Category: The Department of Justice

Mariam Taha Thompson, 62, formerly of Rochester, Minnesota, was sentenced today to 23 years in prison for delivering classified national defense information to aid a foreign government. As part of her March 26 guilty plea, Thompson admitted that she believed that the classified national defense information that she was passing to a Lebanese national would be provided to Lebanese Hezbollah, a designated foreign terrorist organization.

“Thompson’s sentence reflects the seriousness of her violation of the trust of the American people, of the human sources she jeopardized and of the troops who worked at her side as friends and colleagues,” said

Today, the Department of Justice announced it will launch five cross-jurisdictional firearms trafficking strike forces within the next 30 days to help reduce violent crime by addressing illegal gun trafficking in significant firearms trafficking corridors. Tomorrow, the Attorney General will discuss with the President, law enforcement officials, and local and community leaders, this initiative, which, along with other measures, the Department of Justice is undertaking as part of the administration-wide comprehensive strategy to combat the rise in violent crime. 

Gun violence is a major driver in the increase in violent crime over the last 18 months, and today’s action is

A former commodities trader was sentenced today in the Northern District of Illinois to 12 months and a day in prison for a scheme to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution.

James Vorley, 41, of the United Kingdom, was convicted by a federal jury on Sept. 25, 2020. Based on the evidence presented at trial, Vorley, who was employed as a precious metals trader at Deutsche Bank in London, engaged in a scheme to defraud other traders on the Commodity Exchange Inc., which was a public exchange. The defendant, together with Cedric Chanu and other Deutsche Bank traders, defrauded

A Turkish businessman was arrested in Austria on June 19, at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice. This arrest followed a superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Salt Lake City, Utah, on April 28, which was unsealed today. The superseding indictment charged Sezgin Baran Korkmaz with one count of conspiring to commit money laundering, 10 counts of wire fraud, and one count of obstruction of an official proceeding. 

According to the superseding indictment, Korkmaz laundered over $133 million in fraud proceeds through bank accounts that he controlled in Turkey and Luxembourg. The proceeds allegedly related

On 22 June 2021, the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union hosted the EU-U.S. Ministerial Meeting on Justice and Home Affairs in Lisbon. The United States was represented by the Secretary for Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas, and by Deputy Assistant Attorney General and DOJ Counselor for International Affairs Bruce Swartz. The European Union, hosting the meeting, was represented by the Vice-President of the European Commission Margaritis Schinas, the Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders, the Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson, as well as the Portuguese Ministers for Justice Francisca Van Dunem and for Home Affairs Eduardo

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles unsealed an indictment Thursday that accuses five defendants of conspiring to unlawfully export defense articles to Russia. Specifically, the defendants allegedly exported thermal imaging riflescopes and night-vision goggles without a license, in violation of the Arms Export Control Act.

According to court documents, Elena Shifrin, 59, of Mundelein, Illinois, and Vladimir Pridacha, 55, of Volo, Illinois, were arrested June 17 for their roles in a nearly four-year scheme in which the defendants purchased dozens of thermal imaging devices, most of which cost between $5,000 and $10,000 and are controlled by the International Traffic

The Department of Justice announced today that two executives of Endeavor Group Holdings Inc. – Chief Executive Officer and Director Ariel Emanuel, and President Mark Shapiro – have resigned their positions on the Live Nation Entertainment Inc. Board of Directors after the department expressed concerns that their positions on the Live Nation Board created an illegal interlocking directorate. An interlocking directorate is where one person – or an agent of one person or company – serves as an officer or director of two companies. Section 8 of the Clayton Act prohibits the same person or company from serving as an

A Georgia resident and his company pleaded guilty today to a felony charge relating to the distribution of anabolic steroids and steroid-like drugs in purported dietary supplements.

According to court documents, James Chadwick Brooks, 41, of Norcross, and his company, CCB Nutrition LLC, pleaded guilty to introducing an unapproved new drug into interstate commerce with the intent to defraud and mislead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and consumers. The government alleged that from 2016 to 2019, Brooks marketed supplements containing anabolic steroids such as androsterone, trestolone, epiandrosterone and methylstenbolone to the bodybuilding and fitness community. Anabolic steroids are

An Indiana man was sentenced Friday in federal court for making racially motivated threats to intimidate and interfere with his neighbor, who is Black, in violation of the criminal provision of the Fair Housing Act, and for unlawfully possessing firearms.

Shepherd Hoehn, 51, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson to 46 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release for these offenses. Hoehn previously pleaded guilty to these charges on Feb. 12, 2021.

According to court documents and statements made during the hearing, on June 18, 2020, a construction crew began working at the direction

The Justice Department announced today that it has reached a settlement to resolve a claim that Night and Day Dental Inc. discriminated against a woman with HIV in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). 

Night and Day Dental operates nine dental offices throughout North Carolina. This settlement is part of the department’s Barrier-Free Health Care Initiative (initiative), a partnership of the Civil Rights Division and U.S. Attorney’s offices across the nation to ensure that people with disabilities, including those who are deaf or hard of hearing, who have HIV and who have mobility disabilities, have equal access to