A 5-year old boy has died in New York from a rare inflammatory syndrome believed to be linked to the novel coronavirus, highlighting a potential new risk for children in the pandemic, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Friday.

Phat Ngoc Tran, 35, pleaded guilty today in San Diego to conspiring to participate in a racketeering enterprise, the “Tran Organization,” in a scheme to cheat at least 12 casinos across the United States and Canada out of millions of dollars. Tran admitted that he and his co-conspirators unlawfully obtained up to $2.5 million during card cheats.

A Las Vegas federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging Alan Rodrigues, a former pit boss and casino owner from Henderson, Nev.; Weston Coolidge, a businessman from Las Vegas; and Joseph Prokop, a former National Football League punter from Upland, Calif., with a tax fraud scheme for their promotion of a fraudulent tax product through the now defunct National Audit Defense Network (NADN).

The Department today filed a lawsuit on behalf of Suzanne L. Halverson, an Army National Guard member, against Grand Forks County, N.D., alleging violations of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA), which prohibits employers from discriminating against service-members because of their past, current or future military service obligations.

Theodore Allan, 54, of Glendale, Ariz., was sentenced today to five years in prison for distribution of child pornography. Allan was indicted on charges of distribution, receipt and possession of child pornography on March 6, 2007.

Terry Brian Dobbs, an Oklahoma businessman, was sentenced today to 11 years in prison for receiving images of child pornography. Dobbs, 51, was also sentenced to lifetime supervised release following his term in prison by U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzel, and was ordered to pay an $8,000 fine.

Harris Taubman, of Hyannis, Mass., pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Boston to receiving and possessing child pornography. Taubman, 48, pleaded before U.S. District Judge William G. Young to three counts of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. He was indicted on those charges on Feb. 6, 2008.

Tai Khiem Tran, 47, pleaded guilty today in San Diego to conspiring to participate in a racketeering enterprise, the “Tran Organization,” in a scheme to cheat casinos across the United States and Canada. Tran admitted that he and his co-conspirators unlawfully obtained up to $1 million during card cheats.

Timothy Christenbury, of Charlotte, N.C., pleaded guilty today to possessing child pornography. Christenbury, 46, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Carl Horn III to one count of possession of child pornography. He was indicted on those charges on Dec. 16, 2008. According to the indictment, Christenbury possessed computer files containing child pornography from on or about Sept. 2 to Sept. 4, 2007.

Jack A. Taylor, 68, a resident of Rolling Springs, Ky., pleaded guilty today to producing child pornography and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Taylor, appearing before U.S. District Court Judge David F. Hamilton in Indianapolis, was also ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release following completion of his prison term, forfeit all items seized during the investigation that were used to commit his offense, and to pay $4,000 in restitution to his victim.

“John Doe 17,” a white male with curly brown hair weighing approximately 210-250 pounds, has been indicted by a federal grand jury for transporting child pornography via the Internet on or about May 5, 2007. This is the seventeenth such case to be investigated and the twelfth prosecuted through the Endangered Child Alert Program (ECAP), which was initiated by the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and the FBI in 2004. The program uses national and international media exposure of unknown adult perpetrators featured in child pornography in an effort to identify, locate, apprehend and prosecute such offenders and to rescue abused children.

The Department announced today that it has reached a settlement that, if approved by the court, will resolve a lawsuit filed by the Department against the Administrative Office of the Courts of the State of North Carolina and the Honorable Jerry Braswell, Senior Resident Superior Court Judge for North Carolina Judicial District 8-B, in his official capacity.

The United States has intervened and filed a complaint in a qui tam suit accusing EMC Corp. of failing to disclose its commercial pricing practices during negotiation of its General Services Administration (GSA) contracts and of providing improper payments and other things of value to Systems Integrators and other Alliance Partners on contracts with government agencies.

Carl Courtright III, of Granite City, Ill., was convicted today on child pornography and bank fraud charges in the Southern District of Illinois following a five-day jury trial. The federal jury convicted Courtright of one count of production of child pornography, two counts of possession of child pornography, one count of receipt of child pornography, as well as one count of bank fraud.

Charles Brown, 54, of Mesa, Ariz., pleaded guilty today to one count of receiving child pornography. During the plea hearing before U.S. District Judge Paul G. Rosenblatt, Brown admitted to receiving child pornography.

