The Justice Department announced today that it has reached a settlement with Lee County, Fla. that, if approved by the district court, will resolve allegations that the county discriminated against three Hispanic employees on the basis of race and national origin in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended.

Ashraf Hassan-Gouda, a former resident of Mays Landing, N.J., pleaded guilty to one count of assisting in the preparation of a false federal individual income tax return.

The Department of Justice and the Council of State Governments (CSG) highlight 17 states that have cut corrections costs while reducing recidivism and improving public safety. With funding from the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), staff from the CSG Justice Center – in partnership with the Pew Center on the States – worked with lawmakers, policymakers, and a wide range of justice system professionals and stakeholders from each state to identify crime and corrections trends and formulate strategies that would save money and improve safety.

A jury convicted Stephen M. Kerr and Michael Quiel yesterday on federal tax charges stemming from their failure to disclose secret offshore bank accounts in Switzerland.

The Justice Department filed suit today asking the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida to permanently bar Osvaldo J. Diaz from preparing federal tax returns for others.

A Northern California real estate investor has agreed to plead guilty for his role in conspiracies to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions in Northern California.

Richard Castle, 46, a resident of the United Kingdom, has been extradited to the United States where he faces charges of coercion of a minor, travelling with intent to engage in illicit sexual contact with a minor, and transferring obscene material to minors.

Today, a federal court in Denver approved a comprehensive consent decree between the Department of Justice, the Congress of Hispanic Educators (CHE), and the Denver Public Schools (DPS) that requires DPS to provide language services to the more than 28,000 English Language Learner (ELL) students enrolled in the district’s 170 schools.

A former San Francisco investment banker and his college friend both pleaded guilty today for their roles in an insider trading scheme involving two impending corporate mergers.

A federal grand jury returned an indictment today charging Andrew Blane Fields, 62, of Lutz, Fla., with conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute controlled substances, namely Oxycodone, Dilaudid and Morphine; three counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; and two counts of possession with intent to distribute controlled substances.

Lina Rodriguez, 34, was sentenced today in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to serve 72 months in prison, followed by 24 months of supervised release, for operating and facilitating the operation of an Internet-pharmacy business that illegally shipped over $1.5 million of pharmaceuticals since July 2007 to U.S. and overseas purchasers.

Kenneth Jerome Blackmon Jr., a resident of Montgomery, Ala., was sentenced today to 51 months in prison, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced.

A financial investor who purchased municipal tax liens pleaded guilty today for his role in a conspiracy to rig bids for the sale of tax liens auctioned by municipalities in New Jersey.

The Justice Department announced today that it reached a settlement agreement with the Metropolitan School District of Decatur Township, Ind., to prevent and respond to peer on peer harassment in schools.

Several residents of Montgomery, Ala., were indicted by a federal grand jury for their involvement in a conspiracy to receive fraudulent tax refunds into their bank accounts.

A federal grand jury in Montgomery, Ala., returned an indictment charging Harvey James for using stolen identities to file false tax returns.

The Justice Department announced that late yesterday a federal court in San Francisco entered an order authorizing the Internal Revenue Service to serve a John Doe summons seeking information about U.S. taxpayers who may hold offshore accounts at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce FirstCaribbean International Bank.

Odalis Castillo-Lopez, a citizen of the Dominican Republic and a resident of New York, pleaded guilty today to theft of government property and money laundering in connection with a scheme to cash U.S. Treasury tax refund checks fraudulently obtained using the stolen identities of Puerto Rican residents.

Bridgette Rivers, a resident of Montgomery, Ala., was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy and theft of government funds related to her participation in a scheme to use stolen identities to file fraudulent tax returns.

New guidance released today by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of Justice reinforces the Fair Housing Act requirement that multifamily housing be designed and constructed so as to be accessible to persons with disabilities.

A former executive of the U.S. subsidiary of a French power and transportation company was charged in a superseding indictment for his alleged participation in a scheme to pay bribes to foreign government officials.

Today the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) concluded Operation Guardian, a three-year, national initiative specifically targeting the country’s most dangerous noncompliant sex offenders. Deputy Marshals and law enforcement partners arrested 345 individuals who had failed to register with state authorities as required by law.

Corey Thompson was sentenced today to serve 30 months in prison for his involvement in a sophisticated stolen identity refund fraud conspiracy.

A Texas man was sentenced today to serve 30 years in prison for producing and distributing material relating to the sexual exploitation of children.

The former president of Port Arthur Chemical and Environmental Services, LLC (PACES) has pleaded guilty in federal court to occupational safety crimes which resulted in the death of an employee.

Michael George Fitzpatrick, 51, of Hope, Idaho, was sentenced to 42 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns.

Attorney General Eric Holder and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced today that a nationwide takedown by Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations in eight cities has resulted in charges against 89 individuals, including doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes involving approximately $223 million in false billings.

Two Spring Hill, Tenn., men pleaded guilty in federal court today for their involvement in a racially-motivated conspiracy to interfere with the housing rights of African-American residents of the Spring Lake subdivision of Spring Hill.

The Justice Department today paid tribute to nine individuals for their extraordinary efforts to recover missing children, rescue children from abuse and prosecute sexual predators during its annual commemoration of National Missing Children’s Day.

Drs. David Leon Fredrick and Patricia Lynn Hough, of Englewood, Fla., were indicted by a federal grand jury in Fort Myers, Fla., for conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by concealing millions of dollars in assets and income in offshore bank accounts at UBS and other foreign banks.

Glenn Powell Jr. pleaded guilty today in the Middle District of Alabama to his role in a large scale stolen identity refund fraud.

Fazliddin Kurbanov, 30, was arrested Thursday morning in Boise, Idaho, as part of a federal terrorism investigation. Federal terrorism charges were filed Thursday afternoon in Boise and Salt Lake City, Utah. Kurbanov, an Uzbekistan national, legally present in the United States, was living in Boise at the time of his arrest.

Connie M. Knight, 47, previously of Belle Chasse, La., was sentenced to serve 57 months in prison in New Orleans federal court late yesterday for providing fraudulent hazardous waste safety training in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill

Larreka Jackson was sentenced yesterday to 48 months in prison for her role in a multi-million dollar conspiracy to use stolen identities to obtain tax refunds, the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today. Jackson was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $721,519.12. In January 2013, Jackson pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to file false claims and one count of aggravated identity theft.

Today, a federal judge unsealed a three-count indictment returned by a grand jury in the Southern District of Florida charging Jetta McPhee, 59, of Tamarac, Fla., for her role in bringing 143 Haitian nationals to the United States on fraudulently obtained guest worker visas that McPhee and her co-conspirator secured based on false representations that there were jobs awaiting those workers.

Sean Rosales, a dual United States and Costa Rican citizen, was sentenced today in connection with a series of business opportunity fraud ventures based in Costa Rica, the Justice Department and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service announced today.

Two Alabama real estate investors and their company were sentenced today in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama in Mobile, for their participation in conspiracies to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions in southern Alabama.

Two DENSO Corp. executives – Yuji Suzuki and Hiroshi Watanabe – have agreed to plead guilty for their roles in international conspiracies to fix prices and rig bids of certain automotive components installed in U.S. cars, the Department of Justice announced today.

Tracey Montgomery, of Montgomery County, Ala., pleaded guilty today in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama to her role in a large scale stolen identity refund fraud.

Bridgette Rivers, a resident of Montgomery, Ala., pleaded guilty to her involvement in a conspiracy to use stolen identities to file fraudulent tax returns.

Lea’Tice Phillips, of Montgomery County, Ala., pleaded guilty today to one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft for her role in a stolen identity refund fraud scheme.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi today approved a landmark consent decree filed by the Justice Department, together with private plaintiffs and the Meridian Public School District in Meridian, Miss., to prevent and address racial discrimination in student discipline

Joseph Rizzuti, of Stuart, Fla., was sentenced to 80 months in federal prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and for corruptly endeavoring to obstruct the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

American Commercial Colleges Inc. (ACC) has agreed to pay the United States up to $2.5 million, plus interest, to resolve allegations that it violated the civil False Claims Act by falsely certifying that it complied with certain eligibility requirements of the federal student aid programs.

A federal court in Miami has permanently barred Osvaldo J. Diaz of Coral Gables, Florida, from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today.

A former employee at the Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany (MCLB-Albany) and two local businessmen were sentenced today for their roles in a bribery scheme related to the award of contracts for machine products that resulted in approximately $907,000 in fraudulent overcharges to the U.S. Marines.

A federal jury in Tampa found four former executives of WellCare Health Plans Inc., a health maintenance organization (HMO) operator, guilty of various charges, including health care fraud, making false statements relating to health care matters and making false statements to a law enforcement officer, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

The Department of Justice today announced new guidelines for the payment of attorneys’ fees and expenses in large chapter 11 bankruptcy cases in order to enhance disclosure and transparency in the compensation process and to help ensure that attorneys’ fees and expenses are based on market rates.

Christopher Cordelle Davis, of Montgomery County, Ala., was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Middle District of Alabama for his role in a scheme to file fraudulent tax returns using stolen identities, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today following Davis’s arrest.

The Justice Department announced today that it has entered into an interim settlement agreement with the State of Rhode Island and the City of Providence that will resolve violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for approximately 200 Rhode Islanders with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD).