"That dream of progress and of opportunity – for my own family, for my people and for my nation – is what inspired my interest in the law, my study of the law, and every step of a career spent serving and trying to perfect our justice system," said Attorney General Holder.

The indictment, unsealed today in Hammond, Ind., charges six alleged members of the gang known as Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation for their alleged roles in a racketeering conspiracy in Hammond, Ind., and elsewhere.

A settlement with El Dorado County, Calif., will ensure the beginning of the cleanup, at an estimated cost of approximately $7 million, of the Meyers Landfill Site, located outside of the city of South Lake Tahoe, Calif.

Attorney General Eric Holder met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Minister of Justice Habibullah Ghalib and Attorney General Mohammad Ishaq Aloko today to discuss the department’s ongoing efforts to foster the rule of law in Afghanistan.

Seven members of the gang known as La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, were sentenced to prison Tuesday for their participation in a racketeering enterprise.

An indictment unsealed today in Philadelphia charged Omelyan Botsvynyuk, Stepan Botsvynyuk, Mykhaylo Botsvynyuk, Dmytro Botsvynyuk, and Yaroslav Botsvynyuk, a/k/a Yaroslav Churuk, with extortion and conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) for their alleged involvement in a human trafficking operation.

A Milltown, N.J., man pleaded guilty today to a federal charge of willfully subscribing to a false tax return, admitting he concealed over $2 million in a Swiss bank account.

Steven Jinwoo Kim, 40, of Houston pleaded guilty on Nov. 16, 2009, to one count of intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization and recklessly causing damage.

Carline Ceneus, Cabioch Bontemps and Willy Edouard have been indicted by a federal grand jury sitting in the Northern District of Florida for engaging in a conspiracy to commit forced labor and visa fraud involving Haitian nationals.

The Justice Department today announced charges against five members of an al-Qaeda plot to attack targets in the United States and United Kingdom.

Gilberto Jordan, 54, a former Guatemalan special forces soldier, pleaded guilty today in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to a federal charge of unlawfully procuring his U.S. citizenship, admitting that he lied on his naturalization application about his participation in a 1982 massacre at a Guatemalan village known as Dos Erres.

U.S. Army Major Charles E. Sublett, 46, of Huntsville, Ala., pleaded guilty today in federal court in Memphis, Tenn., to making false statements to a federal agency.

Assistant Attorney General Breuer highlights the Criminal Division's recent successes in the fight against gangs and his intention to form an Organized Crime and Gang Section by merging the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section and the Gang Unit.

"Our future progress, I believe, will depend on our ability to bring innovative, evidence-based solutions to the work of addressing our most overwhelming and intractable challenges – namely, the prevalence and consequences of gun-, gang-, and drug-related violence, as well as the devastating impact of childhood exposure to violence," said Attorney General Holder.

"Today marks an important step forward in administering justice, in healing community wounds, in improving public safety, and in restoring public trust in this city’s police department," said Attorney General Holder.

The Justice Department today announced a court-approved consent decree which resolves a lawsuit against the state of New York and its public university systems for their failure to provide voter registration services at offices serving students with disabilities at each public university and college campus in New York State. 

The United States has entered into a comprehensive agreement with the State of New York and the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) that resolves previous findings of unconstitutional conditions at four juvenile justice facilities.

Today, the U.S. government filed civil forfeiture complaints against properties in New York and Virginia that represent a portion of illegal bribes paid to the former president of Taiwan and his wife.

"What makes Project Safe Neighborhoods so unique as an initiative is that it relies on teamwork that goes beyond law enforcement," said Acting Deputy Attorney General Grindler.

The Justice Department announced today that a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., returned an indictment charging Felix M. Mathis, an attorney practicing in Zurich, Switzerland, with conspiring to defraud the United States and structuring the importation of currency into this country.

Roland J. Bourgeois Jr., 47, currently a resident of Columbia, Miss., was charged in a five-count indictment with conspiring to commit a hate crime, committing a hate crime with a deadly weapon and with intent to kill, making false statements and obstructing of justice in connection with a shooting that happened in the days after Hurricane Katrina.

Ninety-four people have been charged for their alleged participation in schemes to collectively submit more than $251 million in false claims to the Medicare program in the continuing operation of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force in Miami; Baton Rouge, La.; Brooklyn, N.Y.; Detroit and Houston.

Attorney General Eric Holder and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today kicked-off the first in a series of regional health care fraud prevention summits in Miami.

"We are here to announce the results of the largest federal health care fraud takedown in our nation’s history: 94 people in four cities have been charged for their alleged participation in schemes to submit more than $251 million in false Medicare claims," said Attorney General Holder.

