Attorney General Eric Holder today vacated the order issued in Matter of Compean by Attorney General Mukasey in January and announced his intention to initiate a new rulemaking proceeding for regulations to govern claims of ineffective assistance of counsel in removal proceedings.

Four detainees, Chinese nationals of Uighur ethnicity who had been held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, have been resettled in Bermuda.

Frederic A. Bourke Jr., 63, was found guilty today by a federal jury in Manhattan of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and the Travel Act, and making false statements to the FBI.

The Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) today announced that the agreement with the Swiss government has been finalized. As a result of the agreement, the United States will receive substantially all of the accounts of interest when it initiated the John Doe summons against UBS on June 30, 2008.

A former Congressional staffer and chief of staff in two federal agencies was indicted today by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia on public corruption charges, the Justice Department announced. The five-count indictment charges Horace M. Cooper, 44, of Lorton, Va., with one count of conspiracy, one count of fraudulent concealment, two counts of false statements, and one count of obstruction of an official proceeding. U.S. Magistrate Judge Alan Kay today issued a criminal summons directing Cooper to make an initial appearance in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009, at 1:45 p.m.

The Department of Justice today announced that two Syrian nationals have been transferred from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to the control of the government of Portugal.

More than $750,000 in forfeited funds from an embezzlement scheme by a Peruvian military officer have been transferred to the government of Peru.

An Oklahoma man pleaded guilty today for his role in a scheme to solicit kickbacks in connection with the award of a private security services subcontract to protect U.S. government personnel and contractors in Afghanistan. Bryan Lee Burrows, 42, of Wagoner, Okla., pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Court Judge Leonie M. Brinkema in the Eastern District of Virginia to one count of conspiracy to solicit a kickback.

Donald Daniels, Martin William Washburn, Irina Rebegeneau and Tapani Koivunen have been charged in conjunction with a scheme to defraud the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a government lending agency.

AGCO Corp., a U.S. corporation based in Duluth, Ga., has agreed to pay a $1.6 million penalty for illegal kickbacks paid to the former government of Iraq.

Ryan Scott McMonigle, 37, of Ponca City, Okla., was indicted today for his alleged role in a scheme to solicit kickbacks in connection with the award of a security services subcontract to protect U.S. government personnel and contractors in Afghanistan.

The federal suits – filed in Los Angeles; Panama City, Fla.; Salt Lake City; Nashville, Tenn.; and Pocatello, Idaho – allege that the defendants promote a tax fraud scheme designed to siphon hundreds of millions of dollars from the U.S. Treasury through fraudulent tax refund claims.

Frederic A. Bourke Jr., of Greenwich, Conn., was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to one year and one day in prison.

Scott Anthony Walker, 36, of Australia, pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Virginia to one count of conspiracy to solicit a kickback.

Two Florida executives of a Miami-Dade County-based telecommunications company, the president of Florida-based Telecom Consulting Services Corp., and two former Haitian government officials were charged in an indictment unsealed today for their alleged roles in a foreign bribery, wire fraud and money laundering scheme.

As a result of the new format, members of the public, including public interest organizations, scholars, and the media, will be able to more easily track FOIA performance.

A federal grand jury has charged a Virginia Beach, Va., resident with conspiracy to pay bribes to former Panamanian government officials to secure maritime contracts.

Bryan Lee Burrows admitted that he conspired with others to solicit kickbacks from private security vendors in return for favorable treatment for those potential bidders in connection with the award of a subcontract.

As part of the Obama Administration’s Open Government Initiative, and in compliance with the Open Government Directive issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli today announced the online publication of three high-value sets of data not previously made available by the Department of Justice.

Ryan Scott McMonigle, of Ponca City, Okla., pleaded guilty for his role in a scheme to solicit a kickback in connection with the award of a private security services subcontract to protect U.S. government personnel and contractors in Afghanistan.

A Virginia resident pleaded guilty today in connection with his role in a conspiracy to pay bribes to former Panamanian government officials.

The United States has asked a federal court in Columbia, S.C., to permanently bar Dorothy Anderson, d/b/a DL Anderson Tax Service, from preparing federal income tax returns for others.

"Today’s guilty plea represents another important milestone in our ongoing effort to tackle overseas corruption," said Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division. "The message here is simple: Whether you are located in the United States or elsewhere, we will not allow U.S. financial institutions to be used as a vehicle for laundering illicit proceeds."

"As we strive to decrease our backlog and increase our timeliness in fulfilling information requests, we can all be encouraged by the recent breakthroughs we’ve witnessed across the Justice Department," said Attorney General Holder.

The federal government announced today that it would remove the remaining 52 ships that currently sit in the Suisun Bay as part of an agreement with environmental groups that was filed in federal court in Sacramento, Calif.

The Department announced an agreement with the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, to improve access to all aspects of civic life for persons with disabilities.

President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force today announced the launch of StopFraud.gov.

Charles Paul Edward Jumet of Fluvanna County, Va., was sentenced today to 87 months in prison for paying bribes to former Panamanian government officials to secure maritime contracts, in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and for making a false statement to federal agents.

Robert Antoine, 62, of Miami and Haiti, was also ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Jose E. Martinez to serve three years of supervised release following his prison term.

As part of the cooperation and partnership between the United States and India in the fight against international terrorism, Indian law enforcement officials were provided direct access to interview David Coleman Headley.

A federal grand jury in Spokane, Wash., has returned an indictment charging Ronald James Davenport of Deer Park, Wash., with filing fraudulent multi-billion-dollar liens against four government officials.

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.

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).

Former U.S. Marshals Service employee, Sno H. Rush, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Washington to stealing $104,000 in government funds.

Harold James Nicholson, 59, appeared before U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown and pleaded guilty to the crimes of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government and conspiracy to commit international money laundering.

David C. Kernell, 23, today was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for intentionally accessing without authorization the e-mail account of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and obstruction of justice.

Senior U.S. District Judge Jack T. Camp Jr., pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Atlanta to possession of controlled substances and conversion of government property.

Wojciech J. Chodan, a former commercial vice president and consultant to a United Kingdom subsidiary of Kellogg, Brown & Root Inc. (KBR), pleaded guilty today to conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for his participation in a decade-long scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials to obtain engineering, procurement and construction contracts.

An Illinois commercial print broker pleaded guilty today to making false statements in a bid submitted to the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO).

Harold James Nicholson, 59, was sentenced today to 96 months imprisonment by U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown following his guilty pleas to the crimes of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government and conspiracy to commit international money laundering.

Lockheed Martin Inc. has reached a $2 million settlement with the United States to resolve False Claims Act claims in a whistleblower suit.

The government has intervened in a lawsuit against Kellogg Brown & Root Services Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois.

Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today about the Department of Justice’s efforts to combat health care fraud through criminal prosecution.

Jeffrey Tesler, a former consultant to Kellogg, Brown & Root Inc. (KBR) and its joint venture partners, pleaded guilty today in Houston to conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and to violating the FCPA for his participation in a decade-long scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials to obtain engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts.

Former Senior U.S. District Court Judge Jack T. Camp Jr., was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Atlanta to one month in prison for unlawful possession of controlled substances charges and unlawful conversion of government property.

The Department of Justice marked the start of Sunshine Week today with the launch of FOIA.gov, the “flagship initiative” of the department’s Open Government Plan and one of the most significant contributions yet toward making this the most transparent administration in history.

The Departments of Justice, State and Homeland Security today jointly announced a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of individuals allegedly responsible for the murder of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent Jaime Zapata and the attempted murder of ICE HSI Special Agent Victor Avila.

A former U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) employee was sentenced today to 21 months in prison for theft of $104,000 in U.S. government funds.

Former National Security Agency (NSA) senior executive Thomas A. Drake pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Baltimore to a one-count criminal information charging him with unauthorized access of an NSA computer.

One month after assuming the position, September 11th Victim Compensa­tion Fund (VCF) Special Master Sheila L. Birnbaum today published draft regulations to govern the VCF, and asked the public to give her feedback on the proposals before victims can begin submitting claims to the fund later this year.