Month: March 2023

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Yesterday, Deputy Attorney General (Deputy AG) Lisa Monaco traveled to Florida to highlight the Department of Justice’s wide-ranging efforts to pursue equal justice under the rule of law, including by combatting corporate crime and by ensuring the right to counsel for all criminal defendants.

The Deputy AG delivered the annual E. Lawrence Barcella Jr. Memorial Address at the American Bar Association’s 38th Annual National Institute on White Collar Crime. In her speech, she discussed the progress the Justice Department has made in implementing the corporate criminal enforcement policy changes that she directed last September. She also announced the Justice Department’s first-ever pilot program on compensation incentives and clawbacks, to align executives and all employees’ financial incentives with corporate compliance. 

The Deputy AG also announced that the Justice Department will be surging resources to respond to the increasing intersection of corporate crime and national security threats by adding over 25 new prosecutors to investigate and prosecute these violations. You can read her full remarks here.

While in Miami, the Deputy Attorney General and the department’s Director of the Office for Access to Justice (ATJ), Rachel Rossi, as well as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Markenzy Lapointe, met with leaders of the federal and state public defenders offices and indigent defense advocates to launch the Justice Department’s cross-country National Public Defense Day Tour in honor of the 60^th anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright, guaranteeing the right to counsel to anyone accused of a crime. The meeting in Miami kicked off ATJ’s “six stops for the Sixth Amendment” to elevate the importance of and appreciation for public defense services.  

In highlighting the significance of launching this tour in Florida, the Deputy AG recalled her experience working for Attorney General Janet Reno, a former Miami-Dade State Attorney, who as Attorney General convened a historic National Symposium on Indigent Defense in 1998 on the 36th anniversary of Gideon to highlight the role of the Justice Department in strengthening indigent defense services. To carry that commitment forward, the  Deputy Attorney General announced the launch of a comprehensive, 100-day review of current practices and policies to improve access to counsel at BOP facilities.

On her trip, the Deputy AG visited the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, where she met with U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe and his leadership team, as well as the prosecutors and professional staff of the office. She thanked them for their hard work and dedication. She also met with state, local and federal law enforcement leaders to emphasize the importance of the ongoing partnerships in tackling violent crime and other public safety challenges.

Finally, the Deputy AG visited Federal Correctional Institute Miami to meet the Warden and staff, review their operations, and ensure implementation of BOP’s dual mission of providing safe, humane custody while also preparing individuals for a return to society.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge George L. Russell, III sentenced Malcolm Goods, age 31, of Baltimore, Maryland, today to two years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for illegal possession of a firearm within a school zone.  

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron; Special Agent in Charge Toni M. Crosby of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Baltimore Field Division; and Commissioner Michael Harrison of the Baltimore Police Department.

According to Goods’ guilty plea, on September 12, 2021, Baltimore Police officers received a call for an armed person at the intersection of Pennsylvania and Cumberland Avenues in Baltimore.  The person was carrying a gun, wearing a white construction hat and orange safety vest, and riding a bicycle.  An officer monitoring a closed-circuit television camera located an individual, later identified as Goods, matching that description in the 600 block of Cumberland Avenue.

When officers arrived on scene, Goods got on a bicycle and rode on the sidewalk for a few blocks.  Near the 1600 block of N. Carey Street, officers pulled over next to Goods told Goods to stop  in an area about one block away from Sandtown-Winchester Achievement Academy, a Baltimore public elementary and middle school.  Goods initially agreed to stop, then rode away on the bicycle.

After briefly losing sight of Goods, officers found him knocking on someone’s front door and placed him into custody.  An officer saw the grip of a firearm in Goods’ waistband and recovered a.40 caliber pistol with an obliterated serial number, loaded with 15 rounds of ammunition.  During his arrest, including after he was read his Miranda rights, Goods made several statements which indicated that he was aware that he possessed a firearm.  Goods agreed that he knew or had reasonable cause to believe that he was within 1,000 feet of the grounds of the Sandtown-Winchester Achievement Academy.

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.

United States Attorney Erek L. Barron commended the ATF and the Baltimore Police Department for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Moore and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Simpkins, who prosecuted the case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/project-safe-neighborhoods-psnexile and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

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Source: United States Department of Justice News

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby sentenced Robert A. DiNoto, age 48, of Huntington, New York, late yesterday to one year of incarceration to be served as six months in federal prison and six months of home detention, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, in connection with a fraudulent billing scheme involving a manufacturing company with facilities in Harford County, Maryland.  Judge Griggsby also ordered DiNoto to pay restitution and to forfeit a total of $514,352. 

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron; Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Sobocinski of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; and Acting Special Agent in Charge Kareem A. Carter of the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, Washington, D.C. Field Office.

