Month: March 2022

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Today, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland announced a new Collaborative Reform Initiative. Managed out of the Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office), this initiative will be offering three different levels of assistance and expert services to state, local, and Tribal law enforcement partners nationwide. Each level of the initiative’s assistance is completely voluntary and provided at the request of law enforcement agencies. Attorney General Garland and Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta unveiled the new initiative at the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) 2022 CEO symposium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

“The Justice Department recognizes how much is being asked of law enforcement officers every single day, and we are committed to providing them with the support they need to build the collaboration, trust, and legitimacy that is essential to public safety,” said Attorney General Garland. “The Department’s new Collaborative Reform Initiative will provide our law enforcement partners nationwide with the opportunity to request support from a suite of customizable, targeted tools that will shape their capacity to keep communities safe and foster community trust.”

“Extensive consultation with law enforcement, community groups, and civil rights organizations identified a real opportunity to expand technical assistance options for law enforcement agencies that need it – and want it,” said Associate Attorney General Gupta. “This new collaborative reform approach builds on our highly successful CRI-TAC program and draws on the expertise of our partners to support law enforcement agencies as they implement best practices in community policing.”

The initiative will consist of three programs designed to build trust between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve; improve operational efficiencies and effectiveness; enhance officer safety and wellness; and develop and disseminate evidence-based, promising, and innovative public safety practices. This will be the first time in history that the COPS Office is managing and providing these various levels of assistance at the same time.

The new Collaborative Reform Initiative continuum will include:

• A continuation of the Collaborative Reform Initiative Technical Assistance Center (CRI-TAC). This is the first level of assistance – and the most targeted and discrete. Established in 2017, CRI-TAC provides a wide range of targeted technical assistance services. The Department’s COPS Office leads CRI-TAC. But CRI-TAC involves a coalition of support and expertise from 10 leading law enforcement stakeholder organizations. Through CRI-TAC’s “by the field, for the field” approach, the Department is able to facilitate customizable, short-term technical assistance on more than 60 topics. Those topics range from gun violence reduction and prevention, to officer safety and wellness, to community engagement. Subject matter experts from the field design tailored solutions in collaboration with each agency to address its individual needs. Technical assistance timelines are established at the pace of the requesting agency, ranging from three to six months. Last year, CRI-TAC worked with 171 law enforcement agencies. The new initiative will maintain CRI-TAC as its first level of support.
• An updated Critical Response program. A law enforcement agency experiencing a high-profile event or other special circumstance, and that determines it could use assistance, will be able to reach out to the COPS Office for help. Like CRI-TAC, this program is also customizable and provides flexible assistance to law enforcement agencies in a variety of ways. Once an agency connects with the Department of Justice, tools will be in place to offer support ranging from after-action reviews, to peer-to-peer exchanges, to data analysis and recommendations, to facilitating discussions with experts. The timeline for these engagements will vary depending on the needs and scope of the situation, but it will range anywhere from two weeks to nine months. As is the case with CRI-TAC, this program is completely voluntary and will be offered as a way for the Justice Department to support the work of its law enforcement partners. The initiative will maintain the Critical Response program as its second level of support.
• An updated Organizational Assessments program. Building on lessons learned from the initial Collaborative Reform model that launched in 2012 but ended in 2017, the third and most intensive piece of this new model will be our Organizational Assessments program. This program will offer the most intensive form of support, involving in-depth assessments on systemic issues. Under the new initiative, when an agency participates in the Organizational Assessments program, areas for reform will be addressed with timely, ongoing, and actionable guidance. Participating agencies will be provided with the technical assistance they need to accomplish reforms as they are identified. To help ensure transparency and accountability, the Department will also routinely report the status of its efforts to the public. This level of support is intensive; it is designed to transform a law enforcement agency’s operations and its relationship with the community. This program is a voluntary opportunity for an agency that knows it needs to make changes, and wants to make changes. The Department will prioritize offering this level third level of support to agencies that have a clear desire to engage with the model.

In the coming weeks, the COPS Office will be releasing open solicitations for experienced service providers to reestablish the Critical Response program and the Organizational Assessments program. CRI-TAC is currently operational and will continue to be a resource that is part of the continuum of services.

Additional information on these new programs can be found on the COPS website at https://cops.usdoj.gov/CRIprogram.

The COPS Office is the federal component of the Department of Justice responsible for advancing community policing nationwide. The only Department of Justice agency with policing in its name, the COPS Office was established in 1994 and has been the cornerstone of the nation’s crime fighting strategy with grants, a variety of knowledge resource products, and training and technical assistance. Through the years, the COPS Office has become the go-to agency for law enforcement agencies across the country and continues to listen to the field and provide the resources that are needed to reduce crime and build trust between law enforcement and the communities served. The COPS Office has invested more than $14 billion to advance community policing, including grants awarded to more than 13,000 state, local, and Tribal law enforcement agencies to fund the hiring and redeployment of more than 135,000 officers.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

A federal grand jury in Knoxville, Tennessee, returned an indictment charging two individuals and four companies with participating in a conspiracy to fix prices of DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs sold on the Amazon Marketplace. 

According to the one-count felony indictment filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, Victor Btesh, of Brooklyn, New York, and Bruce Fish of Hayfield, Minnesota; along with BDF Enterprises Inc., a Minnesota corporation; Michelle’s DVD Funhouse Inc., a New York corporation; MJR Prime LLC, a New York corporation; and Prime Brooklyn LLC, a New York corporation, were charged with conspiring with each other and others to fix prices of DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs sold through storefronts on the Amazon Marketplace. The price-fixing conspiracy was ongoing from at least as early as October 2016 until at least Oct. 29, 2019.

“This indictment – the fifth charge to date in the ongoing investigation – demonstrates our commitment to protecting consumers and prosecuting individuals who conspire to fix prices in online marketplaces,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.

“Price-fixing conspiracies in online marketplaces harm consumers and will be prosecuted,” said U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III for the Eastern District of Tennessee. 

“This indictment shows that the FBI is dedicated to protecting American consumers from unfair prices in all areas of the marketplace,” said Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “The FBI and our law enforcement partners will continue to investigate conspiracies to fix prices and hinder competition for all.”  

“We are gratified to have contributed to this investigation and applaud the exceptional work by the investigative team for both protecting the individual consumer and the deterrence of activities in violation of the Sherman Act,” said Special Agent in Charge Ken Cleevely of the U.S. Postal Service, Office of Inspector General (USPS-OIG). “Along with our law enforcement partners, the USPS OIG will continue to aggressively investigate those who would engage in this type of harmful conduct.”

The Amazon Marketplace is an e-commerce platform owned and operated by Amazon.com Inc. that enables third-party vendors to sell new or used products alongside Amazon’s own offerings.

Four other individuals have been previously charged and pleaded guilty in this ongoing investigation.

A criminal violation of the Sherman Act carries a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million criminal fine for individuals, and a $100 million fine for corporations. The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. 

The Antitrust Division’s Chicago Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Tennessee are prosecuting the case, which was investigated with the assistance of the FBI’s New York Field Office and the USPS-OIG’s Contract Fraud Investigations Division. 

Anyone with information concerning price fixing or other anticompetitive conduct related to the sale of DVDs, Blu-Rays Discs, or other products sold through Amazon Marketplace should contact the Antitrust Division’s Chicago Office at 312-984-7200, Antitrust Division’s Citizen Complaint Center at 888-647-3258 or www.justice.gov/atr/contact/newcase.html, FBI’s New York Field Office at 212-384-1000, or the USPS-OIG’s Fraud, Waste, & Misconduct Hotline at 888-877-7644.

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

Source: United States Department of Justice News

ALEXANDRIA, La. – United States Attorney Brandon B. Brown announced that Aaron St. Pierre, 27, of Montz, Louisiana, has been sentenced by United States Magistrate Judge Joseph H.L. Perez-Montes to 5 years of unsupervised probation and a $4,550 fine for hunting violations.  St. Pierre’s hunting privileges were suspended for 5 years, and he is banned from all National Wildlife Refuges for the duration of his suspension period.

St. Pierre pleaded guilty on March 16, 2022 to several wildlife violations, including hunting in a closed area, unlawful taking of a Whitetail deer, use of trail cameras, distribution and hunting over bait, and litter in a National Wildlife Refuge. These charges stemmed from an investigation into illegal hunting activity in a closed area on Lake Ophelia National Wildlife Refuge in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, from December 2021 through January 2022.  

This case was investigated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Federal Wildlife Officers and Wildlife Canine Team, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert F. Moody.

# # #

Source: United States Department of Justice News

ATLANTA – Jianjie Liu has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering.  Liu was charged in an 11-count indictment with money laundering conspiracy, nine counts of money laundering, and access device fraud.  These charges stemmed from Liu’s role receiving money from victims of various telephone scams.

“Liu laundered hundreds of thousands of dollars from schemes that bilked elderly victims,” said U.S. Attorney Kurt R. Erskine.  “Telephone scams regularly victimize the elderly and Liu played a pivotal role, receiving money directly from the victims.”

“This guilty plea demonstrates that my office will continue to pursue perpetrators of these malicious Social Security-related scams that prey upon unsuspecting people, especially the elderly, to deprive them of their assets and resources,” said Gail S. Ennis, Inspector General for the Social Security Administration. “I thank the Duluth Police Department for their assistance in this investigation and I thank the U.S. Attorney’s Office for prosecuting this case.”

According to U.S. Attorney Erskine, the charges and other information presented in court: in October 2019, Liu was arrested at a Walmart in Duluth, Georgia after she tried to purchase a suspicious number of gift cards.  A search of her car found over 700 blank gift cards.  A search of her phone revealed victim information.  When contacted, the victims, most of whom were elderly, all reported that they had been victims of various telephone scams. 

For example, an 89-year-old priest in Minnesota was victimized when a scammer, posing as an employee of an internet security company, offered him a $555 rebate.  In order to get the rebate, the priest provided access to his bank account.  The scammer pretended to mistakenly deposit $20,555 into the priest’s account.  He asked the priest to return $20,000 by sending a $20,000 check to a bank account that Liu controlled.

In another scam, a 73-year-old woman in Washington was victimized when a scammer posing as a Facebook friend sent her a message telling her that she may qualify for a $150,000 government grant.  The fake “friend” put her in touch with a scammer posing as a government agent.  The purported ‘government agent’ advised the victim that she could only get the grant after she paid various fees.  The victim sent three checks for $2,500, $4,000, and $4,500 to various addresses in the United States.  She then purchased a $1,000 gift card and provided the PIN and access information to the fictitious government agent.  The same day, Liu used the information from the gift card to purchase other gift cards in Louisiana.

In yet another scam, a 78-year-old man in South Carolina, was scammed when he received a call from someone claiming to be a police officer.  The fictitious police officer told the victim that his grandson had been arrested and needed $9,000 in bail money.  The victim sent a check for $9,000 to an address in Las Vegas.  Later, the scammer called back and told him that his grandson had injured a police officer and the victim needed to pay the officer’s hospital bill.  The victim then sent $5,000 to an account that Liu controlled.

The victims who sent Liu money lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Liu personally received over $150,000.  After Liu was indicted and was on pretrial release, she continued to receive money from scam victims.  The court revoked her bond and detained her.  Rather than appear in court, Liu fled the country and was on the run for approximately seven months.  Liu was arrested at the Texas border while trying to re-enter the United States and is currently detained.

Jianjie Liu, 44, of Cypress, Texas, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.  Sentencing is scheduled for June 16, 2022, at 9:00 a.m., before U.S. District Judge Eleanor L. Ross.

This case is being investigated by the Social Security Administration – Office of the Inspector General and Gwinnett County Police Department.

Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane C. Schulman is prosecuting the case.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia is part of the Department of Justice Transnational Elder Fraud Strike Force. The Strike Force focuses on investigating and prosecuting defendants associated with foreign-based fraud schemes that disproportionately affect American seniors.  These include romance scams, phone scams, mass-mailing fraud schemes, and tech-support fraud schemes.  For further information on these scams, see https://www.justice.gov/elderjustice/senior-scam-alert.

For further information please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov or (404) 581-6016.  The Internet address for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia is http://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga.