Mikalai Mardakhayeu, a Belarusian national residing in Nantucket, Mass., was arrested Wednesday night and charged for his alleged participation in an international online “phishing” scheme to steal income tax refunds intended for U.S. taxpayers around the country.

The state of Florida must provide Michele Haddad with services that will enable her to remain in her home, a U.S. District Court in Jacksonville, Fla., ruled Wednesday.

Robert Jackson, 37, of Downsville, La., pleaded guilty in federal court to placing a hangman’s noose in the carport of the home of a family in order “to send a message” to African-American males who had been frequently visiting the victim’s home.

A federal grand jury in Mobile, Ala., has returned a three-count indictment charging Thomas Hayward Lewis, 24, of Mobile, with violating and conspiring to violate the civil rights of congregants of the Congregation Tree of Life Messianic Synagogue in Mobile, as well as possession of an unregistered firearm.

Three alleged members or associates of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT) have been indicted for their alleged roles in a 2008 murder in Atascosa County, Texas.

The workshop explores the appropriate role for antitrust and regulatory enforcement in the dairy industry.

Canadian/Lebanese dual national Ousama M. Naaman pleaded guilty today to participating in an eight-year conspiracy to defraud the United Nations Oil for Food Program (OFFP) and to bribe Iraqi government officials in connection with the sale of a chemical additive used in the refining of leaded fuel.

Two Afghan trucking companies pleaded guilty today to paying multiple bribes to U.S. public officials in exchange for unfair advantages in procuring contract work at the Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan.

John Webster Warwick, a Virginia Beach, Va., resident, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va., to 37 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to pay bribes to former Panamanian government officials to secure maritime contracts.

"Dairy farming has been a vital American industry since before there was an Antitrust Division, and we are here today to learn about the forces buffeting this important economic sector, and what the government might be able to do to help," said Assistant Attorney General Varney.

Technip S.A., a global engineering, construction and services company based in Paris, has agreed to pay a $240 million criminal penalty to resolve charges related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for its participation in a decade-long scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials to obtain engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts.

The Department announced a comprehensive settlement agreement with the town of Gretna, Va., under the Americans with Disabilities Act to eliminate barriers for providers of foster care services who wish to provide community placements in their homes for persons with disabilities. 

A federal jury in Chicago convicted former Chicago Police Department (CPD) Commander Jon Burge, 60, of Apollo Beach, Fla., on perjury and obstruction charges related to his denials that he participated in the torture of suspects in police custody decades ago.

"That dream of progress and of opportunity – for my own family, for my people and for my nation – is what inspired my interest in the law, my study of the law, and every step of a career spent serving and trying to perfect our justice system," said Attorney General Holder.

The indictment, unsealed today in Hammond, Ind., charges six alleged members of the gang known as Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation for their alleged roles in a racketeering conspiracy in Hammond, Ind., and elsewhere.

A settlement with El Dorado County, Calif., will ensure the beginning of the cleanup, at an estimated cost of approximately $7 million, of the Meyers Landfill Site, located outside of the city of South Lake Tahoe, Calif.

A Taiwan thin-film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panel producer and seller has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $30 million criminal fine for its role in a global conspiracy to fix the prices of TFT-LCD panels.

Homer Richardson of Loveland, Ohio, pleaded guilty in federal district court in Cincinnati to corruptly impeding the due administration of the Internal Revenue Code.

Juan Javier Cardenas was charged in a three-count indictment returned today by a federal grand jury in Miami with conspiracy to buy, sell and use stolen credit card information.

Today in Sacramento, Calif., U.S. District Court Judge John A. Mendez sentenced a couple from Fairfield, Calif., for their roles in a July 2007 beating of an American citizen who is originally from India.

Attorney General Eric Holder arrived in Kabul, Afghanistan today for meetings with Afghan and U.S. officials.

Attorney General Eric Holder met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Minister of Justice Habibullah Ghalib and Attorney General Mohammad Ishaq Aloko today to discuss the department’s ongoing efforts to foster the rule of law in Afghanistan.

Attorney Steven W. Allen pleaded guilty in federal court in Arizona to taking part in a conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by promoting a fraudulent offshore trust scheme to hide his clients’ income.

Seven members of the gang known as La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, were sentenced to prison Tuesday for their participation in a racketeering enterprise.

An indictment unsealed today in Philadelphia charged Omelyan Botsvynyuk, Stepan Botsvynyuk, Mykhaylo Botsvynyuk, Dmytro Botsvynyuk, and Yaroslav Botsvynyuk, a/k/a Yaroslav Churuk, with extortion and conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) for their alleged involvement in a human trafficking operation.

The founder and treasurer of the National Association of Special Police and Security Officers (NASPSO) was charged with four counts of mail fraud in connection with his operation of a pension plan for members of NASPSO, a labor union representing private security guards assigned to protect federal buildings in the metro Washington area.

A Milltown, N.J., man pleaded guilty today to a federal charge of willfully subscribing to a false tax return, admitting he concealed over $2 million in a Swiss bank account.

Quang Nguyen, 22, of Philadelphia was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge Paul S. Diamond to 70 months in prison for his role in distributing large amounts of marijuana and ecstasy pills in the United States.

Following a five-week trial, a fish wholesaler and two of its employees were found guilty with purchasing illegally harvested striped bass, known locally as rockfish, from the Potomac River in Virginia and Maryland from 1995 through 2007.

Eric Jon Eisenhower was arraigned in federal court in Alexandria, Va., on an indictment that alleges that he failed to collect, account for and pay over to the Internal Revenue Service more than $200,000 in withholdings from employees’ paychecks between 2004 and 2008.

Arthur Batala, Darrell Batala and Steven Silas, all members of the Hopi Indian Tribe of Arizona, were sentenced for taking and possessing a golden eagle in violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, a federal law that protects most species of birds in the United States.

Four defendants were sentenced today in connection with their participation in an online child pornography conspiracy, while a fifth defendant was sentenced for receiving child pornography.

The owners and operators of Ivanhoe House Apartments, an apartment complex in Ann Arbor, Mich., have agreed to pay $82,500 to settle a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department alleging that they had discriminated against African-American home-seekers, in violation of the Fair Housing Act.

Italian citizen Flavio Ricotti, a former executive of Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.-based valve company Control Components Inc. (CCI), has been extradited to the United States from Germany in connection with his alleged participation in a conspiracy to secure contracts by paying bribes to officials of foreign state-owned companies as well as officers and employees of foreign and domestic private companies.

Steven Jinwoo Kim, 40, of Houston pleaded guilty on Nov. 16, 2009, to one count of intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization and recklessly causing damage.

The Department of Justice challenged the state of Arizona’s recently passed immigration law, S.B. 1070, in federal court today. The Department said the Arizona law unconstitutionally interferes with the federal government’s authority to set and enforce immigration policy.

The lawsuit alleged that the Fitchburg Housing Authority and Hill violated the Fair Housing Act by adopting and implementing policies that denied tenants with disabilities other than mobility impairments the opportunity to transfer between apartments within Fitchburg’s public housing neighborhoods.

Carline Ceneus, Cabioch Bontemps and Willy Edouard have been indicted by a federal grand jury sitting in the Northern District of Florida for engaging in a conspiracy to commit forced labor and visa fraud involving Haitian nationals.

Snamprogetti Netherlands B.V., has agreed to pay a $240 million criminal penalty to resolve charges related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for its participation in a decade-long scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials to obtain engineering, procurement and construction contracts.

The Justice Department today announced charges against five members of an al-Qaeda plot to attack targets in the United States and United Kingdom.

Gilberto Jordan, 54, a former Guatemalan special forces soldier, pleaded guilty today in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to a federal charge of unlawfully procuring his U.S. citizenship, admitting that he lied on his naturalization application about his participation in a 1982 massacre at a Guatemalan village known as Dos Erres.

A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., has charged Mac Aviation Group, an Irish trading company, and its officers Thomas and Sean McGuinn of Sligo, Ireland, in a superseding indictment with purchasing F-5 fighter aircraft parts, helicopter engines and other aircraft components from U.S. firms and illegally exporting them to Iran.

U.S. Army Major Charles E. Sublett, 46, of Huntsville, Ala., pleaded guilty today in federal court in Memphis, Tenn., to making false statements to a federal agency.

The Department filed a lawsuit against Garland Sales Inc., a rug manufacturer and seller located in Dalton, Ga., alleging it engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination by imposing unnecessary and discriminatory hurdles to employment for work authorized individuals.

Ten individuals pleaded guilty today in Manhattan federal court to conspiring to serve as unlawful agents of the Russian Federation within the United States and will be immediately expelled from the United States.

Irika Shipping S.A., a ship management corporation registered in Panama and doing business in Greece, pleaded guilty on July 8, 2010, before Maryland U.S. District Court Judge Frederick J. Motz, to felony obstruction of justice charges and violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships related to concealing deliberate vessel pollution from the M/V Iorana, a Greek flagged cargo ship that made port calls in Baltimore, Tacoma, Wash., and New Orleans. 

Dwayne Lequire, 51, of Elgin, Ariz., was found guilty by a federal jury in Tucson, Ariz., late yesterday of eight counts of embezzling insurance premiums and one count of conspiracy.

A federal jury in Orlando, Fla., found former Bureau of Prisons corrections officer Michael Kennedy guilty late yesterday on felony federal civil rights charges related to the fatal assault of an inmate in March 2005.

The Justice Department announced today that it will monitor the primary runoff elections on July 13, 2010, in Barbour, Lee and Russell Counties, Ala., to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Assistant Attorney General Breuer highlights the Criminal Division's recent successes in the fight against gangs and his intention to form an Organized Crime and Gang Section by merging the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section and the Gang Unit.