A federal court in Maine has permanently barred Robert A. Grover from preparing federal tax returns for others. The court also ordered the Maine resident to provide his customer lists to the government and to mail copies of the complaint and court order to his customers. Grover consented to the civil injunction order.

A federal grand jury in San Francisco returned an indictment against two former executives from Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd. (Chunghwa) and one former executive from LG Display Co. Ltd. (LG) for their participation in a global conspiracy to fix prices of Thin Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display (TFT-LCD) panels.

The Justice Department has aptly been described as the “crown jewel” of the federal government. It has attained this distinction not because of any laws or regulations, cases or controversies, buildings or equipment, but rather because of the quality, integrity, and dedication of the people who work tirelessly to carry out the Department’s vital mission.

A federal district court in Connecticut has permanently barred Elda Sinani, a resident of that state, from preparing federal tax returns for others. Sinani consented to the civil injunction order.

A Minnesota man was arrested today on charges related to an alleged Ponzi scheme involving commodity pools. Charles “Chuck” E. Hays, of Rosemount, Minn., was charged in a criminal complaint filed in the District of Minnesota with one count of wire fraud and one count of mail fraud.

A former employee at the U.S. Embassy in Haiti pleaded guilty today to one count of theft for stealing more than $800,000 from the U.S. Department of State. According to court documents, Jean G. Saint-Joy, 25, a citizen of Haiti, was employed as a cashier by the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, from approximately 1995 until July 2008.

Two men have been arrested and charged in an indictment unsealed today with crimes related to sex trafficking. Tommy Handy and his nephew, Everett Cooney, were indicted by a federal grand jury in Little Rock, Ark., for conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and sex trafficking for their roles in using force, fraud and coercion to cause juvenile girls and adult women to engage in commercial sex acts.

A federal court in Los Angeles invalidated an abusive tax shelter scheme engaged in by prominent real estate investors James Thomas and Edward Fox. U.S. District Judge John F. Walter also imposed the maximum penalty - forty percent - allowed by the tax code against them.

A federal jury in Memphis, Tenn., today found Arthur Sease IV, a former Memphis Police Department officer, guilty on forty-four counts of civil rights, narcotics, robbery and firearms offenses. The evidence at trial showed that from November 2003 through April 2006, Sease conspired with other Memphis police officers to use their authority as law enforcement officers, including their service weapons, to rob suspected drug dealers of cash, cocaine and marijuana. Sease and his co-conspirators would then resell the stolen drugs for their own profit.

Carlos Serrano, 64, of Glendale, Calif., was sentenced to 18 months in a community correctional facility in connection with a $1.3 million scheme to defraud the First International Bank of Connecticut (FIB) and the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank). In addition to his prison sentence, Serrano was placed on five years of probation and ordered to pay restitution of $924,569 to the Ex-Im Bank.

Two petroleum refiners have agreed in separate settlements to spend a total of more than $141 million in new air pollution controls at three refineries in Kansas and Wyoming.

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.

A former Velda City, Mo., auxiliary reserve police officer pleaded guilty today to violating the federal civil rights of a woman he sexually assaulted during a traffic stop and to concealing evidence of his crime from federal investigators. According to facts presented in court, on or about July 9, 2006, Joe Ernest Phillips, 38, then an auxiliary reserve police officer for the Velda City Police Department sexually assaulted a woman while acting under color of law and deprived her of her civil rights.

Kellogg Brown & Root LLC (KBR), a global engineering, construction and services company based in Houston, pleaded guilty today to charges related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for its participation in a decade-long scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials to obtain engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts. The EPC contracts to build liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities on Bonny Island, Nigeria, were valued at more than $6 billion.

The Department has reached a settlement that, if approved by the court, will resolve a lawsuit the Department filed on behalf of Air Force Reservist Frank Bonnin against SmallTownPapers Inc., (SmallTownPapers). The complaint, filed in August 2008 in U.S. District Court in Seattle, alleged that SmallTownPapers violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) when it terminated Bonnin from his position as director of publisher relations due to his military obligation as an Air Force Reservist to attend active duty training.

The United States has sued a Dallas tax preparer, Tina Preston, her tax-preparation firm – Preston Tax Services, Inc. – and several other individuals associated with the firm, seeking to bar them all permanently from the tax-preparation business. The civil injunction suit was filed in Dallas with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

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.

APL Limited has agreed to pay the government $26.3 million to resolve allegations that it submitted false claims to the United States in connection with contracts to transport cargo in shipping containers to support U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The United States has sued a Clive, Iowa, couple to bar them from preparing federal tax returns for others. According to the government complaint, Jill Schwartz-Musin, her husband Howard Musin, and their business, SSC Services, prepare fraudulent federal income tax returns for small business owners.

Six Miami-Dade County residents have been indicted in connection with an alleged $10 million Medicare fraud scheme operated out of Midway Medical, a Miami clinic that purported to specialize in treating HIV/AIDS patients.

The United States has sued a Sacramento, Calif., tax preparer, Chris Elmer, his firm – Associated Tax Planners Inc. (ATP) – and several members of his family associated with ATP, seeking to bar them all permanently from the tax-preparation business. The civil injunction suit was filed in Sacramento with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.

Gunther Wenzek, a German national, was arraigned today in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., on a nine count indictment charging him with three felony counts of smuggling protected coral into the United States port of Portland, Ore., three felony counts of violating the Lacey Act and three misdemeanor charges of violating the Endangered Species Act.

AT&T Technical Services Corp. (AT&T-TSCO) has agreed to pay $8,266,414.33 as part of a civil settlement relating to allegations that the company violated the False Claims Act in connection with the Federal Communication Commission's E-Rate program.

A federal judge in Pennsylvania has permanently barred Chalamar Muhammad and her husband, Curtis Muhammad, from preparing tax returns for others. Judge Harvey Bartle III of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania entered the order of permanent injunction after the Coatesville, Pa., couple failed to defend against the government’s allegations.

Timothy Kyle Dunaway, 24, of Wichita Falls, Texas, was sentenced today to 41 months in prison by U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor in Wichita Falls for selling counterfeit computer software through the Internet in violation of criminal copyright infringement laws. The software sold by Dunaway had a combined retail value of more than $1 million.

Eduardo Cortez, a resident of Mays Landing, N.J., was sentenced to 36 months incarceration and three years of supervised release by U.S. District Judge Noel L. Hillman in Camden, N.J. According to his plea agreement, Cortez and his employees knowingly prepared false and fraudulent tax returns for customers that included false and inflated deductions, credits and adjustments.

RE/MAX East-West, a real estate firm in Elmhurst, Ill., and one of its former real estate agents, John DeJohn, have agreed to pay $120,000 to settle allegations that they illegally steered prospective homebuyers toward and away from certain neighborhoods based on race and national origin. The consent decree was signed on Feb. 17, 2009, by U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo.

We appreciate the diligent work of the National Research Council’s committee on forensic science in preparing this report. The Department of Justice’s principal focus in dealing with forensic evidence is on applying it dispassionately to law enforcement challenges, and we regularly use forensics to not only convict the guilty, but also to exonerate the innocent.

A federal court in Maine permanently barred Donna L. Hamilton from preparing federal tax returns for others. The court also ordered the Maine resident to provide her customer lists to the government and to mail copies of the court order to her customers. Hamilton consented to the civil injunction order.

UBS AG, Switzerland’s largest bank, has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement on charges of conspiring to defraud the United States by impeding the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). As part of the deferred prosecution agreement and in an unprecedented move, UBS, based on an order by the Swiss Financial Markets Supervisory Authority (FINMA), has agreed to immediately provide the United States government with the identities of, and account information for, certain United States customers of UBS’s cross-border business.

The government filed a lawsuit today in Miami against Swiss bank UBS AG. The lawsuit asks the court to order the international bank to disclose to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) the identities of the bank’s U.S. customers with secret Swiss accounts. According to the lawsuit, as many as 52,000 U.S. customers hid their UBS accounts from the government in violation of the tax laws.

BP Products North America Inc. has agreed to spend more than $161 million on pollution controls, enhanced maintenance and monitoring, and improved internal management practices to resolve Clean Air Act violations at its Texas City, Texas, refinery.

DaJuan Jackson, a former tax return preparer in District Heights, Md., was sentenced to 51 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus for preparing false tax returns for customers.

The Department of Justice today filed a lawsuit against the Board of Education of the City of Chicago (Board), alleging pregnancy discrimination in employment against former elementary school teacher Traci Meziere.

A federal district court in Tennessee has permanently barred Chattanooga resident Demita Brown-Watkins from preparing federal income tax returns for others. Brown-Watkins agreed to the civil injunction order. According to the government complaint, Brown-Watkins ran her tax-preparation business through two companies—Fastax and Rapid Tax Service—and advertised the “largest refund in town.”

Rodrick Williams, a former tax return preparer from District Heights, Md., was sentenced to 24 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus for preparing false tax returns for customers.

The Department announced today the resolution of the lawsuit filed by the United States against the state of Vermont to enforce the reporting requirements of the Uniformed Overseas Citizen Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). UOCAVA is designed to ensure that members of the uniformed services and overseas citizens may effectively participate in federal elections.

U. S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday today sentenced the Japanese corporation Hiong Guan Navegacion Japan Co. Ltd., that operates the commercial cargo ship M/V Balsa-62, to three years probation and $1.75 million in penalties for conspiring to falsify and falsifying environmental compliance records.

Gary Moss and Devan Klausegger of Medford, Ore., pleaded guilty today to conspiring to interfere with civil rights. According to facts stipulated in their plea agreements and set forth in the indictment, on May 26, 2008, Moss poured a flammable liquid on the front lawn of the victims’ residence in the shape of a cross and the letters “KKK”.

Three former Atlanta Police Department (APD) officers were sentenced to prison today by Chief U.S. District Judge Julie E. Carnes on a charge of conspiracy to violate civil rights resulting in death, arising from the fatal police shooting of Kathryn Johnston, a 92-year old Atlanta woman.

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.

A complaint was unsealed today in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts against a New York pharmaceutical company for alleged False Claims Act violations arising from the company’s marketing the drugs Celexa and Lexapro for unapproved pediatric use and for paying kickbacks to induce physicians to prescribe the drugs.

The United States has sued Robert Cusenza, a West Palm Beach tax return preparer, seeking to bar him permanently from the tax preparation business. The government’s complaint asks the court to order Cusenza to stop preparing returns and to turn over his customer list to the Justice Department.

The United States has filed suit against a Jacksonville, Fla., tax return preparer, seeking to shut down her business. According to the government complaint, Shirley Clark, who operates the Nichet Corp., has prepared at least 1,250 federal tax returns for her customers from 2004 until 2007 and, on those returns, Clark has claimed nearly $750,000 in fraudulent fuel tax credits.

A federal court has permanently barred Harold Mette of Bradenton, Fla., from preparing federal income tax returns for others. Mette, who has a Ph.D. degree and calls his business “The Tax Doctor,” consented to the permanent injunction order, which was entered by U.S. District Judge Richard A. Lazzara in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

The President released the Administration’s FY 2010 top-line budget proposal today which includes $26.5 billion for the Department, a 3.5 percent increase more than the FY 2009 budget. The Department’s budget includes enhanced funding for: national security and intelligence; combating financial fraud; hiring additional police officers; civil rights enforcement; securing our nation’s borders; and for federal detention and incarceration programs.

The Department announced today that it has entered into a consent decree with the city of Dayton that, if approved by the court, will resolve the Department’s complaint that Dayton has been engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination against African-Americans in its hiring of entry-level police officers and firefighters, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII).

After nearly 13 years as a fugitive, a former New Jersey resident has been returned to the United States, and pleaded guilty today to conspiring to committing one of the nation’s largest known motor fuel excise tax schemes. Aaron Misulovin a/k/a Albert Friedman, a/k/a Valery Vibornov, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joseph E. Irenas in Camden, N.J., to one count of conspiracy, three counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering and three counts of tax evasion.

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.

The Department announced today that it has entered into a consent decree with Stimson Lumber Company (Stimson) that, if approved by the court, will resolve the Department’s complaint, also filed today, that Oregon-based Stimson failed to reemploy Oregon reservist David Eckhardt in violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA).