DOJ

Antitrust Division to Apply More Rigorous Standard with Focus on the Impact of Exclusionary Conduct on Consumers

May 11, 2009 -- WASHINGTON — Christine A. Varney, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department’s Antitrust Division, today announced that the Department is withdrawing, effective immediately, a report relating to monopolization offenses under the antitrust laws that was issued in September 2008.

As of today, the Section 2 report will no longer be Department of Justice policy. Consumers, businesses, courts and antitrust practitioners should not rely on it as Department of Justice antitrust enforcement policy.    » read more »

May 11, 2009 -- The FBI today released preliminary statistics indicating that 41 of our nation’s law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty in 2008. By region, 20 of the victim officers were killed in the South, nine in the Midwest, nine in the West, and three in the Northeast. The number of officers feloniously killed was 17 fewer than in 2007.    » read more »

President’s Request Supports Department’s Traditional Missions While Strengthening National Security Efforts

May 7, 2009 -- WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder announced today that the President’s FY 2010 budget proposal totals $26.7 billion for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to increase support for the Department’s traditional missions while strengthening national security efforts. The request represents a 3.8 percent increase in budget authority and an increase of 3,977 positions over the FY 2009 enacted appropriation.    » read more »

May 8, 2009 -- 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.    » read more »

May 7, 2009 -- Acting United States Attorney Michelle L. Jacobs announced today that a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Wisconsin returned a twenty four count indictment charging five people with wire fraud and money laundering in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme. Charged were Paul J. Zaleski, 60, formerly of Richmond, Illinois; Michael Pembroke, 45, of Twin Lakes, Wisconsin; John F. Hochrek, Jr., 48, of Spring Grove, Illinois; Patricia Lynn Kay, 47, of Kenosha, Wisconsin; and Robert Farrell, 29, formerly of Richmond, Illinois.    » read more »

Laundering Money Through Las Vegas Casinos

May 6, 2009 -- WASHINGTON -- Two former managers of the Bank of China and their wives were sentenced today after their convictions on Aug. 29, 2008, by a federal jury in Las Vegas on charges of racketeering, money laundering, international transportation of stolen property as well as passport and visa fraud, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Gregory A. Brower of the District of Nevada announced today.    » read more »

Government Seeks Forfeiture of Commercial Real Estate, Residences and Expensive Automobiles

May 6, 2009 -- A 23-count indictment unsealed today alleges that a civilian contractor paid more than $2.8 million in bribes to a U.S. Army contracting official stationed at Camp Arifjan, an Army base in Kuwait, and the official’s wife, and that the three individuals committed honest services fraud and money laundering offenses in connection with the same conduct.    » read more »

April 27, 2009 -- WASHINGTON - A federal grand jury has indicted four defendants, and an information has been filed against a fifth defendant, for their participation in a massive mortgage fraud scheme that allegedly promised to pay off homeowners’ mortgages on their "Dream Homes," but left them to fend for themselves, Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division Lanny A. Breuer and U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein announced today.

The indictment was returned on April 22, 2009, and unsealed today.    » read more »

Restores Protections Against Dumping in Streams

April 27, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced his determination that the mountaintop coal mining “stream buffer zone rule” issued by the Bush Administration is legally defective. Salazar directed the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) to file a pleading with the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. requesting that the rule be vacated due to this deficiency and remanded to the Department of the Interior for further action.    » read more »

April 20, 2009 -- WASHINGTON—DuPont and Lucite International Inc. have agreed to pay a $2 million civil penalty to settle Clean Air Act violations at a sulfuric acid plant in Belle, W. Va., the Justice Department, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the state of West Virginia announced today.    » read more »

Virginia Harbor Services Inc. of Clearbrook, Va., and Trelleborg Industrie S.A.S. of France Agree to Plead Guilty

April 20, 2009 -- WASHINGTON — Two subsidiaries of the Swedish company Trelleborg AB, one based in Virginia and the other in France, have agreed to plead guilty and pay a total of $11 million in criminal fines for their participation in separate conspiracies affecting the sales of marine products sold in the United States and elsewhere, the Department of Justice announced today.    » read more »

April 17, 2009 -- WASHINGTON—Six energy companies, in three settlements, have agreed to install pollution control equipment at a cost of over $6 million to comply with the Clean Air Act at their natural gas producing facilities in the Uinta Basin, near Vernal, Utah, the Justice Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today. The facilities are located on the Uintah & Ouray Indian Reservation.    » read more »

Microsoft Agrees to 18-Month Extension, Subject to Court Approval

April 16, 2009 -- WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice told the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia today that it is necessary to extend the term of certain portions of the Microsoft final judgment by at least 18 months. The Department said that an extension is necessary to ensure the quality of the technical documentation Microsoft provides to licensees.    » read more »

April 16, 2009 -- WASHINGTON—Texas Oil and Gathering Inc., its owner John Kessel and its operations manager Edgar Pettijohn pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Houston to criminal violations related to the disposal of refinery wastes at an underground injection well in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Justice Department announced.    » read more »

April 16, 2009 -- Today the FBI released bank crime statistics for the fourth quarter of calendar year 2008. Between October 1, 2008 and December 31, 2008, there were 1,617 robberies of financial institutions,* as well as 25 burglaries and three larcenies. This represents 1,645 reported violations of the Federal Bank Robbery and Incidental Crimes Statute, an increase from the third quarter’s total of 1,376.

“Although this quarter showed a 19.5 percent increase in bank crimes from the third quarter of 2008, this brings the total violations for 2008 to 6,105—down from the 2007 (6,182) and 2006 (7,272) calendar year totals,” said Assistant Director Kenneth W. Kaiser, FBI Criminal Investigative Division.

Highlights of the report include the following:    » read more »