The United States has filed a lawsuit against New York attorney Thomas B. Pruzan, d/b/a the Pruzan Law Firm, seeking to put an end to Mr. Pruzan’s repeated failure to timely deposit and pay the employment and unemployment taxes due from his law firm, as well as his failure to timely file employment and unemployment tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service.

On May 9, 2009, the Department of Justice will monitor municipal elections in the cities of Farmers Branch and Hondo, Texas, to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

A federal court today has permanently barred two additional former employees of Preston Tax Services, Inc., from preparing federal tax returns.

A Connecticut federal court has permanently barred John Waszczak from preparing federal tax returns for others.

A federal district court in Connecticut has permanently barred Wethersfield residents Deowraj Buddhu and his daughter, Sunita Buddhu, from preparing federal tax returns for others.

Michael Wayne Sulfridge, a resident of Union Grove, Ala., and former vice president of corporate finance at Image Entry, Inc. (Image Entry), pleaded guilty today to fraud and tax evasion charges stemming from the company’s 2001 acquisition by Sourcecorp, Inc. (Sourcecorp).

On May 15, 2009, the Fifth Circuit, in Klamath Strategic Investment Fund v. United States (No. 07-40861), affirmed the district court’s decision denying over $50 million in claimed tax losses arising from the taxpayers’ investment in a “Son of Boss (BLIPS)” tax shelter.

The Department announced today a settlement of a lawsuit alleging discrimination on the basis of disability in the design and construction of four multifamily housing complexes in the Spokane, Wash., area in violation of the federal Fair Housing Act.

Christopher Handley, 39, of Glenwood, Iowa, pleaded guilty today in Des Moines, Iowa, to possessing obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children and mailing obscene material.

Regency Nursing and Rehabilitation Centers Inc. nursing home chain will pay the United States $4 million to settle allegations that Regency submitted false claims to Medicare and the Texas Medicaid program. The Victoria, Texas-based chain currently owns and operates 24 nursing home facilities located through the state.

Anthony G. Merlo, a former resident of Fort Worth, Texas, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to defraud the United States.

The Department has filed suit against convicted tax fraud promoter Daniel Andersen to enjoin him from promoting fraudulent tax schemes. The government’s complaint alleges that Andersen directed the activities of both the Institute for Global Prosperity (between 1996 and 2002) and the Stratia Corporation (between 2002 and 2004). The lawsuit states that Andersen used these organizations to promote the fraudulent tax schemes sold by others in a series of audio recordings and at offshore conferences.

A federal judge in Tampa, Fla., has permanently barred a Port Richey, Fla., tax preparer and his firm from preparing federal tax returns. U.S. District Court Judge Elizabeth A. Kovachevich of the Middle District of Florida entered the permanent injunction against Frank Lighty and his firm, Lighty and Associate. Lighty consented to the permanent injunction.

A federal court in Boston issued a preliminary injunction ordering Excel Home Care Inc. and Diane E. Porter of Tewksbury, Mass., to comply with federal tax withholding requirements and to timely pay all future employment and unemployment tax liabilities.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Willie Borden, a former Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department officer, pleaded guilty today to a criminal tax charge before U.S. District Court Judge James Robertson.

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.

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.

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.

The Department today entered into a consent decree with Harrison County, Ind., Sheriff George Michael Deatrick, in his official capacity, the Harrison County Board of Commissioners and the Harrison County Council that, if approved by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, will resolve the Department’s complaint filed in March 2009 under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended.

Lawrence Cohen, a resident of Las Vegas and a former employee of the now defunct Freedom Books, pleaded guilty today to a tax charge before U.S. District Judge Kent J. Dawson in Las Vegas. Cohen pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false 2000 Form 1040 for a client of Freedom Books.

Two Baltimore businessmen were indicted today for conspiring to rig bids at tax lien auctions in Maryland for more than five years. The one-count felony indictment filed today in the U.S. District Court in Baltimore alleges that Harvey M. Nusbaum and his business partner, Jack W. Stollof, participated in a conspiracy to rig bids in tax lien auctions conducted by the city of Baltimore and various counties in the state of Maryland beginning in or around the Spring of 2002 and continuing until at least Aug. 9, 2007.

A federal grand jury in the District of Hawaii has indicted Rodney D. King, 43, and Sharon-Mae Nishimura, 30, both of Honolulu, on multiple counts of federal sex trafficking of adult women and minor female victims.

Media executive John C. Malone will pay a $1.4 million civil penalty to settle charges that he violated premerger reporting and waiting requirements when he acquired Discovery Holding Co. voting securities. The Department’s Antitrust Division, at the request of the Federal Trade Commission, filed a civil antitrust lawsuit today in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., against Malone for violating the notification requirements of the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act of 1976. At the same time, the Department filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, will settle the charges.

