Category: US Department of Justice

Source: United States Department of Justice News

A federal grand jury in San Diego returned an indictment on May 19 charging a California man and woman with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.

According to the indictment, Leronce Suel and Ravae Smith owned Rockstar Dough LLC and Chicken Feed LLC, both of which operated a series of restaurants in the San Diego area. From March 2020 to June 2022 Suel and Smith allegedly conspired to underreport over $1.7 million in gross receipts on Rockstar Dough LLC’s 2020 corporate tax return (From 1120S) filed with the IRS in order to qualify for the COVID-related Paycheck Protection Program and Restaurant Revitalization Funding loans. Suel and Smith also allegedly made materially false certifications on loan applications regarding the use of the money. The indictment charges that Suel and Smith made substantial cash withdrawals from their business bank accounts to launder the fraudulently obtained funds. As part of the conspiracy, Suel and Smith allegedly concealed more than $2.4 million in cash at their residence.

Suel and Smith made their initial court appearance yesterday before U.S. Magistrate Judge William V. Gallo of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. If convicted, they face a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison for wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 10 years in prison for money laundering. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Randy S. Grossman for the Southern District of California made the announcement.

“During an unprecedented public health emergency, the United States provided these loan programs to deliver economic relief to Americans,” said U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman for the Southern District of California. “This office will investigate and prosecute those who exploited the global pandemic to unjustly enrich themselves. We encourage anyone with information regarding individuals who have engaged in COVID-relief fraud to come forward.” Grossman thanked the prosecution team and the investigative agency for their excellent work on this case.

“The CARES act was passed to aid those in need and provide much needed relief during the Covid-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, there are individuals and organizations who took advantage and targeted these programs to steal funds,” said Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher of the Los Angeles Field Office. “Submitting false returns in support of a fraudulent loan application is a crime.  IRS-CI is committed to aggressively investigating these crimes and bringing those to justice who stole funds and targeted relief programs during the pandemic.”

The IRS-Criminal Investigation are investigating the case.

Trial Attorney Julia Rugg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Beeler of the Southern District of California are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

A California man was sentenced yesterday to 12 months in prison for willfully failing to account for and pay over employment taxes.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Larry Kudsk of Berkeley, California, operated two construction businesses, Kudsk Construction, Inc., and M. Gutierrez, Inc. These companies served as general contractors or subcontractors, including on some government projects. For both companies, Kudsk was responsible for filing quarterly employment tax returns and collecting and paying over to the IRS payroll taxes withheld from employees’ wages. Kudsk, however, did not timely file employment tax returns or pay over withholdings to the IRS for 2014 and the last three quarters of 2015 for M. Gutierrez, Inc., and for all four quarters of 2016 for Kudsk Construction, Inc. In total, Kudsk caused a tax loss to the IRS exceeding $250,000.

In addition to the term of imprisonment, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White ordered Kudsk to serve three years of supervised release and to pay approximately $244,973 in restitution to the United States.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey for the Northern District of California made the announcement.

IRS-Criminal Investigation investigated the case.

Trial Attorneys Julia M. Rugg and Charles A. O’Reilly of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Lloyd-Lovett of the Northern District of California prosecuted the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

                 WASHINGTON – A Pennsylvania man was sentenced today in the District of Columbia for assaulting law enforcement officers and other charges for his actions on Jan. 6, 2021. His actions and the actions of others disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the presidential election.

            Robert Morss, (29), of Glenshaw, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 66 months in prison for assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon, obstruction of an official proceeding, and robbery. Morss was convicted on August 23, 2022, following a stipulated trial before U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden, who also ordered 24 months of supervised release and restitution of $2000.

            Morss was charged along with 8 other co-defendants.  Six of the codefendants, including Morss, have now been sentenced for their roles in the riot, while three codefendants are scheduled for trial later in 2023.

            According to court documents, on Jan. 6, 2021, all of the codefendants illegally entered the Capitol grounds. They joined in the violence that occurred in the tunnel area of the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace. From approximately 2:40 p.m., law enforcement officers maintained a line at the second set of glass doors inside the tunnel leading from the inaugural platform to the entrance to the Capitol. These officers fought a group of rioters – including the defendants – inside the tunnel, protecting the doors, until approximately 3:19 p.m. when they cleared them from the tunnel. Clashes continued throughout the afternoon.

            Morss joined the crowd gathering on the West Front of the Capitol grounds at approximately 2 p.m. He was wearing a vest with body armor plates and had a black knife sheath and scissors. Morss moved to the front of the line of rioters squaring off with law enforcement officers. He then attempted to steal a police-issued baton from an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). He also removed a bike rack fence from the immediate control of an MPD sergeant, leaving no barrier between the police officers and rioters. He yelled out to several officers, “Take a look around. We are going to take our Capitol back.”

            Morss then joined a line of rioters that pushed officers back and followed them up to the Lower West Terrace. At approximately 3:03 p.m., he participated in a heave-ho motion in which the rioters rocked against the police line. He wrested a riot shield from an MPD detective and passed it back in the tunnel, towards other rioters. He and others then created a wall of shields that they used to continue with the heave-ho efforts. Morss later joined several other rioters in climbing through a broken window. Morss entered an office within the Capitol, took a chair, and passed it out of the broken window to the rioters outside.

            Morss was arrested on June 11, 2021.

            This case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section. Valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Western District of Pennsylvania, the Eastern District of Texas, and the Eastern District of Virginia.

            The cases were investigated by the FBI’s Washington, Pittsburgh, and Dallas Field Offices. Morss was identified as #147 on the FBI Washington Field Office’s seeking information photos. Valuable assistance was provided by the FBI’s Richmond Field Office, the Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Capitol Police.

            In the 28 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,000 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 320 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The investigation remains ongoing. 

            Anyone with tips can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

The Justice Department today announced that Alexei Saab, aka Ali Hassan Saab, aka Alex Saab, aka Rachid, 46, was sentenced to 12 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for receiving military-type training from Hezbollah, marriage fraud, and making false statements.

According to court documents, Saab was convicted by a jury in May 2022 after a two-week trial. The sentence was imposed by the Honorable Paul G. Gardephe, who also presided over the trial.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Hezbollah is a Lebanon-based Shia Islamic organization with political, social and terrorist components. Hezbollah was founded in the 1980s with support from Iran after the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and its mission includes establishing a fundamentalist Islamic state in Lebanon. Since Hezbollah’s formation, the organization has been responsible for numerous terrorist attacks that have killed hundreds, including U.S. citizens and military personnel. In 1997, the U.S. Department of State designated Hezbollah a Foreign Terrorist Organization, pursuant to Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and it remains so designated today. In 2001, pursuant to Executive Order 13224, the U.S. Department of Treasury designated Hezbollah a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity. In 2010, State Department officials described Hezbollah as the most technically capable terrorist group in the world and a continued security threat to the United States.

The Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO), which is also known as the External Security Organization and “910,” is a component of Hezbollah responsible for the planning and coordination of intelligence, counterintelligence, and terrorist activities on behalf of Hezbollah outside of Lebanon. In July 2012, an IJO operative detonated explosives on a bus transporting Israeli tourists in the vicinity of an airport in Burgas, Bulgaria. The detonation killed six people and injured 32 others. Law enforcement authorities have disrupted several other IJO attack-planning operations around the world, including the arrest of an IJO operative surveilling Israeli targets in Cyprus in 2012, the seizure of bomb-making precursor chemicals in Thailand in 2012, and a seizure of similar chemicals in May 2015 in connection with the arrest of another IJO operative. In June 2017, two IJO operatives were arrested in the U.S and charged with terrorism-related offenses in the Southern District of New York. In May 2019, a jury convicted one of those two IJO operatives on all counts, and in December 2019, he was sentenced principally to 40 years in prison.

Saab joined Hezbollah in 1996. Saab’s first Hezbollah operations occurred in Lebanon, where he was tasked with observing and reporting on the movements of Israeli and Southern Lebanese Army soldiers in Yaroun, Lebanon. Among other things, Saab reported on patrol schedules and formations, procedures at security checkpoints, and the vehicles used by soldiers. Saab also, alongside his brother, planted an improvised explosive device that detonated and hit Israeli soldiers, seriously injuring at least one.

In approximately 1999, Saab attended his first Hezbollah training. The training was focused on the use of firearms, and Saab handled and fired an AK-47, an M16 rifle, and a pistol, and threw grenades. In 2000, Saab transitioned to membership in Hezbollah’s unit responsible for external operations, the IJO, and he then received extensive training in IJO tradecraft, weapons, and military tactics, including how to construct and detonate bombs and other explosive devices and how to best use these devices in attacks. Specifically, Saab received detailed instruction in, among other things, triggering mechanisms, explosive substances, detonators, and the assembly of circuits. In pre-arrest interviews with the FBI, Saab was able to diagram multiple improvised explosive devices that would have been viable if constructed as diagrammed.

In 2000, Saab entered the United States. While living in the United States, Saab remained an IJO operative, continued to receive military training in Lebanon, and conducted numerous operations for the IJO. For example, Saab surveilled dozens of locations in New York City — including the United Nations headquarters, the Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center, Times Square, the Empire State Building, and local airports, tunnels, and bridges — and provided detailed information on these locations, including photographs, to the IJO. In particular, Saab focused on the structural weaknesses of locations he surveilled in order to determine how a future attack could cause the most destruction. Saab’s reporting to the IJO included the materials used to construct a particular target, how close in proximity one could get to a target, and site weaknesses or “soft spots” that the IJO could exploit if it attacked a target in the future. Saab conducted similar intelligence gathering in a variety of large American cities, including Boston and Washington, D.C., Saab admitted that his surveillance was designed to best position the IJO to attack the U.S. in the future. Saab also was tasked by Hezbollah with opening a front company that he could use to obtain fertilizer in the United States for use as an explosives precursor.

In addition to his attack-planning activities in the United States, Saab conducted operations abroad. For example, in or about 2003, Saab attempted to murder a man he later understood to be a suspected Israeli spy. Saab pointed a firearm at the individual at close range and pulled the trigger twice, but the firearm did not fire. Saab also conducted surveillance in Istanbul, Turkey, and elsewhere.

Finally, in or about 2012, Saab entered into a fraudulent marriage in exchange for $20,000. The purpose of the marriage was for Saab’s purported wife to apply for her citizenship. Saab later falsely affirmed, under penalty of perjury, and in connection with his purported wife’s efforts to obtain status in the U.S., that the marriage was not for any immigration-related purposes.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York, and Assistant Director Robert R. Wells of the FBI Counterterrorism Division made the announcement.

The FBI and its New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, which principally consists of agents from the FBI and detectives from the New York City Police Department, investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sam Adelsberg and Jason A. Richman for the Southern District of New York are prosecuting the case, with assistance from Trial Attorneys Jessica Fender and Alexandra Hughes of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Thank you, Amy, for that kind introduction. And thank you for your leadership of the Office of Justice Programs and its science agencies.

And thank you, Nancy La Vigne, Director of the National Institute of Justice, for having the vision to bring this conference back after a 12-year hiatus.

I particularly like the conference theme: “Evidence to Action.”

Far too often, research findings do not reach the people who can best use them to improve outcomes for individuals and communities. 

This conference – which brings together researchers, practitioners, and policymakers – gives us an opportunity to bridge that divide.

I also want to recognize Alex Piquero, the Director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Alex, I know that you and Nancy are making important efforts to reach a diverse set of practitioner and policymaker audiences throughout the country. Thank you both.

And thank you to the staff of NIJ – representing scientists, grant managers, communications professionals, and operations team members.

I know that planning this gathering represents just a fraction of the work you are doing every day. I am grateful to each of you.

Finally, I want to express my gratitude to all of our partners who are here today.

You are taking time away from your work and home to exchange knowledge and identify new ways that research evidence can improve criminal justice policies and practices.

Welcome. And thank you for being here.

The Justice Department has a broad and wide-ranging mission: to uphold the rule of law, to keep our country safe, and to protect civil rights.

In pursuit of that mission, and together with our partners in communities and law enforcement agencies across the country, we work to meet some of the most urgent challenges our country faces.

Good data and sound science are essential to every part of that effort.

Research is essential to the development of new technologies, policies, and programs that help the Justice Department fulfill its mission.

And rigorous evaluation helps tell us what works. Importantly, it also tells us how and why programs work, so we can replicate and build on their success.

For example, when it comes to keeping our country safe, we know that research and data are critical tools in our fight against gun violence.

Professionals across the Department are involved in our work to prevent and combat gun violence.

Experts from the ATF work every day with their state and local partners to coordinate comprehensive crime gun tracing and ballistics evidence analysis.

Our prosecutors bring cases against those responsible for the greatest violence.

And we invest in evidence-informed, community-centered initiatives aimed at preventing and disrupting that violence.

Earlier this year, I traveled to St. Louis where the Department hosted our partners for a first-of-its-kind convening on community violence intervention strategies.

As I said at that meeting, the Department is encouraging grantees to collaborate with researchers to conduct rigorous evaluations of their program models.

We know that research will help us build more effective programs that are rooted in a deeper understanding of effective violence reduction strategies.

NIJ grantees are on the frontlines of this work.

For example, NIJ has invested resources in the development of “Risk Terrain Modeling,” an analytic method that helps local governments better understand the relationship between a community’s physical conditions and crime.

Through this method, cities can develop tailored strategies to prevent and disrupt violence in collaboration with the people experiencing it.

Grantees have also conducted essential research related to understanding, and preventing, mass shootings.

This includes the development of a mass attack defense toolkit.

That toolkit is an evidence-informed guide to deterring, detecting, and stopping plots to commit mass shootings and other mass attacks.

Researchers studying the tragedy of mass shootings in schools have identified the impact of measures like threat assessments, tip lines, and safe storage of firearms in reducing the risk of those shootings.

NIJ’s grantees also have a critical role to play in the Department’s effort to protect our communities from deadly fentanyl.

Research featured at this conference demonstrates the value of methods for the early detection of emerging drugs that are subject to misuse.

Those methodologies can aid in understanding and addressing national challenges like the fentanyl epidemic.

I also appreciate the growing body of research by NIJ grantees studying officer wellness, training, and accountability.

This knowledge will help guide our efforts to provide the support that police officers need and to help build trust between police and the communities they serve.

As I have said many times to the Justice Department’s workforce, our responsibility to uphold the rule of law is one that must guide all of our work.

The rule of law dictates that our prosecutors treat like cases alike, that there not be one rule for the powerful and another for the powerless; one rule for the rich and another for the poor.

The rule of law dictates that we apply the law in a way that respects the Constitution.

I am grateful that NIJ has funded research on how prosecutors can better use data to drive decision-making in the pursuit of those principles and achieve more just outcomes.

Finally, I am grateful for the work NIJ grantees have done to help the Department fulfill its founding purpose to protect civil rights.

Grantees have conducted important research that strengthens our efforts to combat and prevent hate crimes, improve hate crimes reporting, and address the needs of victims.

In short, across the wide breadth of the Department’s responsibilities – your work informs ours.

I know the efforts I have noted are just a small sample of the work being done by NIJ’s grantees across the country and by so many of you in this room.

I am sorry that I can’t mention every single one.

But I can say that we are grateful to count everyone in this room as our partner in upholding the rule of law, keeping our country safe, and protecting civil rights.

Thank you for being here today.

I look forward to our continued work together in the days ahead.