Joel Rakower, along with his solely-owned corporation, Transship Discounts Ltd., pleaded guilty today in federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y., to violating the Lacey Act by mislabeling imported piranhas.

The United States has asked a federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to permanently bar Keisha Stewart and her company, Professional Tax Services Inc., from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today.

The Departments of Veterans Affairs, Defense, Education and Justice, along with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission announced today the launch of a new online complaint system designed to collect feedback from veterans, service members and their families who are experiencing problems with educational institutions receiving funding from Federal military and veterans educational benefits programs, including benefits programs provided by the Post-9/11 GI Bill and the DoD Military Tuition Assistance Program.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana announced the filing of a nine count federal indictment this afternoon against Jerry Mitchell, aka Tre da Great, age 24, of Indianapolis.

The Civil Rights Division and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced that two Latino men associated with the Compton 155 street gang were sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. for their racially-motivated attack on African-American juveniles at a residence in Compton, Calif., on Dec. 31, 2012.

More than 30 tribal leaders, juvenile court judges, child advocates, juvenile justice system experts and community members from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community testified today in the second public hearing of the Advisory Committee of the Attorney General’s Task Force on American Indian and Alaska Native Children Exposed to Violence.

A member of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas gang (ABT) has pleaded guilty to racketeering charges related to his membership in the ABT’s criminal enterprise.

Medical device manufacturer EndoGastric Solutions Inc. has agreed to pay the government up to $5.25 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by misleading health care providers about how to bill federal health care programs for a procedure using a device manufactured by the company and by paying kickbacks.

An alleged general of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas gang (ABT) and a fellow gang member pleaded guilty today to racketeering charges related to their membership in the ABT’s criminal enterprise, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson of the Southern District of Texas.

A former employee of a Florida-based airline fuel supply service company pleaded guilty today to obstructing an investigation into fraud and anticompetitive conduct in the airline charter services industry.

Diagnostic Imaging Group (DIG) has agreed to pay a total of $15.5 million to resolve allegations that its diagnostic testing facility falsely billed federal and state health care programs for tests that were not performed or not medically necessary and by paying kickbacks to physicians.

Two members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas gang (ABT) pleaded guilty today to racketeering charges related to their membership in the ABT’s criminal enterprise.

The United States filed a complaint seeking to bar Kavivah Branson, aka Kavivah Bradley, and her Jackson, Miss., business, Branson Tax Service, from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today.

The Department of Justice announced that this morning John W. Ng, 58, of Albuquerque, N.M., made his initial appearance in federal court on a criminal complaint charging him with a hate crime offense.

Pharmaceutical manufacturer Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. and a subsidiary, IVAX LLC, have agreed to pay the government and the state of Illinois $27.6 million for allegedly violating the False Claims Act by making payments to induce prescriptions of an anti-psychotic drug for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.

A federal inmate pleaded guilty today for the murder of United States Correctional Officer Jose Rivera, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner for the Eastern District of California.

In testimony delivered before the U.S. Sentencing Commission Thursday, Attorney General Eric Holder endorsed a proposed change to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines that would reserve the harshest penalties for the most serious drug offenders.

A federal court in the Northern District of Georgia permanently barred Andrew R. Heath, an Acworth, Ga., area tax preparer from preparing tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today.

Anthony Williams, of Baton Rouge, La., was sentenced to serve 24 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release, the Justice Department, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) announced today.

A federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., permanently barred Keisha Stewart, a tax preparer in Plantation, Fla., from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today.

In a new step to further the Justice Department’s efforts towards enhancing reentry among formerly incarcerated individuals, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Monday that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) will impose new requirements on federal halfway houses that help inmates transition back into society.

Billy James Hammett, 30, of Marysville, Calif., was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez to serve 87 months in prison for violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in a 2011 racially motivated attack against a white man and an African-American woman in Marysville.

Attorney General Eric Holder issued the following statement today on the status of same-sex marriages performed in the state of Michigan.

J. Keith McCray, a criminal investigator with the Macon County, Ala., Sheriff’s Office, pleaded guilty in federal court today to assaulting a handcuffed man at the county jail, resulting in bodily injury to the victim.

The United States filed a complaint today seeking to bar Joyce Bougere-Keyes, and her business, Joyce Tax & Financial Service LLC, from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced.

The United States filed a civil lawsuit today in Pittsburgh federal court to permanently bar Larry E. Snow, of Seward, Pa., from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service announced today.

The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission today issued a policy statement on the sharing of cybersecurity information that makes clear that properly designed cyber threat information sharing is not likely to raise antitrust concerns and can help secure the nation’s networks of information and resources.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi permanently barred Tamara Brock from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today.

"This is an antitrust no-brainer: Companies who engage in properly designed cyber threat information sharing will not run afoul of the antitrust laws. This means that as long as companies don’t discuss competitive information such as pricing and output when sharing cybersecurity information, they’re okay," said Assistant Attorney General Baer.

"This joint guidance is an important step in making clear that legitimate cyber threat sharing can help secure the nation’s networks and that it can occur without raising antitrust liability issues."

An information was filed charging Robert Keller, 70, with interfering with the housing rights of three members of an interracial family because of the family members’ races and because the family members were living in Hurricane, Utah.

Francis E. Chandler III was sentenced to serve 37 months in prison and ordered to pay $3,066,629 in restitution for filing a false claim for tax refund and false retaliatory liens against four federal government officials.

Sant Singh Chatwal, 70, of New York – a businessman operating several restaurants, hotels and a hotel management company – pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of New York to conspiring to violate the Federal Election Campaign Act.

In an important step to reduce sentencing disparities for drug offenders in the federal prison system, Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday announced that the Justice Department will soon detail new, more expansive criteria that the Department will use in considering when to recommend clemency applications for the President’s review.

A federal court has permanently barred Ramesh Sarva, a certified public accountant in Little Neck, N.Y., from promoting and selling an alleged nationwide tax scheme, the Justice Department announced today.

A federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment against John W. Ng, 58, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, charging him with hate crime offenses related to anti-Semitic threats he made against a Jewish woman who owns and operates the Nosh Jewish Delicatessen and Bakery in Albuquerque.

Li Fangwei, who is more commonly known by his alias “Karl Lee,” is charged with violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) by using United States-based financial institutions to engage in millions of dollars of U.S. dollar transactions in violation of economic sanctions that prohibited such financial transactions.

Perry Sylvester Jackson, 28, of Marysville, Calif., was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge John A. Mendez to serve 70 months in prison for violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in a 2011 racially motivated attack against a white man and an African-American woman in Marysville.

Two Aryan Brotherhood of Texas gang members pleaded guilty this week to racketeering charges related to their membership in the ABT’s criminal enterprise.

A second superseding indictment was unsealed today adding 19 counts including racketeering conspiracy and attempted murder against three defendants for their alleged participation in the violent Nuestra Familia gang.

A federal court in Chicago permanently barred Barbara L. Garrett from preparing tax returns for others or working for any business that prepares tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today.

The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will hold a joint public workshop to explore the economic and legal analysis of conditional pricing practices among firms in a supply chain.

Dr. Patricia Lynn Hough, of Englewood, Florida, was sentenced today to serve two years in prison and three years supervised release by U.S. District Court Judge John Steele in Fort Myers, Florida, for conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by concealing millions of dollars in assets and income in offshore bank accounts at UBS and other foreign banks, and for filing false individual income tax returns which failed to report the existence of those foreign accounts or the income earned in those accounts.

A federal grand jury returned a two count indictment against Brice Johnson, 19, of Springtown, Texas, charging him with willfully causing bodily injury to a person because of the actual or perceived sexual orientation of that person and with kidnapping.

A total of 19 individuals were arrested across the United States and internationally on charges brought by federal prosecutors in Mississippi, South Carolina and Georgia.

A current Puerto Rico Superior Court Judge and Puerto Rico businessman were charged with orchestrating a criminal scheme in which the businessman paid bribes to the judge presiding over the criminal case against the businessman according to an indictment unsealed today.

James Webb Baker Jr., of Seattle, pleaded guilty to one count of voter intimidation and one count of identification fraud in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Federal inmate James Ninete Leon Guerrero, 48, of Guam, was sentenced today to serve life in prison for the murder of United States Correctional Officer Jose Rivera, announced Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner of the Eastern District of California. Guerrero was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Phillip Pro of the District of Nevada.

Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole, Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney for Western District of Pennsylvania David Hickton, FBI Executive Associate Director Robert Anderson and Deputy Under Secretary Dr. Phyllis Schneck of the Department of Homeland Security will hold a news conference to announce criminal charges and two global cyber fraud disruptions.

Two inmates of the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, who were convicted by a federal jury for murdering another inmate at the facility were sentenced to death late yesterday.