Month: July 2024

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The Justice Department and the Department of the Interior convened this year’s Tribal Justice, Safety, and Wellness Summit from July 9 – 11. The three-day virtual event featured several key presentations and panels on public safety issues taught by nationally recognized subject matter experts working in American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Hundreds of federal, state, and Tribal law enforcement officials, prosecutors, advocates, court staff, victim/witness services staff, and Tribal leaders attended the Summit.

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland provided opening remarks. He reiterated the Department’s commitment to working with Tribal partners to ensure that Tribal communities feel safe. He also discussed the Department’s efforts to address, with our federal and Tribal law enforcement partners, the public safety challenges that Tribes face, including the disproportionately high rates of violence experienced by American Indians and Alaska Natives, the crisis of missing or murdered Indigenous persons, and the devastating impact of human trafficking and drug trafficking.

“Public safety in Tribal communities is a core priority for this Department”, said Attorney General Garland. “And partnerships between federal and Tribal law enforcement are among our greatest tools to meet the many challenges that Tribes face.”

To address the crisis of missing or murdered Indigenous persons and to help families get the justice and answers they deserve, last year the Department created the Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons Regional Outreach Program, which places five attorneys and five coordinators in designated regions across the United States to aid in the prevention of and response to missing or murdered Indigenous persons.

Summit attendees participated in a variety of panels on public safety issues within four training tracks: resources, missing or murdered Indigenous persons (MMIP), criminal justice law enforcement and prosecution, and technology.

FBI Director Chris Wray also gave opening remarks at the Summit. “Protecting Native American communities has been a priority for the FBI since our organization was founded more than a century ago,” said Director Wray. “And we remain just as committed today as we were then to combatting criminal activity on Tribal land, supporting and protecting victims, and helping Indigenous communities heal and thrive.”

Director Wray also highlighted efforts to combat the unacceptably high levels of violence that Native Americans face. For example, the FBI added two more task forces over the past year as part of the FBI’s Safe Trails Task Forces initiative, which focuses on apprehending the most dangerous and violent criminal offenders in tribal communities. Wray also announced the surge of resources to tribal areas once again this summer for Operation Not Forgotten 2024.

The Summit included presentations on the untold legal history of the Osage murders, elder abuse, environmental justice, MMIP initiatives such as the development of Tribal community response plans, law enforcement responses to sexual assault and domestic violence, and technology initiatives, such as the Tribal Access Program, to support public safety in American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

The Justice Department is committed to addressing the persistent violence endured by Native American communities and bringing justice to victims and their families. The widely attended 2024 Tribal, Justice, Safety and Wellness Summit expanded the circle of partners and the knowledge needed to strengthen public safety, health, and wellness in Tribal communities across the country.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A Texas pharmaceutical marketer was sentenced today to two years and five months in prison and ordered to pay over $59 million in restitution for conspiring to defraud the United States, receiving illegal kickbacks in exchange for compounded medications prescription referrals, and money laundering.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Quintan Cockerell, 43, of Palos Verdes Estates, California, worked with others to create and market expensive compounded medications, which are intended to be custom-tailored to individual patient needs, that were not medically indicated. Cockerell and others used preloaded prescription pads that identified the high-billing formulations for doctors to easily select. Cockerell, along with his co-conspirators at the compounding pharmacy that received the fraudulent prescriptions, implemented “standing orders” that enabled the pharmacy to swap out ingredients in the medications originally prescribed by doctors to maximize insurance reimbursements. Cockerell and others recruited doctors to write prescriptions for these expensive compounded medications by creating so-called “investment opportunities” so that doctors who wrote prescriptions to the pharmacy could profit from pharmacy operations. Cockerell and others also took doctors on expensive and lavish trips to Las Vegas, Mexico, and the Grand Caymans, among other places.

In an effort to conceal the illegal kickbacks Cockerell received in exchange for prescription referrals, the pharmacy paid Cockerell’s wife at the time as a sham employee. Evidence presented at trial demonstrated that Cockerell’s wife did not work at the pharmacy, but that Cockerell communicated with the pharmacy using her email address and received checks for his kickbacks in her name. Cockerell then spent the proceeds from the kickback scheme.

