Category: United States Attorneys General

Source: United States Attorneys General 7

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced today the dismissal of two desegregation cases in Hendry County, Florida, and Copiah County, Mississippi, concluding matters that have remained on the docket for more than half a century.

The cases of Hendry County, Florida and Copiah County, Mississippi were first filed in 1970, each in connection with unlawful operations of dual school systems based on race. After thorough review, the Civil Rights Division determined that both Counties are unitary in their schools, eliminating the vestiges of prior de jure segregation to the extent practicable. On Aug. 5, the Court formally dismissed the case of Hendry County with prejudice. On Aug. 6, the Court formally dismissed the case of Copiah County with prejudice.

“In this administration, we are ending prolonged court oversight that does not reflect the reality in classrooms today,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “After fifty-five years of federal control, these local school districts can use taxpayer dollars that were spent on monitoring for past vestiges of racism, and can redirect those funds instead for the direct benefit of students.”

Note: Click to read the court filings for Hendry County, Florida and Copiah County, Mississippi.

Source: United States Attorneys General

The Justice Department announced today that Dallas Humber, 35, of Elk Grove, California — leader of the Terrorgram Collective, a transnational terrorist group — pleaded guilty to all charges against her, including soliciting hate crimes, soliciting the murder of federal officials, and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.

District Court Judge Dena Coggins found that Humber’s plea was knowing and voluntary, and deferred acceptance of the plea agreement until the sentencing hearing, which is scheduled for Dec. 5. Humber faces a penalty of 25 to 30 years in federal prison.

“Hate and terror have no place in this country or abroad,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “By securing this conviction, my office makes clear that purveyors of these heinous crimes will be brought to justice.”

“Humber led a transnational terrorist group promoting white supremacy, hate crimes, and violence, including soliciting the murder of U.S. government officials,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. “Her actions posed a direct threat to our citizens and national security, and the National Security Division will hold her, as well as others who commit these illegal acts, accountable for their terrorist aims.”

“Humber solicited murders and hate crimes based on the race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, and gender identity of others,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Kimberly A. Sanchez for the Eastern District of California. “The U.S. Attorney’s office will continue to work tirelessly with our partners in law enforcement and in the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute those who commit such violations of federal criminal law and keep our people and public officials safe from hate-fueled crimes of violence.”

With her guilty plea, Humber admitted the following facts: from July 2022 until her arrest in September 2024, she served as a leader of the Terrorgram Collective, a white supremacist transnational terrorist group. To achieve their ends, she and other members of the Terrorgram Collective solicited individuals to commit hate crimes, terrorist attacks on critical infrastructure, and assassinations; and provided technical, inspirational, and operational guidance to equip those individuals to plan, prepare for, and successfully carry out those attacks.

Inspired and guided by Humber and the Terrorgram Collective, individuals committed attacks or plotted to commit attacks in the United States and elsewhere, including: plotting to attack an energy facility in New Jersey; plotting to bomb an energy facility in Tennessee; murdering two people in Wisconsin in furtherance of plans to assassinate a federal official; and attempting to assassinate an Australian official.  In addition, individuals led by Humber and the Terrorgram Collective have committed acts of violence internationally, including shooting three people, killing two, at an LGBT bar in Bratislava, Slovakia; shooting eleven people, killing four, at two schools in Aracruz, Brazil; and stabbing five people outside of a mosque in Eskişehir, Turkey.

The FBI Sacramento Field Office investigated the case, with assistance from a variety of foreign and domestic law enforcement agencies.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, National Security Division, and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California are prosecuting the case.

Source: United States Attorneys General

Decree Would Prohibit Algorithmic Coordination and Exchanging Competitively Sensitive Data with Competitors

Source: United States Attorneys General

A Colorado man pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiring to defraud the United States and tax evasion related to his promotion and use of an illegal tax shelter. He also pleaded guilty to wire fraud related to his operation of a fraudulent investment scheme.

The following is according to court documents and other statements made in court: from 2018 through 2023, Timothy McPhee, of Estes Park, promoted a fraudulent tax shelter to taxpayers across the country. The tax shelter was made up of a private family foundation and three trusts called a business trust, family trust, and charitable trust. McPhee taught clients who purchased the tax shelter how to use the trusts and foundation to evade paying federal income taxes on nearly all their income.

Among other directions, McPhee instructed clients to assign nearly all their business income to the trusts and to all false tax returns that made it seem as if that income belonged to the trusts, not the client. He also told clients to spend the money in the trust bank accounts on their own personal expenses and to fraudulently claim those expenses as deductions on the trust tax returns. As a result, clients who used the tax shelter paid taxes on only about 2% of their income. But because the clients funded the trusts, controlled the money in the trusts, and benefitted from the trust funds, the income funneled to the trusts was taxable to the clients themselves. In pleading guilty, McPhee acknowledged that he gave directions to clients that he knew directly contradicted IRS guidance and that he deliberately ignored warnings from accountants and attorneys that the tax shelter was fraudulent and illegal.

In total, use of the tax shelter caused a loss to the United States of about $45 million in unpaid federal income taxes.

McPhee also personally used the tax shelter to conceal from the IRS more than $5 million in income earned from 2016 through 2021. In so doing, McPhee did not pay approximately $1.8 million in federal income taxes he owed those years.

From January 2023 through May 2024, McPhee also operated and promoted a fraudulent investment scheme called the “ROI Cash Flow Fund.” McPhee promoted the ROI Cash Flow Fund as an opportunity for investors to earn a 3% monthly payout on a principal investment. He falsely told investors that the ROI Cash Flow Fund would generate monthly returns by sending the investors’ funds to a third-party borrower who would engage in foreign exchange currency trading. In total, based on McPhee’s false representations, investors sent more than $8 million to bank accounts he controlled.

In reality, however, McPhee did not send the investors’ funds to a borrower as promised. Instead, he used investor funds to make monthly 3% payouts to investors. He also spent investor funds on his own personal expenses and investments, including by sending more than $2 million in investor funds to a bank account he held in the name of one of his trusts.

McPhee is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 23. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for conspiring to defraud the United States, a maximum penalty of five years in prison for tax evasion, and a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for wire fraud. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Karen E. Kelly of the Justice Department’s Tax Division made the announcement.

The FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation are investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Lauren K. Pope and Amanda R. Scott of the Tax Division are prosecuting the case.

Source: United States Attorneys General

A California man was sentenced today to 46 months in prison and ordered to pay $6,993,700 in restitution and $535,041 in forfeiture for his role in defrauding the Small Business Administration (SBA) out of millions of dollars in loans through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program.

According to court documents, from March 2020 through October 2022, Abraham Park, 67, of La Mirada, California, submitted over 120 fraudulent applications to the SBA for EIDL loans on behalf of himself and others which resulted in a total funded and unfunded loss of over $12 million. Park was the owner and CEO of a California financial services company that assisted clients with obtaining financing, including loans, and repairing credit scores. After the Covid-19 pandemic started, Park advised his clients to create fictitious corporate entities so that he could submit fraudulent EIDL loan applications to the SBA on their behalf. In return, his clients paid Park a portion of the funded loans as a kickback. In addition to submitting applications for his clients, Park also submitted several applications for himself and his family members for fictitious entities. In total, 73 fraudulent loans were funded, which resulted in a nearly $7 million dollar loss to the SBA.   

On March 20, Park pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher of the IRS-CI Los Angeles Field Office; Assistant Director in Charge Akil Davis of the FBI Los Angeles Field Office; and Western Region Acting Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Huang of the SBA Office of Inspector General, made the announcement.

The IRS-CI, FBI, and SBA-OIG are investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Brandon Burkart and Andrew Jaco of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case.

The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s prosecution of fraud schemes that exploit the PPP. Since the inception of the CARES Act, the Fraud Section has prosecuted over 200 defendants in more than 130 criminal cases and has seized over $78 million in cash proceeds derived from fraudulently obtained PPP funds, as well as numerous real estate properties and luxury items purchased with such proceeds. More information can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/ppp-fraud.

Source: United States Attorneys General

A federal judge in the District of Kansas sentenced defendant Kaaba Majeed, 51, to 10 years in prison and three years of supervised release for forced labor and forced labor conspiracy. The court sentenced co-defendants Yunus Rassoul, 39, to five years of probation; James Staton, 63, to five years in prison and one year of supervised release; Randolph Rodney Hadley, 50, to five years in prison and one year of supervised release; Daniel Aubrey Jenkins, 44, to four years in prison and one year of supervised release; and Dana Peach, 60, to four years in prison and one year of supervised release for forced labor conspiracy.

In September 2024, after a 26-day trial, a jury convicted all six defendants of forced labor conspiracy and convicted Majeed of five additional counts of forced labor. Two other co-defendants, Etenia Kinard, 49, and Jacelyn Greenwell, 46 who previously pleaded guilty to the forced labor conspiracy, are scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 22.

“Labor trafficking of children is an egregious crime,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “These sentences reflect our relentless pursuit of perpetrators and our determination to seek justice for survivors of human trafficking.”

“The defendants were entrusted to care for and nurture vulnerable children but instead chose to exploit and abuse them,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan A. Kriegshauser for the District of Kansas. “Although these crimes were committed many years ago and the children are now adults, the sentences handed down today reflect how the passage of time did not diminish the Department of Justice’s resolve to hold these human traffickers accountable and seek justice for their victims.”

“The FBI works closely with numerous local, state, and federal law enforcement partners, as well as non-governmental agencies and other nonprofits on the front lines to combat human trafficking,” said Special Agent in Charge Stephen Cyrus of the FBI Kansas City Field Office. “This case highlights the value of those partnerships. The Kansas City FBI will continue to prioritize the safety of our community and thanks the Department of Labor and the New York State Department of Labor for their invaluable assistance.”

As established at trial, all six defendants were former high-ranking members of the United Nation of Islam (UNOI) who assisted UNOI’s late founder Royall Jenkins in managing UNOI operations. Defendant Peach was also one of Jenkins’s wives. Jenkins represented himself as Allah, contrary to principles of the Islamic faith, and demanded compliance with strict UNOI rules. UNOI operated multiple businesses including restaurants, bakeries, gas stations, a laboratory, and a clothing factory.

For over 12 years from October 2000 through November 2012, the defendants conspired to enforce rules that required UNOI members to perform unpaid labor, using beatings, threats, punishments, isolation, and coercion to compel the unpaid labor of over a dozen victims, including multiple minors, some as young as eight years old. The defendants required the victims to work up to 16 hours a day performing unpaid labor in UNOI-owned and operated businesses in Kansas City, Kansas; New York, New York; Newark, New Jersey; Cincinnati, Ohio; Dayton, Ohio; Atlanta, Georgia, and elsewhere. The defendants also required the victims to perform unpaid childcare and domestic service in the defendants’ homes. The evidence showed that the defendants lived comfortably while housing the victims in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions along with restricting their food and water.

As proven at trial, the defendants used false promises of education, life skills training, and job training to induce parents to send their children to Kansas. After isolating the victims from their families and making them wholly dependent on UNOI, the defendants required the victims to attend UNOI’s unlicensed, unaccredited school and used strict rules, isolation, punishments, humiliation, threats, and coercion to compel the victims’ unpaid labor. This included restricting and monitoring the victims’ communications with others along with their whereabouts.   

