"By establishing a framework for enhanced cooperation among our agencies, the Memorandum of Understanding also allows us to move to the next chapter in our collaboration on competition law and policy matters," said Assistant Attorney General Varney.

"Protecting and defending tribal resources and rights, and vigorously enforcing the nation’s environmental and natural resources laws, are crucial parts of the Justice Department’s efforts to achieve healthier communities and a sustainable future for native people."

The Justice Department today announced an agreement with Montgomery County, Md., and Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission (MNCPPC), to improve access to all aspects of civic life for persons with disabilities.

“United States Attorney Dennis Burke has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s office, first as a line prosecutor over a decade ago and more recently as United States Attorney," said Attorney General Holder.

Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, today announced two new members of her senior leadership team.

The former campaign treasurer for Representative Frank LoBiondo of New Jersey was sentenced today to 30 months in prison for embezzling more than $450,000 from the congressman’s election and re-election campaign accounts.

A former chief executive officer of Florida-based telecommunications company Latin Node Inc. (LatiNode) was sentenced yesterday to 46 months in prison for paying bribes to former government officials in Honduras.

Bridgestone Corporation has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $28 million criminal fine for its role in conspiracies to rig bids and to make corrupt payments to foreign government officials in Latin America related to the sale of marine hose and other industrial products manufactured by the company and sold throughout the world.

"The settlement requires Regal Stone Limited and Fleet Management Limited to pay more than $44 million for natural resource damages and penalties, and to reimburse the government entities for response costs incurred as a result of the spill," said Assistant Attorney General Moreno.

Attorney General Eric Holder today joined Belgian Minister of Justice Stefaan De Clerck and Minister of Interior Annemie Turtelboom to sign an agreement on Preventing and Combating Serious Crime (PCSC), which will allow for the exchange of biometric and biographic data of suspected criminals between the United States and Belgium to bolster counterterrorism and law enforcement efforts while protecting individual privacy.

The Justice Department today announced an agreement with the town of Warrenton, Va., to improve access to all aspects of civic life for individuals with disabilities. The agreement was reached under Project Civic Access.

Attorney General Eric Holder joined U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington Jenny A. Durkan, the Wales family and the FBI in Seattle today to announce a new media and social media effort to seek information related to the 2001 slaying of Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas C. Wales.

Three individuals were charged in an indictment returned today by a federal grand jury in Utah for their alleged roles in a bribery and fraud scheme involving federal procurement contracts.

"The FCPA is an important mechanism for holding individuals and corporations accountable for fostering corruption abroad, and for motivating others to act responsibly," said Assistant Attorney General Breuer.

The agreement represents approximately 20 percent of the estimated $37.5 million in forfeited assets located in the Dominican Republic that stem from a conspiracy led by brothers Carlos, Luis and Jose Benitez, who allegedly defrauded the U.S. Medicare program of approximately $80 million.

In signing this important forfeited asset sharing agreement, Prosecutor General Radhaméz Jiménez Peña and I reaffirm our common values, as well as our ongoing commitment to the goals that the United States and the Dominican Republic share: protecting our citizens, strengthening our borders, improving public safety, reducing recidivism, preventing and combating gang- and drug-fueled crime and violence, and ensuring that criminals do not profit from illegal activity," said Attorney General Holder.

A federal grand jury in San Jose, Calif., Wednesday indicted Ashvin Desai of San Jose on three counts of tax evasion, two counts of willfully aiding the preparation of materially false tax returns and three counts of failing to file Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts.

The Justice Department today announced an agreement with Upshur County, Texas, to improve access to all aspects of civic life for people with disabilities.

"As our country continues to recover from once-in-a-generation economic challenges, the need to safeguard intellectual property rights – and to protect Americans from intellectual property crimes – has never been more urgent,” said Attorney General Holder.

"As our country continues to recover from once-in-a-generation economic challenges, the need to safeguard intellectual property rights – and to protect Americans from IP crimes – has never been more urgent. But, in many ways, this work has also never been more difficult," said Attorney General Holder.

Eight former executives and agents of Siemens AG and its subsidiaries have been charged for allegedly engaging in a decade-long scheme to bribe senior Argentine government officials to secure, implement and enforce a $1 billion contract with the Argentine government to produce national identity cards.

"The fraud recoveries that make up that $5.6 billion run the gamut – from healthcare fraud to grant fraud, from mortgage fraud to procurement fraud," said Deputy Attorney General Cole.

Based on the representations made by the Worker Rights Consortium, the department said that the proposal is unlikely to lessen competition in the collegiate apparel sector.

Aon Corporation, a publicly traded corporation headquartered in Chicago and one of the largest insurance brokerage firms in the world, has entered into an agreement with the Department of Justice to pay a $1.76 million penalty to resolve violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

The department filed a criminal information against Magyar Telekom and a two-year deferred prosecution agreement in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia today.

Marubeni Corporation has agreed to pay a $54.6 million criminal penalty to resolve charges related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for its participation in a decade-long scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials to obtain engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts.

Phoenix-area businessmen Stephen M. Kerr and Michael Quiel and former San Diego attorney Christopher M. Rusch were charged in Phoenix with conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for concealing millions of dollars in assets in numerous secret Swiss bank accounts held at UBS and elsewhere, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced.

Smith & Nephew Inc. has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice to resolve improper payments by the company and certain affiliates in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

The Justice Department today announced an agreement with the city of Humboldt, Kan., to improve access to all aspects of civic life for individuals with disabilities.

Albert “Jack” Stanley, a former chairman and chief executive officer of Kellogg, Brown & Root Inc. (KBR), was sentenced today to 30 months in prison for conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by participating in a decade-long scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials to obtain engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts and for conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud as part of a separate kickback scheme.

Alexander Beltran Herrera, 35, aka Jhon Alexander Beltrain Herrera, aka Rodrigo Pirinolo, an accused member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), has been extradited from Colombia to face hostage taking and terrorism charges in the United States.

BizJet International Sales and Support Inc., a provider of aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services based in Tulsa, Okla., has agreed to pay an $11.8 million criminal penalty to resolve charges related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for bribing government officials in Latin America to secure contracts to perform aircraft MRO services for government agencies.

The Justice Department announced that the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design go into effect today.

Biomet Inc. has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice to resolve improper payments by the company and its subsidiaries in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Mexican Attorney General Marisela Morales Ibáñez today signed a letter of intent for the United States to share approximately $6 million in forfeited funds with the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic of Mexico to support Mexican efforts to combat the financial infrastructure of organized criminal groups and to enhance bilateral cooperation between the two countries in forfeiture matters.

Six officials of an Upstate New York firm were arraigned yesterday before Magistrate Judge Leslie G. Foschio. On March 21, a federal grand jury in the Western District of New York indicted the six defendants, Philip R. DeLuca, Alfred R. LaGreca, Frank A. Fracassi, Michael A. Elia, Laurence A Elia and Richard A. Elia, on tax charges, including conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Stuart Carson, the former president of Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.-based valve company Control Components Inc. (CCI), and Hong “Rose” Carson, the former CCI director of sales for China and Taiwan, have pleaded guilty to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

Attorney General Eric Holder and Dominican Prosecutor General Radhamés Jiménez Peña met today in Washington, D.C., to sign a permanent agreement to share forfeited assets between the governments of the United States and the Dominican Republic. The permanent sharing agreement acknowledges the consistent forfeiture-related cooperation that United States authorities have received from the Dominican Republic and creates a more efficient process for sharing assets with the Dominican Republic.

Direct Resource Inc. has agreed to pay the government $450,000 to resolve allegations that the company falsely claimed payment in violation of the Trade Agreements Act (TAA), which prohibits the sale of products to federal agencies from countries that do not have a reciprocal trade agreement with the United States, the Justice Department announced today. The Columbus, Ohio, company allegedly knowingly sold products from China, a country that does not have such an agreement with the United States.

Attorney General Eric Holder issued the following statement today on the resignation of United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Patrick Fitzgerald.

Paul Cosgrove, the former Head of Worldwide Sales at Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.-based valve company Control Components Inc. (CCI) pleaded guilty today to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

The Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) announced today that four tribes in Nebraska, New Mexico, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota will be awarded cooperative agreements to cross-designate tribal prosecutors to pursue violence against women cases in both tribal and federal courts.

F. Harvey Whittemore, 55, of Reno, Nevada, was charged with one count of making excessive campaign contributions, one count of making contributions in the name of others and two counts of making a false statement to a federal agency.

Attorney General Eric Holder issued the following statement today on the assignment of U.S. Attorneys to lead investigations of possible unauthorized disclosures of classified information.

"Respect for tribal sovereignty, which inspires the title of this Symposium, underlies all of the work that the Department of Justice does to further tribal justice and public safety," said Deputy Attorney General Cole.

David Edmonds, the former vice president of worldwide customer service at Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.-based valve company Control Components Inc., pleaded guilty today to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

Data Systems &s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Neil H. MacBride.

Attorney General Eric Holder and Malaysian Minister for Home Affairs Datuk Seri Hishammuddin bin Tun Hussein met today, during the Attorney General’s official visit to Malaysia, to discuss transnational crime, terrorism and other areas of mutual law enforcement cooperation.

NORDAM Group Inc., a provider of aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services based in Tulsa, Okla., has entered into an agreement with the Department of Justice to pay a $2 million penalty to resolve violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Two foreign nationals have pleaded guilty for their roles in a scheme to traffic the identities of Puerto Rican U.S. citizens and corresponding identity documents.