Christopher Castro, 31, of San Antonio, Texas, and Ernest Gonzales, 51, also of San Antonio, were sentenced for their participation in a conspiracy to obtain approximately $244,000 in fraudulent recruiting referral bonuses from various U.S. military components and their contractor.

Louis Dreyfus Energy Services has paid the United States $4,084,000 to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by failing to pay money owed on natural gas acquired from the Department of the Interior, the Justice Department announced today. Louis Dreyfus, which is based in Connecticut, is an energy company that is involved in merchandising, transportation, trading and storage of natural gas.

A former U.S. civilian contractor was sentenced today to 24 months in prison for conspiring to steal military generators in Iraq and selling them on the black market.

A former police officer of Puerto Rico was sentenced today in San Juan to 40 years in prison for his role in providing security for drug transactions, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Special Agent in Charge Joseph S. Campbell of the FBI’s San Juan Division.

The Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today an agreement with over three dozen companies and government agencies that will result in a $56.4 million cleanup of the “Malone Services Company” Superfund Site in Texas City, Texas, a former waste-disposal site near the shore of Galveston Bay.

Detroit-area resident Tariq Mahmud, 54, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn in the Eastern District of Michigan.

Aleksandr Suvorov, of Estonia, was sentenced today to seven years in prison for his role in two separate hacking schemes involving a total of more than 240,000 stolen credit card numbers.

Charles Wilhelm, 23, of Independence, was sentenced in the Western District of Missouri by U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple.

Former Milwaukee Police Officer Ladmarald Cates was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller to 24 years in prison.

Peter Borgia Jr., 22, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema.

A 16-count indictment was unsealed today in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas against John Raffle, the former senior vice president of strategic business units of ArthroCare and David Applegate, the former senior vice president in charge of ArthroCare’s spine division.

Crystal Sayles, of Montgomery County, Ala., was sentenced today to 64 months in prison for filing false claims, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. Sayles had pleaded guilty to those charges on May 17, 2012. She was also ordered to pay over $1 million in restitution and will serve three years on supervised release following her release from federal prison. In addition to the sentence imposed today, Sayles had also agreed to the forfeiture of a Mercedes Benz as part of her plea agreement.

Five individuals were charged in court documents unsealed today in the Eastern District of Michigan for their participation in a Medicare fraud scheme involving purported home health and psychotherapy services.

According to a criminal complaint unsealed today in U.S. District Court in Detroit, Dr. Hicham Elhorr, 45, masterminded a $40 million scheme involving the submission of fraudulent claims submitted to Medicare for services that were medically unnecessary and/or never provided through House Calls Physicians (HCP), a physician home visiting service he owned and operated.

An Alcatel-Lucent subsidiary, Lucent Technologies World Services Inc. (LTWSI), has agreed to pay the United States $4.2 million to settle False Claims Act allegations that it submitted misleading testing certifications to the Army in connection with the design, construction and modernization of Iraq’s emergency communications system, the Department of Justice announced today.

Attorney General Eric Holder, Deputy Attorney General James Cole, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod Rosenstein, and Bureau of Justice Assistance Deputy Director, Kristen Mahoney, today announced more than $2.4 million in grants to 13 jurisdictions to combat the purchase and sale of counterfeit and pirated products. Intellectual Property theft refers to the violation of criminal laws that protect copyrights, patents, trademarks, other forms of intellectual property and trade secrets, both in the United States and abroad.

Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations in seven cities have led to charges against 91 individuals – including doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals – for their alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes involving approximately $429.2 million in false billing.

A Dallas-area home health services company owner today admitted his role in a $374 million home health fraud scheme in which he and others conspired to bill Medicare for unnecessary services that were never performed.

Eulises Escalona, 44, of Monroe County, Fla., was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Joan A. Lenard in the Southern District of Florida.

A federal jury in Detroit today convicted a physician, a home health agency owner and a patient recruiter for their participation in a $14.5 million Medicare fraud scheme.

Leopoldo Valencia-Urrea, 50, was sentenced by Judge Kathleen Cardone in U.S. District Court in El Paso, Texas.

Thirty-four alleged members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas gang (ABT), including four of its most senior leaders, have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Houston for allegedly conspiring to participate in a racketeering enterprise.

Roquette America, Inc., has agreed to pay a $4.1 million civil penalty to settle alleged violations of the Clean Water Act and its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit at its grain processing facility in Keokuk, Iowa.

Louisiana Generating, an electric generating company owned by NRG Energy Inc., has agreed to a settlement at its Big Cajun II coal-fired power plant in New Roads, La., which will result in the elimination of over 27,300 tons of harmful emissions per year.

Jose Sergio Garcia-Ramirez, 37, formerly of Rockford, Ill., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gustavo A. Gelpí, in the District of Puerto Rico.

A third member of the Internet piracy group “IMAGiNE” was sentenced today to 40 months in prison, and a fifth member of IMAGiNE pleaded guilty today for his role in the conspiracy.

A certified public accountant (CPA) and purported outside auditor for Provident Capital Indemnity Ltd. (PCI) was sentenced today in Richmond, Va., to 54 months in prison for his role in an approximately half-billion-dollar fraud scheme that affected more than 3,500 victims throughout the United States and abroad.

Healthpoint Ltd. and DFB Pharmaceuticals will pay up to $48 million to resolve allegations that Healthpoint caused false claims to be submitted to Medicare and Medicaid for an unapproved drug, Xenaderm, which was ineligible for reimbursement by those programs.

A Swedish credit card payment processor was sentenced today to 48 months in prison for his role in an international cybercrime ring that netted $71 million by infecting victims’ computers with “scareware” and selling rogue antivirus software that was supposed to secure victims’ computers but was, in fact, useless.

Japan-based Toyo Ink SC Holdings Co. Ltd. and various affiliated entities (collectively, Toyo Ink) have agreed to pay $45 million, plus interest, to settle allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by knowingly failing to pay antidumping and countervailing duties, the Justice Department announced today.

The owners and operators of two Miami health care agencies pleaded guilty today for their participation in a $48 million home health Medicare fraud scheme.

Victory Pharma Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company headquartered in San Diego, has agreed to pay $11,420,743 to resolve federal civil and criminal liability arising from its marketing of the pharmaceutical products Naprelan, Xodol, Fexmid and Dolgic, the Justice Department announced today. Under the agreement announced today, Victory entered into a deferred prosecution agreement and paid a criminal forfeiture of $1.4 million to resolve federal Ant-Kickback Statute allegations, and paid $9,938,310 to resolve False Claims Act allegations.

EMH Regional Medical Center has agreed to pay the United States $3,863,857 and North Ohio Heart Center Inc. has agreed to pay the United States $541,870 to settle allegations that they submitted false claims to Medicare.

A Massachusetts man was sentenced today to serve 45 years in prison for his participation in an international criminal network, known as Dreamboard, dedicated to the sexual abuse of children and the creation and dissemination of graphic images and videos of child sexual abuse throughout the world.

Isaacs, 61, of Los Angeles, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge George H. King in the Central District of California. In addition to his prison term, Isaacs was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.

Martina Montero-de-Ortiz, 52, formerly of Elizabeth, N.J., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gustavo A. Gelpí in the District of Puerto Rico.

BP Exploration and Production Inc. pleaded guilty today to 14 criminal counts for its illegal conduct leading to and after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, and was sentenced to pay $4 billion in criminal fines and penalties, the largest criminal resolution in U.S. history.

St. Joseph’s Medical Center, a hospital located in Towson, Md., has reached a settlement with the United States to pay $4.9 million in connection with its submission of false claims to Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs.

Transocean Deepwater Inc. pleaded guilty today to a violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA) for its illegal conduct leading to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, and was sentenced to pay $400 million in criminal fines and penalties.

A co-owner and operator of three Miami discount pharmacies was sentenced today to 168 months in prison for his role in a health care fraud scheme that submitted more than $23 million in false claims to Medicare.

The owners and operators of two Miami health care agencies were sentenced to nine years and more than four years in prison today, respectively, and ordered to pay millions in restitution for their participation in a $48 million home health Medicare fraud scheme that billed for unnecessary home health care and therapy services.

New Jersey-based Par Pharmaceutical Companies Inc. pleaded guilty in federal court today and agreed to pay $45 million to resolve its criminal and civil liability in the company’s promotion of its prescription drug Megace ES for uses not approved as safe and effective by the Food and Drug Administration and not covered by federal health care programs.

A former medical director for Biscayne Milieu, a Miami-based mental-health clinic, was sentenced today to serve 144 months in prison for his role in a fraud scheme involving the submission of more than $50 million in fraudulent billings to Medicare.

Two shipping firms based in Germany and Cyprus today pleaded guilty to felony obstruction of justice charges and violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships related to the deliberate concealment of vessel pollution from four ships that visited U.S. ports in New Jersey, Delaware and Northern California.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced today that President Obama’s FY 2014 Budget proposal totaling $27.6 billion for the Department of Justice identifies over $561.4 million in efficiencies, savings and rescissions while providing resources to increase critical national security programs, and uphold the department’s traditional missions with an increased focus on gun safety, cyber security, financial and mortgage fraud, immigration laws, civil rights, prisons and detention capacity, and assistance for our state, local and tribal law enforcement partners.

Amgen Inc., a California-based biotechnology company, has agreed to pay the United States $24.9 million to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act.

Hugh Marion Willett, the owner of two Texas-based durable medical equipment companies, was sentenced today to 41 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $182,450 in restitution.

Adventist Health System/West, dba Adventist Health, and its affiliated hospital White Memorial Medical Center have agreed to pay the United States and the state of California $14.1 million to settle claims that they violated the False Claims Act.

Today the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) concluded Operation Guardian, a three-year, national initiative specifically targeting the country’s most dangerous noncompliant sex offenders. Deputy Marshals and law enforcement partners arrested 345 individuals who had failed to register with state authorities as required by law.

A former senior executive of Texas-based ArthroCare Corp., a publicly traded medical device company, pleaded guilty today for his role in a scheme to defraud the company’s shareholders and members of the investing public by falsely inflating ArthroCare’s earnings.