U. S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday today sentenced the Japanese corporation Hiong Guan Navegacion Japan Co. Ltd., that operates the commercial cargo ship M/V Balsa-62, to three years probation and $1.75 million in penalties for conspiring to falsify and falsifying environmental compliance records.

The United States has intervened and filed a complaint in a qui tam suit accusing EMC Corp. of failing to disclose its commercial pricing practices during negotiation of its General Services Administration (GSA) contracts and of providing improper payments and other things of value to Systems Integrators and other Alliance Partners on contracts with government agencies.

Carl Courtright III, of Granite City, Ill., was convicted today on child pornography and bank fraud charges in the Southern District of Illinois following a five-day jury trial. The federal jury convicted Courtright of one count of production of child pornography, two counts of possession of child pornography, one count of receipt of child pornography, as well as one count of bank fraud.

Charles Brown, 54, of Mesa, Ariz., pleaded guilty today to one count of receiving child pornography. During the plea hearing before U.S. District Judge Paul G. Rosenblatt, Brown admitted to receiving child pornography.

A British citizen was charged in connection with the operation of a series of fraudulent business opportunities on March 10, 2009, by a Miami federal grand jury. Sirtaj Mathauda was indicted on charges that he and his co-conspirators purported to sell vending machine, beverage and greeting card business opportunities, including assistance in establishing, maintaining and operating such businesses. The charges form part of the government’s continued nationwide crackdown on business opportunity fraud.

Laura Wang-Woodford, a U.S. citizen who served as a director of Monarch Aviation Pte, Ltd. (“Monarch”), a Singapore company that imported and exported military and commercial aircraft components for more than 20 years, pled guilty today in federal court in Brooklyn to conspiring to violate the U.S. trade embargo by exporting controlled aircraft components to Iran.

A federal judge in Corpus Christi, Texas, has sentenced General Maritime Management (Portugal), the operator of a fleet of tanker vessels, and two crewmembers of the motor tanker Genmar Defiance for making false statements to the U.S. Coast Guard and failing to maintain an accurate Oil Record Book designed to prevent pollution of the world’s oceans as required by United States and international law.

A former Nazi concentration camp guard who settled in Racine, Wis., after World War II and acquired U.S. citizenship, has been removed to Austria due to his participation in Nazi-sponsored acts of persecution during World War II. Josias Kumpf, 83, served as an armed SS Death’s Head guard at the Nazi-run Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Germany and at the Trawniki Labor Camp in Poland.

A former State Department employee was sentenced today to 12 months of probation and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service for illegally accessing more than 150 confidential passport application files. Dwayne F. Cross, 41, of Upper Marlboro, Md., was sentenced by U.S. Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola in Washington, D.C.

The Department has entered into a consent decree with the City of Portsmouth, Va., that, if approved by the court, will resolve the Department’s complaint that the City of Portsmouth engaged in a pattern or practice of employment discrimination against African Americans in its hiring of entry-level firefighters, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII).

Harris Taubman, of Hyannis, Mass., was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Boston for receiving and possessing child pornography. Taubman, 48, was sentenced to 84 months in prison for three counts of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. He was indicted on those charges on Feb. 6, 2008, and pled guilty on Feb. 11, 2009.

A Jackson, Miss., computer systems administrator was found guilty late Thursday of receiving and possessing images of child pornography on his home computer. Following a four-day jury trial in Natchez, Miss., Joseph McNealy was found guilty of three counts of receiving child pornography through the Internet and one count of possessing child pornography.

In response to the Red River flooding in North Dakota and Minnesota and subsequent relief efforts, the National Center for Disaster Fraud is reminding members of the public to be aware of and report any instances of alleged fraudulent activity related to relief operations and funding for victims. Members of the public can report fraud, waste, abuse or allegations of mismanagement involving disaster relief operations through the Disaster Fraud Hotline at 866-720-5721, the Disaster Fraud Fax at 225-334-4707 or the Disaster Fraud e-mail at disaster@leo.gov. Individuals can also report criminal activity to the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.

Rudy Frabizio, 46, of Acton, Mass., was convicted today of possession of child pornography. Frabizio was found guilty after a seven-day jury trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Boston. Frabizio may face up to five years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 5, 2009.

Traian Bujduveanu has pleaded guilty in the Southern District of Florida to a charge of conspiring to illegally export military and dual use aircraft parts to Iran. Bujduveanu appeared on behalf of himself and his now defunct corporation, Orion Aviation, in federal court in Miami today to announce his guilty plea.

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. 

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.

A physicist in Newport News, Va., was sentenced to 51 months in prison today for illegally exporting space launch technical data and defense services to the People’s Republic of China and offering bribes to Chinese government officials. Shu Quan-Sheng, 68, a native of China, naturalized U.S. citizen and Ph.D. physicist, was sentenced by Judge Henry C. Morgan, Jr. in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Norfolk Division.

Two former senior executives of CSK Auto Corp. (CSK), have been charged in a 31-count indictment for a scheme to manipulate the company’s reported earnings. The indictment, returned on April 7, 2009, by a federal grand jury in Phoenix, charges Martin G. Fraser, 53, of Glendale, Ariz., and Don W. Watson, 53, of Gilbert, Ariz., with conspiracy, securities fraud, mail fraud, false filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), false books and records, and false statements to its auditor.

California Shellfish Company Inc., doing business as Point Adams Packing Co. (PAPCO), was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge Garr M. King in Portland, Ore., to pay $75,000 for a felony violation of the Clean Water Act for unpermitted discharges of wastewater into the Columbia River.

A 32-year-old Colombian citizen, Luz Mery Gutierrez Vergara, who was extradited from the Republic of Colombia on Thursday, made her initial appearance today in federal court in Washington, D.C., to face charges for allegedly participating in a conspiracy to provide material support to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, commonly known as the “FARC.”

James W. Dotts Jr., 33, of Georgetown, Ind., pleaded guilty today in New Albany, Ind., to one count of possession of child pornography and was sentenced to 37 months in prison and lifetime supervised release following completion of his prison term.

Christopher Neil Gauntt, the former supervisor of the Fort Gibson Water Treatment Plant in Fort Gibson, Okla., pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Muskogee, Okla., to falsifying a monthly operating report that certified the safety of drinking water from the facility.

A Miami federal grand jury has charged two South Florida men with conspiracy, mail and wire fraud in connection with the operation of a fraudulent ATM business opportunity. The criminal charges are part of the government’s continued nationwide crackdown on business opportunity fraud.

Timothy Lantz, 57, of Columbus, Ohio, pleaded guilty today in Columbus to one count of transportation of child pornography and one count of failing to update his sex offender registration.

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.

Christine A. Varney, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department’s Antitrust Division, today announced that the Department is withdrawing, effective immediately, a report relating to monopolization offenses under the antitrust laws that was issued in September 2008. As of today, the Section 2 report will no longer be Department of Justice policy. Consumers, businesses, courts and antitrust practitioners should not rely on it as Department of Justice antitrust enforcement policy.

John Demjanjuk, a former Nazi death camp guard and a resident of Seven Hills, Ohio, has been removed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to Germany. Demjanjuk was removed through a court order of removal obtained by the Department of Justice. On March 10, 2009, a German judge issued an order directing that Demjanjuk, 89, be arrested on suspicion of assisting in the murder of at least 29,000 Jews at the Sobibor extermination center in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II.

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

Roger Lowe, 50, of Indianapolis, was sentenced today to five years in prison for receiving child pornography.

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.

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.

The United States has filed a civil complaint against PowerTrain Inc., Wood Sales Co. Inc., and Tool Mart Inc., all based in Golden, Miss., alleging that they imported and sold more than 78,000 Chinese-made engines that do not meet federal air pollution standards. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., is part of an ongoing effort to ensure that imported non-road engines and equipment comply with the Clean Air Act’s emissions standards.

A Massachusetts man has been charged in U.S. District Court in Boston with crimes related to the illegal importation and illegal trafficking of sperm whale teeth. On May 13, 2009, a federal grand jury sitting in Boston, returned an indictment that was unsealed today against David L. Place of Nantucket, Mass.

Donald Charles Collier III, 45, of Carpinteria, Calif., pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge George H. Wu to one count of mailing child pornography.

At the eighth annual International Competition Network (ICN) conference in Zurich, Switzerland, the ICN adopted new Recommended Practices for substantive merger analysis and presented two new reports on the analysis of tying and bundled discounting and loyalty discounts and rebates under unilateral conduct laws.

U. S. District Court Judge Richard Lazzara (Middle District of Florida) today sentenced the Korean corporation STX Pan Ocean Co. Ltd., which operates the commercial cargo ship M/V Ocean Jade, to pay $2.2 million in penalties and serve four years of probation for conspiring to falsify and falsifying environmental compliance records.

After a bench trial held last week in the Northern District of Georgia, U.S. District Judge William S. Duffey, Jr., announced today that Syed Haris Ahmed, 24, has been found guilty of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.

Traian Bujduveanu was sentenced in Miami federal court for his role in a conspiracy to illegally export military and dual use aircraft parts to Iran.

The Department today filed a lawsuit against the former owner and managers of Homestead Mobile Home Village, a mobile home park in Gulfport, Miss., for violating the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against black tenants on the basis of race or color.

The Department announced that it has moved to intervene in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Jackson, Miss., challenging inaccessibility in Jackson’s public transportation system. The pending lawsuit, filed by 11 residents of Jackson with disabilities and two non-profit organizations that work on behalf of people with disabilities, alleges violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (ADA).

A Tampa federal grand jury has charged a Florida man with criminal contempt of a federal court order in connection with the operation of a fraudulent vending machine business opportunity. The criminal charges form part of the government’s continued nationwide crackdown on business opportunity fraud.

Herbert L. Corn, the former superintendent of the city of Rochester Wastewater Treatment Plant in Rochester, Ind., pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in South Bend, Ind., to falsifying monthly discharge monitoring reports that concealed violations of the Clean Water Act at the Rochester plant.

John Reece Roth, 72, of Knoxville, Tenn., was sentenced to 48 months in prison for violating the Arms Export Control Act by conspiring to illegally export, and actually exporting, technical information relating to a U.S. Air Force (USAF) research and development contract.

The United States has joined a whistleblower suit against Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC); Applied Enterprise Solutions (AES); Dale Galloway, Chief Executive Officer of AES; Stephen Adamec, former Director of the Naval Oceanographic Major Shared Resource Center (NAVO MSRC) at the Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, Mississippi; and Robert Knesel, Deputy Director of NAVO MSRC.

Joseph McNealy, a former Jackson, Miss., computer systems administrator, was sentenced today to 70 months in prison for receiving and possessing images of child pornography.

A former State Department employee was sentenced today to one year of probation and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine for illegally accessing more than 50 confidential passport application files.

A 35-year-old Minneapolis man was sentenced today in federal court on one count of conspiring to provide material support and resources to al-Qaeda. In Minneapolis, U.S. District Court Judge John Tunheim sentenced Mohammed Abdullah Warsame to 92 months in prison and three years of supervised release.

A fourth individual pleaded guilty today to illegally accessing numerous confidential passport application files.

Attorney General Eric Holder today announced more than $8.7 million in Recovery Act funds for three communities in California to use in fighting crime and drug trafficking as part of the Justice Department’s Southwest Border Strategy.