The Justice Department today announced an agreement with a California municipality and a homeowners’ association to resolve allegations of discrimination on the basis of familial status in violation of the Fair Housing Act. The settlement, in the form of a consent order, must be approved by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Goher Yaqoob, a resident of Roslyn Heights, N.Y., pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York to tax evasion, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced.

An Aryan Brotherhood of Texas gang member from Houston was sentenced today to serve 10 years in prison for his role in an aggravated assault that took place in Tomball, Texas, in September 2008.

"Using all the civil and criminal tools at our disposal, we are working hard to strengthen our role in protecting consumers and punishing those responsible. In that effort, we are making the fight against fraud aimed at servicemembers and veterans a top priority," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Delery.

The Justice Department announced that it has reached an agreement with Merced County, Calif., that will allow for the county and some 84 political subdivisions in the county that conduct elections to bail out from their status as “covered jurisdictions” under the special provisions of the Voting Rights Act, and thereby exempt these jurisdictions from the preclearance requirements of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. The agreement is in the form of a consent decree filed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and must be approved by the court.

The Justice Department announced today that it will monitor the elections on July 31, 2012, in Randolph and Washington Counties, Ga., to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Voting Rights Act prohibits discrimination in the election process on the basis of race, color or membership in a minority language group.

The Department of Justice and the Allentown, Pa., School District today filed a proposed consent decree addressing multiple complaints of sexual assault of students at Central Elementary School. The comprehensive consent decree resolves allegations that six- and seven-year-old students were sexually assaulted by another student in the boys’ bathrooms at Central Elementary School during the 2003–2004 school year.

TRW Deutschland Holding GmbH, a Koblenz, Germany-based subsidiary of U.S.-based TRW Automotive Holdings Corp., has agreed to plead guilty for its involvement in a conspiracy to fix prices of seatbelts, airbags and steering wheels sold to two German automobile manufacturers, and installed in cars sold in the United States.

Former Milwaukee Police Officer Ladmarald Cates was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller to 24 years in prison.

"You’ve already shown that leadership is a quality available in abundance in tribal communities. The future clearly is in good hands. Thank you for everything you’re doing for your communities, and keep up the good work," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Leary.

The Justice Department announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against the state of Michigan and its chief elections officials to help ensure that military service members, their family members and U.S. citizens living overseas have the opportunity to participate fully in Michigan’s Aug. 7, 2012, federal primary election and Sept. 5, 2012, federal special primary election.

Two former high-ranking employees of facilities operations at New York Presbyterian Hospital (NYPH) pleaded guilty today to an indictment charging them with conspiring to defraud NYPH.

"This rulemaking presents an important opportunity to close a gap in our financial regulations that makes it easier for criminals to move illicit proceeds through the United States financial system," said Assistant Attorney General Breuer.

The Justice Department announced today that it has reached a settlement with the city of Woodlake, Calif., to resolve allegations that the city engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination against people with disabilities by requiring applicants for job vacancies to undergo unlawful pre-employment medical examinations before receiving an offer of employment, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

"Providing information, strengthening police-community relationships, and protecting officers – these are all ways the Office of Justice Programs is working to support law enforcement," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Leary.

The Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, on behalf of the White House Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative, today announced the eight neighborhoods that will receive training and technical assistance through the groundbreaking Building Neighborhood Capacity Program.

A Missouri man was sentenced today to 30 months in prison for his role in the vandalism and arson of a biracial man’s home in Independence, Mo., the Department of Justice announced.

A Chicago police officer and three members of the Almighty Latin Kings Nation pleaded guilty to a racketeering conspiracy and other related charges in a superseding indictment involving alleged members or associates of the Latin Kings, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney David Capp of the Northern District of Indiana.

A Detroit-area adult day care center owner pleaded guilty today for her role in a $10 million psychotherapy fraud scheme, announced the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services (HHS) and the FBI.

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The Justice Department announced today that it reached an out-of-court agreement with the Escambia County School District in Alabama to end the use of race-based selection criteria for homecoming courts and other student activities in two of the district’s high schools.

Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman was resentenced today to serve 78 months in prison for his role in bribery, conspiracy, fraud and obstruction of justice charges involving former HealthSouth CEO Richard M. Scrushy.

Gibson Guitar Corp. entered into a criminal enforcement agreement with the United States today resolving a criminal investigation into allegations that the company violated the Lacey Act by illegally purchasing and importing ebony wood from Madagascar and rosewood and ebony from India.

Following a jury trial that began on Aug. 1, 2012, a federal jury convicted Enyinnaya Udo on all 25 counts of an indictment charging him with aiding and assisting in the preparation of false individual income tax returns, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced.

The Justice Department announced that it has asked a federal court in Chicago to bar Bruce E. Grant and his business, Quick Check Limited, from preparing tax returns. The civil injunction suit alleges that Grant falsifies customers’ income on their tax returns, frequently by fabricating business income and expenses, in order to claim the maximum earned income tax credit (EITC) for them.

The United States has joined a whistleblower action pending in the Northern District of California against the federally-qualified health center (FQHC), North East Medical Services (NEMS), alleging that the center under-reported income it received from a managed care organization in order to artificially inflate reimbursements it received from the California Medicaid program, the Justice Department announced today. North East serves the San Francisco Bay area.

The Justice Department today announced it has filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland against Baltimore County, Md.

The former chief of party in Baghdad for the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), Robert Nathan Boorda, pleaded guilty to an information unsealed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for conspiring to enrich himself by having USIP award a security contract at a fraudulently inflated price in exchange for a purported monthly consulting fee of $20,000 paid by the contractor.

"We must continue to work because today, somewhere, there’s a child who will feel the sting of a punch because the clothes he’s wearing aren’t cool; who will believe her difference is a detriment as she eats alone in a crowded school cafeteria; who will skip school another day to avoid a terrifying confrontation; or will contemplate suicide because nothing seems like it can hurt more than this moment of humiliation right now," said Acting Associate Attorney General West.

A company that marketed public records about consumers to employers making hiring decisions agreed to settle charges that it violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act and pay $2.6 million in civil penalties, the Justice Department announced.

Yumeitrius Manuel, a resident of Montgomery, Ala., was sentenced today in the Middle District of Alabama to 81 months in federal prison for filing false tax returns using stolen identities, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced.

A federal court in Miami has permanently barred Sharon Angulo and Claudia Zuloaga, both of Miami, from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. The injunction order was signed by Judge Joan A. Lenard of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

A federal court in Central Islip, N.Y., has permanently barred Diana D. Bertocci-Aliffi from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. The civil injunction order, to which Aliffi agreed without admitting the government’s allegations, was signed by Judge Joanna Seybert of the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of New York.

The Justice Department released a letter of findings today determining that the Lauderdale County Youth Court, the Meridian Police Department (MPD), and the Mississippi Division of Youth Services (DYS) are violating the constitutional rights of juveniles in Meridian, Miss. The department’s investigation found reasonable cause to believe that these agencies have violated the constitutional due process rights of children in the city of Meridian and the county of Lauderdale under the Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

Peter Borgia Jr., 22, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema.

A federal court has permanently barred a Michigan couple, Damian and Holly Jackson, of Detroit, from preparing federal tax returns for others, preparing their own federal tax returns using false 1099 forms, and promoting an alleged tax-fraud scheme based on the frivolous “redemption” theory, the Justice Department announced today. The civil injunction order, to which the Jacksons consented without admitting the allegations against them, was signed by Judge Paul D. Borman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

The Department of Justice announced the guilty plea and sentencing of Easley, S.C.-based Aletec Medical for engaging in a multi-million dollar prescription drug scheme. Altec Medical pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Miami to one count of conspiring to defraud the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and to commit federal offenses in connection with a drug-diversion scheme that lasted from 2007 to 2009.

