A Trumbull, Conn., resident who was involved in operating three businesses in Brooklyn, N.Y., pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Krzysztof Koczon pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to conspiracy to aid another in filing false tax returns.

Three defendants were sentenced to prison today after pleading guilty in January 2008 to federal charges of running an “advance-fee” scheme that targeted U.S. victims with promises of millions of dollars.

An Iranian national has been arrested and charged, along with ten other defendants, with participating in a conspiracy to export U.S.-made military aircraft parts to Iran. Defendant Baktash Fattahi, an Iranian national and legal U.S. resident, was arrested in California, on April 3, 2009, on charges of conspiring to export military aircraft parts to Iran. 

Consultores De Navegacion, a Spanish company that operates the M/T Nautilus, an ocean-going chemical tanker ship, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Boston and has agreed to pay a fine of $2.5 million for criminal violations related to the overboard discharge of oil-contaminated bilge waste on the high seas.

Jorge Flores-Rojas, 44, an undocumented Mexican national, was sentenced to 24 years in prison by Chief Judge Robert J. Conrad, Jr. in Charlotte, N.C., for two counts of sex trafficking of minors and one count of interstate transportation of an adult for purposes of commercial sex. Flores-Rojas pled guilty to the charges on Oct. 7, 2008.

Latin Node Inc. (Latinode), a privately held Florida corporation, pleaded guilty today to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in connection with improper payments in Honduras and Yemen. At a hearing before U.S. District Judge Paul Courtney Huck in the Southern District of Florida, Latinode pleaded guilty to a one-count information charging a criminal violation of the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions.

Six former executives of an Orange County, Calif.-based valve company were charged today in connection with a conspiracy to secure contracts by paying bribes to officials of foreign state-owned companies as well as officers and employees of foreign and domestic private companies. The contracts resulted in net profits to the company of approximately $46.5 million. According to the indictment, the defendants allegedly engaged in a bribery conspiracy from approximately 1998 through 2007.

The Department has entered into a consent decree with the City of Ecorse, Mich., that, if approved by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Mich., will resolve the Department’s complaint against Ecorse filed in July 2008.

A federal court has barred a Chicago tax preparation firm, El Caminante, Inc. and its principal operator, Maria Colica, from preparing federal income tax returns claiming false tax credits. The company and Colica agreed to the injunction. The Government civil injunction complaint filed in the case alleged that Colica fraudulently claimed fuel tax credits for customers who were not entitled to them.

A former Jackson County, Mo., sheriff’s deputy was indicted on April 7, 2009, by a federal grand jury for violating the civil rights of a teenage girl whom he forced to perform sexual acts in his patrol car. The indictment alleges that Steven W. Burgess, 35, of Independence, Mo., then a deputy sheriff with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, while acting under color of law, deprived a minor child of her Constitutional rights on July 24, 2007.

Robert Moran, of Lighthouse Point, Fla., pleaded guilty today to a criminal information charging him with filing a false income tax return. Moran appeared today before Judge James I. Cohn in Ft. Lauderdale and accepted responsibility for concealing more than $3 million in assets in a secret bank account at UBS in Switzerland.

The Department announced that a federal district court judge in Louisville, Ky., approved a settlement of the Department’s lawsuit alleging that those involved in the design and construction of 12 multifamily housing complexes discriminated on the basis of disability. The complexes contain more than 800 units covered by the Fair Housing Act’s accessibility provisions.

Quest Diagnostics Incorporated and its subsidiary, Nichols Institute Diagnostics (NID), have entered into a global settlement with the United States to resolve criminal and civil claims concerning various types of diagnostic test kits that NID manufactured, marketed and sold to laboratories throughout the country until 2006. The payment of $302 million will resolve these allegations and represents one of the largest recoveries ever in a case involving a medical device.

A Rosemount, Minn., man has pleaded guilty in connection with running a Ponzi scheme involving commodity pools. Charles “Chuck” E. Hays, 56, pleaded guilty before U.S District Court Judge Donovan Frank on April 14, 2009, in St. Paul, Minn., to one count of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud, and one count of structuring transactions to avoid financial reporting requirements.