In October 2023, a federal jury in the Northern District of Texas convicted Cockerell of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, one count of receiving kickbacks, and one count of money laundering.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Special Agent in Charge Michael Mentavlos of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS); Special Agent in Charge Jason E. Meadows of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) Dallas Regional Office; Special Agent in Charge B. Chad Yarbrough of the FBI Dallas Field Office; Special Agent in Charge Casey Howard of the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG) Central Regional Office; and Special Agent in Charge Kris Raper of the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (VA-OIG) South Central Field Office made the announcement.

DCIS, HHS-OIG, FBI, DOL-OIG, and VA-OIG investigated the case.

Assistant Chiefs Kate Payerle and Brynn Schiess and Trial Attorneys Jacqueline DerOvanesian and Lee Michael Hirsch of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case.

The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since March 2007, this program, currently comprised of nine strike forces operating in 27 federal districts, has charged more than 5,400 defendants who collectively have billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $27 billion. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with HHS-OIG, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in health care fraud schemes. More information can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The United States and Canada have a longstanding and enduring security, law enforcement, and intelligence partnership that is centered on protecting public safety, consistent with rights protected by law. Yesterday, to advance our shared goals, U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas hosted Canada’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Arif Virani, and Canada’s Minister of Public Safety, Dominic LeBlanc, in Washington, D.C., for the U.S.-Canada Cross Border Crime Forum (CBCF). This meeting is the third CBCF since it was reestablished by President Biden’s and Prime Minister Trudeau’s 2021 “Roadmap for a Renewed U.S.-Canada Partnership.”

Building on the success of previous CBCF meetings, including the “Statement of Partnership to Prevent, Investigate, Prosecute, and Disrupt Cross-Border Crime,” which was signed at last year’s meeting, the four U.S. and Canadian officials (“the Ministers”) discussed ways to enhance collaboration in the following areas:

Foreign Interference/National Security

The Ministers acknowledged the threat from hostile foreign actors, including in the context of electoral interference. Malign actors may seek to influence outcomes and undermine public confidence in elections in many ways. They may deploy efforts to subvert democratic processes, such as engaging in cyber-attacks and other interference activities against election campaigns and election infrastructure to disrupt election processes. They may seek to influence elections, including by covertly exploiting and fueling divisions within society; and this, in turn, may also help fuel coercive activity and harassment, and threats of violence toward voters, candidates, and election personnel. Both the United States and Canada agreed that fair and secure elections are cornerstones of democracy and emphasized the need to work together to combat any threats that seek to undermine it.

Malign foreign actors also have demonstrated an intent and willingness to use insiders, computer intrusion, or other means to steal trade secrets and sensitive technologies. This global problem requires a global response, and the United States and Canada will continue to investigate and, where appropriate, prosecute espionage that threatens our economies and export control violations. In this vein, the Ministers agreed on the need to preserve the cross-border flow of data between allies and partners that is critical to our economic well-being, while maintaining the security of sensitive personal data.

The Ministers similarly reaffirmed their united front in protecting our democracies and the democratic process. A key tool in combating the threat of transnational repression, as well as malign foreign influence and interference generally, is transparency through foreign agent registries; the United States discussed the use of its Foreign Agents Registration Act and related statutes, while Canada highlighted its newly passed legislation in this area, Bill C-70, “An Act respecting countering foreign interference,” which will establish a Foreign Influence Transparency Registry and update criminal law tools to better safeguard democracy. These efforts, along with investigations and prosecutions of transnational repression-related cases, will further enhance the ability of the United States and Canada to protect those living within our borders.

Law Enforcement Cooperation and Information Sharing

The United States and Canada continue to combat the devastation caused by fentanyl and synthetic opioids by working together at disrupting the illicit supply chain, to include production and distribution and the importation of illicit precursor chemicals from China and elsewhere. Similarly, the violence wrought by firearms smuggled across the U.S.-Canada border requires continued efforts to target those responsible, including shippers and receivers, by seizing illicit firearms and tracing their origins.

Key in all these counter opioid and firearm efforts is enhanced information sharing between U.S. and Canadian law enforcement agencies, which has already led to successful operations. The Ministers applauded the advances in cooperation between U.S. and Canadian law enforcement since the last CBCF and underscored the need to build on and further operationalize prior Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs). The Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to provide clear policy direction and training to ensure that institutional policies and practices maximize information sharing within the context of each other’s laws and regulations, and in accordance with recent MOUs. They plan to continue to work together to improve the operationalization and systemization of intelligence and law enforcement sharing at the border, with the goals of supporting interdictions and investigations, countering transnational organized crime, continuing to build the global coalition against synthetic drug threats, and disrupting the synthetic opioid and firearm supply chains.

In the context of enhancing information sharing, the Ministers also discussed the challenges associated with cross-border human smuggling that is occurring in both directions, and challenges in related investigations. Accordingly, the Ministers called on their officials to continue strengthening ways to gather and share information for the detection and investigation of organized crime groups and networks that target vulnerable people and engage in human smuggling. They also tasked officials to review information sharing case studies of border incidents and identify opportunities to further improve intelligence sharing, detection, and interdiction, in order to disrupt cross-border smuggling and investigate and hold accountable those involved.

With respect to law enforcement cooperation and information sharing at the border, the Ministers also considered their respective country’s approach to providing advance notification of sex offender travel, which remains a key tool in making informed admission decisions. Both countries will seek to maximize the sharing of sex offender travel notifications, in the interest of ensuring public safety.

Online Crime and Hate Crimes

The Ministers began their discussion of online crime by acknowledging the need to maintain tightly controlled lawful access to communications content that is vital to the investigation and prosecution of serious crimes, including terrorism and online child sexual exploitation and abuse. 

The Ministers then turned to collective efforts to address the increasing prevalence of online child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The Ministers noted the increase in both countries of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated CSAM and the need for international engagement to combat this threat, to include law enforcement, non-governmental organizations, the technology industry, and others.

With respect to AI more generally, the Ministers acknowledged the benefits and risks posed by AI technology. Moreover, the Ministers recognized that AI crosses over multiple government equities, including criminal law, civil rights, and antitrust law, and recommended that this continue to be a focus of study by the CBCF.

The need for strategic and coordinated engagement between and among international partners was also discussed in the context of elder fraud and romance scams. The Ministers discussed avenues available to collectively identify and disrupt such schemes to prevent further victimization.

The United States and Canada also acknowledged the ways in which hate crimes erode communities. The Ministers noted with concern the increased number of attacks motivated by anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of bias on both sides of the border and pledged to work together to address this issue.

The Ministers also welcomed the outcomes of the strengthened collaboration between their respective Access to Justice Offices over the past year, including on strategies to overcome systemic inequality and discrimination, as part of efforts to increase access to – and strengthen confidence in – the justice system. 

Conclusion

The Ministers plan to continue their close contact on all these critical issues, both in the context of the CBCF, and in other bilateral exchanges. They reiterated the strength, success, and depth of the security and law enforcement relationships along the U.S.-Canada border and the need to remain aligned.

Contacts

Jean-Sébastien Comeau

Deputy Director of Communications

Office of the Honourable Dominic LeBlanc

Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs

343-574-8116

Jean-Sebastien.Comeau@iga-aig.gc.ca

Media Relations

Public Safety Canada

613-991-0657

media@ps-sp.gc.ca

Chantalle Aubertin

Deputy Director, Communications

Office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

613-992-6568

Chantalle.Aubertin@justice.gc.ca

Media Relations

Department of Justice Canada

613-957-4207

media@justice.gc.ca

Nicole Navas Oxman

Senior Communications Advisor for International Law Enforcement/Spokesperson

U.S. Department of Justice

202-305-5625

Nicole.Navas@usdoj.gov

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Office of Public Affairs

mediainquiry@hq.dhs.gov