The FBI Kansas City Field Office investigated the case with the assistance of the Department of Labor and the New York State Department of Labor.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Huschka for the District of Kansas and Trial Attorneys Kate Alexander, Maryam Zhuravitsky, and Francisco Zornosa of the Civil Rights Division’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit prosecuted the case

Anyone who has information about human trafficking should report that information to the National Human Trafficking Hotline toll free at 1-888-373-7888, which operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Further information is available at www.humantraffickinghotline.org. Information on the Justice Department’s efforts to combat human trafficking can be found at www.justice.gov/humantrafficking.

Source: United States Attorneys General

OVW conducted a pre-application information session for its Fiscal Year 2025 Addressing Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking at HSIs, HBCUs, and TCUs Initiative. During the presentation, OVW staff reviewed this NOFO’s requirements and discussed the program.

Source: United States Attorneys General

An Ohio man pleaded guilty today to federal dog fighting and drug crimes.

Joel Brown, 38, admitted to possessing and training dogs for fighting purposes and possessing with the intent to distribute methamphetamine. According to court documents, Brown kept 11 pit bull-type dogs for fighting purposes at his residence in Franklin County. The dogs on his property were chained with heavy tow chains attached to tire axels buried in the ground. The dogs were within eyesight of each other but housed just out of reach — a housing style typical with organized dogfighting.

On one of Brown’s Facebook accounts, he posted a video of a black pit bull with visible scarring running on a slatmill. After responding to complaints about dogs being left outside at the property and obtaining search warrants, Columbus Humane rescued the dogs, working with the Columbus Division of Police. Authorities also recovered tools and supplies commonly used in the training and keeping of dogs for fighting. Under federal law, it is illegal to possess, train, transport, deliver, receive, buy, or sell animals intended for use in an animal fighting venture.

While conducting search warrants, law enforcement officers also discovered approximately 52 grams of methamphetamine in Brown’s home.

Brown will be sentenced at a later date. He faces a minimum penalty of five years in prison and a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison for the drug charge, as well as a maximum penalty of five years in prison for the animal fighting charge.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) made the announcement.

Columbus Humane, the Columbus Division of Police, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) investigated the case.

Senior Trial Attorney Adam Cullman of ENRD’s Environmental Crimes Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nicole Pakiz and Kevin W. Kelley for the Southern District of Ohio are prosecuting the case. 

Source: United States Attorneys General 1

A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. returned an indictment yesterday charging Elias Rodriguez with murder of a foreign official, hate crimes, firearms offenses, first-degree murder, and assault with intent to kill, for the shooting of Israeli Embassy staffers leaving a reception hosted at the Capital Jewish Museum (CJM). Rodriguez had previously been charged by complaint with murder of a foreign official, firearm offenses, and first-degree murder on May 22.

According to the indictment, on May 21, Rodriguez purchased a ticket to the American Jewish Committee (AJC)’s Young Diplomats Reception being hosted at CJM. Yaron Lischinsky, Sarah Milgrim, C.S., and A.T. were employees of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. who attended the reception. After purchasing the ticket, Rodriguez reviewed information about AJC, which indicated AJC’s support for Israel. After Lischinsky, Milgrim, C.S., and A.T. walked out of the reception, Rodriguez approached them and fired approximately 20 shots. Rodriguez shot Lischinsky and Milgrim multiple times, killing them. C.S. and A.T. escaped uninjured. Rodriguez approached a police officer, said “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” and was arrested. Rodriguez’s previously scheduled “explication” was then posted to his X account; in it, Rodriguez advocated for violence against Israelis.

“This Justice Department will not tolerate violence motivated by hatred of faith or national origin, and we will enforce our federal civil rights laws accordingly,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

“This office will leave no stone unturned in its effort to bring justice to the innocent victims of Elias Rodriguez,” said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro for the District of Columbia. “The hate charges shed further light on his evil intent in the killing of innocent victims.”

The Metropolitan Police Department and the Washington Field Office of the FBI investigated the case, with assistance from the Joint Task Force October 7.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Source: United States Attorneys General

Decree Would Require Divestiture of at Least 164 Home Health and Hospice Facilities; Impose $1.1M Civil Penalty for False Certification