Month: May 2022

Source: United States Department of Justice 2

Liquimar Tankers Management Services Inc. and Evridiki Navigation Inc. were sentenced after being convicted at trial on all charges, including violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, falsifying ships’ documents, obstructing a U.S. Coast Guard inspection and making false statements to U.S. Coast Guard inspectors. 

U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Andrews for the District of Delaware sentenced the corporations to a total of $3 million criminal fine, and a five-year period of probation. Evridiki was  fined $2 million and Liquimar was fined $1 million.

In March 2019, the Evridiki was inspected by the Coast Guard in Big Stone Anchorage, within Delaware Bay after a delivery of crude oil. The jury found that during the inspection, Liquimar, Evridiki and the ship’s Chief Engineer, Nikolaos Vastardis, tried to deceive Coast Guard inspectors regarding the use of the ship’s oily water separator (OWS) and oil content meter (OCM), a required pollution prevention device. Chief Engineer Vastardis used a hidden valve to trap fresh water inside the sample line so that the OCM sensor registered zero parts per million concentration of oil instead of what was really being discharged overboard. The Coast Guard and government experts were able to prove that the OCM was being tricked with fresh water by analyzing historic data recovered from the machine’s memory chip. When the Coast Guard opened the OWS, they found it was inoperable and fouled with copious amounts of oil and soot. Vastardis’ conviction was upheld in December 2021 by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which rejected a challenge to U.S. jurisdiction over foreign vessels.

“Ocean outlaws and polluters such as these will continue to be vigorously prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.

At sentencing today, the government provided new evidence, based on a forensic examination of the ship’s computers, that Liquimar was also making and using fake and forged certificates regarding safety and environmental requirements. Fake certificates and fake seals, to imprint on the certificates, were e-mailed to the ship by senior shore side employees including the Designated Person Ashore – a required manager under international law who is charged with ensuring the vessel and its crew abide by the law. At least three senior employees of Liquimar were involved with creating and sending the fake certificates. The fake certificates related to the calibration of the OCM and whether pressure relief valves for the cargo were actually tested properly. A fake OCM certificate was used during the Coast Guard inspection and Vastardis was specifically asked about the validity of the certificate. The Coast Guard further discovered that the data stored on the OCM indicated the OCM was not energized on the date that the fake certificate claimed the OCM was calibrated. In addition, the certificate for the pressure relief valves was noted to be false because it had claimed that the system was tested on a date that the cargo tanks were full, which is impossible. Referring to the forged documents as the “elephant in the room” which the defendants asked judge to ignore, federal prosecutors told the court that the companies “failure to address, let along mention this willful misconduct, demonstrates that these defendants are willfully blind if not completely unrepentant.”

Senior Litigation Counsel Richard A. Udell and Senior Trial Attorney Kenneth E. Nelson, both of the Environmental Crimes Section of the Department of Justice, represented the government at trial. Assisting in the prosecution were Trial Attorney Joel La Bissonniere with the Environmental Crimes Section, and Lieutenant Commander Ben Robinson, attorney with the Coast Guard’s Office of Maritime and International Law. The Coast Guard’s Investigative Service investigated the case with assistance from the Coast Guard’s Sector Delaware Bay and Marine Safety Detachment in Lewes, Delaware.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

The Justice Department announced that Christopher Scott Pritchard, 46, has been charged with hate crime and arson violations for burning down the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney Sayler A. Fleming for the Eastern District of Missouri and Acting Special Agent in Charge Akil Davis for the FBI St. Louis Field Office made the announcement.

According to court documents, Pritchard is charged with intentionally obstructing parishioners of the church in the enjoyment of their free exercise of religious beliefs and using fire to commit a federal felony. If convicted, Pritchard faces up to 20 years in prison for obstructing the parishioners and a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison, consecutive to any other sentence, for using fire to commit a federal felony. Pritchard also faces a fine of up to $250,000 with respect to each charge.

These charges are the result of an investigation by the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI, the Missouri State Fire Marshal’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives. The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Shan Patel and Noah Coakley of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Hahn for the Eastern District of Missouri.

For more information and resources on the department’s efforts to combat hate crimes, visit www.justice.gov/hatecrimes.

An indictment is merely an allegation, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Remarks as Delivered

I am pleased to join you for this important event, on a day the President has dedicated to highlighting the crisis of missing or murdered indigenous persons. This is an opportunity to reflect on the violence endured by far too many Native persons for far too long. It is also a chance to reaffirm our commitment to bringing justice and answers to grieving communities.

Today marks a major milestone in those efforts, as we take the next step in launching our joint Commission under the Not Invisible Act. The mission is an essential one — to reduce violence against American Indians and Alaska Natives. Today, you’ll hear from several Tribal leaders about how important the Commission is to that work, and I would like to extend special thanks to Secretary Haaland for her leadership here, both during her time in Congress and through the Department of the Interior’s efforts to establish this Commission. Today’s announcement is a testament to her dedicated work, and to the many people across Native communities who fought to make their voices heard.

