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The Office of Public Affairs

Press Releases for December 2007
December 28, 2007

The City of Fort Wayne, Ind., has agreed to make an estimated $250 million worth of improvements to resolve longstanding problems with overflows from its sewer system, the Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today. (Read more)

December 26, 2007

A German national was indicted by a federal grand jury in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for participating in a conspiracy to rig bids, fix prices and allocate market shares for sales of marine hose, in the United States and elsewhere, the Department of Justice announced today. (Read more)

December 21, 2007

Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Grace Chung Becker and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Stephen J. Murphy announced today that Curtis M. Gottler of Livonia, Mich., was indicted by a federal grand jury for hate crimes and other charges stemming from threats he allegedly made to a local couple and their real estate agent in an attempt to keep the couple from selling their home to African-Americans. The defendant was also charged with a hate crime and a threat for sending a threatening letter through the U.S. mail to an African-American resident of Livonia. (Read more)

“The Department of Justice has determined that it will not appeal the dismissal of the indictment in U.S. v. Stolt-Nielsen S.A. et al. While the Division is disappointed with the ruling, it respects the role of the court in making the factual determinations that support the decision that Stolt-Nielsen, two of its subsidiaries, and two executives did not breach the conditional leniency agreement." (Read more)

Lucent Technologies Inc. has entered an agreement with the Department of Justice and has agreed to pay a $1 million fine to resolve allegations that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division announced today.  (Read more)

Saint Joseph’s Hospital of Atlanta Inc. and Saint Joseph’s Health System Inc. have agreed to pay the United States $26 million to settle allegations that the medical facility violated the False Claims Act with regard to billing for inpatient admissions and other services, the Justice Department announced today. The settlement resolves an investigation primarily focusing on Saint Joseph’s Hospital’s submission of Medicare claims from the years 2000 through 2005, where services that should have been billed as “outpatient visits” were charged at the higher rate as “inpatient admissions.” (Read more)

December 20, 2007

Statement of Brian Roehrkasse, Director of Public Affairs, in Response to Inquiries about the Justice Department’s Request that Congress Temporarily Defer its Oversight Investigation (Read more)

The Dutch company Akzo Nobel N.V., has entered into an agreement with the Department of Justice, acknowledging that its subsidiaries made improper payments to the Iraqi government in connection with contracts acquired by the subsidiaries pursuant to the U.N. “Oil for Food” Program, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division announced today. (Read more)

The owner of a Miami health care company has been convicted on charges of defrauding the Medicare program, 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)

A U.K. citizen residing in St. Cloud, Fla., has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for conspiracy to commit visa fraud, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Robert E. O'Neill for the Middle District of Florida announced today. (Read more)

December 19, 2007

ValueAct Capital Partners L.P. will pay $1.1 million to settle charges that it violated premerger reporting requirements, the Department of Justice announced today. (Read more)

W.R. Grace, a global supplier of specialty chemicals, has agreed to a $34 million bankruptcy settlement for cleanup costs at 32 Superfund sites across the country, the Justice Department announced today. The action settles a bankruptcy claim brought by the federal government to recover money for Superfund site cleanup. (Read more)

December 18, 2007

The former president and co-owner of Domecq Importers Inc. of Larchmont, N.Y., and Old Greenwich, Conn., was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison for conspiring to commit tax fraud and to defraud Allied Domecq PLC, the Department of Justice announced today. (Read more)

December 17, 2007

The Justice Department today announced that on Dec. 18, 2007, it will monitor special elections in Jefferson Davis and Tunica Counties, Miss., and Fort Worth, Texas, to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act. (Read more)

December 14, 2007

Travis D. Massey of Salt Lake City, Utah, was sentenced today in federal court in Salt Lake City for his conviction on federal hate crime charges. Massey was sentenced to 57 months imprisonment. After release from prison, the defendant will be on federal supervised release for 36 months. Massey is a former leader of the Salt Lake City unit of the National Alliance, a West Virginia-based national white-supremacist group. (Read more)

Ronald Joshua Youngblood, 26, of Ypsilanti, Mich., was sentenced today to 36 months imprisonment after pleading guilty to violating the housing rights of an African-American family by burning a cross at the family’s home, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Grace Chung Becker, of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, and Stephen J. Murphy, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. (Read more)

WASHINGTON – Gary E. Jorandby, 57, of Upper Marlboro, Md., was arrested today on a federal indictment charging him with sexually exploiting a minor to produce child pornography (Read more)

Repeat offender, Ionia Management, a Greek company that manages a fleet of tanker vessels, was sentenced today for its role in falsifying records to conceal the overboard dumping of waste oil from the M/T Kriton into international waters and its efforts to impede the investigation of the U.S. Coast Guard, announced Ronald J. Tenpas, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, Kevin J. O’Connor, U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and Rear Admiral Tim Sullivan, Commander of the First Coast Guard District, U.S. Coast Guard. (Read more)

Two men who were part of a domestic terrorist cell pleaded guilty this morning to federal terrorism charges, admitting that they conspired to attack United States military operations, “infidels,” and Israeli and Jewish facilities in the Los Angeles area. (Read more)

HealthSouth Corporation and two physicians have agreed to pay the United States a total of $14.9 million to settle allegations that the Birmingham, Ala.-based company submitted false claims to the government and paid illegal kickbacks to physicians who referred patients for care in some of its hospitals, outpatient rehabilitation clinics, and ambulatory surgery centers, the Justice Department announced today. (Read more)

WASHINGTON – A North Carolina man has been sentenced to 84 months in prison for distributing online child pornography to a person he believed to be a 13-year-old girl, (Read more)

WASHINGTON – Italia Federici, the former president of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy (CREA), has been sentenced to four years probation and ordered to pay more than $74,000 in restitution, (Read more)

WASHINGTON – Jerry Wayne Ramey, 40, a previously convicted sex offender from Meridian, Miss., was sentenced today to 20 years in prison for possessing multiple images of child pornography he acquired over the Internet, (Read more)

December 13, 2007

WASHINGTON – The owners of five separate Miami-based health care corporations have been sentenced to prison terms today, (Read more)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The United States Government and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI) have reached an agreement under which the insurer will pay $20 million to resolve matters related to the government’s ongoing public corruption investigation, (Read more)

Five associates of Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles have pleaded guilty in the Western District of Texas to charges of obstruction of justice in connection with the U.S. government’s investigation of Posada Carriles, Michael J. Mullaney, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas announced today. (Read more)

Merck, the global pharmaceutical research company, has agreed to resolve violations of federal and state water pollution control regulations arising from spills including a June 2006 spill at its pharmaceutical plant outside of Philadelphia, announced Pat Meehan, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Ronald J. Tenpas, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. (Read more)

WASHINGTON – A grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia has returned an indictment charging two former employees of Kellogg Brown and Root, Inc. (KBR) Fuel Section with conspiracy to defraud the Department of Defense, (Read more)

The Department of Justice yesterday announced that Juan Mendez pleaded guilty to two counts of commercial sex trafficking. Mendez admitted to providing two juvenile girls to engage in commercial sex acts knowing that force, fraud and coercion had been used. Eight other defendants have pleaded guilty in this same case for crimes including child sex trafficking, conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens, conspiracy to commit money laundering, enticing an individual to travel in interstate commerce to commit prostitution, and failure to file a factual statement about an alien. Mendez could be sentenced to life imprisonment. A sentencing date has been set for June 19, 2007. Mendez is in the custody of U.S. Marshals. (Read more)

December 12, 2007

An independent consultant and two executives of Dunlop Oil & Marine Ltd., a manufacturer of marine hose located in Grimsby, United Kingdom, pleaded guilty today and have agreed to serve record-setting prison sentences for participating in a conspiracy to rig bids, fix prices, and allocate market shares of marine hose sold in the United States, the Department of Justice announced. (Read more)

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department today announced that it had obtained approval from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan to distribute $700,000 in monetary damages to 37 persons with disabilities pursuant to the consent decree entered in United States v. Edward Rose and Sons, et al., a case that was resolved by a consent decree entered in the Eastern District of Michigan in September 2005. (Read more)

Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey today honored the nation's Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor recipients during a special ceremony at the Department of Justice. The Medal of Valor is the highest national award for valor by a public safety officer honoring heroic action performed above and beyond the call of duty. The Attorney General honored recipients from the nation's law enforcement, firefighting and emergency services. (Read more)

Three Venezuelans and an Uruguayan national were arrested last night and appeared in federal court in Miami today on charges of acting and conspiring to act as agents of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela within the United States, without prior notification to the Attorney General of the United States, as required by law, announced Kenneth L. Wainstein, Assistant Attorney General for Justice Department’s National Security Division, R. Alexander Acosta, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami Field Office. (Read more)

A federal judge in Portland, Maine has permanently barred Carol East Palesky of Topsham, Maine, from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. According to the government’s civil injunction complaint, Ms. Palesky operated a business under the name East Accounting Services, preparing federal income tax returns claiming inflated deductions and credits for her customers resulting in an understatement of her customers’ tax liabilities. (Read more)

December 11, 2007

WASHINGTON – A federal jury in Montgomery, Ala., has convicted Jeffrey H. Stayton, 57, of Spotsylvania, Va., and William C. Childree, 69, of Enterprise, Ala., on public corruption charges (Read more)

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit yesterday alleging that the City of Colorado Springs Police Department refused to promote Officer Lance Lazoff to sergeant in retaliation for his association with and assistance to his wife who was the lead plaintiff in a successful class action lawsuit against the police department under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). (Read more)

December 10, 2007

WASHINGTON – A member of La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for his participation in a racketeering enterprise, (Read more)

Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg, N.J., has agreed to pay the United States $7.5 million to settle allegations that it defrauded Medicare, the Department of Justice announced today. The settlement resolves allegations that the hospital improperly increased charges to Medicare patients in order to obtain enhanced reimbursement from Medicare. (Read more)

December 8, 2007

“The Department of Justice and the CIA announced today that the Justice Department’s National Security Division initiated a preliminary inquiry in conjunction with the CIA’s Office of Inspector General regarding the destruction of the interrogation videos described in CIA Director Mike Hayden’s message to employees on December 6. (Read more)

December 7, 2007

WASHINGTON – Three Colombian nationals have pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to provide material support to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a designated foreign terrorist organization, and alien smuggling, (Read more)

Peter Kott, a former elected member of the Alaska House of Representatives and former Alaska Speaker of the House, has been sentenced to 72 months in prison in Anchorage, Alaska, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division announced. (Read more)

WASHINGTON – Russell James Caso, Jr., 34, of Rockville, Md., a former Chief of Staff to a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (Representative A), pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, (Read more)

Following unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate, Patrick Shen was sworn in Nov. 13, 2007, as Special Counsel for Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practices in the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division. (Read more)

WASHINGTON — Samuel Santander Lopesierra Gutierrez, a former member of the Colombian Senate, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon, (Read more)

WASHINGTON – A San Francisco grand jury has returned a three-count indictment charging Bernard V. Ward, 56, with distributing and receiving child pornography, (Read more)

December 6, 2007

The Department of Justice announced today that it has reached a settlement requiring CommScope Inc. (CommScope) and Andrew Corporation (Andrew) to divest Andrew’s minority interest in Andes Industries Inc. (Andes), in order to proceed with CommScope’s $2.6 billion acquisition of Andrew. (Read more)

Two Florida homeland security vendor employees were arrested today in Orlando, Fla. for their roles in a conspiracy to defraud their respective employers relating to contracts let by the U.S. Virgin Islands government for the purchase of emergency vehicles and other equipment, the Department of Justice announced. (Read more)

December 5, 2007

WASHINGTON – Two foreign nationals have been arrested on charges of conspiracy and alien smuggling in connection with their roles in smuggling East Africans to the United States, (Read more)

December 4, 2007

WASHINGTON – A Florida man has been convicted on seven counts of visa fraud and alien smuggling for his role in bringing aliens to work at major hotels and resorts in the Destin, Fla., area, (Read more)

Premier Manufacturing, Inc., a South Carolina cigarette importer, has agreed to pay an additional $3.1 million to settle civil claims that between 1995 and 2002, it deliberately understated the weights of cigarettes that it imported, the Justice Department announced today. The company had previously agreed to pay $7.16 million in restitution as part of a criminal guilty plea that it entered in 2005. The settlement announced today covers civil claims the government had under the False Claims Act and two customs statutes. (Read more)

WASHINGTON – A member of La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for his participation in a racketeering enterprise, (Read more)

December 3, 2007

Petros Renieris, the chief engineer of the M/T Kriton, was sentenced today to two years probation and a $9,000 fine for his role in falsifying Oil Record Book entries to conceal the overboard dumping of waste oil from the tanker ship into international waters and his participation in subsequent efforts to impede the U.S. Coast Guard and other authorities from learning of the dumping, the Justice Department announced. (Read more)

ALLTEL Corporation has agreed to pay $1.325 million as part of a civil settlement with the Department of Justice and the state of Minnesota that resolves ALLTEL’s alleged violations of two court orders entered in connection with ALLTEL’s acquisition of Midwest Wireless Holdings LLC. (Read more)

An independent consultant and two executives of Dunlop Oil & Marine Ltd., a manufacturer of marine hose located in Grimsby, United Kingdom, were charged today with participating in a conspiracy to rig bids, fix prices and allocate market shares of marine hose sold in the United States, announced the Department of Justice. (Read more)




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