Month: April 2022

Source: United States Department of Justice News

A federal jury convicted a militant fighter for the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a foreign terrorist organization, on all eight charges that were brought against him in the United States relating to his participation in a brutal hostage-taking scheme that resulted in the deaths of four American citizens, as well as the deaths of British and Japanese nationals, in Syria.

According to evidence presented during trial through the testimony of 35 witnesses, from November 2012 through Feb. 7, 2015, former British citizen El Shafee Elsheikh, 33, served as a high-ranking ISIS fighter and was an integral member of a wide-ranging conspiracy involving the captivity of 26 hostages in Syria. Elsheikh personally participated in the detention of and hostage negotiations for four American citizens – James Wright Foley, Kayla Jean Mueller, Steven Joel Sotloff and Peter Edward Kassig – each of whom died as hostages in ISIS custody. In addition, Elsheikh personally participated in the detention of and hostage negotiations for British, French, Italian, Danish, German, Spanish, Swedish, Belgian, Swiss and New Zealand nationals.

According to evidence presented during trial, Elsheikh and two other ISIS members supervised the terrorist organization’s jails and detention facilities at which the hostages were held. Elsheikh and his co-conspirators engaged in a prolonged pattern of physical and psychological violence against hostages that was meant as an effort to subdue the hostages. These actions were also intended to compel the victims’ family members and their governments to pay large monetary ransoms for their release, in addition to compelling the U.S. government and other governments to agree to other terms and conditions for the victims’ return.

According to evidence presented during trial, in addition to physically and psychologically abusing the hostages, Elsheikh and his co-conspirators participated in forcibly exposing the hostages to the murder of other hostages held by ISIS, including a Russian hostage who was killed in or about February 2014 and a Syrian prisoner who was executed in or about April 2014. After a group of European hostages were forced to witness the execution of the Syrian prisoner, Elsheikh and his co-conspirators returned the hostages to the prison where they were being held with American and British hostages.

From August 2014 through October 2014, ISIS released videos depicting the beheadings of James Foley, Steven Sotloff and British citizens David Haines and Alan Henning. In November 2014, ISIS released a video depicting the decapitated head of Peter Kassig. In January 2015, ISIS released videos depicting the decapitated body of Japanese citizen Haruna Yukawa and the beheading of Japanese citizen Kenji Goto. On or about Feb. 7, 2015, Kayla Mueller’s family received an email from ISIS confirming Mueller’s death in Syria.

According to evidence presented during trial, Elsheikh was part of a group of ISIS members who spoke with British accents and were referred to by the hostages as the “Beatles.” He and his convicted co-conspirator, Alexanda Amon Kotey, 38, were captured together in January 2018 by the Syrian Democratic Forces as they attempted to escape Syria for Turkey. Mohammed Emwazi, who conducted the above-referenced videotaped beheadings, was killed in November 2015 in a U.S. military airstrike in Syria.

On Sept. 2, 2021, Kotey pleaded guilty to all of the offenses charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia in the eight-count indictment, consisting of one count of conspiracy to commit hostage taking resulting in death; four counts of hostage taking resulting in the deaths of the four Americans (James Foley, Kayla Mueller, Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig); one count of conspiracy to murder U.S. citizens outside of the United States; one count of conspiracy to provide material support or resources to terrorists resulting in the deaths of U.S., British and Japanese nationals; and one count of conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization resulting in the deaths of U.S., British, and Japanese nationals. Kotey faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on April 29.

Elsheikh faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 12.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia expresses its profound appreciation to the FBI, the Counter Terrorism Command of the United Kingdom’s Metropolitan Police Service, the Syrian Democratic Forces, and our many foreign partners for their dedicated commitment to assist the United States in seeking justice for all the victims of these crimes.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Raj Parekh, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dennis M. Fitzpatrick, John T. Gibbs and Aidan Taft Grano-Mickelson, all of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia; and Trial Attorney Alicia H. Cook of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section are prosecuting the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Today, a Texas man was convicted of obstructing a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation, following an eight-day trial in the Eastern District of Texas.

“Lying to federal agencies is a crime, plain and simple,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “And, as the court’s rulings in this case make clear, so is wage fixing. When obstruction affects the federal government’s investigations into labor market collusion and impedes our ability to protect workers, we will use all the tools available to prosecute all of these crimes to the full extent of the law.”

“Wage fixing causes tremendous harm to countless hardworking Americans,” said Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “The FBI will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners to uncover this type of corruption and bring to justice anyone who is responsible or who obstructs our investigations into this conduct.” 

Evidence introduced at trial showed that Neeraj Jindal obstructed an FTC investigation in 2017 into an alleged illegal agreement to fix rates paid to therapists for treating home health agency patients in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, area. At the time, Jindal was the owner of a Texas-based therapist staffing company providing in-home physical therapy services.  

The obstruction offense carries a statutory maximum penalty of five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Jindal was found not guilty on two other counts charged in the same indictment. John Rodgers, his co-defendant, was found not guilty on the three charges against him included in the indictment.

In November 2021, in denying a motion to dismiss, the court held that “price-fixing agreements — even among buyers in the labor market — have been per se illegal for years.” The court observed: “When the price of labor is lowered, or wages are suppressed, fewer people take jobs, which always or almost always tends to restrict competition and decrease output.” (internal citations omitted).

The Antitrust Division’s Washington Criminal I Section prosecuted the case, which was investigated with the FBI’s International Corruption Unit, with support from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas.

The charges in this case were brought in connection with the Antitrust Division’s ongoing commitment to prosecute anticompetitive conduct affecting American labor markets. Anyone with information on market allocation or price fixing by employers should contact the Antitrust Division’s Citizen Complaint Center at 1-888-647-3258 or visit www.justice.gov/atr/contact/newcase.html.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina today filed a complaint and settlement agreement with the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice to resolve its investigation of the Broad River Road Complex in Columbia, South Carolina, the long-term residential facility for children in South Carolina’s juvenile justice system. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and U.S. Attorney Corey Ellis for the District of South Carolina made the announcement.

The agreement resolves the department’s claims that the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice fails to protect children at the Broad River Road Complex from harm from staff and other children and uses prolonged isolation as punishment. 

Under the agreement, the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice will make changes meant to increase safety at the Broad River Road Complex. These changes include changes to staffing patterns, the development of a positive behavior management program to reduce youth-on-youth violence and increased video surveillance. The agreement also requires the Department of Juvenile Justice to limit the use of force or restraints to exceptional circumstances and improve its investigation process. 

In addition, the agreement requires the Department of Juvenile Justice to restrict the use of isolation to incidents where the child poses a serious and immediate danger to themselves or to others. Finally, the agreement appoints an independent subject matter expert to monitor the agreement and make recommendations to ensure the Department of Juvenile Justice’s compliance with the agreement.

“All children held in the custody of the state deserve safe and humane conditions, that can bring about rehabilitation and reform,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke. “This comprehensive settlement agreement will protect children held in the Broad River Road Complex from harm and the damaging impact of long-term isolation. We will continue working to safeguard the civil rights of children held in detention facilities across the county.”

“The South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice is to be commended for its commitment to reforming the state’s juvenile detention facility and protecting children in custody,” said U.S. Attorney Corey Ellis for the District of South Carolina. “Today, the state has taken an important step in rectifying the unconstitutional conditions in its juvenile correctional facilities.”

The Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Section and the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina initiated the investigation in October 2017. Today, the department provided written notice of the facts supporting its conclusion that employees at the Broad River Road Complex engage in a pattern of excessive force that harms children and violates their constitutional rights. In February 2020, the department also sent the Department of Juvenile Justice notice of its conclusions that it fails to protect children from harm from other children and engages in punitive, prolonged isolation. The agreement addresses both reports.

The Justice Department filed the complaint pursuant to provisions of 34 U.S.C. § 12601 covering “the incarceration of juveniles.” In addition, the Justice Department and South Carolina filed a joint motion requesting that the court retain jurisdiction to enforce the settlement agreement, if necessary.

The Civil Rights Division is committed to safeguarding the rights of children held in secure facilities across the country. For example, the division recently opened a statewide investigation of Texas’s secure juvenile facilities to examine whether Texas provides children confined in the facilities with adequate mental health care, reasonable protection from physical and sexual abuse by staff and other residents, and reasonable protection from excessive use of chemical restraints and isolation. In Connecticut, the division recently issued a report finding that the Manson Youth Institution’s isolation practices, inadequate mental health services and inadequate special education services violate children’s constitutional and federal rights. 

The department encourages individuals who wish to share information about the Broad River Road Complex to contact the department at (844) 380-6166 or via email at scjuvenile.justice@usdoj.gov. The Civil Rights Division also has a Civil Rights Portal, where people can report when their civil rights have been violated, which is available at https://civilrights.justice.gov/. Additional information about the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department is available on its website at www.justice.gov/crt.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Remarks as Prepared

Thank you, Professor Saltzburg, for that warm introduction. I also want to thank President Mark Wrighton, Associate Dean Morrison, the George Washington (GW) University School of Law and the GW University Community for inviting me here today. I am delighted to have the chance to sit down with my friend and your Dean, Dayna Matthew.

I am deeply honored to speak at this event that celebrates Judge Richey’s commitment to civil liberties, open government and equal justice under the law.

The Department of Justice is the one agency in the federal government that bears the name of a value. By virtue of that name — that value of justice — the department has a unique responsibility to protect civil rights and ensure equal justice for all. Indeed, the department was created in the aftermath of the Civil War, and its very first charge was securing the rights promised by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments at a time when the Ku Klux Klan engaged in a campaign of violence and lynchings of Black Americans to prevent them from voting.

The Attorney General has made clear that protecting civil rights, along with keeping our country safe and defending the rule of law, remains a core priority for the Justice Department. The department, through the Civil Rights Division, vigorously enforces federal civil rights laws. However, the Attorney General has emphasized that the responsibility to safeguard civil rights is not siloed within the Civil Rights Division but is a shared responsibility across the entire department. We advance civil rights through our efforts to protect the environment, preserve constitutional rights, strengthen the rule of law and defend the Administration’s priorities. We do it through promoting economic justice, ensuring market competition and expanding access to justice. We do it through building safe communities, supporting and funding our law enforcement partners engaged in constitutional policing and other best practices, and making our criminal justice system fair and just for all.

The department safeguards fundamental rights and seeks to expand equity to historically underserved communities. We bring civil rights cases that protect fair housing, disability rights and equal education and employment. The department secured convictions against the former officer who murdered George Floyd and the three other former officers who stood by and failed to intervene. The department has also filed lawsuits challenging a rash of state laws that infringe on the right to vote.

And we vigorously combat hate crimes – as demonstrated in the federal hate crimes prosecution and convictions of the three men who murdered Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia. We deploy all of our tools – including prosecutions, programs to provide victim-centered services and grants to support community-based responses to hate – to make sure that people can live free from exploitation and violence regardless of their race or ethnicity, their religion, their disability, or how they identify or who they love.

The shared responsibility to strive for equal justice under law is manifest throughout the department. We have strengthened environmental justice enforcement to ensure that health and environmental harms do not unduly fall on already overburdened minority and underserved communities.

The department, through the Civil Division, brings lawsuits to protect constitutional rights and to defend this Administration’s priorities. For example, last September, the department filed a lawsuit challenging a Texas law that effectively bans most abortions in the state and that sought to evade judicial review through an unprecedented enforcement scheme. Through this and other cases, the department fulfills its responsibility to uphold the rule of law and seeks to prevent attempts to deprive individuals of their constitutional rights.

The department’s civil rights mission also includes expanding access to justice for all. We can’t have equal justice under the law without equal access to justice. The department has re-established the Office for Access to Justice, and we will appoint a Language Access Coordinator to help ensure that language does not become a barrier to equal access to courts and other public resources.

We have also sought to expand access to legal services and pro bono attorneys and professionals for those who can’t afford them, including during the eviction crisis exacerbated by the pandemic. Last June, I sent a letter to state courts encouraging them to immediately establish eviction diversion programs. GW is one of 99 law schools that have responded to the Attorney General’s Call to Action to the Legal Profession, which asked lawyers and law students to take immediate steps to address the housing and eviction crisis. GW students have, in turn, helped protect and advocate for many Washington, D.C. residents in danger of losing their homes.