According to his guilty plea, Robert A. DiNoto, is the owner and President of American Pride Distributors (“American Pride”), located in, Woodbury, New York.  American Pride sold commercial drum containers used by manufacturers to store and transport products.  Robert DiNoto is the brother of Eugene DiNoto (E. DiNoto), a former longtime employee of Company 1, a family-owned global business headquartered in New York, but with manufacturing facilities in Belcamp and Abingdon, Maryland, both in Harford County. 

As detailed in his plea agreement, beginning no later than 2014, Robert and E. DiNoto agreed to execute a fraudulent billing scheme to defraud Company 1, through the submission of false invoices for undelivered drums.  As the facility manager for Company 1, E. DiNoto oversaw the purchasing and storing of drums for use at the Harford County manufacturing facilities and had the authority to review drum invoices and authorize payments to the drum vendors.  Robert DiNoto approached E. DiNoto about how he could start his own drum vending company.  E. DiNoto subsequently told Robert DiNoto about other drum vendors that were defrauding Company 1 using a fraudulent billing scheme.  Robert DiNoto, who was in the real estate business at the time, decided to use a company he owned, called Sandpiper Properties, Inc., trading as American Pride Distributors, to facilitate the scheme to defraud Company 1. 

Once American Pride Distributors was formed, Robert DiNoto began receiving drum purchase orders from E. DiNoto for Company 1 to establish a legitimate pattern of drum sales between American Pride and Company 1.  However, because Robert DiNoto was never in the business of manufacturing or reconditioning drums, he filled Company 1’s orders by buying the requisite number of drums from an actual drum manufacturer and arranging to ship them to Company 1’s facilities in Harford County, Maryland.  Robert DiNoto billed Company 1 for the drums using American Pride invoices, which E. DiNoto approved for payment via emails to Company 1’s accounting department in New York. 

Soon thereafter, Robert DiNoto began fraudulently invoicing Company 1 for drums that he and American Pride never delivered to the company.  To conceal the fraudulent invoices, he would intermittently send the bogus invoices before and after sending legitimate ones.  For example, in 2017, Robert DiNoto sent legitimate invoices #1555 through #1558 between February 15 and April 12 in the amounts of $19,223, $19,419, $18,038, and $20,908, respectively.  He then submitted a fraudulent invoice, #1559, and received a payment from Company 1 for $19,448 for a shipment of 358 “NEW 55 GALLON STEEL DRUMS” that were never delivered. 

Between December 2016 and August 2019, Robert DiNoto used American Pride’s invoices to bill and receive a total of approximately $257,181 from Company 1 for nonexistent drum deliveries.  Robert DiNoto used the proceeds from the fraudulent billings for personal expenses, including to pay his credit card bills. 

To avoid scrutiny throughout the conspiracy, the DiNotos kept their familial relationship with American Pride a secret from Company 1 employees.  Despite their best efforts, third-party vendors used by American Pride would sometimes inadvertently forward an email or invoice intended for Robert DiNoto to Company 1.  E. DiNoto would criticize Robert DiNoto for the mistake and ask him to remind his third-party vendors never to send correspondence to Company 1’s address.  On at least one occasion, Robert DiNoto used an alias to conceal his identity when communicating with Company 1 employees.   

Eugene Andrew DiNoto, age 51, of Bel Air, Maryland, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, engaging in an illegal monetary transaction, and filing a false tax return, in connection with schemes that defrauded his employer of more than $29 million.  He is awaiting sentencing. 

United States Attorney Erek L. Barron commended the FBI and IRS-CI for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Martin J. Clarke and Harry M. Gruber, who are prosecuting the case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to report fraud, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/report-fraud.

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Source: United States Department of Justice News

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Good morning. My name is Kristen Clarke, Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. It is a tremendous honor to be here in Selma today.

I want to thank Pastor Strong for hosting us today, and I want to recognize the distinguished clergy, the elected officials, the civil rights leaders and residents of Alabama who are gathered here today.

Every year, we rightly honor the courage of the peaceful marchers who were beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday.

But we, too, must remember the courage it took to come back out again on Monday.

Monday was the day those protesters, bruised and beaten, announced to the world that they would not back down, that they would not be broken.

Dr. King himself said as much that Monday. He said: “We’re going to stand up amid horses. We’re going to stand up right here in Alabama, amid the billy clubs. We’re going to stand up right here in Alabama amid police dogs. We’re going to stand up amid tear gas! We’re going to stand up amid anything they can muster up, letting the world know that we are determined to be free!”

It has been 58 years – and while we have come so far, we still have so much further to go.  The march that began on that fateful day 58 years ago is still not finished.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law in direct response to Bloody Sunday, yet today we face some of the most significant threats to our democracy of our lifetimes.

