Christine A. Varney, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department’s Antitrust Division, will participate in the eighth annual International Competition Network (ICN) conference in Zurich, Switzerland, from June 3-5, 2009. At the conference, senior government antitrust officials, private-sector antitrust experts from around the world, and representatives from intergovernmental organizations will meet to discuss competition issues.

Keith A. Collins, a commercial fisherman licensed in Maryland, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Md., to 13 months in prison for illegally overfishing striped bass also known as rockfish. He was also fined $4,500 and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $70,569 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to the benefit of the Chesapeake Bay Striped Bass Restoration Account.

The Department today has entered into a consent decree that, if approved by the U.S District Court in Fort Myers, Fla., will resolve its complaint against the Sheriff of Hendry County, Fla., and the Hendry County Board of County Commissioners.

The Department today has entered into a settlement agreement with the city of Chicago’s Board of Education that, if approved and entered by the court, will resolve a complaint of pregnancy discrimination filed by the United States against the board under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

A Massachusetts man has been charged in U.S. District Court in Boston with crimes related to the illegal importation and illegal trafficking of sperm whale teeth. On May 13, 2009, a federal grand jury sitting in Boston, returned an indictment that was unsealed today against David L. Place of Nantucket, Mass.

Eight members of the violent gang known as the "Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation" (ALKQN) have pleaded guilty to a variety of charges, including drug conspiracy and weapons trafficking.

Giancarlo Pertile was sentenced to prison for tax evasion yesterday afternoon. U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz sentenced Pertile, the former owner of Art Marble Design Inc., in Moorpark, Calif., to 60 months in federal prison and ordered Pertile to pay a fine of $75,000. In January 2009, Pertile was convicted by a Los Angeles federal jury of five counts of tax evasion for the years 1998 through 2002.

Winfield Thomas, a resident of Carey, Ohio, and Jeanne Herrington, a resident of Parma, Mich., were sentenced today to prison for conspiracy and other tax charges.

Michael Fisher, owner of Fisher Sand & Gravel Co. Inc. (FSG), based in Dickinson, N.D., today pleaded guilty to nine felony counts of tax fraud.

On June 2, 2009, the Department of Justice will monitor elections in the following jurisdictions to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and other federal voting rights statutes: the towns of Como, Drew, Greenwood, Isola, Louise and Meridian, Miss.; Bergen County, Middlesex County and the borough of Penns Grove, N.J.; and the town of Martin, S.D.

Kevin Howard, former chief financial officer and vice president of finance for Enron Broadband Services (EBS), Enron’s failed telecommunications business, pleaded guilty today to falsifying books and records.

Donald Charles Collier III, 45, of Carpinteria, Calif., pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge George H. Wu to one count of mailing child pornography.

Melissa Thomas, 34, pleaded guilty today to one count of forgery in connection with a scheme to embezzle more than $17,000 from a political action committee (PAC), which was a client of her employer.

A federal judge in Sioux City, Iowa, has barred a Humboldt, Iowa, woman, Gayle Lemmon, and her tax preparation business from preparing federal tax returns. U.S. District Judge Mark W. Bennett entered the preliminary injunction against Gayle Lemmon and Gayle’s Bookkeeping and Tax Service Inc. The order, which Lemmon agreed to, remains in effect until further order of the court.

Thirty-six companies allegedly responsible for hazardous contamination of soil and groundwater at the Breslube-Penn Superfund Site in Coraopolis, Pa., have agreed to cleanup up the site. According to the settlement filed in U.S. District Court in the Western District of Pennsylvania, the companies have agreed to fund and/or complete a $12 million cleanup at the seven-acre site.

A Grand Rapids, Mich., grand jury returned a two-count indictment charging a former school superintendent with engaging in a conspiracy to accept a bribe from a vendor and to deprive his former employer and the citizens of Michigan of his honest services in connection with the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) E-Rate Program.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has affirmed a judgment upholding the Navy’s termination for default of a contract with McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics for the A-12 stealth attack aircraft.

The owner of a Costa Rica-based telemarketing call center and two employees of another Costa Rica call center were sentenced for their roles in schemes that targeted and defrauded thousands of American victims of more than $10 million.

Three Colombian nationals have been arrested in Colombia on charges of conspiracy to commit alien smuggling for profit, alien smuggling for profit, and conspiracy to commit visa fraud in connection with their alleged roles in an extensive and sophisticated visa fraud scheme against the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá, Colombia.

Donald Sikma, a businessman from Dyer, Ind., has pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return. Sikma, whose trial was scheduled to begin today, entered his guilty plea Monday before Judge Theresa L. Springmann in Fort Wayne, Ind.

Attorney General Eric Holder today vacated the order issued in Matter of Compean by Attorney General Mukasey in January and announced his intention to initiate a new rulemaking proceeding for regulations to govern claims of ineffective assistance of counsel in removal proceedings.

Frederick Allen and Kimberlee Allen, both of Harwich, Mass., were arraigned today before Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler in Boston on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, tax evasion and failure to file tax returns. The indictment alleges that the Allens conspired to defraud the United States of assessing and collecting federal income taxes from 1998 through April 2009.

The Department of Justice today asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to remand the cases of former Alaska State Representatives Victor Kohring and Peter Kott, who were convicted on corruption charges in 2007, to the District Court.

"The current financial crisis requires a well-coordinated, proactive law enforcement response that draws on all the resources of the federal government. The appropriate role of the Department of Justice in responding to this crisis is clear: We will be relentless in our investigation of corporate wrongdoing, and will not hesitate to bring charges, where appropriate, for criminal misconduct on the part of businesses and business executives."

At the eighth annual International Competition Network (ICN) conference in Zurich, Switzerland, the ICN adopted new Recommended Practices for substantive merger analysis and presented two new reports on the analysis of tying and bundled discounting and loyalty discounts and rebates under unilateral conduct laws.

Today, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, U.S. Department of Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano, and Director of National Drug Control Policy Gil Kerlikowske released President Obama’s strategy to stem the flow of illegal drugs and their illicit proceeds across the Southwest border and reduce associated crime and violence in the region.

A former State Department official and his wife have been arrested on charges of serving as illegal agents of the Cuban government for nearly 30 years and conspiring to provide classified U.S. information to the Cuban government.

U. S. District Court Judge Richard Lazzara (Middle District of Florida) today sentenced the Korean corporation STX Pan Ocean Co. Ltd., which operates the commercial cargo ship M/V Ocean Jade, to pay $2.2 million in penalties and serve four years of probation for conspiring to falsify and falsifying environmental compliance records.

Four Miami-area residents were sentenced today in connection with a $10 million Medicare fraud scheme involving HIV infusion clinics. Alexis Dagnesses, 44; Gonzalo Nodarse, 38; Alexis Carrazana, 41; and Dr. Carlos Garrido, 69, all pleaded guilty in March 2009 to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud before U.S. District Judge Paul C. Huck.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit today rejected a challenge to the conviction of James Ford Seale, a former member of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Mississippi. Seale was convicted by a federal jury in Mississippi in 2007 and sentenced to three life terms in prison.

"By focusing on increased cooperation between the U.S. and Mexican governments as well as enhanced communication within U.S. law enforcement agencies, the National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy we introduce today provides an effective way forward that will crack down on cartels and make our country safer."

The Department filed a lawsuit today against Essex County, N.J., alleging that it discriminated against a Muslim corrections officer on the basis of her religion in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

A former employee at the U.S. Embassy in Haiti was sentenced today to 18 months in prison for stealing more than $800,000 from the U.S. Department of State.

Since the 1990s, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) has investigated and successfully prosecuted a wide range of international and domestic terrorism cases — including the bombings of the World Trade Center and U.S. Embassies in East Africa in the 1990s.

The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) has agreed to pay the United States $2 million to resolve federal civil fraud allegations that its hospital defrauded Medicaid. From 1993 to 2004, UMDNJ’s University Hospital submitted claims to Medicaid for outpatient physician services that were also being billed by doctors working in the hospital’s outpatient centers.

Jefferson Calimlim Sr. and his wife, Elnora Calimlim, both medical doctors in Milwaukee, Wis., were each sentenced today to 72 months in prison for forcing a woman to work as their domestic servant and illegally harboring her for 19 years in their Brookfield, Wis., residence.

An indictment was filed today charging seven individuals -- three former shareholders of the Jenkens & Gilchrist law firm (J&G), the former Chief Executive Officer and a former tax partner from the BDO Seidman accounting firm (BDO), and two former bankers from a foreign bank with headquarters in New York (Bank A) -- with tax fraud conspiracy and related crimes arising out of tax shelters promoted by J&G, BDO, and the bank.

The Department filed suit against California mortgage lender Capmark Finance Inc., charging that Capmark violated the False Claims Act by making false statements on applications for federal mortgage insurance covering residential nursing homes.

After a bench trial held last week in the Northern District of Georgia, U.S. District Judge William S. Duffey, Jr., announced today that Syed Haris Ahmed, 24, has been found guilty of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.

"These archeological treasures are precious and protecting them preserves a rich history and heritage. That is why the Justice Department will use all of its tools to vigorously enforce the laws designed to safeguard the cultural heritage of Native Americans."

Four detainees, Chinese nationals of Uighur ethnicity who had been held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, have been resettled in Bermuda.

Golden Eye Seafood LLC and owner, Robert Lumpkins of St. Mary’s County, Md., pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to and violating the Lacey Act, by falsely recording the amount and weight of striped bass, also known as rockfish, that were harvested by local fisherman and checked-in through Golden Eye from 2003 to 2007

A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia has indicted James Wilbur Fondren Jr., on one count of conspiracy to communicate classified information to an agent of a foreign government and act as an illegal foreign agent; four counts of unlawfully communicating classified information to an agent of a foreign government; and three counts of making false statements to the FBI.

A federal court in Atlanta has permanently barred Derrick Jackson and his businesses from preparing federal tax returns for others. The court said that since 2002, Jackson "has prepared blatantly fraudulent tax returns for customers." Jackson’s businesses were called Tax Wisdom and International Tax and Accounting Services.

Traian Bujduveanu was sentenced in Miami federal court for his role in a conspiracy to illegally export military and dual use aircraft parts to Iran.

Rodolfo Rodriguez Cabrera, 43, a Cuban national, and Henry Mantilla, 35, of Cape Coral, Fla., have been charged in a scheme to produce and sell counterfeit International Game Technology (IGT)-brand video gaming machines, commonly known as slot machines, and counterfeit IGT computer programs.

The Department today announced that one national of Iraq and one national of Chad have been transferred from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to their home countries.

William Cozzi, a Chicago police officer, was sentenced today to 40 months in federal prison for violating the federal civil rights of a man whom the officer struck repeatedly with a dangerous weapon while the man was handcuffed and shackled in a wheelchair.

Mark L. Harrison, a resident of Southport, Fla., and Harrison International LLC, a Florida corporation, today pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Atlanta to violating the Lacey Act, a federal fish and wildlife trafficking law, by dealing in shark fins, the landing of which was not reported as required by law. In addition, Mark Harrison pleaded guilty to a second charge related to his attempted export of shark fins of species that are prohibited to harvest under laws of the state of Florida.

Following a four-day trial and less than an hour of deliberations, a federal jury today convicted tax return preparer, Marcel J. Toto-Ngosso, of Silver Spring, Md., of 17 counts of preparing false tax returns in connection with a scheme to generate fraudulent tax refunds for client-taxpayers.