Month: June 2022

Source: United States Department of Justice

Commercial Carpet Consultants Inc., a Chicago-based commercial flooring contractor, and its former president, Jerry P. Watson, have been charged for a long-running conspiracy to rig bids and fix prices for commercial flooring products and services.

Commercial Carpet Consultants Inc. pleaded guilty to a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act and agreed to pay a $1.2 million criminal fine. It is the fourth corporation charged in the ongoing investigation. Jerry P. Watson also pleaded guilty and is the sixth individual to plead guilty in the investigation.

“The Antitrust Division and its law enforcement partners are committed to safeguarding competition in the American marketplace,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “These latest guilty pleas in the government’s investigation demonstrate our commitment to prosecuting anticompetitive conduct and holding companies and executives accountable.”

“There is no place for illegal price-fixing in the American marketplace,” said Special Agent in Charge Emmerson Buie Jr. of the FBI’s Chicago Field Division. “Anyone looking to profit by market manipulation should know that we won’t stop investigating unlawful collusion until justice is done.”

According to the one-count felony charge and plea agreements filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, Illinois, from at least as early as 2009 until at least June 22, 2017, the defendants engaged in a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition in the commercial flooring market by agreeing with other companies and individuals to submit complementary bids so that the designated company would win the contract.

A violation of the Sherman Act carries a statutory maximum penalty of a $100 million criminal fine for corporations. For individuals, violations of the Sherman Act carry maximum penalties of 10 years in prison and a $1 million criminal fine. 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 charges are the result of an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into bid rigging, price fixing and other anticompetitive conduct in the commercial flooring industry, conducted by the Antitrust Division’s Chicago Office and the FBI’s Chicago Field Division.

Anyone with information in connection with this investigation should contact the Antitrust Division’s Complaint Center at 888-647-3258, or visit http://www.justice.gov/atr/report-violations.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A federal jury in Detroit convicted a Michigan man today for a wire fraud and money laundering scheme to obtain more than $4.1 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.  

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Johnny Ho, 41, of Novi, engaged in a conspiracy to submit falsified PPP and EIDL loan applications in order to obtain COVID-19 relief funds that he was not entitled to receive. The evidence showed that Ho, who owned Diva Nails & Spa III LLC, located in Northville, submitted inflated payroll information, and otherwise falsified loan application information. Ho personally submitted two fraudulent PPP and EIDL loan applications seeking nearly $350,000 in funds that were intended to help small businesses and their employees impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, Ho and his co-conspirators submitted 29 different fraudulent PPP and EIDL loan applications on behalf of 16 businesses totaling over $4.1 million.

Ho was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud, and two counts of money laundering. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 27 and faces up to 20 years in prison for each of the wire fraud counts, and up to 10 years in prison on the money laundering counts. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Dawn Ison for the Eastern District of Michigan; Special Agent in Charge James A. Tarasca of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Sharon Johnson of the SBA-Office of Inspector General (SBA-OIG) made the announcement.

The case was investigated by the FBI and the SBA-OIG.

Trial Attorney Patrick J. Suter of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan A. Particka for the Eastern District of Michigan are prosecuting the case.  

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

            WASHINGTON – Rodregiz Antwon Cole, 37, of Manning, South Carolina, was sentenced today to 15 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release for sex trafficking a minor in Washington, D.C. in April 2019 while on sex offender registration status.

            The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves, Wayne A. Jacobs, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office Criminal Division, and Robert J. Contee III, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

            Cole pleaded guilty on May 20, 2021, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, to one count of sex trafficking of a minor and one count of commission of a crime against a minor victim while on sex offender registration status. He was sentenced by the Honorable Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. Following completion of his prison term, Cole will be placed on a lifetime of supervised release.

            According to the government’s evidence, the minor victim first encountered Cole in April 2019 through an online sexual solicitation advertisement on “skipthegames.com” when she was 17 years old and pregnant. When she told Cole that she was only 17 years old, he initially said he did not want her to engage in commercial sex acts for his financial benefit due to her age, but then changed his mind. Cole drove the minor victim, along with two other adult females who were working in his commercial sex enterprise, to the “Track” in Washington, D.C. There, he had the minor victim engage in at least six commercial sex “dates” and took all of the proceeds from her.

            Cole was arrested on April 5, 2019 following an investigation by the Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force. When Cole was arrested, he was in possession of the cash earned by the minor victim and the other women working for him along with two cellular phones with communications about his commercial sex enterprise. He has remained in custody since his arrest. At the time of these offenses, Cole was required to register as a sex offender because of a prior conviction in 2018 in South Carolina.   

            This case was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force. The task force is composed of FBI agents, along with other federal agents and detectives from northern Virginia and the District of Columbia. The task force is charged with investigating and bringing federal charges against individuals engaged in the exploitation of children and those engaged in human trafficking.

            In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Graves, Special Agent in Charge Jacobs, and Chief Contee commended the work of those who investigated the case from the FBI and MPD. They also expressed appreciation for the work of those who handled the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Justice Department, including Victim/Witness Advocate Yvonne Bryant.

            Finally, they commended the work of Trial Attorney Elizabeth Hutson of the Justice Department Criminal Division’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, who investigated and prosecuted the matter.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

A Gulfport, Mississippi, man pleaded guilty today to preparing false federal tax returns for clients.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Orland Reed worked at a Gulfport tax return preparation business. Between 2012 and 2014, Reed prepared tax returns for clients that included false household help income, education credits, dependent information and federal income tax withholdings, in an effort to generate larger refunds from the IRS than the clients were entitled to receive. At times, Reed also listed a different tax preparer even though he prepared the returns himself.

In addition to preparing false tax returns, on at least two occasions Reed diverted for his own use clients’ refunds that were sent by the IRS to the tax preparation business in the form of prepaid debit cards. Reed withdrew some of the funds on the cards before delivering them to the clients.

Reed is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 22 and faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison for helping his clients file false returns. He also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties. 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 and U.S. Attorney Darren J. LaMarca for the Southern District of Mississippi made the announcement.

IRS Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.

Trial Attorney Kevin Schneider of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Stan Harris for the Southern District of Mississippi are prosecuting the case.