The United States has reached a settlement with NetApp Inc. and NetApp U.S. Public Sector Inc. (collectively NetApp), following an investigation of alleged false claims and contract fraud. NetApp has agreed to pay the United States $128 million, plus interest. This is the largest contract fraud settlement the General Services Administration (GSA) has obtained to date.

The Department told the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia today that it is necessary to extend the term of certain portions of the Microsoft final judgment by at least 18 months. The Department said that an extension is necessary to ensure the quality of the technical documentation Microsoft provides to licensees.

A Virginia man pleaded guilty today to selling counterfeit computer software on eBay in violation of criminal copyright infringement laws, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Rita M. Glavin of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor for the District of Columbia.

Six energy companies, in three settlements, have agreed to install pollution control equipment at a cost of over $6 million to comply with the Clean Air Act at their natural gas producing facilities in the Uinta Basin, near Vernal, Utah. The facilities are located on the Uintah &

A federal judge today sentenced Jimmy “Jimbo” Sullivan, the former chief of police in Mendenhall, Miss., to 30 months in prison for using excessive force when he repeatedly stomped on the head of an arrestee. At his guilty plea hearing on Jan. 30, 2009, Sullivan admitted that he used excessive force on July 22, 2005, after joining other law enforcement officials in the apprehension of a man who led police on a car chase.

DuPont and Lucite International Inc. have agreed to pay a $2 million civil penalty to settle Clean Air Act violations at a sulfuric acid plant in Belle, W. Va. The sulfuric acid plant is located on a 100-acre chemical manufacturing complex along the Kanawha River. The plant is owned by Lucite and operated by DuPont. The companies will pay $1 million to the United States and $1 million to the state of West Virginia.

Alta Colleges Inc. and its wholly-owned collegiate schools in Texas have agreed to pay the United States $7 million to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act that the Texas schools submitted false claims for federal student aid funds. The United States alleged that Alta’s Texas colleges obtained the requisite state licenses by misrepresenting to the state licensing agency that they complied with state job-placement reporting requirements and that their interior design programs complied with requirements for a professional license.

Two subsidiaries of the Swedish company Trelleborg AB, one based in Virginia and the other in France, have agreed to plead guilty and pay a total of $11 million in criminal fines for their participation in separate conspiracies affecting the sales of marine products sold in the United States and elsewhere.

"Community policing in the United States is built on two partnerships: first, and fundamentally, the partnership between state, local and tribal law enforcement and the communities they serve. And second, the partnership between these law enforcement agencies and the Department of Justice."

A former Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) official pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Columbus, Ga., for his role in a conspiracy to commit bribery involving a multimillion dollar telecommunications contract, and for not reporting the bribes he accepted on his income tax returns.

Lazare Kabaya Kobagaya, 82, of Topeka, Kan., was arrested today on charges of naturalization fraud and misuse of an alien registration card. According to the indictment, Kobagaya allegedly participated in genocidal activities during the 1994 Rwandan conflict including mobilizing attackers to commit arson and murder. Kobagaya is alleged to have failed to disclose his alleged participation in these activities during his immigration and naturalization processes.

The Department filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Baltimore alleging that the city of Baltimore’s zoning code discriminates against individuals with disabilities by requiring substance abuse treatment facilities to go through a burdensome “conditional ordinance” zoning process in order to locate in any zone.

The United States has settled its claims filed under the False Claims Act against Lighthouse Disaster Relief and its partners, Gary Heldreth and Kerry Farmer. In its complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana, the United States alleged that Lighthouse, Heldreth, and Farmer accepted a $5.3 million payment for work that was not completely performed on a contract with the Department of Homeland Security.

A federal grand jury has indicted four defendants, and an information has been filed against a fifth defendant, for their participation in a massive mortgage fraud scheme that allegedly promised to pay off homeowners’ mortgages on their “Dream Homes,” but left them to fend for themselves. The indictment was returned on April 22, 2009, and unsealed today.

Justin Hanson, 21, of Mason City, Iowa, pleaded guilty today in federal court in Cedar Rapids to violating the civil rights of an African-American family.

The former head securities trader for Lancer Group hedge funds pleaded guilty on April 28, 2009, to one count of conspiracy to commit mail, wire and securities fraud. Eric Hauser, 65, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Adalberto Jordan in Miami. Hauser admitted to participating in a scheme to manipulate trading of stocks owned by the Lancer Group hedge funds.

The Department has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia against Nobel Learning Communities Inc. (Nobel) alleging the company violated Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act by excluding children with autism spectrum disorders and other disabilities from its schools and programs.

The Department announced a settlement that, if approved by the court, will resolve its lawsuit filed on behalf of David D. Sweatt, a Michigan Army National Guard member currently serving in Iraq, against his former employer, Americraft Carton Inc. (Americraft).

The Department announced an agreement with the owners, a manager and a former manager of Cottage Manor Apartments in Lakewood, N.J., to settle allegations of discrimination on the basis of religion, national origin and race.

The former director of information technology for a non-profit organ and tissue donation center has entered a guilty plea to intruding into her former employer’s computer network.

Former Tippah County, Miss., Deputy Sheriff William Rogers and his son, former Tippah County Deputy Sheriff Jeffrey Rogers, were sentenced in federal court on April 30, 2009, for violating the civil rights of an arrestee by shooting him with a taser unnecessarily.

The Department today filed suit against the Fitchburg Housing Authority in Fitchburg, Mass., and its Executive Director Robert W. Hill alleging that they violated the Fair Housing Act when they refused to allow a tenant to transfer to a different apartment as a reasonable accommodation for her disabilities.

"To ensure that the Department holds itself to the highest standards during discovery -- as in every stage of litigation -- in our criminal cases, and also in our civil litigation, we have taken both short-term and long-term action."

The Department announced that on May 5, 2009, it will monitor municipal elections in the towns of Cleveland, Como, Meridian and Sardis, Miss., to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Todd Gongwer of Dublin, Ohio; Lance Parker of Dublin, Ohio; and Joel Lee, of Galena, Ohio, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Gongwer, a licensed real estate agent, also pleaded guilty to tax evasion in the hearing before Judge Michael H. Watson in Columbus, Ohio. Parker also pleaded guilty to illegally structuring cash transactions.

Patrick Cochran, 47, of Lake Jackson, Texas, pleaded guilty today to one count of travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor, and one count of possession of child pornography.

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit today against Equity Homes Inc, PBR LLC, BBR LLC and Shane Hartung in U.S. District Court in South Dakota for failing to provide accessible features required by the Fair Housing Act at multi-family housing developments in Sioux Falls.

A South Korean businessman was indicted today for his alleged role in a bribery conspiracy for a $206 million telecommunications contract involving employees of the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES).

Two former managers of the Bank of China and their wives were sentenced today after their convictions on Aug. 29, 2008, by a federal jury in Las Vegas on charges of racketeering, money laundering, international transportation of stolen property as well as passport and visa fraud.

A former jail administrator at the Cibola County Detention Center in Grants, N.M., was sentenced today to 97 months in prison, two years of supervised release and a $400 special assessment for violating the rights of inmates in his custody at two separate New Mexico jails.

Anadarko Petroleum Co., and two related oil production companies have agreed to pay a civil penalty of more than $1 million and implement injunctive relief, develop facility response plans, and revise spill prevention as well as containment plans at a cost of more than $8 million during the term of the settlement in order to resolve violations of the Clean Water Act.

Novo Nordisk A/S (Novo), a Danish corporation based in Bagsvaerd, Denmark, has agreed to pay a $9 million penalty for illegal kickbacks paid to the former Iraqi government.

"Helping foreign countries improve their criminal justice systems so they can cooperate more effectively with us and with their neighbors in real time is an important aspect of this department’s mission."

Alaska Gold Co. (Alaska Gold), and NovaGold Resources Inc. (NovaGold), the owners and operators of the Rock Creek Mine near Nome, Alaska, have agreed to pay a $883,628 civil penalty to resolve violations of a storm water discharge permit.

"If our partnership with state, local and tribal law enforcement is to endure, federal financial support cannot be a one time occurrence. This country is facing prolonged problems that require steadfast commitment and long-term cooperation."

"You will be starting your service at a time when your government is placing a new and long overdue value on the scientific skills you have developed in this program."