Month: January 2023

Source: United States Department of Justice News

A Colorado man pleaded guilty today to attempting to evade the payment of more than $700,000 in employment taxes owed to the IRS.

According to court documents, Frank Stevens, of Bow Mar, co-owned restaurants and an oil production business, which had employees from whose paychecks he withheld income taxes and Social Security and Medicare taxes. From at least 2002 and continuing for many years, Stevens did not pay over the withheld payroll taxes to the IRS or file the required payroll tax returns for his businesses. In an effort to prevent the IRS from collecting the taxes he owed through bank levies, Stevens kept the balances of his personal and business bank accounts low, often leaving them with only $0.01. To do so, Stevens, or an employee acting at his direction, transferred just enough funds to cover expenses and then transferred any remaining money to a bank account not subject to IRS levy. In total, the defendant caused a tax loss of approximately $737,128.

Stevens is scheduled to be sentenced on June 13, 2023, and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Defendant 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 made the announcement.

IRS-Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Peter J. Anthony and Julia M. Rugg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division are prosecuting the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Two Florida residents were indicted by a federal grand jury for spray-painting threats on reproductive health services facilities in the state.

The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in the Middle District of Florida, alleges that Caleb Freestone, 27, and Amber Smith-Stewart, 23, engaged in a conspiracy to prevent employees of reproductive health services facilities from providing those services. According to the indictment, as part of the conspiracy, the defendants targeted pregnancy resource facilities and vandalized those facilities with spray-painted threats. According to the indictment, Freestone and Smith-Stewart, and other co-conspirators, are alleged to have spray painted threats, including “If abortions aren’t safe than niether [sic] are you,” “YOUR TIME IS UP!!,” “WE’RE COMING for U,” and “We are everywhere,” on a reproductive health services facility in Winter Haven, Florida. The indictment further alleges that facilities in Hollywood, Florida, and Hialeah, Florida, were also targeted.

The indictment also alleges that Freestone and Smith-Stewart violated the FACE Act by using threats of force to intimidate and interfere with the employees of a reproductive health services facility in Winter Haven because those employees were providing or seeking to provide reproductive health services. The indictment further alleges that Freestone and Smith-Stewart violated the FACE Act by intentionally damaging and destroying the facility’s property because the facility provides reproductive health services. 

If convicted of the offenses, Freestone and Smith-Stewart each face up to a maximum of 12 years in prison, three years of supervised release and fines of up to $350,000.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney Roger B. Handberg for the Middle District of Florida and Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI Criminal Investigative Division made the announcement.

The FBI Tampa Field Office investigated the case, with assistance from the Miami Police Department.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Thelwell for the Middle District of Florida and Trial Attorneys Sanjay Patel and Laura-Kate Bernstein of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section are prosecuting the case.

Anyone who has information about incidents of violence, threats and obstruction that target a patient or provider of reproductive health services, or damage and destruction of reproductive health care facilities, should report that information to the FBI at www.tips.fbi.gov. For more information about clinic violence, and the Department of Justice’s efforts to enforce FACE Act violations, please visit www.justice.gov/crt/national-task-force-violence-against-reproductive-health-care-providers.

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

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Thank you.

I want to reiterate the Attorney General’s thanks to the leadership and staff of the Antitrust Division for all their work to advance robust competition and to ensure that the American people have equal opportunity in the marketplace.

I’d like to take a few moments to put this complaint into context.

At its core, antitrust is about economic justice. And today’s landmark action against Google underscores that it is a priority of this Justice Department to fight the abuse of market power. We know that free and fair competition is essential to economic freedom. And we know that anticompetitive conduct threatens innovation, weakens workers’ rights, and stifles free expression. When any company, including a big technology company, violates the antitrust laws, our economy and our democracy suffer. 

Today’s complaint is a perfect example of why competition matters. Americans rely on the internet for news and for community. And advertising revenue is essential for publishers to produce and share ideas and writings. But we allege that Google has captured that revenue for its own profits and punished publishers who sought out alternatives. Those actions have weakened the free and open internet and increased advertising costs for businesses and for the United States government, including for our military.   

Today’s complaint is also just one example of the department’s broader efforts to root out anticompetitive behavior regardless of how and where it might arise. 

Just a few months ago, the Antitrust Division scored a critical win for authors by blocking a merger of two major publishing houses, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster. The merger would have substantially lessened authors’ compensation for their work and diminished opportunities for new authors to tell new stories. 

That merger was one of five that have been blocked or abandoned as a result of the division’s recent work; other abandoned mergers include two that would have strained the global supply chain by decreasing competition for shipping materials. 

And the Penguin Random House case is just one example of the department’s efforts to protect workers. This past summer, we secured an $85 million payment from poultry companies to settle allegations that they fixed workers’ wages and benefits.

We have also reinvigorated criminal enforcement of the Sherman Act, including prosecutions for criminal wage-fixing, labor-market allocation, bid-rigging, and procurement fraud. 

And we have acted to ensure that corporate directors do not sit on competing boards, reviving a vital and underenforced rule of antitrust law.

These efforts by the Antitrust Division are only a snapshot of the broader work happening across the department to advance economic justice, protect workers’ rights and ensure fair prices for products we use and rely on, like health insurance, airline tickets and food for our families. Today’s suit against Google exemplifies that we will continue to marshal our resources across divisions to promote competition and protect American workers and consumers.

I’ll now turn it over to Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, who will speak more about the details of our complaint.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Good afternoon.

Unfortunately, I am going to begin my remarks today just as I did yesterday: offering my condolences to the families of the victims of yet another mass shooting in our country.

All of us at the Justice Department, including the FBI and ATF, will continue to support the Half Moon Bay community in the difficult days ahead. And as I said yesterday, the Justice Department is committed to doing everything in our power to protect our communities from the gun violence that is leaving no community in this country untouched.

Today, the Department of Justice, joined by eight states, filed a civil antitrust lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against Google.

We allege that Google has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful conduct to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies.

These technologies, which are known as “ad tech,” automate advertising sales by website publishers to online advertisers.

When an internet user opens a webpage that has ad space to sell, ad tech tools almost instantly match the website publisher with an advertiser looking to promote its products or services to the website’s user.  

This product and process typically involves the use of an automated advertising exchange. This exchange runs a high-speed auction designed to identify the best match between a publisher selling internet ad space and advertisers looking to buy it.

As alleged in our complaint, for 15 years, Google has pursued a course of anticompetitive conduct that has allowed it to halt the rise of rival technologies, manipulate auction mechanics to insulate itself from competition, and force advertisers and publishers to use its tools.

In so doing, Google has engaged in exclusionary conduct to severely weaken, if not destroy, competition in the ad tech industry.

As detailed in our complaint, we allege that Google’s anticompetitive conduct extends to three significant elements of the digital ad buying process.

First, Google controls the technology used by nearly every major website publisher to offer advertising space for sale.

Second, Google controls the leading tool used by advertisers to buy that advertising space.

And, third, Google controls the largest ad exchange that matches publishers and advertisers together each time that ad space is sold.

As a result of this scheme, website creators earn less, and advertisers pay more. That means fewer publishers are able to offer internet users content without subscriptions, paywalls, or other forms of monetization.

Our complaint alleges that Google has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act by:

Monopolizing the market for the technology used by publishers to offer ads on their websites;

Monopolizing or attempting to monopolize the ad exchange market; and

Monopolizing the market for the ad network technology advertisers use to buy digital advertising space.  

Our complaint also alleges that Google has unlawfully tied its ad exchange and its publisher ad server, in violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act. And finally, we allege that the United States, as an advertiser, has incurred damages by reason of Google’s violations of the antitrust laws. 

In addition to declaratory relief, our complaint seeks damages and the divestiture of certain Google ad tech products. It also seeks an injunction preventing Google from continuing to engage in the anticompetitive practices described in the complaint, and any other practices with the same purpose and effect as the challenged practices.

I am grateful to Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Doha Mekki, and the attorneys and staff of the Antitrust Division for their tireless work on this case.

Monopolies threaten the free and fair markets upon which our economy is based. They stifle innovation, they hurt producers and workers, and they increase costs for consumers.

Today’s complaint is only the latest example of the Department’s work to challenge antitrust violations that undermine competition and harm the American people.

No matter the industry and no matter the company, the Justice Department will vigorously enforce our antitrust laws. We will aggressively protect consumers, safeguard competition, and work to ensure economic fairness and opportunity for all.

I will now turn the podium over to Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Defendant Fought with Law Enforcement Inside the Capitol Building

            WASHINGTON – A Pennsylvania woman was found guilty in the District of Columbia today of felony and misdemeanor charges for her actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach. Her actions and the actions of others disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the presidential election.

            Pauline Bauer, 55, of Kane, Pennsylvania, was found guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding; entering and remaining in a restricted building; disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building; disorderly and disruptive conduct in any of the Capitol Buildings with the intent to impede, disrupt, and disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress or either House of Congress; parading, demonstrating, and picketing in a Capitol Building. The verdict followed a bench trial before U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden.

            According to the government’s evidence, Bauer was among rioters in a mob that illegally entered the Capitol grounds and Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021.  At approximately 2:57 p.m., one of the body-camera videos recorded another individual saying words to the effect of “This is where we find Nancy Pelosi.” Bauer was standing approximately 30 feet from the House Speaker’s office when she was recorded saying “Bring that fucking bitch out here now. Bring her out. Bring her out here. We’re coming in if you don’t bring her out here.”  When an MPD officer tried to push Bauer away from the area he was protecting, she engaged in a confrontation, screaming expletives at the officer, saying “You back up. Don’t even try.” and pushing the officer. A short time later, Bauer was physically removed from the Rotunda by MPD officers in riot gear.

            Bauer was arrested on May 19, 2021, in Pennsylvania.

            A sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 1, 2023. The felony obstruction charge carries a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison and potential financial penalties. The misdemeanor offenses carry a combined statutory maximum of three years of incarceration and potential financial penalties. The Court will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

            The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. Valuable assistance was provided by U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania and the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division.

            The case was investigated by the FBI’s Pittsburgh Field Office. Valuable assistance was provided by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, the U.S. Capitol Police, and the Metropolitan Police Department.

            In the 24 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 950 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including over 284 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The investigation remains ongoing. 

            Anyone with tips can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov.