The Justice Department announced today the launch of a new educational video to assist employers in avoiding charges of discrimination in the employment eligibility verification form I-9 process and in the use of E-Verify.

While incarceration is a necessary part of the strategy for ensuring public safety, we know it is not the only answer in every case -- especially for the low-level drug offender. If any of us hope to change the behavior of our criminal population – and make our communities safer – we must make the investment to treat individuals with substance use disorders and others in need of help as a part of the criminal justice system.

Osaka, Japan-based Diamond Electric Mfg. Co. Ltd. has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $19 million criminal fine for its role in a conspiracy to fix prices of ignition coils installed in cars sold in the United States and elsewhere.

The Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today that Harry Neuhoff, a resident of Brooklyn, N.Y., has pleaded guilty to tax evasion.

A former U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer, his girlfriend, his nephew and two of their associates were sentenced today in federal court for their participation in bribery and alien smuggling activities along the U.S./Mexico border spanning approximately two years, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

Ammie Brothers, 29, of Columbus, Ga., a sergeant in the U.S. Army, pleaded guilty today to unlawfully obtaining personal information from the U.S. Army’s Army Knowledge Online computer system.

A former senior executive of ArthroCare Corp., a publicly traded medical device company based in Austin, Texas, pleaded guilty for his role in a scheme to defraud the company’s shareholders and members of the investing public by falsely inflating ArthroCare’s earnings, announced Acting Assistant Attorney Mythili Raman of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman of the Western District of Texas. The plea was taken under seal on June 24, 2013, and unsealed late yesterday.

The Justice Department announced today that it has asked a federal court to bar Ronald Manis of Carbondale, Ill., from preparing tax returns for others.

Two shipping firms based in Germany and Cyprus were sentenced today in federal court in Newark, N.J., to pay a $10.4 million penalty for 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 ports in New Jersey, Delaware and Northern California, the U.S. Attorney’s Offices in New Jersey and Delaware, the U.S. Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division and the U.S. Coast Guard announced.

The Justice Department announced today that a federal district judge in Charleston, S.C. permanently barred Stacy Middleton from preparing federal income tax returns for others.

Three former financial services executives were sentenced today in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for their participation in frauds related to bidding for contracts for the investment of municipal bond proceeds and other municipal finance contracts.

Dubuis Health System and Southern Crescent Hospital for Specialty Care, Inc. (Southern Crescent) have agreed to pay the United States $8,000,000 to settle allegations that they submitted false claims to Medicare, the Justice Department announced today. Dubuis Health System manages long-term acute care hospitals in multiple states, including Southern Crescent. Southern Crescent is a long-term acute care hospital located in Riverdale, GA and is part of the CHRISTUS Health System.

The Justice Department announced that federal courts in Minnesota, Texas, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Virginia and California have entered orders over the past week authorizing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to serve John Doe summonses on certain U.S. banks and financial institutions, seeking information about persons who have used specific credit or debit cards in Norway.

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Inc., a pharmaceutical company acquired by Pfizer, Inc. in 2009, has agreed to pay $490.9 million to resolve its criminal and civil liability arising from the unlawful marketing of the prescription drug Rapamune for uses not approved as safe and effective by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

A former senior executive of a French power and transportation company has been charged in a second superseding indictment for his alleged participation in a scheme to pay bribes to foreign government officials.

Two former officers with the Police of Puerto Rico and another individual were sentenced to prison late yesterday for their roles in providing security for drug transactions.

The Justice Department announced today that the Executive Director of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (FFETF) Michael Bresnick will be leaving the department on Thursday, August 1, 2013.

The Justice Department announced that yesterday, a federal district judge in Indianapolis permanently barred Cynthia Hawk, who operates Gain Tax Services, from preparing federal income tax returns for others.

These three principles — data-driven innovation, effective collaboration, and meaningful reentry — certainly are not the only approaches to smarter policing in this new century, but they are important as we continue to build the bridge to justice and equality in this challenging climate of contraction, subtraction, and sequestration.

The Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that April J. Rampton, 42, formerly of Heber City, Utah, was sentenced today to 21 months in prison for filing false claims for income tax refunds.

Southfield, Mich., resident Bashar Saroki pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return and selling drug paraphernalia, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today.

U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky David J. Hale and Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Jocelyn Samuels announced that Steven Molen, a Sheriff’s Deputy with the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office, was indicted yesterday by a federal grand jury on one count of violating the civil rights of a victim by using excessive force in August 2008.

Robert Andres, 62, an investment manager based in Houston, pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Salt Lake City for his role in a $72 million investment fraud scheme.

The government filed suit in the U.S. District Court for South Dakota against Dakota Laboratories LLC and its owner, Charles L. Voellinger, Sr., to block them from violating the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) in connection with their alleged violations of Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMP).

The Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that today Douglas R. Madsen, a former chiropractor from Ephraim, Utah, was sentenced by the U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups to 33 months in prison and resitutition of over $500,000 following a conviction for attempted evasion of payment of income tax in the District of Utah.

A Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty today to charges stemming from his participation in a scheme to hack into computer networks and sell access to those networks.

The United States has requested the federal district court in Charleston, S.C. to permanently bar Jessica Geddis of Summerville, S.C., from preparing federal income tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced today that the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) will provide $2.5 million in funding to the Connecticut State Police, the Newtown, Conn., Police Department and their partner agencies that provided assistance in response to the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School last year.

The U.S. District Court in Utah has concluded proceedings and approved a settlement of a lawsuit involving three claimed highway rights-of-way on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) administered public land adjacent to and within the Deep Creek Mountains Wilderness Study Area (WSA.

The United States has settled a lawsuit alleging that an automobile dealership formerly doing business in Los Angeles violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) by charging non-Asian customers higher interest rate markups than other customers for a period of at least three years.

Attorney General Eric Holder met with Mexican Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam today to discuss the release by the Mexican government of Rafael Caro Quintero, who was convicted of murdering Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena in February 1985.

A former officer of Fendih Medical Supply Inc. was sentenced to serve 51 months in prison yesterday in Los Angeles for his role in a fraud scheme that resulted in $1.5 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare. In addition, a physician was sentenced to 27 months in prison for his role in the scheme.

Our updated guidance also makes one overarching point clear: the Department of Justice expects that states and local governments that have enacted laws authorizing marijuana-related conduct will implement effective regulatory and enforcement systems to protect federal priorities and the health and safety of every citizen.

A federal grand jury in Covington, Ky., has returned an indictment against G.S. Electech Inc. executive, Shingo Okuda for his role in an international conspiracy to fix prices and rig bids of auto parts used on antilock brake systems installed in U.S. cars.

A former mayor of South Pittsburg, Tenn., and a co-conspirator pleaded guilty today in Chattanooga, Tenn., to conducting an illegal gambling business, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Special Agent in Charge Kenneth Moore of the FBI’s Knoxville, Tenn., Field Office.

A former executive of Ryan International Airlines, a charter airline company located in Rockford, Ill., was sentenced today to serve 87 months in prison and to pay restitution for participating in kickback schemes to defraud Ryan.

Halliburton Energy Services Inc. (Halliburton) pleaded guilty today to destroying evidence pertaining to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster and was sentenced to the statutory maximum fine, the Justice Department announced.

The Department of Justice and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that Houston-based CITGO Petroleum Corp. (CITGO) has agreed to pay a $737,000 civil penalty and to implement projects to reduce harmful air pollution, resolving alleged violations of the Clean Air Act (CAA) at its petroleum refining facilities located in Lemont, Ill., and Lake Charles (Westlake), La.

A federal grand jury in Detroit returned an indictment against two Fujikura Ltd. executives for their roles in an international conspiracy to fix prices of auto parts used in automotive wire harnesses sold to Subaru and installed in U.S. cars.

Donald John Sachtleben, a former FBI bomb technician who later worked as a government contractor for the agency, has filed a petition to plead guilty to newly filed charges of unlawfully disclosing national defense information relating to a disrupted terrorist plot. Sachtleben previously had filed a petition to plead guilty to charges of possessing and distributing child pornography resulting from a separate investigation.

A Detroit federal grand jury returned an indictment against a Panasonic Automotive Systems Corporation executive for his role in an international conspiracy to fix prices of switches and steering angle sensors sold to Toyota and installed in U.S. cars.

Nine Japan-based companies and two executives have agreed to plead guilty and to pay a total of more than $740 million in criminal fines for their roles in separate conspiracies to fix the prices of more than 30 different products sold to U.S. car manufacturers and installed in cars sold in the United States and elsewhere, the Department of Justice announced today. The department said that price-fixed automobile parts were sold to Chrysler, Ford and General Motors, as well as to the U.S. subsidiaries of Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Toyota and Fuji Heavy Industries–more commonly known by its brand name, Subaru.

The Justice Department announced today that Southport Bank of Kenosha, Wis., will pay $687,000 to African-American and Hispanic wholesale mortgage borrowers as part of a settlement to resolve allegations that it engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination on the basis of race and national origin.

Clearly, the consequences of inaction in the face of such trauma would be too great to ignore. And the associated costs – in human, moral, and even economic terms – are far too much to bear. In fact, the cost of failing to intervene in the life of a young person who’s at risk of becoming delinquent could add up to more than $3 million over the course of his or her lifetime.

The impact of this violence, and of our acquiescence, is greater than it appears on the surface. We can see the immediate physical damage it does, and we know it causes emotional trauma in the kids it touches.

There were more than a dozen separate conspiracies each operating independently but all targeting the U.S. automotive industry. Some of the price-fixing conspiracies lasted for a decade or longer, and many car models were fitted with multiple parts that were fixed by the auto parts suppliers.

Today, we are announcing that nine Japan-based companies and two executives have agreed to plead guilty – and to pay a total of more than $740 million in criminal fines – for their roles in separate conspiracies to fix the prices of more than 30 different products sold to U.S. car manufacturers and installed in cars sold in the United States and elsewhere.

The Justice Department today announced that it has filed a lawsuit alleging that the Housing Authority for the City of Ruston, La., has engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination against African-American tenants, in violation of the federal Fair Housing Act.

The Justice Department announced today that it has reached a settlement with the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) and its director, to resolve alleged violations of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504).

Two Latino men associated with the Compton 155 street gang pleaded guilty today to federal hate crime charges related to a racially motivated attack on African-American juveniles at a residence in Compton, Calif. on New Year’s Eve.