)

The Department has reached an agreement as to liability in a lawsuit filed under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act against the Euclid City School District Board of Education in Euclid, Ohio. The lawsuit challenges the method of electing members of the Euclid City School District’s governing body, alleging that it violates the rights of African-American voters to elect candidates of their choice. (Read more)

Shintech, Inc. and its subsidiary K-Bin, Inc., have agreed in a settlement filed today by the Justice Department and EPA to spend $4.8 million to comply with the Clean Air Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) at their manufacturing facilities in Freeport, Texas. (Read more)

An 18-count indictment charging four individuals with conspiracy to file false claims for refund in the form of false income tax returns was unsealed on Dec. 1, 2008. According to the indictment, between approximately May 1, 2003, and Feb. 28, 2005, one of the defendants and others engaged in a scheme to defraud the IRS through the submission of false income tax returns filed in the names of other individuals. (Read more)

A British marine hose manufacturer has agreed to plead guilty and pay $4.54 million in criminal fines for participating in a conspiracy to rig bids, fix prices and allocate market shares of marine hose sold in the United States and elsewhere. (Read more)