Month: February 2023

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Spacelabs Healthcare, LLC (Spacelabs) has agreed to pay $2.5 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations that it overcharged the United States for patient monitoring equipment sold to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense.

“Those who do business with the United States must comply with their contractual commitments,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “We will ensure that the government gets the prices it bargained for when it cares for the health of our veterans and service members.”

The settlement announced today resolves allegations that from 2014 to 2019, Spacelabs failed to follow the Price Reductions Clause in a VA contract, which required Spacelabs to provide the government with certain lower prices offered to another customer, resulting in the government paying more than it should have for patient monitoring equipment. The settlement also resolves allegations that Spacelabs failed to follow a related clause in a Defense Logistics Agency contract.

“Federal contractors are expected to deal honestly with federal agencies and faithfully abide by the terms of their government contracts,” said U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves for the District of Columbia. “This settlement demonstrates that our Office will diligently investigate and hold accountable those companies that fail to live up to their end of the bargain and unfairly overcharge taxpayers.”

“This settlement sends a clear message that the VA OIG will actively investigate allegations involving contractors overbilling for products provided to VA,” said Special Agent in Charge Kim R. Lampkins of the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General’s Mid-Atlantic Field Office. “The VA OIG will continue to work with the Department of Justice and our law enforcement partners to ensure the integrity of VA programs and services.”

The civil settlement includes the resolution of claims brought under the qui tam or whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act by Marci Gebhardt, a former Spacelabs Government Business Specialist, and Christopher Kelley, a former Spacelabs Government Accounts Manager. Under those provisions, a private party can file an action on behalf of the United States and receive a portion of any recovery. As part of this resolution, Gebhardt and Kelley will receive $437,500. The qui tam case is captioned United States ex rel. Gebhardt v. Spacelabs Healthcare, Inc., Civil Action Number 19-cv-03503 (D.D.C.).

The resolution obtained in this matter was the result of a coordinated effort between the Justice Department’s Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section, and the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, with assistance from the VA OIG.

The matter was handled by Senior Trial Attorney Greg Pearson and Assistant U.S. Attorney John Truong.

The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Thanks Tony.

Good afternoon everyone.  

The horrors of human trafficking are well known to this group.

At the Justice Department, we are committed to combating this heinous crime from every angle. 

This includes bringing traffickers to justice and vindicating the rights of victims and survivors.

We are expanding our capacity to prosecute perpetrators of human trafficking crimes across all 94 of our U.S. Attorneys’ Offices. 

Prosecutors in our Civil Rights Division’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit work closely with the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and our law enforcement agencies to streamline investigations and to identify multi-jurisdictional trafficking networks.

In June 2021, we established Joint Task Force Alpha in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security. The task force works within the United States and with our foreign partners in the Northern Triangle countries and Mexico to dismantle the most dangerous human smuggling and trafficking networks.

Building on those activities, last year we launched our National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking to bring the full force of the Justice Department to this fight.

Since then, we have taken important steps to implement this strategy. I’ll highlight just a few examples.

First, we have released an updated version of the Attorney General Guidelines for Victim and Witness Assistance. This version incorporates enhanced protections and addresses specific considerations for vulnerable victims and members of marginalized communities.

Second, we are working closely with our interagency partners to improve identification of human trafficking victims encountered during law enforcement operations.

With the Department of Homeland Security and other federal partners, we are developing a Human Trafficking Victim Screening Protocol to advance victim-centered best practices across all federal enforcement operations.

It will also serve as a model for our state, local, territorial, and Tribal enforcement partners.

And we continue to train all relevant Department personnel on identifying trafficking victims during investigations involving other offenses, such as immigration and narcotics investigations.

Third, the Department’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit continues to lead the interagency Forced Labor Initiative.

This initiative was launched last year with the FBI and our partners at the Department of Labor and Department of Homeland Security. Together, we are expanding our capacity to:

• Assess forced labor threats;
• Initiate investigations and prosecutions; and
• Provide tailored expertise and guidance to advance district-level efforts to detect, investigate, and prosecute labor trafficking.

Finally, the government – the Department – is helping build capacity to combat human trafficking nationwide.  

In Fiscal Year 2023, our Office for Victims of Crime will disburse more than $95 in grant funding to combat human trafficking and support victim and survivor services across the country.

The Department of Justice remains steadfast in our commitment to combating human trafficking – and to the whole-of-government effort that this requires.

I look forward to our continued partnership with all of you in the days ahead.

Thank you.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Vice Minister, your excellencies, and valued partners: good afternoon. I’d like to thank the Japanese Ministry of Justice and the United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Crime for hosting the second meeting of the Criminal Justice Forum for Asia and the Pacific. I look forward to the conversations I plan to have with many of you this week. 

Our joint mission has never been more important. Modern technology has opened unprecedented channels of international trade and communication. Groundbreaking innovations have spread the promise of health, prosperity, and security. 

But with this progress comes new challenges. The same advances have given wrongdoers fresh avenues for pursuing theft and exploitation. Violent ideologies can proliferate and spread; threats are no longer contained by borders and oceans; and adversaries are as likely to be found in cyberspace as on the battlefield. The basic reality we confront today is that the security of each state increasingly depends on the security of all states – and that we in law enforcement must therefore supplement national vigilance with international cooperation.

International cooperation requires states to create effective Central Authorities for mutual legal assistance. These are the engines that breathe life into the international treaty framework and permit us to live up to our obligations. 

I’m pleased to note that three experts from the U.S. Central Authority – the Office of International Affairs (OIA) – are here to take part in the Working Group on Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA). They include Vaughn Ary, OIA’s Director; Jeff Olson, the OIA Associate Director who oversees the team handling extradition and outgoing MLA matters with Asia and the Pacific; and John Riesenberg, the OIA Associate Director who oversees foreign MLA requests for cyber evidence from around the world.

With the dramatic increase in vital MLA requests for cyber evidence in recent years, the United States has recognized and is working to address the growing need for increased cooperation in this area, which is why we have established a dedicated team at OIA to handle such requests.

It is likewise why we have long supported the Council of Europe’s efforts to combat cybercrime through the Budapest Convention – the only multilateral international treaty focused on such. We have also supported the Second Additional Protocol to the Budapest Convention, which contains innovative tools specifically designed to help law enforcement obtain access to evidence held in other countries.

Finally, the U.S. Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act, or CLOUD Act, authorizes the United States to enter into agreements with trusted, rights-respecting foreign partners whereby qualified orders for electronic evidence are submitted directly to service providers in the other country. We have signed CLOUD Act agreements with the United Kingdom and with Australia. We hope that these will serve as models for agreements with future partners and will speed access to electronic data held by U.S.-based global service providers.

We are also pleased to share our work on corrections. Alix McLearen is our representative on the Working Group on Offender Treatment and Rehabilitation. She has led the federal system’s reentry work and implementation of criminal justice reforms. Recently, our Attorney General appointed Dr. McLearen to run the National Institute of Corrections, which provides expertise across systems in the United States. She will share aggregated national perspectives while highlighting efforts in our federal system, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

On behalf of the entire United States Department of Justice, I thank you again for your partnership. I wish you a productive week and look forward to all that we will continue to achieve together in the months and years to come.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

A man pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to a December attack on his girlfriend, announced U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson.

Imari Jamil Hines, 36, of Owasso, pleaded guilty to assault of an intimate/dating partner by strangling and suffocating in Indian Country.

In the early morning hours of Dec. 16, 2022, Hines and the victim got into an argument that turned physical inside the victim’s apartment. According to court documents, the victim told police that when the confrontation escalated, Hines pushed the victim and began strangling her. He then punched the victim in the face and banged her head on the ground repeatedly. The victim reported that she was able to flee the apartment, and Hines left the scene in her vehicle.

Officers observed bruising and red marks on the victim’s neck and petechiae in the victim’s eyes consistent with being strangled. They also noted the victim suffered a black eye and bruising on her face.

The FBI, Tulsa Police Department and Owasso Police Department conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Niko A. Boulieris is prosecuting the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Austin Bruce Jeffreys, 28, of Chesapeake, Ohio, was sentenced today to nine years and four months in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release, for crimes arising from a drug-related June 2021 shootout in Huntington.

According to court documents and statements made in court, on June 14, 2021, Jeffreys spoke by phone with an inmate at the Western Regional Jail. The calls were recorded. The inmate asked Jeffreys to go to a Huntington residence and retrieve a quantity of suboxone that belonged to the inmate, but was in the possession of another person. Jeffreys admitted that he told the inmate he would be carrying a loaded Bersa Thunder .380-caliber Combat pistol while retrieving the drugs.

When Jeffreys and another individual arrived at the Huntington residence, a shootout occurred before Jeffreys could recover the drugs. After the shooting, Jeffreys made another recorded phone call with the inmate and admitted to his role in the shooting.  Several days later, Jeffreys was arrested and once again admitted to his role in the shooting and further admitted that he knew the drugs he tried to recover were intended for distribution.

Jeffreys pleaded guilty to using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime and conspiracy to use and carry a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime. The inmate, Jacob Benjamin Loper, 21, pleaded guilty to attempted possession with intent to distribute suboxone and conspiracy to use a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. Loper was sentenced to two years and six months in prison on May 9, 2022.

United States Attorney Will Thompson made the announcement and commended the investigative work of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), the West Virginia State Police, the Huntington Police Department, and the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation Investigations Unit.

United States District Judge Robert C. Chambers imposed the sentence. Assistant United States Attorney Ryan A. Keefe prosecuted the case.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia. Related court documents and information can be found on PACER by searching for Case No. 3:21-cr-216.

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