James W. Carell, CareAll Management LLC (formerly known as Diversified Health Management Inc.), CareAll Inc., the James W. Carell Family Trust, VIP Home Nursing and Rehabilitation Services LLC, Professional Home Health Care LLC, University Home Health, LLC and Elizabeth Vining (as representative of the Estate of Robert Vining) have agreed to pay $9.375 million to the federal government. This payment is to resolve the lawsuit that the United States filed in 2009 alleging that they violated the False Claims Act, caused Medicare to pay out money through mistake of fact, and were unjustly enriched by falsely concealing the home health agencies’ relationship with their management company, the Justice Department announced today.

Richard Kellogg Armstrong, 77, of Prescott, Ariz., was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge Robert E. Blackburn to 108 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Judge Blackburn ordered the sentence to run consecutively to the 660 day prison term and $1,021,500 of fines cumulatively imposed upon Armstrong as punitive sanctions for 10 acts of contempt of court. He also ordered Armstrong to pay restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the amount of $1,678,834 and to forfeit two residences and a personal aircraft. The sentence was announced by the Justice Department’s Tax Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado and the IRS Criminal Investigation Denver Field Office. Codefendant Curtis L. Morris, age 43, of Elizabeth, Colo., is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 6, 2012.

The Justice Department announced today that it will monitor elections on Aug. 14, 2012, in the following jurisdictions to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and other federal voting rights statutes: Collier, Hendry, Lee, Osceola and Polk Counties, Fla.; and the city of Milwaukee, Wis.

Jean-Luc Veraguas, 51, of Plantation, Fla., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Frederico A. Moreno in the Southern District of Florida.

Rodolfo Nieto Jr., 40, of Miami, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga in the Southern District of Florida to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to receive health care kickbacks.

The Justice Department announced today that John Wingard Altman has agreed to pay $25,000 to settle a lawsuit involving violations of the Fair Housing Act at Altman Apartments, a 16-unit apartment complex he owns in Summerville, S.C. In July 2012, the court, ruling on a motion filed by the government, found that the defendant had violated the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against families with children.

The Justice Department announced today that it reached a settlement agreement with Best Packing Services Employment Agency Inc., which is based in Philadelphia, resolving allegations that the company discriminated under the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), when it impermissibly delayed the start date of two refugees after requiring them to provide specific Form I-9 documentation.

"The message we’re sending is that youth violence is not inevitable. When communities engage partners across disciplines and use a data-driven, balanced approach – one that emphasizes prevention, intervention, enforcement, and reentry – they can reduce violence and improve outcomes for our youth," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Leary.

A federal court in Kansas City, Kan., has permanently barred Ahferom Goitom from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. The civil injunction order, to which Goitom consented without admitting the allegations against him, was signed by Judge John W. Lungstrum of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas. The case is one of five similar lawsuits (the others were filed in Indianapolis; Las Vegas; Chicago; and Dayton, Ohio) to shut down four of the largest Instant Tax Service franchise owners, as well as the Dayton-based corporate franchisor of the Instant Tax Service brand—ITS Financial LLC.

Cedyco Corporation, headquartered in Houston, was sentenced today in federal court in the Eastern District of Louisiana.

A federal grand jury in Montgomery, Ala., returned a superseding indictment charging Antoinette Djonret, Angelique Djonret, Tabitha Stinson, Melba Wilson, Chantresa Hayes and Corey Means with conspiring to file false tax returns using stolen identities, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today. The 49-count indictment charges Djonret with filing false claims, theft of government funds, access device fraud, aggravated identity theft and possession of unauthorized access devices. Angelique Djonret is also charged with filing false claims, theft of government funds and aggravated identity theft. Corey Means and Chantresa Hayes are charged with theft of government funds.

Giusseppe Bottiglieri Shipping Company S.P.A, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Ginny Granade in the Southern District of Alabama to pay a $1 million criminal fine, serve four years of probation, and make a $300,000 community service payment to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

An executive of Tokyo-based Yazaki Corporation has agreed to plead guilty for his role in a conspiracy to fix prices of instrument panel clusters, also known as meters, installed in cars sold in the United States and elsewhere.