Sims Lawson Jr., a resident of Killen, Ala., pleaded guilty yesterday to filing false tax returns for years 2002 through 2004. Lawson appeared before Judge R. David Proctor in Birmingham, Ala., and admitted that he failed to pay federal income taxes of $369,038 and state income taxes of $50,938.

“As demonstrated by today’s charges and arrests, we will strike back against those whose fraudulent schemes not only undermine a program upon which 45 million aged and disabled Americans depend, but which also contribute directly to rising health care costs that all Americans must bear,” said Attorney General Holder.

A federal court has permanently enjoined Reinhold Sommerstedt, a Las Vegas-based promoter of a sham trust tax scam.

UBS client, Steven Michael Rubinstein of Boca Raton, Fla., pleaded guilty today to filing a false tax return for tax year 2004. On April 1, 2009, Rubinstein was charged with filing a false tax return that intentionally failed to disclose the existence of a Swiss bank account maintained by UBS of which he was the beneficial owner and failed to report any income earned on that account.

Tijani Ahmed Saani, a former civilian employee of the U.S. Department of Defense, pleaded guilty today to filing false tax returns for tax years 2003 through 2007. Saani, 53, a former resident of Kuwait City, Kuwait, worked as a contracting officer in Kuwait from 1994 until his arrest in May 2008. According to the indictment to which Saani pleaded guilty, he worked on detail from 2002 to 2007 at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait.

The Department announced a simultaneous lawsuit and settlement with the state of Texas concerning the care given to residents of the state’s 13 facilities for persons with developmental disabilities. Along with the settlement agreement, the Department will file a complaint initiating a lawsuit against the state in federal court. An independent monitor will be appointed to oversee the state’s compliance with the settlement agreement and the court will retain ultimate jurisdiction.

A former executive of Philadelphia-based Nexus Technologies Inc. pleaded guilty today in connection with his participation in a conspiracy to bribe Vietnamese government officials in exchange for lucrative contracts to supply equipment and technology to Vietnamese government agencies, in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

Andrew Warren, 41, has been charged in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia with one count of sexual abuse in Algeria within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States.

John D. Stacey, a resident of Phoenix, was convicted today of income tax evasion, corrupt interference with the due administration of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and multiple counts of fraudulent use of a social security number. A federal jury convicted Stacey of all counts of the indictment following a three week trial before Judge Neil V. Wake in Phoenix.

The chief executive officer of a former Virginia marine products company pleaded guilty and has agreed to pay a $100,000 criminal fine and serve time in jail for his role in a conspiracy to rig bids and allocate customers with respect to marine products purchased by the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Coast Guard, and other public and private entities.

Sheri Redekker Barry and Warren Thomas Barry, a wife and husband who are both real estate agents in Fort Myers, Fla., have been sentenced to prison for conspiracy and failure to file tax returns. U.S. District Court Judge John E. Steele on Monday sentenced Sheri Barry to 36 months in prison and Warren Barry to 24 months in prison. The court also ordered the Barrys to pay restitution in the amount of $555,728.

Roderick Prescott, a resident of Orem, Utah, and a former principal of National Trust Services (NTS) in San Jose, Calif., and later Selma, Ore., pleaded guilty today to tax evasion. Prescott admitted to evading at least $550,000 in personal income taxes for 1998 and 1999. Prescott was scheduled to begin trial on July 7, 2009, before Chief U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken in Eugene, Ore.

John Reece Roth, 72, of Knoxville, Tenn., was sentenced to 48 months in prison for violating the Arms Export Control Act by conspiring to illegally export, and actually exporting, technical information relating to a U.S. Air Force (USAF) research and development contract.

A federal judge in Tampa, Fla., has permanently barred eight men – including five tax preparers and two Certified Public Accountants (CPA) – from promoting an alleged tax fraud scheme involving bogus income tax credits.

A former executive of Bennett Environmental Inc. (BEI), a Canadian-based company that treats and disposes of contaminated soil, pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to pay kickbacks and commit fraud at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-designated Superfund site, Federal Creosote, located in Manville, N.J. The former executive also pleaded guilty to participating in a money laundering conspiracy and impeding a proceeding before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

A federal jury in New York has rejected the $24 million tax refund claim filed by Altria Group Inc. relating to its investment in lease-in, lease-out (LILO), and sale-in, lease-out (SILO) tax shelters. The verdict follows a three-week trial in the Southern District of New York before U.S. District Judge Richard J. Holwell.

Everett Cooney waived indictment and pleaded guilty in court in Little Rock, Ark., to a federal charge of sex trafficking an underage female. Chief U.S. District Judge J. Leon Holmes accepted Cooney’s guilty plea.

Paul Richard Arceneaux, a resident of Church Point, La., was sentenced today to prison for failing to file his personal tax returns for 2003 and 2004 and corruptly interfering with the due administration of the Internal Revenue laws. The Honorable Walter J. Gex III, U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of Mississippi, sentenced Arceneaux to 46 months in prison and three years of supervised release. The court also ordered Arceneaux to pay restitution of $176,616.18.