"This summit is an important opportunity – the chance to build on what was discussed, and achieved, during the first “National Summit on Health Care Fraud” that Secretary Sebelius and I convened in Washington in January," said Attorney General Holder.

Lloyd Mack Royal III, aka “Blyss,” “B,” and “Furious,” 29, of Gaithersburg, Md., was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams Jr. for his role in a sex trafficking operation.

The Justice Department today announced a settlement agreement under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) with Blockbuster Inc. to ensure equal access to its stores nationwide for individuals with disabilities who use service animals.

"This was a moment in time for the Department of Justice and the Obama administration to send a clear signal that the fight against domestic and sexual violence is a national priority," said Associate Attorney General Perrelli.

"It’s an honor to salute your contributions and to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the ADA – and the 15th Anniversary of the AAPD – with so many friends, colleagues and partners," said Attorney General Holder.

"Today, we commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the legacy of progress that the ADA helped to create," said Attorney General Holder.

Chief U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Conrad Jr. today formally imposed the federal death penalty sentence on Alejandro Enrique Ramirez Umana, aka “Wizard”.

Morgan Hanks, 25, of Newport News, was arrested on charges contained in a two-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury on July 13, 2010, and unsealed today in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Madhatta Haipe, a citizen of the Philippines and founding member of Al-Harakat Al-Islamiyyah, also known as the Abu Sayyaf Group, pleaded guilty today in federal court in the District of Columbia to four counts of hostage taking in connection with the 1995 abduction of 16 people, including four U.S. citizens, in the Philippines.

A U.S. District Court in Montgomery, Ala., granted judgment in favor of the United States yesterday in a lawsuit brought to enforce the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act against the Alabama Department of Mental Health.

Donald Hertz pleaded guilty today in federal court in Spokane to one count of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and one count of transmitting a threat in interstate commerce.

Former Choctaw County, Okla., deputy sheriff Ben Westley Milner was sentenced today in Muskogee, Okla., to serve 18 months in prison and two years supervised release for violating the civil rights of three men by assaulting them without legal justification.

Swiss-based freight forwarder Panalpina Inc. has agreed to pay the United States $375,000 to settle allegations that the company paid kickbacks to employees of Kellogg Brown & Root Inc. (KBR).

The Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today additional details for the August 27, 2010, public workshop in Fort Collins, Colo., which will examine competition in the livestock industry.

The United States has settled alleged violations of federal and state underground storage tank (UST) regulations at 17 gas stations in Delaware and Maryland formerly owned by Duncan Petroleum Corp.

"As the Justice Department brings its fight against child exploitation to a new level today, I am honored to stand with so many incredible colleagues and public servants who have made it their life’s work to protect exploited children and seek justice for the most vulnerable members of our society," said Acting Deputy Attorney General Grindler.

"Today marks an important step forward in meeting these responsibilities and taking our fight against child exploitation and sexual abuse to the next level," said Attorney General Holder.

CF Industries Inc. has agreed to spend approximately $12 million to implement facility-wide operational changes to reduce and properly manage hazardous wastes generated at its Plant City, Fla., phosphoric acid and ammoniated fertilizer manufacturing facility.

Sergei Tšurikov, 26, of Tallinn, Estonia, has been extradited to the United States to face charges of hacking into a computer network operated by an Atlanta-based credit card processing company.

– The Mercator Corporation, a merchant bank with offices in New York, pleaded guilty today in federal court in Manhattan, N.Y., to one count of making an unlawful payment to a senior government official of the Republic of Kazakhstan, in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

“Since 1991, federal law has required that new multi-family housing complexes with four or more units be built with certain accessible features.  There is no excuse for developers and design professionals to fail to comply,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.

Vladislav Anatolievich Horohorin, 27, aka “BadB” of Moscow, Russia, was indicted by a federal grand jury in November 2009 on charges of access device fraud and aggravated identity theft.

"Our nation’s children deserve a learning environment that allows them to reach their full potential, and no child should be scared to go to school because of bullying," said Associate Attorney General Perrelli.

"As I have seen every day at the Department of Justice – in national-security briefings, reviews of case files, and meetings with the leaders of our divisions and task forces – our role as lawyers has evolved," said Acting Deputy Attorney General Grindler.

Ilkham Fazilov pleaded guilty today to racketeering conspiracy for his role in a criminal enterprise that engaged in numerous criminal activities including forced labor, fraud in foreign labor contracting, visa fraud, mail fraud, identity theft, tax evasion and money laundering.

The civil injunction suit alleges that Charlie Wilson and his Chicago business, CBD Tax Service, claim bogus deductions and credits on customers’ federal tax returns.