Category: MIL-OSI

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The Justice Department announced today its findings that Alaska violated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to provide an accessible ballot for in-person voting, selecting inaccessible polling places for federal, state and local elections and maintaining an inaccessible elections website. The ADA requires that states’ voting services, programs and activities be accessible to individuals with disabilities.  

“For too long, people with disabilities have been denied the fundamental rights and freedoms that citizens of our democracy possess, including the opportunity to fully participate in the voting process,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department is fully committed to enforcing the ADA to make sure that individuals with disabilities have an equal opportunity to vote, including by voting privately and independently like everyone else.”

“Voting is a fundamental right for all American citizens and ensuring they have full access to the election process is a hallmark of our democracy,” said U.S. Attorney S. Lane Tucker for the District of Alaska. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office will continue to collaborate with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to work toward accessibility in voting for all Alaskans.”

The department opened its investigation in response to complaints from individuals with disabilities in Alaska alleging accessibility issues. Voters with disabilities reported that they could not vote privately and independently because accessible voting machines were unavailable or did not work, that they encountered inaccessible polling places and that they could not obtain key election information on the state’s election website. Following an investigation, in a public letter of findings issued to Alaska, the department detailed its findings and asked the state to resolve the identified civil rights violations. The findings include the state’s failure to provide functional accessible voting machines, to provide polling places without physical barriers, such as muddy parking lots or steps, that allow voters with disabilities to vote in person and to ensure the accessibility of its website where voters with disabilities can obtain election information, including voter registration forms, candidate statements and voting dates and polling place locations.   

The Alaska investigation is part of the department’s ADA Voting Initiative, which focuses on protecting the voting rights of individuals with disabilities across the country. More information about voting and elections is available on the Justice Department’s website at www.justice.gov/voting. For more information on the Civil Rights Division, please visit www.justice.gov/crt. For more information on the ADA, please call the department’s toll-free ADA Information Line at 1-800-514-0301 (TTY 1-833-610-1264) or visit www.ada.gov. If you believe you have been discriminated against based on disability, please submit a report online at www.civilrights.justice.gov.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The Justice Department today announced that it has filed statements of interest in federal courts in Ohio and Alabama to promote the correct and uniform interpretation of voting laws guarding the rights of voters with disabilities. The statements of interest are part of the Justice Department’s continuing nationwide efforts to ensure that the voting rights of all individuals, including people with disabilities, are protected.

“No voter should be denied access to the ballot based on a disability,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The right to vote is fundamental to our democracy, and the Justice Department will take action to safeguard that right for all eligible voters, including those with disabilities who need assistance casting absentee ballots.”

Private plaintiffs brought lawsuits in Ohio (League of Women Voters of Ohio v. LaRose) and Alabama (Alabama State Conference of the NAACP v. Marshall) challenging state laws that restrict how voters with disabilities may receive assistance, or from whom they may receive assistance, in casting an absentee ballot. The Justice Department’s statements of interest confirm that Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act permits voters with disabilities who require assistance to receive that assistance from any person they choose, so long as that person is not an agent of the voter’s employer or union. Allowable assistance includes all action necessary to make their vote effective, including casting an absentee ballot. The department’s statement of interest in Ohio also affirms that Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires public entities provide equal opportunities to vote absentee and allows voters with disabilities to use an assistor of their choice as a reasonable modification.

“Every Ohio resident, disabled or not, has a fundamental right to vote. Ohio residents with disabilities should have the access and assistance they need to exercise that basic right of citizenship,” said U.S. Attorney Rebecca C. Lutzko for the Northern District of Ohio. “The Americans with Disabilities Act ensures that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable modifications to undertake their ability to vote. Our office will continue its work to secure the ADA’s protections for Ohio’s residents.”

“Every citizen has the right to vote without discrimination and to have that vote counted in a fair and free election,” said U.S. Attorney Prim Escalona for the Northern District of Alabama. “It is important that those who have specific information about voter discrimination make that information available to my office, the FBI or the Civil Rights Division. The Justice Department will always work tirelessly to protect the integrity of the election process.”

More information about voting and elections is available on the Justice Department’s website at www.justice.gov/voting. More information about the ADA and the Justice Department’s enforcement of the rights of people with disabilities is available at www.ada.gov. To learn more about the Civil Rights Division visit www.justice.gov/crt and to report possible violations of federal voting rights laws go to www.civilrights.justice.gov or call toll-free at 800-253-3931.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A New Jersey man pleaded guilty today to engaging in an extensive, multi-year conspiracy to fraudulently obtain over $54.7 million in loans and to fraudulently acquire multifamily and commercial properties.

According to court documents, between 2016 and 2022, Aron Puretz, 53, conspired with others to deceive lenders into issuing multifamily and commercial mortgage loans. Puretz and his co-conspirators provided the lenders with fictitious documents, including purchase contracts with inflated purchase prices, fake financial statements, and other fraudulent documents. Puretz was an employee of Apex Equity Group, a real estate investment and advisory firm, and one of the owners of Maple Lawn in Eureka, Illinois, and Big Country Chateau in Little Rock, Arkansas, both multifamily properties, and Troy Technology Park in Troy, Michigan, a commercial property.

In February 2017, Maple Lawn was acquired for $4.1 million. However, Puretz and his co-conspirators from Apex Equity Group utilized the identity of a co-conspirator to present a lender and Freddie Mac with a purchase and sale contract for $5.8 million and other fraudulent documents. On Feb. 17, 2017, a title and settlement company based in Lakewood, New Jersey, performed two closings, one for the true $4.1 million sales price and another for the fraudulent $5.8 million sales price presented to the lender. Furthermore, part of the conspiracy was to create a nonprofit entity, JPC Charities, for the purpose of receiving tax-exempt status for the properties owned by Puretz and co-conspirators. Puretz and co-conspirators provided false statements to the city of Eureka, Illinois, to receive a property tax exception. 

In July 2019, Puretz and his co-conspirators acquired Big Country Chateau. However, Puretz knew the lender and Freddie Mac would not approve him as an owner, and used the identity of an associate instead of his own. Furthermore, Puretz hid his ownership and involvement with the property management company from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and other federal and state agencies. 

In September 2020, Troy Technology Park was acquired for $42.7 million. However, Puretz and his co-conspirators presented the lender with a fraudulent purchase and sale contract for $70 million. Additionally, to support the inflated purchase price, Puretz and his co-conspirators submitted to the lender and appraiser a fraudulent letter of intent to purchase the property from another party for $68 million and other fraudulent documents. To conceal the fraudulent nature of the transaction, Puretz and his co-conspirators arranged for a short-term $30 million loan, which was used to make it appear that they had the funds needed to close on the loan. On Sept. 25, 2020, a title and settlement company based in Lakewood, New Jersey, performed two closings, one for the true $42.7 million sales price and another for the fraudulent $70 million sales price presented to the lender.

Puretz pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 30 and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger for the District of New Jersey; Inspector General Brian M. Tomney of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General (FHFA-OIG); and Postal Inspector in Charge Eric Shen of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s (USPIS) Criminal Investigations Group made the announcement.

FHFA-OIG and USPIS are investigating the case.

Trial Attorney Siji Moore of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Martha Nye for the District of New Jersey are prosecuting the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The Justice Department announced today that it secured a settlement agreement with California staffing agency Selective Personnel Inc. (SPI). The agreement resolves the department’s determination that SPI’s predecessor business entity, South Bay Safety (SBS), violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by regularly discriminating against non-U.S. citizens when checking their permission to work in the United States. 

“Employers cannot demand specific documents from workers because of their citizenship status when checking their permission to work,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Civil Rights Division is committed to protecting workers from discriminatory practices that create unnecessary barriers to employment.”

After conducting an investigation, the Civil Rights Division’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) concluded that, between at least September 2020 and at least October 2022, SBS required that non-U.S. citizens present specific types of documentation reflecting their immigration status to prove their permission to work. In contrast, U.S. citizens could present any acceptable document of their choosing. Based on its investigation, IER concluded that SPI was a successor in interest to SBS, and liable for the violations that IER found.

Under the settlement, SPI will pay civil penalties to the United States, train its employees on the INA’s requirements, revise its employment policies and be subject to departmental monitoring. 

U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents, those granted asylum, refugees and other non-U.S. citizens with permission to work may legally work in the United States if they can prove their identity and permission to work. Federal law allows all workers to choose which valid, legally acceptable documentation to present to prove their identity and permission to work, regardless of citizenship status, immigration status or national origin. The INA’s anti-discrimination provision prohibits employers from asking for specific or unnecessary documents because of a worker’s citizenship, immigration status or national origin. Employers must allow workers to present whatever acceptable documentation the workers choose and cannot reject valid documentation that reasonably appears to be genuine and to relate to the worker.

IER is responsible for enforcing the anti-discrimination provision of the INA. The statute prohibits citizenship status and national origin discrimination in hiring, firing or recruitment or referral for a fee; unfair documentary practices and retaliation and intimidation.   

Find more information on how employers can avoid discrimination when verifying someone’s permission to work on IER’s website. Learn more about IER’s work and how to get assistance through this brief video. Applicants or employees who believe they were discriminated against based on their citizenship, immigration status or national origin in hiring, firing, recruitment or during the employment eligibility verification process (Form I-9 and E-Verify); or subjected to retaliation, may file a charge. The public can also call IER’s worker hotline at 1-800-255-7688 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); call IER’s employer hotline at 1-800-255-8155 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); sign up for a live webinar or watch an on-demand presentation; email IER@usdoj.gov or visit IER’s English and Spanish websites. Sign up for email updates from IER.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A New York woman pleaded guilty today to fraudulently destroying over 2,600 COVID-19 vaccines and issuing a corresponding number of fraudulent COVID-19 vaccination record cards.

According to court documents, Kathleen Breault, 66, of Cambridge, a midwife at Sage-Femme Midwifery PLLC (Safe-Femme), an authorized COVID-19 vaccine administration site in Albany, New York, conspired to obstruct the government’s distribution of COVID-19 vaccines by providing COVID-19 vaccination record cards to individuals who were not vaccinated, including to minors who were at the time ineligible to be vaccinated and to Canadian citizens who were not present in the United States when they were purportedly vaccinated. In addition to destroying COVID-19 vaccines and issuing fraudulent vaccination record cards, Breault and her co-conspirators made over 2,600 false entries into a New York State database that tracked COVID-19 vaccine distribution. Breault agreed to pay more than $37,000 in restitution for the destroyed vaccines.    

Breault pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States and its departments and agencies. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 18 and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York; Assistant Director Michael Nordwall of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division; and Assistant Director in Charge James H. Smith III of the FBI New York Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI is investigating the case, with assistance from the New York State Department of Health.

Trial Attorneys Patrick J. Campbell and Hyungjoo Han of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting 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 the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, 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.