The Department of Justice is committed to supporting the work of the Commission. We are pleased that the Director of our Office of Tribal Justice, Tracy Toulou, will serve as a co-chair of the Commission, and that he will be joined by representatives from across the Department, including from both our law enforcement and grantmaking components. No one agency can solve this problem alone, and we are also grateful that the Commission will include representatives from our partners at the Departments of the Interior and Health and Human Services.

But it is the appointees just announced by Secretary Haaland — who come from outside the federal government — who will form the backbone of the Commission. These Commissioners represent a diverse range of experiences, expertise, and perspectives, and — critically — include survivors who can speak firsthand to the urgency of the Commission’s work. They also include Tribal leaders and members, who know best what their communities need when it comes to making them safer. The Commission will issue recommendations to both the Department of Justice and the Department of the Interior on how to improve intergovernmental coordination, as well as how to identify best practices for federal, state, local and Tribal law enforcement when responding to the violence directed at American Indians and Alaska Natives. I know that Native voices have not always been heard on these issues, but this Administration is committed to doing better, and today’s announcement reflects that commitment.

More broadly, the Commission also demonstrates the emphasis that the Biden-Harris Administration has placed on addressing the crisis of missing or murdered indigenous people. Last November, the President issued a new Executive Order, which reflected our whole-of-government response to promoting public safety in Native communities. The same day, I launched a new Steering Committee, which is dedicated to marshaling the Justice Department’s personnel and resources to the MMIP crisis. Since it launched, the Steering Committee has made Tribal engagement the cornerstone of its work, including through consultations and engagement with stakeholders.

While those conversations are ongoing, the department is already moving to address the concerns we’ve heard from you.

First, we’ve heard a clear and consistent message that the department must do more to reach Native victims, survivors and families. That’s why I’m pleased to announce that today we are creating a new position to spearhead our efforts: a National Native American Outreach Services Liaison. The Liaison will work in our Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys and help ensure that victims and their families have a voice within the department as they navigate all stages of the criminal justice system

This new position is part of a larger effort to raise awareness and increase outreach on the MMIP crisis. Last month, the department launched a new page on our Tribal Justice and Safety website dedicated to elevating the issue of MMIP. This new website serves as a central hub of resources for families and victims, and also promotes transparency on the department’s law enforcement efforts.

Last week, I also had the opportunity, along with Secretary Haaland, to celebrate the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act and its important provisions to promote safety in Tribal communities. That includes expanded Special Tribal Criminal Jurisdiction, which recognizes the authority of Tribal courts to exercise jurisdiction over crimes of family violence, including child abuse, that too often are precursors to missing or murdered person cases.

Of course, we know that there is much more work to do, and this day is a reminder of just how critical those efforts are. Today, and every day, the federal government must be committed to working with Tribal nations to address the crisis of missing or murdered indigenous people, and I expect the Commission to play a major role in doing so. The Department of Justice is eager to support — and learn from — the Commission’s work.

Thank you.

Source: United States Department of Justice

Remarks as Delivered

Thanks, Administrator Regan. We are grateful that you are able to be here today.

The burdens of environmental pollution have long been borne disproportionately by members of minority, Tribal and low-income communities. No American should have to live, work or send their kids to school in a neighborhood that carries a disproportionate share of environmental hazards.

The Justice Department is committed to doing everything we can to address these disparities. That is why, as the Attorney General mentioned, we are issuing a comprehensive strategy on environmental justice to guide the work of all department components. This new strategy will ensure that the department is using every available tool to secure environmental justice for everyone.

This means prioritizing enforcement of environmental laws as well as civil rights statutes, such as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits recipients of federal funding from discriminating on the basis of race, color or national origin.

The strategy directs department components to prioritize cases that reduce environmental harms on overburdened and underserved communities, including communities of color, Tribal populations and low-income rural and urban communities.

To that end, department components, with the support from the new Office of Environmental Justice, will be tasked with developing protocols to assess the environmental justice impacts of their investigations.

We also know that securing environmental justice demands the meaningful involvement of affected communities in the decisions that impact them.

So, the strategy directs the new Office of Environmental Justice to work to build deeper connections with communities that are affected by violations of environmental laws.

And it requires all 93 U.S. Attorneys across the country to designate an environmental justice coordinator to help identify areas of concern in their communities, and to establish procedures for members of the public to report those concerns.

To sustain our commitment to environmental justice, the department needs a workforce that is informed about environmental justice issues and concerns. The strategy thus requires the development of environmental justice education programs and training opportunities for department personnel.

This comprehensive strategy underscores the department’s commitment to ensuring that all Americans have access to clean water to drink, clean air to breathe and healthy, thriving communities where they can live, work and raise their families. That is the heart of environmental justice.

Thank you.

Source: United States Department of Justice

Not Invisible Act Commission Set to Begin Active Advisory Role in Combatting Violence Against Native People