Category: US Department of Justice

Source: United States Department of Justice News

The Department of Justice filed a proposed amended complaint and consent decree today in the District of Maryland with George’s Inc. and George’s Foods LLC (George’s) that would resolve claims that George’s conspired with other poultry processors for years to suppress workers’ wages by exchanging compensation information. George’s provided significant and voluntary cooperation to the Justice Department’s investigation. The department previously reached proposed consent decrees in this matter with poultry processors Cargill, Sanderson Farms, and Wayne Farms, as well as with a data consultant, Webber, Meng, Sahl and Company, and its president, G. Jonathan Meng.

“Today’s action is another important milestone in the Justice Department’s efforts to hold poultry processors accountable for antitrust violations that harm workers,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “The antitrust laws protect American workers from information exchanges, like these, that damage competition and the competitive process.”

Under the terms of the proposed settlement, George’s must cease sharing competitively sensitive information about poultry processing plant workers’ compensation. If approved by the court, the proposed settlement also:

• Imposes a court-appointed compliance monitor who, for the next seven years, will ensure George’s compliance with the terms of the proposed decree;
• Grants the court-appointed monitor authority to ensure George’s compliance with all federal antitrust laws as they relate to its poultry processing facilities, workers at its poultry processing plants, chicken growers, integrated poultry feed, hatcheries, transportation of poultry and poultry products, and the sale of poultry, and to submit regular reports on George’s antitrust compliance;
• Prohibits George’s from retaliating against any employee or third party for disclosing information to the monitor or to government authorities;
• Permits the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division to inspect George’s facilities and interview employees to ensure George’s compliance with the consent decree; and
• Commits George’s to pay $5.8 million in restitution for poultry processing plant workers who were harmed by the conspiracy.

These terms would expire seven years after the consent decree is approved by the court.

As required by the Tunney Act, the proposed consent decree, along with the competitive impact statement, will be published in the Federal Register. Any person may submit written comments concerning the proposed consent decree during a 60-day comment period to Chief, Civil Conduct Task Force, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 Fifth Street NW, Suite 8600, Washington, D.C. 20530. At the conclusion of the 60-day comment period, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland may enter the final judgment upon finding it is in the public interest.

Today’s actions are part of a broader investigation into anticompetitive labor market abuses in the poultry processing industry. Anyone with information about poultry industry collusion, competitors sharing non-public compensation information, anticompetitive conduct violations against workers, or any other violations of the antitrust laws is encouraged to contact the Antitrust Division’s Citizen Complaint Center at 1-888-647-3258 or antitrust.complaints@usdoj.gov. The division will forward complaints about the settling processor defendants to the court-appointed antitrust monitor, where appropriate. Information about anticompetitive practices in livestock and poultry markets can also be submitted to the USDA and Justice Department’s Agricultural Markets Enforcement Partnership at www.farmerfairness.gov.

The Justice Department thanks the U.S. Department of Commerce Office of Inspector General for its assistance with this investigation.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

A federal court in the Eastern District of New York has permanently enjoined a tax return preparer and her Brooklyn-based business from preparing federal tax returns for others and from owning, operating, or working for any tax return preparation business in the future.

The civil complaint filed in the case alleged that Melida Portorreal, through her tax return preparation company, International Travel Multi & Tax Corp., prepared fraudulent federal income tax returns for others. According to the complaint, Portorreal prepared and filed fraudulent federal tax returns for others that included the following schemes:

• reporting false filing statuses, including, in at least one instance, using one customer’s name and social security number to qualify another customer for Head of Household filing status without either customer’s knowledge or consent;
• fabricating erroneous itemized deductions to reduce taxable income, including false student loan interest deductions, false educator expense deductions, and false employee business expense deductions;
• fabricating business expenses; and
• claiming non-deductible expenses on customers’ tax returns in order to obtain entitlement to the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit.

The complaint alleges the IRS estimated that Portorreal filed returns due for the 2018, 2019, and 2020 tax years that caused losses to the United States exceeding $1 million in each year.

According to the court’s order, Portorreal and her company consented to entry of the injunction, which permits the United States to conduct post-judgment discovery to monitor compliance with the injunction. The order requires that they (1) send notice of the injunction to each person for whom Portorreal and her company prepared federal tax returns, amended tax returns, or claims for refund from February 25, 2021 through May 31 2022, and (2) post an electronic copy of the injunction on any business social media profile currently maintained or created over the next five years.

Deputy Assistant Attorney General David A. Hubbert of the Justice Department’s Tax Division made the announcement.

Shady tax return preparers remain a concern of the IRS, which recently warned taxpayers about unscrupulous tax return preparers are part of the IRS’s Dirty Dozen series. Taxpayers seeking a return preparer should remain vigilant against unscrupulous tax preparers. The IRS has information on its website for choosing a tax return preparer and has launched a free directory of federal tax preparers. The IRS also offers 10 tips to avoid tax season fraud and ways to safeguard their personal information.

