"In so many different ways – in classrooms and courtrooms, in houses of worship and halls of justice, and in your own homes and neighborhoods – you are working to protect the progress that has marked our nation’s past, and to strengthen its future," said Attorney General Holder.

"As our nation’s Attorney General, as a prosecutor and former judge, and as the brother of a retired New York-New Jersey Port Authority police officer, I am inspired by your service, and proud to support each of the brave men and women who make up the 'thin blue line' – a line defined by honor, heroism, and valor. Especially today, I am privileged to count the chiefs gathered here as indispensable colleagues and allies," said Attorney General Holder.

St. Jude Medical Inc. has agreed to pay the United States $3.65 million to resolve civil allegations under the False Claims Act that the company inflated the cost of replacement pacemakers and defibrillators purchased by the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, the Justice Department announced today. St. Paul, Minn.-based St. Jude Medical develops, manufactures and distributes cardiovascular and implantable neurostimulation medical devices.

SunTrust Mortgage Inc., the mortgage lending subsidiary of the nation’s 11th-largest commercial bank, has agreed to pay $21 million to resolve a lawsuit by the Department of Justice that it engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination that increased loan prices for many of the qualified African-American and Hispanic borrowers who obtained loans between 2005 and 2009 through SunTrust Mortgage’s regional retail offices and national network of mortgage brokers.

SABIC Innovative Plastics US LLC, and its subsidiary, SABIC Innovative Plastics Mt. Vernon LLC, have agreed to pay an approximately $1 million civil penalty and improve leak detection and repair practices to settle alleged violations of the Clean Air Act (CAA) at chemical manufacturing facilities in Mt. Vernon, Ind., and Burkville, Ala., the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today.

The Justice Department announced today that it filed a lawsuit against Tuscany Hotel and Casino LLC in Las Vegas, alleging that the company engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination in the employment eligibility verification and re-verification process. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) requires employers to treat all authorized workers equally during the hiring, firing and employment eligibility verification process, regardless of their national origin or citizenship status.

A federal grand jury in Birmingham, Ala., today returned a five-count indictment charging former city of Tuscaloosa Police Sergeant Jason Glenn Thomas with federal civil rights offenses in connection with the aggravated sexual assault of a Tuscaloosa woman in 2011, announced Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, Joyce White Vance, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, and Patrick J. Maley, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Birmingham Field Office.

A former Army National Guard recruiter pleaded guilty today in the Western District of Texas for his lead role in a bribery and fraud conspiracy that caused more than $90,000 in losses to the National Guard Bureau, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

Nasheba Necia Hunte was sentenced today to 51 months in prison for her role in a conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and for filing false tax returns, the Justice Department and IRS announced.

"Today’s settlement with SunTrust builds on an unprecedented period of fair lending enforcement by the department. Since the establishment of the Fair lending Unit, thanks to the committed career professionals in the Division, we have brought record numbers of enforcement actions," said Assistant Attorney General Perez.

Fourteen individuals pleaded guilty yesterday in the District of Nevada for their roles in the scheme to fraudulently take control of various home owners’ associations (HOAs) in the Las Vegas area.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer Paulo Morales, 47, was arrested today after having been indicted yesterday by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida on charges of deprivation of civil rights and abusive sexual contact.

The Justice Department announced today it has entered into a consent decree with Pierce County, Wash., that, if approved by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, will resolve allegations that the county discriminated against a female employee by retaliating against her in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII is a federal statute which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin or religion and protects employees who file complaints under any of those bases.

Fahim Suleiman and Muuad Salem were sentenced to prison today by U.S. District Court Judge James S. Gwin in connection with their roles as co-conspirators in a scheme to defraud the United States by obtaining false and fraudulent U.S. Treasury tax refund checks, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced.

Richard Stewart, a resident of Mitchellville, Md., was sentenced to 24 months in prison and ordered to pay $5,414,647 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus for failing to pay over employment taxes in connection with his ownership of Montgomery Mechanical Services, the Justice Department and IRS announced today.

Calnet Inc. has agreed to pay the United States $18.1 million to resolve allegations that the company submitted false claims to the Department of Defense, the Justice Department announced today. Calnet Inc., an intelligence analysis, information technology and language services company, is headquartered in Reston, Virginia.

Richard Bonafiglia, 58, of Providence, R.I., an admitted associate of the New England La Cosa Nostra was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Providence today to 84 months in federal prison for his participation in a racketeering conspiracy to shakedown several Rhode Island adult entertainment businesses for protection money.

A federal jury today convicted two Miami-area doctors, one Miami-area therapist and two others for their participation in a Medicare fraud scheme involving more than $205 million in fraudulent billings by American Therapeutic Corporation (ATC), a mental health care corporation.

The Justice Department announced today that it will monitor elections on June 5, 2012, in the following jurisdictions to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and other federal voting rights statutes: Alameda, Fresno and Riverside Counties, Calif.; Cibola and Sandoval Counties, N.M.; Shannon County, S.D.; and the city of Milwaukee.

On June 1, 2012, after a two-week trial in federal court in Los Angeles, a jury found David James Garrison, 50, guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, six counts of health care fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.

A settlement between the United States and the municipality of Arecibo, Puerto Rico, will resolve violations of the Clean Water Act and specifically violations of its Small Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System General Permit.

Former Arizona State Representative Richard David Miranda was sentenced today to 27 months in prison for defrauding a charity of more than $140,000 and evading income tax related to those unlawfully obtained funds.

Gustav Nauer, 47, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra in the District of Hawaii.

The Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) announced today that four tribes in Nebraska, New Mexico, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota will be awarded cooperative agreements to cross-designate tribal prosecutors to pursue violence against women cases in both tribal and federal courts.

Hector Cuevas, 42, was also sentenced by Judge Kathleen Cardone in U.S. District Court in El Paso to three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $553,148 in restitution and $690,624 in forfeiture.

Stockholm-based Autoliv Inc. has agreed to plead guilty for its role in a conspiracy to fix prices of seatbelts, airbags and steering wheels installed in U.S. cars to one automobile manufacturer and a separate conspiracy to fix prices of seatbelts to another.

Under the agreement, which was lodged by the Department of Justice in federal court today, the city will reduce the amount of sewage and other pollutants that flow out of 16 combined sewer points into the Raritan River and Arthur Kill.

F. Harvey Whittemore, 55, of Reno, Nevada, was charged with one count of making excessive campaign contributions, one count of making contributions in the name of others and two counts of making a false statement to a federal agency.

Acting Associate Attorney General Tony West today joined U.S. Attorney Michael W. Cotter and Vice-Chairman of the Crow Nation Calvin Coolidge Jefferson to announce a multi-agency collaboration with tribal governments to establish sexual assault response teams (SARTs) in the six Montana reservations under federal jurisdiction.

Detroit-area resident Muhammad “Sib” Ahmad pleaded guilty today for his role in organizing a more than $13 million home health care fraud and money laundering scheme, announced the Department of Justice, the FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services.

"As someone who spent over a dozen years as a prosecutor and then nearly twenty more as a defense attorney, I know firsthand the importance that discovery plays in ensuring criminal defendants fair trials. But, at the same time, I am acutely aware of the other critical interests – such as the safety and privacy of witnesses and victims – that our criminal justice system properly takes into account," said Deputy Attorney General Cole.

"Here at the Justice Department, we can all be proud of the robust efforts that are underway to combat discrimination – in all its forms – in every community, every workplace, and every school," said Attorney General Holder.

"We hope that establishing SART teams on every Montana reservation will bring healing and justice to victims of sexual violence – the kind of help that will also strengthen the faith and confidence that native women have in their criminal justice system," said Acting Associate Attorney General West.

Orthofix Inc., a Texas-based manufacturer of medical devices, has agreed to pay the United States $34,234,263 to settle allegations under the civil False Claims Act relating to the company’s sale of bone growth stimulator devices, the Justice Department announced today. The company has also agreed to plead guilty to a felony of obstruction of a federal audit, and to pay a $7,765,737 criminal fine.

The Justice Department announced today the filing of a complaint in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina against Forsyth County, N.C., and the county sheriff, William T. Schatzman, for violating the employment rights of North Carolina Army National Guard soldier Michael Russell under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA).

The Justice Department announced today that it has moved to intervene in Hawkins, et al. v. Summit County, Ohio, et al., a private lawsuit alleging sex discrimination by Summit County, Ohio, and the Summit County Sheriff, as well as other defendants. The United States’ complaint in intervention alleges that the county and sheriff discriminated against twenty female deputy sheriffs who filed charges of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and other similarly-situated female deputies because of their sex and engaged in a pattern or practice of sex discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Shaun Kuykendall, 32, of South Carolina; Richard Szulborski, 21, of Pennsylvania; Javahn Algere, 23, of Louisiana; and Jeremy Labrec, 22, of Texas, pleaded guilty yesterday before U.S. Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson.

" am proud of the work that’s been done – by the Department’s 116,000 employees, as well as our government and law enforcement partners worldwide – to help fulfill the promises that I made before this Committee more than three years ago," said Attorney General Holder.

"In the Civil Rights Division, we still see every single day barriers facing individuals with disabilities that stand in the way of allowing all people to maximize the contribution they can make to society," said Assistant Attorney General Perez.

"Protecting taxpayer dollars is one of the Attorney General’s core priorities. This includes a commitment to increase our efforts to reduce fraud at the outset," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Delery.

William Paul, a self-described “bishop,” was sentenced yesterday to 53 months in federal prison for tax evasion, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. Paul was convicted on Dec. 1, 2011, after a four-day jury trial, of four counts of evasion of his wife’s 2004 through 2007 individual income taxes and of one count of failing to file a tax return. On Nov. 16, 2011, his wife, Donna Paul, a board-certified physician, pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion and one count of filing a false individual income tax return. She was also sentenced yesterday to three years of probation, including six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service. U.S. District Judge Mark E. Fuller also ordered the Pauls to pay $85,396 in restitution to the IRS. Both William Paul and Donna Paul are former residents of Montgomery, Ala.

The Justice Department announced today that it has reached a settlement with United Airlines Inc., resolving Ten Eyck LaTourrette’s allegation that the airline violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) by under compensating his retirement plan during his military service. LaTourrette is currently a major serving in the Colorado Air National Guard and a first officer for United Airlines.

Paul Solofa, the former chief financial officer for the Department of Education for the government of the U.S. Territory of American Samoa was sentenced today to 35 months in prison following his conviction earlier this year for his efforts to obstruct a federal grand jury and law enforcement investigation into a bribery scheme.

Attorney General Eric Holder issued the following statement today on the assignment of U.S. Attorneys to lead investigations of possible unauthorized disclosures of classified information.

"Yet – if, as they say, what’s past is prologue – and if this class’s record of achievement is any indication – then I believe there is good reason for confidence in the future that your generation will create, and the legacy of progress that each of you will carry forward – and build upon," said Attorney General Holder.

The Justice Department announced today that it will monitor primary elections on June 12, 2012, in Fairfield and Williamsburg Counties in South Carolina to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Jason W. Leas, a resident of Crookston, Minn., and co-founder of Best Used Trucks of Minnesota Inc., pleaded guilty today to one count of failing to pay federal excise taxes, one count of failing to file a federal excise tax return and one count of filing a false individual federal income tax return for tax year 2007, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. Leas was charged by information filed on May 29, 2012. He entered his plea of guilty before U.S. District Court Senior Judge Richard H. Kyle in Duluth, Minn.

Leyanes Placeres, 32, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Patricia A. Seitz in the Southern District of Florida.

"As Attorney General, it is my obligation – and solemn duty – to ensure that the rights of all Americans are protected. And I’m proud that, under this Administration, our Civil Rights Division – and its Voting Section – have taken meaningful steps to ensure integrity, independence, and transparency in our enforcement of the Voting Rights Act," said Attorney General Holder.

"The benefits of Plyler are felt by all of us, wherever we or our ancestors were born. Three decades after Plyler, immigrant students have made and continue to make vast and deep contributions to America’s cultural, civic, and economic landscape," said Assistant Attorney General Perez.