Bridgestone Corp., a Tokyo, Japan-based company, has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $425 million criminal fine for its role in a conspiracy to fix prices of automotive anti-vibration rubber parts installed in cars sold in the United States and elsewhere.

Three individuals charged in connection with operating a series of fraudulent business opportunity companies pleaded guilty this week in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Mitchell Berman (aka Brian Griffin) of Boca Raton, Fla., and Robert Gallo (aka Bobby Pace, Vincent Pastone, Joe Barone, Bobby Marino, Anthony Russo) of Coconut Creek, Fla., pleaded guilty this morning to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud.

A member of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas gang (ABT) has pleaded guilty to racketeering charges related to his membership in the ABT’s criminal enterprise.

Earlier today at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, N.Y., Akbar Ahmad Sherzai, 49, of Centreville, Va., an independent contractor for a trucking company operating in Afghanistan that was responsible for delivering fuel to U.S. Army installations, pleaded guilty to his role in offering a U.S. Army serviceman $54,000 in bribes to falsify documents.

Monajem Hakimijoo, of Beverly Hills, Calif., pleaded guilty on Feb. 13, 2014, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California to filing a false federal income tax return for tax year 2007, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today.

Dwayne Allen Hardman, 44, of Charleston, W.V., pleaded guilty today to paying bribes to public officials.

The former chief executive officer of PetroTiger Ltd., a British Virgin Islands oil and gas company with operations in Colombia and offices in New Jersey, pleaded guilty today for his role in a scheme to pay bribes to foreign government officials and to defraud PetroTiger.

The Barrio Azteca Lieutenant who ordered the murders of a U.S. Consulate employee, her husband and the husband of another U.S. Consulate employee was found guilty by a jury on all counts charged.

Medical device manufacturer EndoGastric Solutions Inc. has agreed to pay the government up to $5.25 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by misleading health care providers about how to bill federal health care programs for a procedure using a device manufactured by the company and by paying kickbacks.

U.S. Army Sergeant Albert Kelly III, 28, of Fort Knox, Ky., pleaded guilty today to theft charges for his role in the theft of fuel at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Salerno in Afghanistan.

The government has intervened in a False Claims Act lawsuit against Tenet Healthcare Corp. (Tenet) and four of its hospitals in Georgia and South Carolina, as well as a hospital in Monroe, Ga., owned by Health Management Associates Inc. (HMA), alleging that the hospitals paid kickbacks to obstetric clinics serving primarily undocumented Hispanic women in return for referral of those patients for labor and delivery at the hospitals.

A former executive of Japan-based Denso Corp. has agreed to plead guilty to obstruction of justice charges in connection with the Antitrust Division’s investigation into a conspiracy to fix the prices of heater control panels installed in cars sold in the United States and elsewhere.

A Georgia real estate investor pleaded guilty today for her role in conspiracies to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions in Georgia.

Brice Johnson, 19, of Springtown, Texas, has been charged with willfully causing bodily injury to a person because of the actual or perceived sexual orientation of that person in a federal criminal complaint, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas and the FBI Dallas Division announced.

Dr. Chang Ho Lee, 68, of Palisades Park, N.J., pleaded guilty today to health care fraud and agreed to forfeit more than $3.4 million in fraud proceeds. According to court documents, Lee, who is a medical doctor, and two others recruited patients by offering free lunches and recreational classes and provided them with spa services, such as massages and facials, then falsely billed Medicare for more than $13 million.

Pharmaceutical company Endo Health Solutions Inc. and its subsidiary Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Endo) have agreed to pay $192.7 million to resolve criminal and civil liability arising from Endo’s marketing of the prescription drug Lidoderm for uses not approved as safe and effective by the Food and Drug Administration.

An alleged general of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas gang (ABT) and a fellow gang member pleaded guilty today to racketeering charges related to their membership in the ABT’s criminal enterprise, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson of the Southern District of Texas.

The Justice Department announced today that a federal district court judge in Jackson, Miss., approved a settlement of the department’s lawsuit against the original owners and developers of nine multifamily housing complexes located in Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee.

A former employee of a Florida-based airline fuel supply service company pleaded guilty today to obstructing an investigation into fraud and anticompetitive conduct in the airline charter services industry.

Three men have pleaded guilty in Brooklyn, N.Y., for their roles in a check cashing scheme designed to evade anti-money laundering reporting requirements.

Diagnostic Imaging Group (DIG) has agreed to pay a total of $15.5 million to resolve allegations that its diagnostic testing facility falsely billed federal and state health care programs for tests that were not performed or not medically necessary and by paying kickbacks to physicians.

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.

The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan and the FBI announced today that they will not be pursuing federal criminal civil rights charges against the Saginaw Police Department officers who shot and killed Milton Hall on July 1, 2012.

Attorney General Eric Holder and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today released the annual Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control (HCFAC) Program report showing that for every dollar spent on health care-related fraud and abuse investigations through this and other programs in the last three years, the government recovered $8.10. This is the highest three-year average return on investment in the 17-year history of the HCFAC Program.

Compañía Sud Americana de Vapores S.A. (CSAV), a Chilean corporation, has agreed to plead guilty and to pay an $8.9 million criminal fine for its involvement in a conspiracy to fix prices, allocate customers and rig bids of international ocean shipping services for roll-on, roll-off cargo, such as cars and trucks, to and from the United States and elsewhere, the Department of Justice announced today.

Tracy Mitchell, a resident of Phenix City, Ala., was indicted for her involvement in a stolen identity refund fraud scheme, Assistant Attorney General Kathryn Keneally of the Justice Department's Tax Division and U.S. Attorney George L. Beck Jr. for the Middle District of Alabama announced today following the unsealing of the indictment.

Two members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas gang (ABT) pleaded guilty today to racketeering charges related to their membership in the ABT’s criminal enterprise.

Singapore-based ODFJELL ASIA II PTE LTD (ODFJELL) and one of its senior crew members pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Hartford, Conn., for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS).

A federal jury in San Francisco has found two individuals and one company guilty of economic espionage, theft of trade secrets, bankruptcy fraud, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice for their roles in a long-running effort to obtain U.S. trade secrets for the benefit of companies controlled by the government of the People’s Republic of China.

A former owner and operator of a Florida-based airline fuel supply service company pleaded guilty today to participating in a kickback scheme to defraud Illinois-based Ryan International Airlines, a charter airline company located in Rockford, Ill.

A former Detroit-area physician pleaded guilty today for his role in an $11.5 million health care fraud scheme. Jose Mercado-Francis, 60, formerly of Brownstown Township, Mich., prepared medical documentation that licensed physicians signed as if they had provided services to Medicare beneficiaries, when, in fact, they had not.

Calling the rise in overdose deaths from heroin and other prescription pain-killers an “urgent public health crisis,” Attorney General Eric Holder vowed Monday that the Justice Department would combat the epidemic through a mix of enforcement and treatment efforts. As an added step, the Attorney General is also encouraging law enforcement agencies to train and equip their personnel with the life-saving, overdose-reversal drug known as naloxone.

Frederic Cilins, 51, a French citizen, pleaded guilty today in the Southern District of New York to obstructing a federal criminal investigation into whether a mining company paid bribes to win lucrative mining rights in the Republic of Guinea.

Lanny Harris, a former sergeant at Roxbury Correctional Institution (RCI) in Hagerstown, Md., and Philip Mayo, a former correctional officer at RCI, were sentenced today for conspiring with other RCI officers on March 8-9, 2008, to assault an inmate at the prison, identified as K.D.

Pharmaceutical manufacturer Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. and a subsidiary, IVAX LLC, have agreed to pay the government and the state of Illinois $27.6 million for allegedly violating the False Claims Act by making payments to induce prescriptions of an anti-psychotic drug for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.

A federal inmate pleaded guilty today for the murder of United States Correctional Officer Jose Rivera, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner for the Eastern District of California.

Anthony Merrell Tyler, 33, pleaded guilty in federal court today to violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act for his role in a 2011 racially motivated attack on a white man and an African-American woman in Marysville, Calif.

Andreas Bachmann, 56, of Switzerland, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service in connection with his work as a banking and investment adviser for U.S. customers.

Today, the Justice Department sought a federal court order temporarily restraining the Ohio Department of Youth Services (DYS) from unlawfully secluding boys with mental health needs in its juvenile correctional facilities.

In testimony delivered before the U.S. Sentencing Commission Thursday, Attorney General Eric Holder endorsed a proposed change to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines that would reserve the harshest penalties for the most serious drug offenders.

George Despotopoulos and Steve Tepelidis pleaded guilty to tax evasion today in the District Court for the Eastern District of New York, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced.

Several patient recruiters, including a medical clinic owner, were sentenced today for their participation in a health care fraud scheme involving Flores Home Health Care Inc., a defunct home health care company.

The owner and operator of a Miami medical clinic, Merfi Corp., was sentenced today to serve 108 months in prison for her participation in multiple health care fraud schemes.

Steven A. Murray, 54, of Pelham, Ala., and his company, Bio-Tech Management Inc., pleaded guilty today in federal court in Macon, Ga., to charges of conspiracy, unlawful use of pesticides, false statements and mail fraud in connection with the misapplication of pesticides in Georgia nursing homes.

The Justice Department announced today that it has reached an agreement in principle with the city of New York and intervening plaintiffs to settle an employment discrimination lawsuit involving the New York City Fire Department.

Alexander Beltran Herrera, 37, a commander of the FARC terrorist organization, pleaded guilty today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to hostage-taking charges stemming from the 2003 kidnappings of three U.S. citizens in Colombia.

Alex Wisidagama, a citizen of Singapore formerly employed by Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA), pleaded guilty today to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States for his role in a scheme to overbill the U.S. Navy for ship husbanding services.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara, Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation Calvin L. Scovel, III, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Acting Administrator David Friedman, and FBI Deputy Assistant Director Joe Campbell announced a criminal wire fraud charge against Toyota Motor Corporation, an automotive company headquartered in Toyota City, Japan, that designs, manufactures, assembles, and sells Toyota and Lexus brand vehicles.

Marubeni Corporation, a Japanese trading company involved in the handling of products and provision of services in a broad range of sectors around the world, including power generation, entered a plea of guilty today for its participation in a scheme to pay bribes to high-ranking government officials in Indonesia to secure a lucrative power project.

A Massapequa, N.Y., man pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Allentown, Pa., to conspiracy to commit odometer tampering.