"We are blocking this transaction because the proposed merger would substantially lessen competition in the tax preparation software market, resulting in higher prices, lower quality and reduced innovation," said Assistant Attorney General Varney.

A Trenton, N.J., jury Wednesday found Paterson, N.J.-based dietary supplement companies Quality Formulation Laboratories Inc. and American Sports Nutrition Inc., as well as their owner, Mohamed S. Desoky, and managers Ahmad Desoky Esq. and Omar Desoky, guilty of multiple counts of criminal contempt of court for violating a consent decree.

A Cincinnati man pleaded guilty yesterday to selling more than $1 million worth of counterfeit financial and tax preparation software through an Internet auction site.

The United States, the California Department of Fish and Game and the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Central Coast Region, filed a civil complaint today in federal court against Greka Oil & Gas Inc. alleging that the company violated federal and state water laws.

The Department of Justice announced today that it has reached a settlement with George’s Inc. that requires George’s to make important capital improvements to a Harrisonburg, Va., chicken processing plant in order to settle the litigation surrounding George’s acquisition of the Tyson Foods Inc. plant.

The Justice Department today filed a lawsuit against Farmland Foods Inc., a major producer of pork products in the United States, alleging that it engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination by imposing unnecessary documentary requirements on non-U.S. citizens when establishing their authority to work in the United States.

The Justice Department announced today the unsealing of a criminal information earlier today, charging four defendants with conspiracy to commit wire fraud involving a nation-wide reverse mortgage scam that defrauded elderly borrowers, financial institutions and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Deputy Attorney General James Cole today announced the appointment of Stuart M. Goldberg as the Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General and David A. O’Neil as the Chief of Staff to the Deputy Attorney General.

Caterpillar Inc. has agreed to pay a $2.55 million civil penalty to settle alleged Clean Air Act violations for shipping more than 590,000 highway and non-road engines without the correct emissions controls.

The Justice Department today reached a settlement agreement with Kinro Manufacturing Inc. in Goshen, Ind., resolving allegations that the company engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination against work-authorized non-citizens in the employment eligibility verification process.

Onuoha “Iggy” Nwokoro pleaded guilty in federal district court in Washington, D.C., to willfully aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false income tax return for 2004.

"From key federal partners, to policy experts, researchers, and front-line practitioners, each of you is an essential part of the incident response community," said Attorney General Holder.

"Our resilience is due, in great part, to our ability to come together at all levels of government to build and bolster a solid public safety infrastructure," said Assistant Attorney General Robinson.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced today that it has reached a settlement with the city of Winchester, Va., to resolve allegations that the city violated the reemployment rights of U.S. Marine Corps reservist Jon Fultz.

The Department of Justice announced today that it will require Cumulus Media Inc., one of the largest operators of radio stations in the United States, to divest three radio stations in two markets in order for Cumulus to proceed with its acquisition of Citadel Broadcasting Corporation.

The United States has partially intervened in a lawsuit under the False Claims Act against Halifax Hospital Medical Center and Halifax Staffing Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Two principals of A&O Resource Management Ltd. have been sentenced for their roles in a $100 million life settlement fraud scheme, which included more than 800 victims across the United States and Canada.

Hitachi-LG Data Storage Inc. has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $21.1 million criminal fine for its participation in a series of conspiracies to rig bids and fix prices for the sale of optical disk drives.

LHC Group Inc. has agreed to pay $65 million, plus interest, to the federal government to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act for false home healthcare billings to the Medicare, TRICARE and Federal Employees Health Benefits programs.

The Ryland Group Inc. will pay a civil penalty of $625,000 to resolve alleged Clean Water Act violations at its construction sites, including sites located in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

The Department of Justice today reached a settlement with Grupo Bimbo S.A.B. de C.V., BBU Inc. and the Sara Lee Corporation that requires them to divest brands of sliced fresh bread and associated assets, in order to proceed with Grupo Bimbo and BBU’s acquisition of Sara Lee’s North American Fresh Bakery business.

DFine Inc. of San Jose, Calif., has agreed to pay the United States $2.39 million to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act that the company paid kickbacks to induce physicians to use certain of the company’s devices that are used in treating spinal fractures.

Thirteen individuals, including an alleged member and an associate of the Lucchese organized crime family, are charged with racketeering and related offenses in an indictment unsealed this morning in conjunction with arrests in the case.

Former Lincoln County, Mo., Sheriff’s Office Detective Scott Edwards, 49, of Troy, Mo. was indicted on civil rights charges for violating the constitutional rights of five women through acts of aggravated sexual abuse and sexual contact.

Chiquita Q. Broadnax, a resident of Montgomery County, Ala., was sentenced today to 18 months in prison by Judge Mark Fuller of the Middle District of Alabama for her involvement in a fraudulent tax return perpetration scheme.

The 15-count third superseding indictment returned by the federal grand jury on Nov. 16, 2011, and unsealed today in Hammond includes 15 new defendants who are charged with conspiracy to engage in racketeering activity from August 1989 until the date of the third superseding indictment.

The violations include unpermitted discharges of stormwater and failure to comply with stormwater permits at 21 stone, gravel, sand, asphalt and ready-mix concrete facilities in Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland and New York.

New Jersey-based dietary supplement companies Quality Formulation Laboratories Inc. and American Sports Nutrition Inc., as well as their owner and managers, were sentenced today for multiple counts of criminal contempt of court for violating a consent decree entered by the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey on March 16, 2010.

The Antitrust Division obtained extensive information from Google, Admeld and a wide range of market participants in connection with its merger investigation of the proposed transaction. After a thorough review of the evidence, the division concluded that the transaction is not likely to substantially lessen competition in the sale of display advertising.

“The tragedy at Upper Big Branch will never be forgotten, and the families affected by it will never be made completely whole again. Today’s agreement represents the largest-ever resolution in a criminal investigation of a mine disaster and will ensure appropriate steps are taken to improve mine safety now and will fund research to enhance mine safety in the future,” said Attorney General Holder.

Medtronic Inc. of Fridley, Minn., has agreed to pay the United States $23.5 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claim Act by using physician payments related to post-market studies and device registries as kickbacks to induce doctors to implant the company’s pacemakers and defibrillators.

“This result is a victory for the millions of Americans who use mobile wireless telecommunications services,” said Deputy Attorney General Cole.

– The principal and co-owner of Integra Capital Management LLC, a North Carolina company, pleaded guilty today for his role in a commodities trading investment scheme that allegedly raised more than $3.2 million.

GE Funding Capital Market Services Inc. entered into an agreement with the Department of Justice to resolve the company’s role in anticompetitive activity in the municipal bond investments market and agreed to pay a total of $70 million in restitution, penalties and disgorgement to federal and state agencies.

“This is a devastating and unacceptable trend. Each of these deaths is a tragic reminder of the threats that law enforcement officers face each day – and the fact that too many guns have fallen into the hands of those who are not legally permitted to possess them,” said Attorney General Eric Holder.

The Justice Department announced today that it reached a settlement with BAE Systems Ship Repair Inc., a leading provider of ship repair services, to settle allegations that its subsidiary, BAE Systems Southeast Shipyards Alabama LLC, engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination by imposing unnecessary and additional documentary requirements on work-authorized non-U.S. citizens when establishing their eligibility to work in the United States.

GE Healthcare Inc. has paid the United States $30 million, plus interest, to settle allegations that a company it acquired in 2004, Amersham Health Inc., had violated the False Claims Act by causing Medicare to overpay for Myoview, a radiopharmaceutical used in certain cardiac diagnostic imaging procedures, the Justice Department announced.

Douglas R. Madsen, a chiropractor from Ephraim, Utah, was convicted today after a jury trial in the U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City of income tax evasion, the Justice Department announced.

The Justice Department announced today that a federal grand jury in Greenbelt, Md., has indicted Anthony McIntosh, 48, a former corrections officer at the Prince George’s County Detention Center, in Upper Marlboro, Md., on three charges related to the in-custody death of a pretrial detainee, Ronnie White, on June 29, 2008, and McIntosh’s subsequent attempts to cover-up his involvement in White’s death.

Jonathan Curshen, 47, the principal of Red Sea Management and Sentry Global Securities, two companies located in San Jose, Costa Rica, that provided offshore accounts and facilitated trading in penny stocks, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud and mail fraud; two counts of mail fraud; and conspiracy to commit international money laundering.

The Antitrust Division closed its investigations into Google Inc.’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., the acquisitions by Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Research in Motion Ltd. (RIM) of certain Nortel Networks Corporation patents, and the acquisition by Apple of certain Novell Inc. patents.

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.

The United States has intervened in a whistleblower suit pending under the False Claims Act against American Commercial College Inc. (ACC), a chain of for-profit colleges located in west Texas.

The Justice Department filed a consent decree today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after reaching an agreement with Prince William County, Va., that will allow for the county’s bailout from its status as a “covered jurisdiction” under the special provisions of the Voting Rights Act.

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.

Edward Arakelyan, 21, and Arman Vardanyan, 22, were each charged in a criminal information filed on March 5, 2012, in U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif., with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, one count of bank fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft.

The Justice Department announced today that it reached an agreement with Ross Stores Inc., resolving allegations that the company had engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination based on citizenship status while verifying employment eligibility at its store in San Ysidro, Calif.

EUSA Pharma (USA) Inc. has agreed to pay the United States $180,000 to resolve claims that it violated the False Claims Act by allegedly encouraging doctors to submit inflated claims to Medicare for imaging scans.

The Justice Department will require Humana Inc. and Arcadian Management Services Inc. to divest assets relating to Arcadian’s Medicare Advantage business in parts of five states in order for Humana to proceed with its acquisition of Arcadian.

A federal court has permanently barred Robert Jensen, a certified public accountant from San Diego, from providing tax advice or preparing federal tax returns that illegally attempt to reduce customers’ taxable income, the Justice Department announced today.