Laurie O. Robinson was sworn in today as Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP).

Susan Holloman, 58, of Washington, pleaded guilty to a one-count criminal information charging her with unauthorized computer access.

A federal judge in Sioux City, Iowa, today barred a Humboldt, Iowa, woman, Gayle Lemmon, and her tax preparation business from claiming improper deductions on federal income tax returns.

After conducting a careful investigation of the proposed transaction between Oracle and Sun, the Department’s Antitrust Division concluded that the merger is unlikely to be anticompetitive.

A South Korean businessman was sentenced today to five years in prison for his role in a bribery conspiracy involving a $206 million telecommunications contract and employees of the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES).

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.

A former consultant for Willbros International Inc. (WII), a subsidiary of Houston-based Willbros Group Inc. (Willbros), pleaded guilty today to engaging in a conspiracy to pay more than $6 million in bribes to government officials of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and officials from a Nigerian political party.

Rohullah Farooqi Lodin and Hashmatullah Farooqi were each sentenced today in Alexandria, Va., to four years in prison for their roles in a scheme to offer $1 million in bribes to a U.S. Army contracting official in Afghanistan.

The all-day workshops, which will begin in March 2010, will be held in Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, Washington, D.C. and Wisconsin.

Charles Paul Edward Jumet of Fluvanna County, Va., pleaded guilty today in connection with his role in a conspiracy to pay bribes to Panamanian government officials to secure a maritime contract.

Former U.S. Congressman William J. Jefferson, 62, of New Orleans, La., was sentenced today to 13 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for using his office to corruptly solicit bribes.

The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, alleges that since 2003, defendants have violated the False Claims Act.

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

The Department said that the deal as originally proposed would substantially lessen competition in the manufacture of refinery desalters in the United States.

Daniel Melgoza, a Bexar County, Texas, Corrections Officer, was charged today in a four-count federal indictment with violating the civil rights of two detainees and obstructing justice.

"We will be relentless in our investigation of corporate and financial wrongdoing, and will not hesitate to bring charges, where appropriate, for criminal misconduct on the part of businesses and business executives."

Chief Judge Mary M. Lisi sentenced Albert Martin to 51 months in prison and Lorraine Martin to one year and one day in prison.

“Rooting out fraud and safeguarding taxpayers from illegal conduct are among the Justice Department’s highest priorities,” said Tony West, the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division.

A federal grand jury in Greenbelt, Md., has indicted 19 alleged members of the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation (Latin Kings) for conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise.

"I’m honored to participate in ALPACT’s first annual banquet, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to discuss an issue that I care about deeply – fostering collaboration between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve," said Attorney General Holder.

A federal court in Los Angeles has issued permanent injunctions barring a Torrance, Calif., tax preparer, Susan Guan and her company, SRN Financial Services Inc., from preparing tax returns for others

Walter Kendall Myers, 72, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit espionage and two counts of wire fraud. His wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, 71, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to gather and transmit national defense information.

Joshua Ryan Jones and Roger Forrester, former corrections officers at the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, Tenn., pleaded guilty today to violating the civil rights of an inmate and then lying about it during state and federal investigations.

A criminal complaint, unsealed today, charged Dani Nemr Tarraf with conspiring to acquire anti-aircraft missiles (FIM-92 Stingers) and conspiring to possess machine guns (approximately 10,000 Colt M4 Carbines).

Jacques Monsieur, a Belgian national and resident of France suspected of international arms dealing for decades, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama to conspiracy to illegally export F-5 fighter jet engines and parts from the Untied States to Iran.

Febe Durango-Rueda, 52, a Colombian national, pleaded guilty on Nov. 20, 2009, to participating in a scheme to defraud the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) of more than $1 million.

Four individuals were sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Marianne O. Battani in federal court in Detroit for their roles in a wide-ranging international stock fraud scheme involving the illegal use of bulk commercial e-mails, or "spamming."

The government complaint in the civil injunction case alleged that Jacqueline Cornejo promoted a tax fraud scheme designed to siphon millions of dollars from the U.S. Treasury.

The complex tax scheme involved numerous entities located around the globe and sales of over $1.25 billion in securities

Ten individuals were indicted today, charged with, among other things, conspiring to export weapons from Philadelphia to the Port of Latakia, Syria.

Isaac White, formerly an officer with the Memphis Police Department, pleaded guilty today to using excessive force and causing bodily injury. White faces up to 10 years in prison for the civil rights violation.

A federal court in Kansas City, Kan., has permanently barred Carlos Cruz, also known as Carlos Ruano-Cruz, from preparing tax returns for others.

Michael Parker of Baltimore, who was the chief operating officer of TransCapital Corporation, a tax-advantaged investments company based in Northen Virginia, pleaded guilty today to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

The department has filed papers seeking a federal court order authorizing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to serve a “John Doe summons” on Ralph Janvey, the court-appointed receiver of the Stanford Group Company (SGC) and related entities.

John L. Cockerham, 43, a major in the U.S. Army, was sentenced to 210 months in prison.

A federal court in Boston issued a judgment against Excel Home Care Inc. in the amount of $473,510.76 for unpaid federal employment and unemployment taxes after its owner Diane E. Porter consented to the entry of an order of permanent injunction that prohibits her or anyone else from operating this Tewksbury, Mass., home health care provider.

A Chicago man who was arrested in October for planning terrorist attacks against a Danish newspaper and two of its employees is alleged to have also conducted extensive surveillance of targets in Mumbai for more than two years preceding the November 2008 terrorist attack on India’s largest city that killed approximately 170 people, including six Americans, and injured hundreds more.

The United States has reached a $6.75 million settlement with Itochu Corp. of Japan and its American subsidiary, Itochu International Inc., to resolve claims under the False Claims Act in connection with the companies’ importation and sale of defective Zylon fiber used as the key ballistic material in bullet-proof vests purchased by the United States for federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies.

A Washington, D.C., fish wholesaler and two of its employees have been charged in U.S. District Court in Maryland for the purchase of illegally harvested striped bass, commonly referred to as rockfish, from the Potomac River from 1995 through 2007.

“Over the past thirteen years, the parties have tried to settle this case many, many times, each time unsuccessfully,” said Attorney General Holder.

Jacob Wingo, Clayton Morrison, Darren McKim and Richard Robins were sentenced today and yesterday in federal court in Hot Springs, Ark., on federal civil rights and obstruction of justice charges related to a conspiracy to drive a woman and her children from their home in Donaldson, Ark., because the victims associated with African-Americans.

Curtis Whiteford, a former colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, was sentenced today to five years in prison for his participation in a wide-ranging bribery conspiracy in Al-Hillah, Iraq.

"Thank you Secretary Salazar. Today marks another significant step forward in the government’s work to fulfill our trust obligation for hundreds of thousands of individual Native Americans. Cobell v. Salazar is one of the largest class actions ever brought against the U.S. government."

"Thank you to the Attorney General, and thank you to Secretary Salazar and Deputy Secretary Hayes for the extraordinary commitment of their Department of the Interior to bring this case to a resolution."

Kevin M. Young, 42, was sentenced today to 12 months of probation for illegally accessing more than 125 confidential passport application files. Young was also ordered by U.S. Magistrate Judge Alan Kay in the District of Columbia to perform 100 hours of community service.

Companies directly affected by the LCD price-fixing conspiracy are some of the largest computer and television manufacturers in the world, including Apple, Dell and HP.

A federal grand jury in Atlanta has indicted an Ellenwood, Ga., husband and wife, Juna Gwendolyn Babb, 54, and Michael J. Babb, 53, on charges of conspiracy, forced labor, document servitude, which is confiscating someone’s passport and visa, and harboring an alien for financial gain, the Justice Department announced.

A federal grand jury has indicted a Ft. Worth, Texas, husband and wife, Emmanuel and Ngozi Nnaji, on charges of engaging in a nine-year scheme to compel the labor of a Nigerian victim as their domestic servant.

Tijani Ahmed Saani was also ordered to pay a $1.6 million fine and serve one year of supervised release following his prison term.

"The challenges facing law enforcement in tribal communities are enormous. The basic level of police protection that most Americans take for granted simply does not exist in many parts of Indian Country. We have a duty to change that."