Another cornerstone of our civil rights work is promoting economic justice. We do this by enforcing traditional civil rights laws, such as ensuring equal employment and combatting discriminatory lending and redlining practices.

But we do this in many other ways too. The department has sought to protect victims’ rights in the bankruptcy process and is working to help make the bankruptcy system more fair for student borrowers. And the work of the Antitrust Division is, at its core, about making sure that the economy works fairly for everyone. Antitrust may seem like a hyper-technical area of law, but the principles that animate antitrust enforcement – fair competition and preventing the abuse of market power – ultimately result in people getting higher quality products, earning fair wages, and paying fair market prices for essentials such as health insurance and food to put on the table for their families.

Protecting communities from violent crime is a top priority for the department, and we seek to build safe communities for all. Violent crime, especially gun violence, has devastating effects on victims, their families, and their communities, and impacts Black youth, men and women and other communities of color at significantly disproportionate rates. The department has dedicated substantial resources to reducing gun violence and to supporting state and local partners as they investigate and prosecute crime. But experience and research have demonstrated that enforcement alone is not enough. The department’s grant-making components are focused on supporting evidence-based programs that can help disrupt violence and strengthen communities, such as community-based violence intervention programs that establish relationships among local community leaders, service providers and people at the center of gun violence.

We also know that building safe communities requires building trust and legitimacy between law enforcement and the communities they serve. Such trust and legitimacy are not only necessary for public safety, they also honor this nation’s core values of fairness and dignity for all. Last summer, the Deputy Attorney General announced several new policies that govern the department’s law enforcement components, including limiting the use of chokeholds to deadly force situations; requiring that no-knock warrants generally be used only when knocking and announcing presents a threat of physical harm; and increasing the use of body-worn cameras as a tool to increase transparency and accountability.

And just yesterday, in a case related to the public demonstrations in June 2020 in Lafayette Park, the department reached a settlement in which the United States Park Police and the Secret Service agreed to update certain policies, including requiring officers to wear fully visible badges and nameplates; implementing guidelines concerning the use of non-lethal force, including de-escalation tactics; and adopting procedures to safely disperse crowds. These changes to agency policies strengthen the government’s unwavering commitment to protecting and respecting constitutionally protected rights.

We also seek to help build trust in and support for our state and local law enforcement partners by investing in community policing and other best practices. The department just launched a new collaborative reform initiative, which will provide assistance and expert services to our law enforcement partners that request DOJ support. And, where constitutional violations occur, we hold departments and officers accountable.

Finally, the department is fully committed to enhancing public safety and equity within the criminal justice system. We use grants to support evidence-based programs to provide treatment, not incarceration, to those with mental and behavioral health or substance use disorders. We seek to provide meaningful opportunities for reentry and access to medication assisted treatment within jails and at the point of re-entry. We can help save lives, improve public health, protect public safety and ensure that people have the tools they need to successfully reintegrate into society.

These are just a few examples of how the Justice Department uses every lever we have to protect civil rights and promote justice across the department’s work.

Thank you, and I look forward to continuing this conversation with Dean Matthew and to meeting you all at the reception in just a bit.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

A New York man was arraigned today in the Eastern District of New York on charges of tax evasion.

According to the April 8 indictment, from 2009 to 2014, David Seruya, of Brooklyn, was a shareholder of a New Jersey-based home warranty business. In 2014, Seruya allegedly entered into a buyout agreement whereby he agreed to sell his shares of stock back to the business and exit the company. In exchange for his stock shares, the home warranty company allegedly agreed to pay Seruya a total of more than $4.1 million, which included a lump sum payment and installment payments spread out over 24 months. The indictment charges that on his 2014 through 2016 tax returns, Seruya underreported income he received from the sale of his stock. Indeed, Seruya allegedly provided false and incomplete income information to his return preparer for each of those years. In total, Seruya’s tax evasion allegedly caused a loss to the IRS of more than $250,000.

If convicted, Seruya faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each of three counts of tax evasion. 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 Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York and Acting Special Agent in Charge Tammy Tomlins of IRS-Criminal Investigation Newark Field Office made the announcement.

IRS-Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.

Trial Attorney Shawn Noud of the Tax Division and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Carolyn Silane for the Eastern District of New York are prosecuting the case.

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