"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 has reached a proposed settlement with Consolidated Multiple Listing Service Inc. (CMLS) that requires CMLS to change its rules to allow low-priced and innovative brokers to compete with traditional brokers in the Columbia, S.C., area. The Department said the rules caused consumers to pay more for residential real estate brokerage services in the Columbia area.

U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow today sentenced Victor Ramirez, a/k/a “Mousey,” age 30, a native of El Salvador who resided in Hyattsville, Md., to 60 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release.

A federal court in Tampa, Fla., has permanently barred Daniel Prewett from preparing tax returns for others. The court also barred Prewett from helping customers hide income offshore to avoid taxes, and from promoting other tax-dodging schemes. The court has also enjoined Prewett’s wife, Elizabeth George; former Prewett employees Frances Carlson, Elsie Chouinard and Natalie Swaney; and Prewett’s three tax preparation businesses, listed below. The individual defendants agreed to the injunctions.

A federal court in Savannah, Ga., today permanently barred Ophelia Kelley, of Vidalia, Ga., from preparing federal income tax returns for others. According to the government complaint, Kelley operated two return preparation firms in Vidalia – Kelley Tax Service and City and Country Girl Tax Service. Kelley agreed to the civil injunction order.

The Department filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, Calif., against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), alleging that the CDCR failed to promptly reemploy U.S. Air Force reservist Dany Felix in violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA).

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.

Carmelo Oria, a Spanish citizen who was the chief engineer on the Cyprus-flagged M/T Nautilus, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts for maintaining inaccurate records that concealed a discharge of oil-contaminated water from the bilges of the M/T Nautilus. Oria was sentenced to one month in prison, to be followed by supervised release for a term of two years and a $3,000 fine.

Frank P. DiMartino, an accountant from Orange, Conn., pleaded guilty today to charges of tax evasion.

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.

A 23-count indictment unsealed today alleges that a civilian contractor paid more than $2.8 million in bribes to a U.S. Army contracting official stationed at Camp Arifjan, an Army base in Kuwait, and the official’s wife, and that the three individuals committed honest services fraud and money laundering offenses in connection with the same conduct.

"This is an exciting time as well as a challenging one, and under the leadership of this President and this Attorney General, we are up for the job together."

"With power and wealth must come responsibility and caring. You must realize that you possess real and symbolic power as lawyers and understand that you can change the whole of America for the better."

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."

The Department's Antitrust Division announced the details of its newly formed initiative aimed at preparing government officials and contractors to recognize and report efforts by parties to unlawfully profit from the stimulus projects that are being awarded as part of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.    

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.

A federal grand jury in Houston returned a two-count indictment today charging Laura Pendergest-Holt, the chief investment officer of Houston-based Stanford Financial Group (SFG), with conspiring to obstruct a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proceeding investigating SFG, as well as a substantive count of obstructing the SEC proceeding.

Robert P. Merz, 45, was convicted by a federal jury in Philadelphia today of advertising, transporting, receiving and possessing child pornography.

"Tonight we hold a vigil, but every day we must be vigilant. So let us bind ourselves together with a new bond of service -- to make our country brighter, safer and more hopeful -- and in so doing, let us honor the memory of our fallen heroes every day."

Three former jailers at the Lexington-Fayette County Detention Center (FCDC) pleaded guilty today to civil rights charges in federal court in Lexington, Ky.

The president of a Miami-Dade County, Fla.,-based intermediary and the former controller of a Miami-Dade County-based telecommunications company both have pleaded guilty in connection with their roles in a conspiracy to pay and conceal more than $1 million in bribes to former Haitian government officials.

Michael Wayne Sulfridge, a resident of Union Grove, Ala., and former vice president of corporate finance at Image Entry, Inc. (Image Entry), pleaded guilty today to fraud and tax evasion charges stemming from the company’s 2001 acquisition by Sourcecorp, Inc. (Sourcecorp).

"Let us bind ourselves together in a new bond of service -- to make our country brighter, safer, and more hopeful -- and in so doing, let us bear true witness to the legacies of our fallen heroes."

"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."

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.

The Department has entered into a consent decree with Wagner Industrial Electric Inc. that, if approved by the court, will resolve the Department’s complaint the company failed to properly reemploy Indiana Army National Guard Reservist Kevin Stenger in violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA).

Georgia-Pacific, a manufacturing company headquartered in Atlanta, has agreed to perform remedial work at an estimated cost of nearly $13 million to contain two former disposal areas within the Kalamazoo River Superfund site in Allegan and Kalamazoo Counties, Mich.

A Virginia man has been sentenced to 63 months in federal prison for participating in a conspiracy that led to more than 10 million pounds of frozen catfish being imported from Vietnam, but fraudulently labeled and sold in the United States as sole, grouper and other species. This sentence is one of the longest imposed by a federal judge for falsely labeling seafood.

"Graduates, as you dive head first toward tomorrow, I call upon you to never loosen nor lose your grip on hope. The optimism that seems to come naturally with youth need not be lost as the years pass."

The Department announced today a settlement of a lawsuit alleging discrimination on the basis of disability in the design and construction of four multifamily housing complexes in the Spokane, Wash., area in violation of the federal Fair Housing Act.

Christopher Handley, 39, of Glenwood, Iowa, pleaded guilty today in Des Moines, Iowa, to possessing obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children and mailing obscene material.

Mohammed Abdullah Warsame, a 35-year-old resident of Minneapolis, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to provide material support and resources to al-Qaeda.

Regency Nursing and Rehabilitation Centers Inc. nursing home chain will pay the United States $4 million to settle allegations that Regency submitted false claims to Medicare and the Texas Medicaid program. The Victoria, Texas-based chain currently owns and operates 24 nursing home facilities located through the state.

A U.S. Navy subcontractor from Virginia has pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the Navy in connection with contracts for fabricated metal to be used for the repair and maintenance of elevator equipment on Navy aircraft carriers and support vessels. The charge is the first to arise out of the Department’s ongoing antitrust investigation into the sales of fabricated metal products and other materials to the U.S. Navy.

The Maine Department of Education (MDE) has agreed to pay the United States $1.5 million to settle allegations that it submitted false information to the U.S. Department of Education regarding the state education agency’s eligibility to receive federal funds under the Migrant Education Program.

A federal jury that convicted Steven D. Green, a former Ft. Campbell, Ky., soldier of charges arising out of the rape of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the murder of the girl and her family today said it was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on whether the defendant should be sentenced to death. Because the jury did not unanimously reach a decision on the death penalty, U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell will sentence Green to life without parole.

"Preventing the sexual exploitation of children, and stopping and punishing those who do it are a leading priority. The Department aggressively enforces the laws at our disposal to protect our children."

Tony West, Assistant Attorney General (AAG) for the Justice Department’s Civil Division, today announced four new members of the Division’s leadership team.

The Justice Department today filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Va., on behalf of U.S. Coast Guard Reserve member Paul Sutton against the city of Chesapeake alleging violations of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA).

In a lawsuit filed today on behalf of U.S. Navy Reservist Porotesano Faapouli the Justice Department contends that Fresno County, Calif., violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) by failing to promptly and properly reemploy Faapouli when he returned from active military duty with a service-related injury.

A former Velda City, Mo., auxiliary reserve police officer was sentenced today to 19 years and seven months in prison, three years of supervised release and a special assessment for violating the federal civil rights of a woman he sexually assaulted during a traffic stop and for concealing evidence of his crime from federal investigators.

Five defendants were sentenced this week for their participation in a corruption scheme involving the 2000 resident commissioner and 2004 gubernatorial campaigns of a former governor of Puerto Rico.

The Justice Department today filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., on behalf of U.S. Naval Reserve member George Lawton against the Newark Public Schools (NPS) alleging violations of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA).

Special Litigation Counsel Kristy Parker, a senior attorney in the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section, has been selected to receive the 2009 Top Prosecutor Award from the Women in Federal Law Enforcement (WIFLE).

A defense contractor has pleaded guilty to wire fraud and has admitted to engaging in other bribery-related conduct in connection with contracts in Iraq. According to the plea agreement filed in the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia on Dec. 18, 2007, and unsealed today, Diana Bakir Demilta, a U.S. citizen, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.

Twelve defendants, including eight Uzbekistan nationals, have been charged in a 45-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo., on May 6, 2009, on RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) charges related to labor racketeering, forced labor trafficking and immigration and other violations in 14 states.

A Virginia man pleaded guilty today to illegally making conduit contributions to a candidate seeking federal office.