The Bloody Sunday march was itself spurred by the beating and murder of protester Jimmie Lee Jackson by Alabama state troopers, yet police violence remains a threat today.

White supremacy and racially motivated hate crimes remain a threat today. 

Voting discrimination and voter suppression remain a threat today. 

The conditions in too many of our jails and prisons are inhumane and unconstitutional – and remain a threat today. 

But as Dr. King told us, we must continue to stand up.

And as the first woman, and the first Black woman, to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division I am here to reassure you that the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice will continue to stand up.

We are committed to defending the civil rights of people here in Alabama and all across our nation.

We are using our federal civil rights laws to hold accountable the defendant who killed 10 Black people at the Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York. 

We secured convictions against all three men responsible for the racially-motivated killing of Ahmaud Arbery.

We are holding law enforcement officials accountable when they violate civil and constitutional rights, including Derek Chauvin and the other three officers who failed to intervene in the killing of George Floyd. 

We secured indictments against the four officers tied to the death of Breonna Taylor.

We are confronting voter suppression and have filed lawsuits from Louisiana to Texas to Arizona. 

We are investigating police departments from Louisville to Minneapolis, Phoenix to Louisiana.

We are taking on banks that engage in modern day redlining, and holding them accountable when they fail to provide equal access to credit to Black people and other people of color.

And we are standing up for historically marginalized and overburdened communities of color who have endured the legacy of environmental injustice for far too long, including right next door in Lowndes County, where generations of Black people have been denied the right to basic sanitation and are subjected to raw sewage.

We do this work because even 58 years after Bloody Sunday, the goals of John Lewis and so many of the Foot Soldiers who marched that day remain unrealized.

We do this work because of Emmett Till and James Byrd and Breonna Taylor.

We do this work because of Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley – the four little girls who lost their lives in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham on that fateful Sunday in 1963.

In closing, John Lewis may not be with us today, but if I can paraphrase from Scripture, we all know that he fought the good fight. That John Lewis finished the race, and that he kept the faith.  Today, our charge – indeed our sacred mission – is to pick up the baton that he has handed us and to continue that march and continue our fight for justice. We will continue to fight and demand that the Voting Rights Act be fully restored. 

I promise you, under my watch, the Civil Rights Division will stand with you, we will stand for you, we will stand for justice. Thank you.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

It is a tremendous honor to be here in Selma today marking 58 years since Bloody Sunday and a privilege to represent the U.S. Department of Justice. I want to recognize the distinguished clergy, elected officials, civil rights leaders, residents of Alabama and the foot soldiers here today. I also want to acknowledge Martin Luther King III, who is so proudly carrying his father’s torch.

Fifty eight years.

Fifty eight years since Alabama state troopers brutally beat nonviolent marchers – and yet we still join together here every year.

There is both profound hope and profound sadness in that.

Fifty eight years – and while we have come so far, we still have so much further to go.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law in direct response to Bloody Sunday, yet today we face some of the most significant threats to our democracy in American history.

The Bloody Sunday march was itself spurred by the beating and murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson by Alabama state troopers, yet police violence remains with us.

White supremacy and racially motivated hate crimes are alive and well. 

Voting discrimination and voter suppression are rampant. 

The conditions in our jails and prisons are inhumane.

But as Dr. King said when those Selma marchers finally made it to Montgomery, we can find strength in our struggles, hope in our darkest moments.

To quote Dr. King:  “Selma, Alabama, became a shining moment in the conscience of man. If the worst in American life lurked in its dark streets, the best of American instincts arose passionately from across the nation to overcome it.”

The Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department is driven by that same belief.

We are committed to defending the civil rights of all people in our country. 

We are using our federal civil rights laws to hold accountable the defendant who killed 10 Black people at the Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York. 

We secured convictions against all three men responsible for the racially-motivated killing of Ahmaud Arbery. We are holding law enforcement officials accountable when they violate civil and constitutional rights, including Derek Chauvin and the three other officers who failed to intervene in the killing of George Floyd. 

We secured indictments against the four officers tied to the death of Breonna Taylor.

We are confronting voter suppression and have filed lawsuits from Georgia to Texas to Arizona. 

We are fighting for environmental justice right here in Alabama, where Black people in Lowndes County lack access to basic sanitation and are exposed to raw sewage.

We are investigating police departments from Louisville to Minneapolis, Phoenix to Louisiana. 

We are taking on banks that engage in modern-day redlining.

We do this work because we owe a tremendous debt to John Lewis and the Freedom Marchers who shed blood and put their bodies on the line to ensure that we all would have the right to vote.

We take this time in Selma to remember that the march is not over – much work remains to be done to fulfill the fundamental ideals upon which this country was founded and upon which democracy is based.

Know that this Department of Justice will keep fighting for you, all of you.

Thank you.