Month: April 2023

Source: United States Department of Justice News

A Nevada man pleaded guilty today to using fraudulent checks to steal money from victims’ bank accounts.

According to court documents, Michael Zeto, 77, of Las Vegas, partnered with foreign telemarketers, who provided Zeto with the names, bank account numbers, and other personal information for American consumers. Many of these consumers had purchased no products or services from the telemarketers and had not authorized anyone to debit their bank accounts. Zeto used the information provided by his telemarketing partners to create fraudulent checks payable to companies he controlled and debited consumers’ bank accounts. Many of Zeto’s victims were retirees and other older adults.

“The defendant was a vital link in a scheme with foreign telemarketing partners to steal money from American victims’ bank accounts,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The Department of Justice is committed to protecting older Americans from fraud and to prosecuting people who knowingly help fraudsters.”

“With our increasing use and dependency on technology, fraudsters have found new ways to scam unsuspecting Americans,” said U.S. Attorney Jason M. Frierson for the District of Nevada. “Americans, and Nevadans in particular, can be assured that our office is committed to investigating and prosecuting elder financial fraud scams.”

“Today’s guilty plea holds the defendant accountable for his role in a multimillion dollar fraudulent check scheme that targeted the bank accounts of American consumers,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Justin Bundy of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General Chicago Division. “The FDIC-OIG remains dedicated to working with our law enforcement partners to pursue those who seek to defraud elderly and vulnerable Americans, and threaten the integrity of the banking system.”

“This conviction is the direct result of a diligent investigation by hardworking Postal Inspectors and our partners at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation-Office of Inspector General,” said Inspector in Charge Ruth Mendonça of the FDIC-OIG Chicago Division. “Working together, their perseverance unraveled the defendant’s complex scheme to defraud some of our nation’s most vulnerable victims and delivered the justice that each victim deserved. We are proud of the investigative team’s efforts to uphold the mission of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) to protect postal customers and consumers from fraudsters.”

Zeto pleaded guilty to wire fraud. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The USPIS and FDIC-OIG are investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Daniel Zytnick and Timothy Finley of the Justice Department’s Consumer Protection Branch and Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Anthony Lopez for the District of Nevada are prosecuting the case.

The department urges individuals to be on the lookout for unauthorized debits to their accounts. Check your bank, credit card, and other financial statements and contact your financial institution if you see a charge you do not recognize. Report any fraudulent debit you identify to law enforcement. Reports may be filed with the FTC at www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov or at 877-FTC-HELP.

If you or someone you know is age 60 or older and has experienced financial fraud, experienced professionals are standing by at the National Elder Fraud Hotline: 1-833-FRAUD-11 (1-833-372-8311). This U.S. Department of Justice hotline, managed by the Office for Victims of Crime, can provide personalized support to callers by assessing the needs of the victim and identifying relevant next steps. Case managers will identify appropriate reporting agencies, provide information to callers to assist them in reporting, connect callers directly with appropriate agencies, and provide resources and referrals, on a case-by-case basis. Reporting is the first step. Reporting can help authorities identify those who commit fraud and reporting certain financial losses due to fraud as soon as possible can increase the likelihood of recovering losses. The hotline is open Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET. English, Spanish and other languages are available.

For more information about the Consumer Protection Branch and its enforcement efforts, visit its website at https://www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch.

Source: United States Department of Justice

Remarks as Delivered

Good morning. Thank you so much for the kind introduction, and thank you for your leadership, your advocacy and the work that you do every day as our pardon attorney.

By some estimates there are almost two million people in federal, state and Tribal prisons and jails, including juvenile correctional facilities and immigration detention facilities at this time. And we know that people of color are disproportionately represented in our nation’s prisons and jails: Latinx people are incarcerated at a rate double the rate of white people; Native Americans are incarcerated at rates nearly four times that of white people; and Black people are incarcerated at almost five times the rate of white people. Because of these stark disparities, clemency is a powerful tool for racial justice and economic justice. Acts of clemency not only acknowledge the disparities and injustices of the past but allow us to take meaningful steps to rectify them. Executive clemency can address outdated federal criminal policies, particularly those that disproportionately caused harm to communities of color, such as through President Biden’s recent full presidential pardon of federal and D.C. convictions for simple marijuana possession offenses.

We must also confront the systemic barriers to people who have criminal convictions or people who have been incarcerated. When someone who has served time reintegrates into their communities, they often experience discrimination in housing, voting, employment and other areas. A criminal record can prevent someone from landing a steady job, enrolling in the military, having a safe place to live, accessing quality health care or having the chance to go to back school. It can keep them from ever getting a loan to buy a home, start a business or build a future. It can bar them from voting. As a result, three-quarters of formerly incarcerated people remain unemployed a year after their release – and joblessness is a top predictor of recidivism.

And these issues are frequently compounding for Black and Brown people and other people of color. Our work at the Civil Rights Division serves as a complement to the essential work of the Office of the Pardon Attorney. We strive every day to fight back against discrimination and seek to make our criminal legal systems more just and equitable. Just yesterday, for instance, the Civil Rights Division, along with the Office of Justice Programs and the Office for Access to Justice, released a Dear Colleague Letter addressing the imposition of fines and fees by state and local courts, including juvenile court systems. This letter outlines the way that low-income people, particularly people of color and youth, are severely impacted by harsh and compounding fines and fees imposed by courts and encouraged court leaders to take steps necessary to eliminate the use of unnecessary and discriminatory fines and fees.

We also seek to vigorously use our federal civil rights laws to address discrimination that occurs at the intersection of the criminal legal system. This past December we settled a lawsuit with a California city that enacted a so-called “crime free” ordinance. And one element of this program required landlords to evict people that had reportedly engaged in “criminal activity” on or near the rental property. The program required eviction even if that activity did not result in an arrest or a charge or a conviction. The Civil Rights Division will continue to fight discriminatory and unlawful “crime-free” ordinances across the country and work to ensure that everyone has fair and equal access to housing. Our federal civil rights laws protect all of us, regardless of whether you have been accused of a crime or served time.

Today, we rightly center the voices of those who have received a second chance, the second chance they so rightly deserve. I am honored to be with you today, and I look forward to hearing and learning from you all. Thank you so much.

Source: United States Department of Justice

 Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Good morning, and thank you so much, Liz, for that very generous introduction. It’s great to have everyone here. And thank you, especially Liz to you and your team for all the incredibly hard work that goes into getting this Great Hall filled and putting together what is truly a celebration.

Even more importantly, I want to thank Liz and her team for the strong and effective leadership that they are showing—and that she is showing as our Pardon Attorney—in the work that they do every day.

Your dedication to the clemency review process reflects the Justice Department’s commitment to ensuring the opportunity for second chances.

I also want to welcome the many guests we have with us this morning, including one of my predecessors as Deputy Attorney General—David Ogden, my good friend is here. Thank you for being here.   

I want to recognize the members of the bench and the bar here today. Especially those of you from the Federal Defender and public defender community. Your work is vital to the second chances that we celebrate today.

I am glad to see so many Justice Department officials here, both past and present, and to recognize the critical role you all play in reviewing and advancing clemency petitions.

But most importantly, I am glad to see this Great Hall filled with so many people who are here to celebrate their incredible second-chance stories.

Clemency—and the second that chance it brings—removes barriers to successful reentry. It helps individuals start fresh so they can secure employment, safe housing, health care, educational opportunities, and the right to vote.

The clemency process can also address outdated enforcement or sentencing policies, including those that would otherwise have a disproportionate impact.

As we mark Second Chance month—it’s the right time to reflect on the promise presented by a new opportunity, a fresh start, and a chance for redemption.

The second-chance stories represented here today by many of you serve as an inspiration to those of us who work in the criminal justice system.

And your stories also serve as an inspiration for those still working toward a second chance.

At the Justice Department we are committed to doing all we can, to—in the words of the President’s Proclamation marking Second Chance month—“helping people forge the new beginnings they have earned and building a safer and more just society.” 

To do that, and in order to foster more second chances, we are launching a new pilot project—a collaboration between the Office for Access to Justice and the Bureau of Prisons.

It will provide incarcerated individuals in Bureau of Prisons facilities with no-cost legal support to resolve common civil legal issues that may create barriers to reentry.

This initiative will help with some of the most common challenges that individuals face toward a productive reentry to society, like family legal matters and managing debt issues. 

This project speaks to the importance of finding ways to support individuals as they rejoin their communities and become productive members and good neighbors.

I’m proud of these and other efforts across the department to pursue justice and to help forge new beginnings—especially the work of the Pardon Attorney’s Office —in their thoughtful and compassionate consideration of clemency applications.

Finally—a word of thanks to the advocates who work tirelessly and skillfully on behalf of those seeking a second chance. Your efforts are in the finest tradition of the legal profession, and you do a great service to the country through your advocacy.

Thank you all for the being here this morning. Thank you for sharing your inspiring stories, and I’m looking forward to hearing more about the rest of this celebration. Thanks so much for having me.

Source: United States Department of Justice

Good morning, Environment and Natural Resources Division, and friends and happy Earth Day! I am thrilled to see all of you. Thank you for volunteering to be here on this beautiful day.

I’d like to thank Washington Parks & People for continuing its partnership with ENRD with this project, and for all the work they do to create beautiful greenspaces in the District of Columbia.

Today, our work is focused on this park that is now named in honor of Marvin Gaye, who lived nearby and came here to write music as he grew up.

It is especially fitting that we are here for Earth Day because Marvin Gaye was an advocate for the environment and environmental justice. In 1971, he sang: “things ain’t what they used to be. Where did all the blue skies go? Poison is the wind that blows.”

It is my great pleasure to work with the ENRD team who fight, every day, to address the concerns Marvin Gaye raised.

A team of dedicated public servants who do not accept the world as it is, but who work to better the environment throughout the nation.

And luckily today we get to do that work outside, continuing our longstanding tradition of celebrating Earth Day by doing in-person, local projects like this one.

Please think of your work here today as a celebration and a continuation of all we have achieved this year. Indeed, today, I’m very pleased to announce, we are releasing our Accomplishments Report for fiscal year 2022. I encourage you not only to read it, but also to share it with anyone who may be interested in our work and in working with us.

In the past year, ENRD has taken great strides in advancing the interests of the American people in environmental and natural resources matters.

We have fought against the climate crisis, through our enforcement efforts and our defense of client agencies. We have worked to provide a voice and relief to overburdened environmental justice communities through inclusive approaches and processes. We have worked to hold polluters accountable.

And we have had remarkable success in those efforts, with favorable outcomes in 100% of our civil enforcement cases, 91% of our civil defensive cases, 95% of our criminal cases, and 100% of our condemnation cases.

This has been a year we should all be proud of. And today, I want us to keep in mind how all actions taken to protect our world add up.

Thank you for listening and thank you in advance for everything we will achieve together – today, and in the upcoming years.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Today, in celebration of Earth Day on April 22, the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) released the Division’s Accomplishments for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022.

“I am very pleased to announce the release of the Environment and Natural Resources Division’s Accomplishments Report for FY 2022,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the ENRD. “I could not be prouder of how the ENRD team has been carrying out our mission in service of the American people, including as a key player in the administration’s efforts to secure environmental justice and respond to the climate crisis.”

As highlighted in the report, the division in 2022 continued to prioritize efforts to combat climate change. And, building on the division’s work, the Justice Department established the Office of Environmental Justice within the division and issued a comprehensive environmental justice enforcement strategy.

More broadly, the division worked closely with partners throughout the federal government to enforce a range of federal laws that protect public health, wildlife and other natural resources, worker safety and animal welfare. The division also defended client federal agencies in court when their regulations, decisions and other actions were challenged. The division also worked to preserve the rights and resources of federally recognized Indian tribes and filed condemnation actions to acquire land for federal agency programs.

In FY 2022, the division worked on roughly 4,500 matters. The division obtained over $820 million in civil and criminal fines, penalties, and costs recovered, while also securing federal injunctive relief valued at $3.1 billion. And, through defensive and condemnation litigation, the division saved the United States more than $2.1 billion.

The accomplishments described in the report add to division’s legacy. The division’s work is as important as ever given the environmental and other challenges that face the nation today and that will continue to arise in the years to come.