Good morning. Today, we also are announcing charges against General Vladimir Padrino Lopez, the Venezuelan Minister of Defense for the Maduro regime. Padrino Lopez, who has been indicted here in the District of Columbia, is accused of conspiring to traffic large amounts of cocaine on board aircraft registered in, and destined for, the United States.

At the start of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, the Department of Justice today announced that on April 20, the Madoff Victim Fund (MVF) began its fifth distribution of approximately $378.5 million in funds forfeited to the U.S. Government in connection with the Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) fraud scheme, bringing the total distributed to over $2.7 billion to nearly 38,000 victims worldwide.

An Allentown, Pennsylvania, attorney pleaded guilty today for his role in a $2.7 million investment fraud scheme that victimized his law clients.

The Department of Justice announced today that it has reached a settlement agreement with the Warren County, North Carolina, Board of Education (Warren County) that resolves a federal lawsuit brought under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) on behalf of Dwayne Coffer, a Command Sergeant Major (CSM) in the Army Reserve. In its complaint, the United States alleged that Warren County violated USERRA by eliminating Sergeant Major Coffer’s employment position while he was on active duty with the military and failed to re-employ him in a comparable position when he returned.

A 14-count indictment has been unsealed today in San Antonio, Texas, charging five individuals with coordinating an identify-theft and fraud scheme targeting servicemembers and veterans.

The Department of Justice filed a complaint today in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado on behalf of Naval Petty Officer Third Class Lindsey Hunger against Walmart Inc. The complaint alleges that Walmart violated the law when it declined to hire Hunger due to her upcoming naval reserve duties.

Fredrick Brown, 38, of Las Vegas, Nevada, a former civilian medical records administrator for the U.S. Army at the 65th Medical Brigade, Yongsan Garrison, South Korea, admitted yesterday to his role in an identity-theft and fraud scheme that victimized thousands of U.S. servicemembers and veterans.

Good afternoon and thank you for coming here today. My name is Eric Dreiband and I serve as the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights here at the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Department of Justice announced today the resolution of a lawsuit in which Naval Petty Officer Third Class Lindsey Hunger alleged that Walmart violated her rights when it failed to offer her employment at the Walmart store located at 2545 Rimrock Avenue in Grand Junction, Colorado because of her upcoming Naval Reserve commitments. Ms. Hunger had alleged that Walmart’s actions violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA). The Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and United States Attorney’s Office represented Petty Officer Hunger in the lawsuit.

The Justice Department announced today that it has reached a settlement with the Richmond County (GA) Sheriff’s Office (RCSO) that resolves allegations that the RCSO violated the employment rights of Private First Class (PFC) Auben Kendall under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA).

As the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, I am entrusted with the responsibility of protecting the civil rights of the brave men and women of our nation’s armed forces, and our nation’s veterans.  Since COVID-19 has come to our shores, active duty servicemembers and members of the National Guard and Reserve have shouldered new burdens as they work to protect our country.  We owe it to them to ensure that COVID-19 does not jeopardize their economic livelihood.  That is why the Department of Justice is committed to vigorously enforcing all the civil rights laws, including those that protect the housing and civilian employment rights of servicemembers. 

The Department of Justice today filed a Statement of Interest in a Virginia federal court concerning the First Amendment’s freedom of religion in support of Lighthouse Fellowship Church (Lighthouse), a congregation in Chincoteague Island, Virginia, that serves, among others, recovering drug addicts and former prostitutes.

The Department of Justice has reached a settlement of its civil forfeiture cases against assets acquired by Khadem al-Qubaisi using funds allegedly misappropriated from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), Malaysia’s investment development fund, and laundered through financial institutions in several jurisdictions, including the United States, Switzerland, Singapore and Luxembourg.

Assistant Attorney General Stephen E. Boyd issued the following statement in support of efforts to streamline payments under the Public Safety Officer Benefit Program (PSOB) to public safety officers fatally injured while working during COVID-19:

This week, the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice held a hearing on juvenile justice over three days via teleconference. Each teleconference featured expert witnesses who provided testimony and, subsequently, answered questions from the Commissioners.

The Department of Justice today filed a Statement of Interest in a Georgia federal court to help ensure that uniformed service members serving their country away from home, their family members absent with them, and American citizens living overseas have the opportunity to participate fully in Georgia’s 2020 federal elections. The Statement of Interest is part of the Department of Justice’s continued efforts to enforce the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA).

A Las Vegas resident was sentenced to 65 months in prison today for his role in a stolen identity tax fraud, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Nicholas A. Trutanich for the District of Nevada.

A Miami, Florida, business owner was sentenced to 24 months in prison today for failing to pay over employment taxes, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan for the Southern District of Florida.

A federal jury in Salt Lake City, Utah, convicted California businessman Lev Aslan Dermen, also known as Levon Termendzhyan, of criminal charges today relating to a $1 billion renewable fuel tax credit fraud scheme, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, U.S. Attorney John W. Huber for the District of Utah, Don Fort Chief of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) - Criminal Investigation, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge Lance Ehrig for the Denver Area Office of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - Criminal Investigation Division, and Special Agent-in-Charge Michael Mentavlos for the Denver Area Office of Defense Criminal Investigative Service.

On March 18, a federal court ordered El Mundo Feliz, a Partnership (El Mundo), and Daniel Martinez Jr. to begin paying employment taxes to the United States on a timely basis, the Justice Department announced today.

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a precedential opinion on Friday, April 24, 2020, affirming a district court decision that a transaction designed to generate massive foreign tax credits (referred to as the STARS tax shelter) lacked economic substance and business purpose and was subject to the accuracy-related penalty for negligence, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Joshua Wu of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

On April 24, 2020, a federal appellate court upheld an order enforcing an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) summons directed to the Taylor Lohmeyer Law Firm PLLC, the Department of Justice announced. The summons directed the law firm to provide information about clients who used the law firm’s services to create and maintain foreign bank accounts and entities. On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the trial court’s enforcement of the summons and rejected the law firm’s “blanket” claim that all responsive materials were protected by the attorney-client privilege. It explained that revealing the fact that the clients participated in specific types of transactions would not necessarily reveal any confidential communication of legal advice protected by the attorney-client privilege.

The Department of Justice today filed a statement of interest in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia, in N.P. et al. v. The State of Georgia, et al.

Thank you, Sean, for your kind introduction. And thank you to CSIS for partnering with us in this conference and for your leadership and innovative thinking on critical policy issues that affect us all. I would like to take a few moments now to reflect on how the National Security Division (NSD) came to be and how, in our first decade, we have strived to achieve our twin aims: protecting the United States against national security threats while safeguarding our core freedoms.

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it is providing temporary, conditional exemptive relief for business development companies (BDCs) to enable them to make additional investments in small and medium-sized businesses, including…

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced it has voted to issue two exemptive orders in order to move Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) implementation forward: (1) establishing a phased CAT reporting timeline for broker-dealers, and (2) permitting…

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it is providing temporary, conditional relief for established smaller companies affected by COVID-19 that may look to meet their urgent funding needs through a Regulation Crowdfunding offering.…

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it is premiering new multimedia resources to support teachers in connection with Teacher Appreciation Week. This content builds on the Commission’s longstanding efforts to serve teachers in both their…

Documents filed on July 25, 2019

• Plea Agreement and Sentencing Stipulations [Lori K. Detloff]
• Plea Agreement and Sentencing Stipulations [Jeffery J. Detloff]
• Plea Agreement and Sentencing Stipulations [Detloff Marketing]