Madhatta Haipe, a citizen of the Philippines and founding member of Al-Harakat Al-Islamiyyah, also known as the Abu Sayyaf Group, pleaded guilty today in federal court in the District of Columbia to four counts of hostage taking in connection with the 1995 abduction of 16 people, including four U.S. citizens, in the Philippines.

A $13 million settlement has been reached between four parties and the United States to expedite cleanup of the contaminated Blackburn and Union Privileges Superfund Site in Walpole, Mass.

Leon Pullen pleaded guilty to civil rights violations stemming from several incidents where he sexually assaulted and stole money from women.

A U.S. District Court in Montgomery, Ala., granted judgment in favor of the United States yesterday in a lawsuit brought to enforce the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act against the Alabama Department of Mental Health.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, charges that the township discriminated against persons with disabilities based on its treatment of a group home for persons recovering from drug and alcohol addiction and its failure to grant a reasonable accommodation or modification to the owner of the group home.

Donald Hertz pleaded guilty today in federal court in Spokane to one count of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and one count of transmitting a threat in interstate commerce.

Two officers with the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) have been charged in a three-count indictment with federal crimes in connection with the beating death of civilian Raymond Robair in July 2005.

Responding to the President’s and Attorney General’s call for increased transparency, federal agencies across the government have released more documents, made more information available on websites and decreased backlogs in the past year.

The United States has intervened and filed a complaint under the False Claims Act against Oracle Corporation and Oracle America Inc.

Quantum Dynamics Inc, located in Macon, Ga., and its president, Audrey Price, have agreed to pay the United States $750,000 to settle claims that they fraudulently obtained contracts from the Army.

Four of eight promoters of a fraudulent tax- and debt-elimination scheme have been sentenced to length prison terms for their roles in tax fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.

Former Choctaw County, Okla., deputy sheriff Ben Westley Milner was sentenced today in Muskogee, Okla., to serve 18 months in prison and two years supervised release for violating the civil rights of three men by assaulting them without legal justification.

David Marrero, a founder of and consultant at a fraudulent Miami-area HIV/AIDS infusion clinic known as Tendercare Medical Center Inc., was sentenced today to 10 years in prison for his role in a $5.8 million scheme to defraud the Medicare program.

A federal grand jury in Shreveport, La., returned an indictment yesterday charging Joshua James Moro, 23; Jeremy Matthew Moro, 33; and Sonya Marie Hart, 31, with offenses related to a cross-burning in Athens, La., in October 2008, near the home of an interracial couple.

Arturo Fonseca, Isis Torres, Francisco Portillo, Eduardo Romero and William Madrigal pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan to various health care fraud charges.

Northwest Airlines LLC has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $38 million criminal fine for its role, through Northwest Airlines Cargo, in a conspiracy to fix prices in the air transportation industry.

Offshore Vessels LLC has entered a plea of guilty to knowingly discharging waste oil from one of its vessels, in violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships.

A Miami businessman was sentenced today to 57 months in prison for his participation in a conspiracy to pay bribes to former officials of the Republic of Haiti.

Swiss-based freight forwarder Panalpina Inc. has agreed to pay the United States $375,000 to settle allegations that the company paid kickbacks to employees of Kellogg Brown & Root Inc. (KBR).

Two brothers pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Miami for participating in a $13.7 million HIV infusion Medicare fraud scheme.

A Virginia man pleaded guilty today to charges related to his possession and distribution of images containing child pornography.

Attorney General Eric Holder today announced that the Department of Justice released its first-ever National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction.

The Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today additional details for the August 27, 2010, public workshop in Fort Collins, Colo., which will examine competition in the livestock industry.

The United States has settled alleged violations of federal and state underground storage tank (UST) regulations at 17 gas stations in Delaware and Maryland formerly owned by Duncan Petroleum Corp.

"As the Justice Department brings its fight against child exploitation to a new level today, I am honored to stand with so many incredible colleagues and public servants who have made it their life’s work to protect exploited children and seek justice for the most vulnerable members of our society," said Acting Deputy Attorney General Grindler.

"Today marks an important step forward in meeting these responsibilities and taking our fight against child exploitation and sexual abuse to the next level," said Attorney General Holder.

John S. Lipton, formerly of Mission Viejo and Laguna Hills, Calif., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer in Los Angeles to 70 months in prison.

The Department of Justice and the Rainbow River Child Development Center of Hawthorne, Calif., have joined in a settlement agreement to assure that children with diabetes will receive appropriate care so that they may participate fully in the programs and activities at the center.

A federal grand jury in St. Paul, Minn., returned an indictment today charging Minneapolis Police Officer Jason Andersen, 33, with a felony civil rights crime for assaulting a juvenile during an arrest.

A former Kyrgyzstan country manager for a U.S. tobacco company has pleaded guilty for his role in a conspiracy to pay bribes to officials of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan.

A former executive from Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corporation has agreed to plead guilty and to serve jail time in the United States for participating in a global conspiracy to fix the price of thin-film transistor-liquid crystal display panels.

In response to a federal enforcement action for excessive train engine idling, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company (MBCR) will spend more than $2 million to reduce diesel locomotive emissions throughout the MBTA’s commuter rail system.

The Justice Department announced that four separate indictments were unsealed today in the District of Minnesota, the Southern District of Alabama and the Southern District of California charging 14 individuals with terrorism violations for providing money, personnel and services to the foreign terrorist organization al-Shabaab.

Paul Magliocchetti, the founder and president of PMA Group Inc. (PMA), a lobbying firm in Arlington, Va., was arrested today on charges of making illegal campaign contributions and making false statements to a federal agency.

A Bedford, Va., man pleaded guilty today to transporting, receiving and possessing child pornography.

Two South Florida residents pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Miami for their participation in separate Medicare fraud schemes.

CF Industries Inc. has agreed to spend approximately $12 million to implement facility-wide operational changes to reduce and properly manage hazardous wastes generated at its Plant City, Fla., phosphoric acid and ammoniated fertilizer manufacturing facility.

Two foreign subsidiaries of Alliance One International Inc., a global tobacco leaf merchant headquartered in Morrisville, N.C., pleaded guilty today to violating various provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

A federal judge in Santa Ana, Calif., has permanently barred Thanh Viet Jeremy Cao and his business, Phoenix Financial Management Group, from preparing federal tax returns.

Jose Garcia, 55, who was a fugitive for nearly two years, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Miami for his participation in a Medicare fraud scheme involving a Miami-area HIV clinic.

A federal jury in Detroit today returned a $115,000 verdict against an Ypsilanti, Mich., man for sexually harassing female tenants in his capacity as a property manager.

Sergei Tšurikov, 26, of Tallinn, Estonia, has been extradited to the United States to face charges of hacking into a computer network operated by an Atlanta-based credit card processing company.

– The Mercator Corporation, a merchant bank with offices in New York, pleaded guilty today in federal court in Manhattan, N.Y., to one count of making an unlawful payment to a senior government official of the Republic of Kazakhstan, in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

“Today, the department announced that it had completed negotiations to establish a $20 billion fund to provide the necessary resources to those suffering from the effects of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico," said Associate Attorney General Perrelli.

The second of two agreements to resolve longstanding problems with landfill gas emissions and their negative impacts on air quality at the Middlesex County and Edgeboro landfills in New Jersey has been reached to bring them into compliance with the Clean Air Act.

The United States has sued Gwenn Wycoff and Frank Ozak of Los Angeles seeking to bar them from promoting the formation and operation of “common-law” trusts for the purpose of tax avoidance.

A federal jury in U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii today found Noshir S. Gowadia guilty of five criminal offenses relating to his design for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) of a low signature cruise missile exhaust system capable of rendering a PRC cruise missile resistant to detection by infrared missiles.

Plains All American Pipeline L.P. and several of its operating subsidiaries will spend approximately $41 million over the next three years to prevent and remediate corrosion, improve leak detection practices and capabilities, and enhance pipeline oversight on 10,420 miles of crude oil pipeline operated in the United States.

A federal court in Kansas City, Mo, has permanently barred Missouri lawyer A. Blair Stover Jr. from promoting a variety of improper tax schemes.

“Since 1991, federal law has required that new multi-family housing complexes with four or more units be built with certain accessible features.  There is no excuse for developers and design professionals to fail to comply,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.