"While the Task Force’s goals are ambitious, its foundation is simple: Those in all levels of the government charged with protecting the public from fraud and abuse cannot work in compartmentalized silos. Instead, we must be cohesive, coordinated, and committed to a common purpose, because working together, we can achieve more than we can separately," said Acting Associate Attorney General West.

"As we promised when Attorney General Holder announced the Working Group back in January, we have worked closely together to share information and assess our respective investigations and, where appropriate, provide substantial resources in support of our partners," said U.S. Attorney Walsh.

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.

Two former employees of The Parsons Company, an international engineering and construction firm, were sentenced in federal court in the Northern District of Alabama for their participation in a kickback conspiracy in Iraq and related tax crimes.

The Department of Justice announced today a policy addressing the ability of members of federally recognized Indian tribes to possess or use eagle feathers, an issue of great cultural significance to many tribes and their members.

In anticipation of the upcoming election, the Justice Department today provided information about its efforts, through the Civil Rights and Criminal Divisions, to ensure that all qualified voters have the opportunity to cast their ballots and have their votes counted free of discrimination, intimidation or fraud in the election process.

Manssor Arbabsiar, aka Mansour Arbabsiar, pleaded guilty today in federal court in the Southern District of New York to participating in a plot to murder the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States while the Ambassador was in the United States.

Two former high-ranking employees of facilities operations at New York Presbyterian Hospital (NYPH) were sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, in Manhattan, by Judge George B. Daniels today for their participation in two separate conspiracies involving kickbacks.

Several family members, all residents of Montgomery, Ala., pleaded guilty in the Middle District of Alabama to their involvement in a million dollar stolen identity refund fraud scheme, the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today.

Two former officers of Arizona-based residential mortgage loan originator American Mortgage Specialists Inc. (AMS) pleaded guilty today for their roles in a $27 million scheme to defraud North Dakota-based BNC National Bank.

Jacqueline Slaton was sentenced to 70 months in prison and order to pay restitution of over $100,000 for her involvement in stolen identity refund fraud scheme, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today.

A federal grand jury in Montgomery, Ala., returned an indictment charging Kenneth Jerome Blackmon Jr., with aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, access device fraud and misuse of a Social Security number, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today.

The Justice Department has reached an agreement with the county of Los Angeles to extend critical reforms at the Los Angeles County Juvenile Probation Camps that were set to expire later this month. The agreement amends a memorandum of agreement (MOA) entered into in 2008 to resolve the department’s investigation into conditions of confinement at the juvenile camps.

The Justice Department announced that it has reached agreements with Carroll County and Craig County, Va., that will allow the counties and their political subdivisions to bail out from their status as “covered jurisdictions” under the special provisions of the Voting Rights Act, and thereby exempt these jurisdictions from the preclearance requirements of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

The United States has filed a complaint against a Virginia-based contractor alleging that the company submitted false claims for unqualified security guards under a contract to provide security in Iraq, the Justice Department announced today. The company, Triple Canopy Inc. is headquartered in Reston, Va.

A federal court has permanently barred Cynthia Carter, a Columbus, Miss., tax return preparer, from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. The civil injunction order, to which Carter consented without admitting the allegations against her, was signed by Judge Sharion Aycock of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.

Antoinette Djonret pleaded guilty today in two cases: one involving the filing of more than a million dollars worth of false tax returns using stolen identities and the other case involving the filing of false tax returns for clients, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today.

A bail bondsman in Portsmouth, Va., was sentenced today to serve 30 months in prison for bribing public officials in exchange for receiving favorable treatment, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Neil H. MacBride.

Bruce King, the owner and operator of Premier Tax, pleaded guilty in federal court this week to charges of conspiring to defraud the United States and filing false tax returns, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today. Additionally, on Thursday, Vonecia Orum, a return preparer who worked at Premier Tax, pleaded guilty to delivering false tax returns to the IRS.

Andrew J. Watts, a Barbados national, was sentenced in Chicago by U.S. District Judge Joan Gottschall to 114 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of just under $1.7 million for devising and executing a stolen identity federal income tax refund fraud scheme, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today.

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

"The country we have inherited has been defined by the hard work and tremendous courage of those who, throughout our history, have chosen not just to devote themselves to studying the law, but also to advancing the cause of justice," said Attorney General Holder.

William R. “Rusty” Miller, a real estate developer from Fairhope, Ala., has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Jackson, Miss., for the unpermitted filling of wetlands near Bay St. Louis, Miss., in violation of the Clean Water Act.

Two former employees of the Alabama Administrative Office of the Courts were indicted today in Montgomery, Ala., for stealing the programming code for a sensitive court data system, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance for the Northern District of Alabama.

The Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust lawsuit today against eBay Inc., alleging that it violated antitrust laws when it entered into an agreement not to recruit or hire Intuit Inc.’s employees.

A federal court has permanently barred a Michigan lawyer, Tammy Daniels of Farmington Hills, from promoting an alleged tax fraud scheme, the Justice Department announced today. The civil injunction order, to which Daniels consented without admitting the allegations against her, was signed by Judge Paul D. Borman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. In August the court enjoined Daniels’s co-defendants, Damian and Holly Jackson, from preparing federal tax returns for others and promoting the scheme.

The United States has filed a civil complaint against Kellogg, Brown & Root Services Inc. (KBR) and First Kuwaiti Trading Company for submitting inflated claims for the delivery and installation of trailers to house troops in Iraq.

Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group Co-Chair New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today filed a Martin Act complaint against Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and its affiliates for making fraudulent misrepresentations and omissions to promote the sale of RMBS to investors.

A former executive of Lender Processing Services Inc. (LPS) – a publicly traded company based in Jacksonville, Fla. – pleaded guilty today, admitting her participation in a six-year scheme to prepare and file more than 1 million fraudulently signed and notarized mortgage-related documents with property recorders’ offices throughout the United States.

Harmony Care Hospice Inc. (Harmony) and Harmony owner and chief executive officer Daniel J. Burton have agreed to pay the United States $1,286,999.32 to settle allegations that the South Carolina-based company submitted false claims to Medicare for patients under care at its hospice facilities, the Justice Department announced today.

A federal jury sitting in Santa Ana, Calif., on Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2012, convicted Safieh Fard of one count of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and one count of conspiracy to launder the proceeds of bank fraud obtained after submitting fraudulent mortgage applications, the Justice Department and IRS Criminal Investigation announced. Fard’s co-conspirators, her sister Sedigheh Bahramian, and two of her sons, Mohsen Kikalaye and Ahmad Kikalaye, pleaded guilty to related counts of bank fraud in 2010.

Baylor University Medical Center, Baylor Health Care System and HealthTexas Provider Network have agreed to pay the United States $907,355 to settle allegations that Baylor submitted false claims to Medicare, the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services and the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program for various radiation oncology services, including intensity modulated radiation therapy.

Beau Michael Guidry of Baton Rouge, La., was sentenced today in connection with an odometer tampering scheme that defrauded victims in and around Louisiana, the Justice Department announced. U.S. District Judge for the Middle District of Louisiana James J. Brady sentenced Guidry to a term of 20 months in prison and a term of one year of supervised release during which he cannot be involved in the sale of motor vehicles. In addition, the court ordered Guidry to pay $72,805.51 in restitution to the victims of his crimes.

The Justice Department announced today that the manager and owner of the Geneva Terrace Apartments Inc. in La Crosse, Wis., have agreed to pay $57,500 to settle a lawsuit alleging they violated the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against African-Americans who were seeking to rent apartments at the complex.

The former director of accounting and the former outside auditor of Arizona-based residential mortgage loan originator American Mortgage Specialists Inc. pleaded guilty in Arizona to conspiracy to defraud BNC National Bank and obstruction of justice, respectively.

Attorney General Eric Holder and European Union (EU) Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström will launch the Global Alliance Against Child Sexual Abuse Online at a ministerial conference tomorrow, Dec. 5, 2012, in Brussels.

Gordon Chavez, 35, a probation officer with the New Mexico Corrections Department of Probation and Parole, was arrested today in Albuquerque, N.M., on charges related to the sexual assault of a probationer whom he supervised.

Kentucky-based Lusk Mechanical Contractors and Commonwealth Technologies, and their owners, Harry Lusk and Wendell Goodman, have agreed to pay $6.25 million to resolve allegations that they submitted false statements to the Small Business Administration and false claims to the Army, the Justice Department announced today.

"Despite the uncertain challenges we face, and the many responsibilities before us, I’m confident that today’s session will afford a unique opportunity to strengthen our shared commitment to this work," said Attorney General Holder.

A federal court has permanently barred Larry Carnell Dixon Sr., a Louisiana tax return preparer, and his business, Dixon’s Tax Service, LLC from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. The civil injunction order, to which Dixon and Dixon’s Tax Service LLC, consented without admitting the allegations against them, was signed by Judge James Brady of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana.

The Department of Justice today announced the opening of their comprehensive grant solicitation period for funding to support public safety, victim services and crime prevention improvements for American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments.

Former FBI agent John Robert “Bob” Graves and his wife Sara Turberville Graves were sentenced today in federal court to serve 135 months in prison and 36 months in prison, respectively, for their participation in an investment fraud scheme.

Two Alabama real estate investors and their company pleaded guilty today for their roles in conspiracies to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions in southern Alabama.

The owner and operator of a Louisiana-based durable medical equipment (DME) company was convicted today by a federal jury in Houston for his role in a $6.7 million Medicare fraud scheme.

The former vice president of a construction company doing work in Afghanistan was arrested today on allegations of accepting tens of thousands of dollars in gratuities from subcontractors during his employment in Afghanistan.

Natacia Webster of Montgomery, Ala., was sentenced today to 50 months in prison for conspiracy, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. Webster had pleaded guilty to those charges in September 2012. She was also ordered to pay $113,000 in restitution and will serve three years on supervised release following her release from federal prison.

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.

A dual United States and Costa Rican citizen charged in connection with the operation of a series of fraudulent business opportunities was arrested today in Chicago following his indictment by a federal grand jury in Miami on Nov. 29, 2011, the Justice Department and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service announced today. Sean Rosales was arrested based on charges that he and his co-conspirators purported to sell beverage and greeting card business opportunities, including assistance in establishing, maintaining and operating such businesses. The charges in the indictment form part of the government’s continued nationwide crackdown on business opportunity fraud.

Sanofi-Aventis U.S. Inc. and Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC, subsidiaries of international drug manufacturer Sanofi (collectively, Sanofi US), have agreed to pay $109 million to resolve allegations that Sanofi US violated the False Claims Act by giving physicians free units of Hyalgan, a knee injection, in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute, to induce them to purchase and prescribe the product. The settlement also resolves allegations that Sanofi US submitted false average sales price (ASP) reports for Hyalgan that failed to account for free units distributed contingent on Hyalgan purchases. The government alleges that the false ASP reports, which were used to set reimbursement rates, caused government programs to pay inflated amounts for Hyalgan and a competing product.

A federal grand jury in Albuquerque, N.M., has indicted Gordon Chavez, 35, a probation officer with the New Mexico Corrections Department on charges related to the sexual assault of a probationer whom he supervised. The New Mexico Corrections Department placed Chavez on administrative leave following his arrest on Dec. 4, 2012.