A federal court has permanently barred Raymond A. Renfrow of Elm City, N.C., from preparing federal income tax returns for others. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina entered the civil injunction order, which also stops Renfrow from promoting a tax fraud scheme that used sham trusts to falsely deduct customers’ non-deductible personal expenses.

An Iranian citizen and his Tehran business have been charged with purchasing helicopter engines and advanced aerial cameras for fighter bombers from U.S. firms and illegally exporting them to Iran using companies in Malaysia, Ireland and the Netherlands. Among the alleged recipients of these U.S. goods was an Iranian military firm that has since been designated by the United States for being owned or controlled by entities involved in Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile program.

The Department today filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia on behalf of Frantz Julien, a New York Army National Guard member, against the Symphony Diagnostic Services Inc., doing business as MobilexUSA (Mobilex), alleging violations of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA).

An Irish trading company and three of its officers have been charged with purchasing helicopter engines and other aircraft components from U.S. firms and illegally exporting them to Iran using companies in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates. Among the alleged recipients of these U.S. goods was an Iranian military firm that has since been designated by the United States for being owned or controlled by entities involved in Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile program.

The Department is making grant funding available for public education programs concerning immigration-related employment discrimination. The Office of Special Counsel for Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practices (OSC), a section of the Department’s Civil Rights Division, announced the availability of funds for public education programs regarding employees’ rights and employers’ obligations under the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

The Department has reached agreement with New York officials to help ensure that military service members and other U.S. citizens living overseas have the opportunity to vote in the state’s March 31, 2009, special election in the 20th Congressional District.

Harris Taubman, of Hyannis, Mass., was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Boston for receiving and possessing child pornography. Taubman, 48, was sentenced to 84 months in prison for three counts of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. He was indicted on those charges on Feb. 6, 2008, and pled guilty on Feb. 11, 2009.

A Jackson, Miss., computer systems administrator was found guilty late Thursday of receiving and possessing images of child pornography on his home computer. Following a four-day jury trial in Natchez, Miss., Joseph McNealy was found guilty of three counts of receiving child pornography through the Internet and one count of possessing child pornography.

The United States has filed a civil complaint against BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. (BPXA) alleging that the company violated federal clean air and water laws.

Rudy Frabizio, 46, of Acton, Mass., was convicted today of possession of child pornography. Frabizio was found guilty after a seven-day jury trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Boston. Frabizio may face up to five years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 5, 2009.

The United States has sued four Certified Public Accounts (CPA), 27 tax preparers and one other individual, seeking to bar them from promoting an alleged tax scam involving bogus income tax credits claimed for sham sales of methane from landfills.

Northrop Grumman Corp., its subsidiary Northrop Grumman Space and Mission Systems Corp., and its predecessor TRW Inc. (collectively, Northrop) have agreed to settle for $325 million, False Claims Act allegations that Northrop provided and billed the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) for defective microelectronic parts, known as Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors (HBTs).

As homeowners and communities throughout the country continue to face devastating consequences from the deep contraction in the economy and the housing market, the Obama Administration today announced a new coordinated effort across federal and state government and the private sector to target mortgage loan modification fraud and foreclosure rescue scams that threaten to hurt American homeowners and prevent them from getting the help they need during these challenging times.

The Department announced that on April 7, 2009, it will monitor the election in Kane County, Ill., to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended. Under the Voting Rights Act, the Justice Department is authorized to ask the Office of Personnel Management to send federal observers to areas that are specially covered in the act or by a federal court order.

Jorge Flores-Rojas, 44, an undocumented Mexican national, was sentenced to 24 years in prison by Chief Judge Robert J. Conrad, Jr. in Charlotte, N.C., for two counts of sex trafficking of minors and one count of interstate transportation of an adult for purposes of commercial sex. Flores-Rojas pled guilty to the charges on Oct. 7, 2008.

Latin Node Inc. (Latinode), a privately held Florida corporation, pleaded guilty today to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in connection with improper payments in Honduras and Yemen. At a hearing before U.S. District Judge Paul Courtney Huck in the Southern District of Florida, Latinode pleaded guilty to a one-count information charging a criminal violation of the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions.

U.S. District Court Judge Robert W. Gettlemen entered an order barring tax preparers, Michael J. Singleton and his wife, Ladonna Singleton, from preparing federal tax returns for others. The court’s ruling came after the Singletons failed to defend against the government’s allegations.

Invista will pay a $1.7 million civil penalty and spend up to an estimated $500 million to correct self-reported environmental violations discovered at facilities in seven states. The company disclosed more than 680 violations of water, air, hazardous waste, emergency planning and preparedness, and pesticide regulations to EPA after auditing 12 facilities it acquired from DuPont in 2004.

Quest Diagnostics Incorporated and its subsidiary, Nichols Institute Diagnostics (NID), have entered into a global settlement with the United States to resolve criminal and civil claims concerning various types of diagnostic test kits that NID manufactured, marketed and sold to laboratories throughout the country until 2006. The payment of $302 million will resolve these allegations and represents one of the largest recoveries ever in a case involving a medical device.

A Chicago grand jury indicted the president and vice president of an Illinois refuse disposal container repair company for engaging in a conspiracy and scheme to defraud the city of Chicago on a contract for the repair of refuse carts. This is the first case to be brought in the Department’s ongoing antitrust investigation into the refuse cart repair industry.

The Department has reached a settlement that will resolve its lawsuit filed against Grand Forks County, N.D., on behalf of Suzanne L. Halverson in accordance with the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA), if approved by the U.S. District Court in Fargo. USERRA prohibits employment discrimination against individuals because of their service in the uniformed services.

Lazare Kabaya Kobagaya, 82, of Topeka, Kan., was arrested today on charges of naturalization fraud and misuse of an alien registration card. According to the indictment, Kobagaya allegedly participated in genocidal activities during the 1994 Rwandan conflict including mobilizing attackers to commit arson and murder. Kobagaya is alleged to have failed to disclose his alleged participation in these activities during his immigration and naturalization processes.

William Michael King, a fifty-year-old truck driver from Maryland, pleaded guilty today to assault and violating the civil rights of an African American man he encountered while King delivered construction materials to the Pentagon.

James W. Dotts Jr., 33, of Georgetown, Ind., pleaded guilty today in New Albany, Ind., to one count of possession of child pornography and was sentenced to 37 months in prison and lifetime supervised release following completion of his prison term.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder today announced that more than $424 million in Recovery Act funds will go to 20 states, territories and the District of Columbia to maintain or increase public safety, while creating or retaining jobs within the law enforcement community.

The Department has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia against Nobel Learning Communities Inc. (Nobel) alleging the company violated Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act by excluding children with autism spectrum disorders and other disabilities from its schools and programs.

"To ensure that the Department holds itself to the highest standards during discovery -- as in every stage of litigation -- in our criminal cases, and also in our civil litigation, we have taken both short-term and long-term action."

Timothy Lantz, 57, of Columbus, Ohio, pleaded guilty today in Columbus to one count of transportation of child pornography and one count of failing to update his sex offender registration.

Patrick Cochran, 47, of Lake Jackson, Texas, pleaded guilty today to one count of travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor, and one count of possession of child pornography.

Two former managers of the Bank of China and their wives were sentenced today after their convictions on Aug. 29, 2008, by a federal jury in Las Vegas on charges of racketeering, money laundering, international transportation of stolen property as well as passport and visa fraud.

Christine A. Varney, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department’s Antitrust Division, today announced that the Department is withdrawing, effective immediately, a report relating to monopolization offenses under the antitrust laws that was issued in September 2008. As of today, the Section 2 report will no longer be Department of Justice policy. Consumers, businesses, courts and antitrust practitioners should not rely on it as Department of Justice antitrust enforcement policy.

Novo Nordisk A/S (Novo), a Danish corporation based in Bagsvaerd, Denmark, has agreed to pay a $9 million penalty for illegal kickbacks paid to the former Iraqi government.

The Department's Antitrust Division announced the details of its newly formed initiative aimed at preparing government officials and contractors to recognize and report efforts by parties to unlawfully profit from the stimulus projects that are being awarded as part of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.    

Robert P. Merz, 45, was convicted by a federal jury in Philadelphia today of advertising, transporting, receiving and possessing child pornography.

Roger Lowe, 50, of Indianapolis, was sentenced today to five years in prison for receiving child pornography.