The United States has asked a federal court in Savannah, Ga., to permanently bar Ophelia Kelley of Vidalia, Ga., from preparing federal income tax returns for others. According to the government complaint, Kelley operates two return preparation firms in Vidalia – Kelley Tax Service, and City and Country Girl Tax Service.

Nora R. Dannehy, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and other federal officials announced that Hassan Abu-Jihaad, formerly known as Paul R. Hall, 33, of Phoenix, Arizona, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Mark R. Kravitz in New Haven to 120 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for disclosing previously classified information relating to the national defense.

As homeowners and communities throughout the country continue to face devastating consequences from the deep contraction in the economy and the housing market, the Obama Administration today announced a new coordinated effort across federal and state government and the private sector to target mortgage loan modification fraud and foreclosure rescue scams that threaten to hurt American homeowners and prevent them from getting the help they need during these challenging times.

On May 15, 2009, the Fifth Circuit, in Klamath Strategic Investment Fund v. United States (No. 07-40861), affirmed the district court’s decision denying over $50 million in claimed tax losses arising from the taxpayers’ investment in a “Son of Boss (BLIPS)” tax shelter.

Giancarlo Pertile was sentenced to prison for tax evasion yesterday afternoon. U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz sentenced Pertile, the former owner of Art Marble Design Inc., in Moorpark, Calif., to 60 months in federal prison and ordered Pertile to pay a fine of $75,000. In January 2009, Pertile was convicted by a Los Angeles federal jury of five counts of tax evasion for the years 1998 through 2002.

An indictment was filed today charging seven individuals -- three former shareholders of the Jenkens & Gilchrist law firm (J&G), the former Chief Executive Officer and a former tax partner from the BDO Seidman accounting firm (BDO), and two former bankers from a foreign bank with headquarters in New York (Bank A) -- with tax fraud conspiracy and related crimes arising out of tax shelters promoted by J&G, BDO, and the bank.

A federal jury in Los Angeles convicted a physician assistant late yesterday for his role in a $7.7 million Medicare fraud scheme.

The United States has sued four Hialeah, Fla., tax return preparers –Alberto Alem, Beatriz Sardinas and Pilar Medina and their company, PCPS Corp. – seeking to put them out of business. The civil injunction suit was filed in Miami with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. According to the civil injunction complaint, the defendants prepare federal income tax returns with fabricated claims for the federal fuel tax credit.

A federal jury in Los Angeles convicted the owners and operators of a Los Angeles-area durable medical equipment company of Medicare fraud. After a one-week trial in federal court in Los Angeles, the jury found Gevork Kartashyan, 45, guilty of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and health care fraud; and Eliza Shurabalyan, 42, guilty of health care fraud. U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson of the Central District of Los Angeles scheduled sentencing for Oct. 5, 2009.

Five members of an extended family were sentenced to federal prison late yesterday, all receiving lengthy sentences for their roles in an international sex trafficking ring that lured young Guatemalan women and girls to the Los Angeles area and forced them into prostitution.

The Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) today announced that the agreement with the Swiss government has been finalized. As a result of the agreement, the United States will receive substantially all of the accounts of interest when it initiated the John Doe summons against UBS on June 30, 2008.

Two manufacturing companies, in separate settlements, have agreed to pay civil penalties and take corrective measures to settle Clean Air Act violations resulting from explosions at two plants in 2002 and 2003 in Louisville, Ky., and Pascagoula, Miss.

James A. Mattatall, of Torrance, Calif., was convicted Tuesday of criminal contempt by a federal district court in Los Angeles. Mattatall’s conviction relates to his violations of a 2004 permanent injunction that barred him from preparing tax returns for others and representing persons before the IRS.

The United States has filed a lawsuit alleging that a bank and two automobile dealerships in Los Angeles violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act by charging non-Asian-American customers higher interest rate mark-ups for a period of at least two years.

Twenty defendants have been charged in seven cases for allegedly participating in Medicare fraud schemes that resulted in more than $26 million in fraudulent bills to the Medicare program.

The government complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Dallas alleges that Travis Nicholas Stenline of Seagoville, Texas, operates a business he calls Nick Tax or Nick’s Taxes that prepares fraudulent returns for customers.

A federal court in Los Angeles has issued permanent injunctions barring a Torrance, Calif., tax preparer, Susan Guan and her company, SRN Financial Services Inc., from preparing tax returns for others

The government complaint in the civil injunction case alleged that Jacqueline Cornejo promoted a tax fraud scheme designed to siphon millions of dollars from the U.S. Treasury.

The Kerlan Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic, a sports medicine clinic in Los Angeles, has agreed to pay the United States $3 million to settle allegations that it received illegal kickbacks from HealthSouth Corporation.

James A. Mattatall of Torrance, Calif., was sentenced to six months in prison for violating a permanent injunction.

The United States has asked a federal court in Dublin, Ga., to permanently bar James J. King from preparing federal income tax returns for others.

The United States has obtained a $10 million consent judgment against Los Angeles businessman Robert Bourseau and Dr. Rudra Sabaratnam for a Medicare and Medi-Cal fraud scheme arising from their former ownership of the Los Angeles City of Angels Medical Center.

The owner and operator of a Los Angeles durable medical equipment (DME) company pleaded guilty today to submitting nearly $1 million in false claims to Medicare.

Gevork Kartashyan, 45, and Eliza Shubaralyan, 42, were each sentenced to serve two years in prison by U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson of the Central District of California.

There is insufficient evidence to pursue federal criminal civil rights charges against New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers involved in the fatal shooting of Sean Bell.

"After a thorough review of the evidence, the division has determined that the proposed transaction is not likely to substantially lessen competition in the United States."

Among other things, Zazi admitted that he brought TATP [Triacetone Triperoxide] explosives to New York on Sept. 10, 2009, as part of plan to attack the New York subway system.

The United States has asked a federal court in Columbia, S.C., to permanently bar Dorothy Anderson, d/b/a DL Anderson Tax Service, from preparing federal income tax returns for others.

A federal court in Los Angeles has permanently barred Nyla McIntyre of Covina, Calif. and her business, Approved Financial Services, Inc., from preparing tax returns for others.

Leonard Nwafor, 44, was sentenced in absentia by U.S. District Judge John F. Walter of the Central District of California to nine years in prison.

The owner and operator of a Los Angeles durable medical equipment (DME) company pleaded guilty today to submitting nearly one half of a million dollars in false claims to Medicare.

The Justice Department will not pursue federal criminal civil rights charges against the eight Bay County, Fla., Boot Camp staff members involved in the incident that resulted in the death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson.

The United States has sued an Ohio man and his company, seeking to bar them from promoting a scheme that allegedly helps customers claim improper theft loss tax deductions.

The owner and operator of a Los Angeles durable medical equipment company was sentenced to 55 months in prison today in connection with a nearly $1 million power wheelchair fraud scheme.

Vagan Adzhemyan, 41, of Costa Mesa, Calif.; Suren Garibyan, 32, of North Hollywood, Calif.; and Galvin Shaun Gibson, 30, of Mira Loma, Calif., were charged in August 2009 with conspiracy to commit kidnapping and kidnapping.

A Bulgarian national pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia for his role in laundering money for a transnational criminal group based in Eastern Europe.

The United States has obtained a $10 million consent judgment against Intercare Health Systems Inc., formerly doing business as City of Angels Medical Center, for a Medicare and Medi-Cal fraud scheme in Los Angeles.

A federal judge in Santa Ana, Calif., has permanently barred Thanh Viet Jeremy Cao and his business, Phoenix Financial Management Group, from preparing federal tax returns.

– The Mercator Corporation, a merchant bank with offices in New York, pleaded guilty today in federal court in Manhattan, N.Y., to one count of making an unlawful payment to a senior government official of the Republic of Kazakhstan, in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

A federal court in Kansas City, Mo, has permanently barred Missouri lawyer A. Blair Stover Jr. from promoting a variety of improper tax schemes.

Charles Yi and John Bostick were arrested Wednesday for violations of the Clean Air Act’s asbestos work practice standards committed during the renovation of a 204-unit apartment building in Winnetka, Calif., in January through February of 2006.

Today Attorney General Eric Holder and U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius kicked off the second in a series of daylong summits bringing together a wide array of federal, state and local partners, beneficiaries, providers and other interested parties to discuss innovative ways to eliminate fraud within the U.S. health care system.

"This summit is an important step forward – an opportunity to build on what has been discussed, and achieved, since Secretary Sebelius and I convened the first “National Summit on Health Care Fraud” in Washington in January," said Attorney General Holder.

"These summits offer our agencies the opportunity to share our success stories, explain our innovative investigative approaches, and listen to and learn from your ideas and concerns," said Assistant Attorney General Breuer

A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia has returned an indictment charging Stephen Jin-Woo Kim with unlawfully disclosing national defense information to a reporter for a national news organization and making false statements to the FBI.

A Raleigh, N.C., real estate speculator pleaded guilty to conspiring to rig bids for public real estate foreclosure auctions held in multiple counties in eastern North Carolina.

The Justice Department today announced that a scientist and his wife, who both previously worked as contractors at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, have been indicted on charges of communicating classified nuclear weapons data to a person they believed to be a Venezuelan government official and conspiring to participate in the development of an atomic weapon for Venezuela, among other violations.

The owner and operator of a Los Angeles durable medical equipment company was sentenced to 46 months in prison in connection with a power wheelchair scheme to defraud Medicare.

A patient recruiter who sold the personal information of Medicare beneficiaries from San Diego and Los Angeles to fraudulent Los Angeles medical clinics and durable medical equipment (DME) companies was sentenced late yesterday to 21 months in prison in connection with a scheme to defraud Medicare.

"Justice is, quite simply, the cornerstone of American democracy. The most profound aspirations of our nation’s founding could not be satisfied, nor its audacious hopes realized, without meaningful access to justice for all."