In the past decade, the Department of Justice Tax Division has obtained injunctions against hundreds of unscrupulous tax preparers. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department’s website. An alphabetical listing of persons enjoined from preparing returns and promoting tax schemes can be found on this page. If you believe that one of the enjoined persons or businesses may be violating an injunction, please contact the Tax Division with details.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Today, the Department of Justice and the  Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a Clean Air Act Settlement with BP Products North America Inc., (BPP), a subsidiary of BP p.l.c., requiring control technology expected to  reduce benzene by an estimated seven tons per year, other hazardous air pollutants (HAP) by 28 tons per year and other volatile organic compound emissions (VOC) by 372 tons per year at its Whiting Refinery in Indiana. The United States’ complaint, filed simultaneously with the settlement, alleges that BPP violated federal regulations limiting benzene in refinery wastewater streams, and HAP and VOC emissions at its Whiting Refinery, as well as the general requirement to use good air pollution control practices. As part of the settlement, BPP will install one or more permanent benzene strippers to reduce benzene in wastewater streams leading to its lakefront wastewater treatment plant.

“This settlement sends an important message to the refining industry that the United States will take decisive action against illegal benzene and VOC emissions,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “Under the settlement, the refinery will implement controls that will greatly improve air quality and reduce health impacts on the overburdened communities that surround the facility.”

“This settlement will result in the reduction of hundreds of tons of harmful air pollution a year, which means cleaner, healthier air for local communities, including communities with environmental justice concerns,” said Acting Assistant Administrator Larry Starfield of the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “This is one of several recent settlements that show that EPA and the Department of Justice are committed to improving air quality in local communities by holding industrial sources accountable for violations of emission standards under the Clean Air Act.”

“This settlement advances my office’s environmental justice initiative by providing cleaner air and reducing the negative health impacts on the low income and minority residents who live near BPP’s refinery,” said U.S. Attorney Clifford D. Johnson for the Northern District of Indiana. “My office is committed to continuing to enforce the nation’s environmental laws so that all residents of Northern Indiana can live, work and play in a cleaner, healthier environment.”

In addition to securing injunctive relief, including capital investments, estimated to exceed $197 million, the settlement obligates BPP to pay a total financial penalty of $40 million, comprised of civil penalties and stipulated penalties for violations of an earlier settlement. This is the largest civil penalty ever secured for a Clean Air Act stationary source settlement. BPP separately agreed to undertake a $5 million supplemental environmental project to reduce diesel emissions in the communities surrounding the Whiting Refinery. BPP will also install 10 air pollutant monitoring stations to monitor air quality outside of the refinery fence line. The settlement terms are included in a proposed consent decree filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana.

Benzene is known to cause cancer in humans. Short-term inhalation exposure to benzene also may cause drowsiness, dizziness, headaches, as well as eye, skin and respiratory tract irritation, and, at high levels, unconsciousness. Long-term inhalation exposure can cause various disorders in the blood, including reduced numbers of red blood cells and anemia in occupational settings. Reproductive effects have been reported for women exposed by inhalation to high levels, and adverse effects on the developing fetus have been observed in animal tests.

VOCs, along with NO_X, play a major role in the atmospheric reactions that produce ozone, which is the primary constituent of smog. People with lung disease, children, older adults, and people who are active can be affected when ozone levels are unhealthy. Ground-level ozone exposure is linked to a variety of short-term health problems, including lung irritation and difficulty breathing, as well as long-term problems, such as permanent lung damage from repeated exposure, aggravated asthma, reduced lung capacity and increased susceptibility to respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia and bronchitis.

The Whiting Refinery is surrounded by communities with environmental justice concerns. This settlement is part of the Justice Department’s and EPA’s ongoing focus on assisting communities that have been historically marginalized and disproportionately exposed to pollution.

This settlement also supports EPA’s National Enforcement and Compliance Initiative (NECI): Creating Cleaner Air for Communities by Reducing Excess Emissions of Harmful Pollutants. To learn more about this NECI, visit www.epa.gov/enforcement/national-enforcement-and-compliance-initiative-creating-cleaner-air-communities.

The State of Indiana assisted in the negotiations and is also a party to the settlement.

The settlement is subject to a public comment period and final court approval. The consent decree will be available for viewing at www.justice.gov/enrd/consent-decrees.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

The Justice Department announced today that it has secured a settlement agreement with American CyberSystems Inc., a Georgia-based company that provides IT services and staff recruiting nationwide under the name Innova Solutions (formerly ACS Solutions). The settlement resolves the department’s determination that the company violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) when it recruited for two positions using advertisements that unlawfully excluded certain applicants based on their citizenship statuses. 

“Employers cannot unlawfully discriminate against individuals based on their citizenship status when they advertise job opportunities, plain and simple,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “This settlement makes clear our commitment to holding employers accountable when they run afoul of the law and discriminate on the basis of citizenship.”

The Civil Rights Division’s new fact sheet adds to the many other department resources available to help employers train their hiring and recruiting staff to avoid the types of discrimination that happened here.

The department’s investigation found that American CyberSystems discriminated against U.S. nationals, refugees and asylees by posting an advertisement recruiting only U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. The position advertised involved access to materials subject to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR). The ITAR and EAR require employers to seek special authorization from the U.S. government for certain workers if their job requires accessing export-controlled items. Under these regulations, however, U.S. nationals, asylees and refugees are on the same footing as U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, and employers do not need authorization to share export-controlled items with these workers. The department concluded that the company had no justification to exclude them from hiring.

The department also found that the company posted a second, unrelated job advertisement that discriminated against immigrant and U.S. citizen workers by specifically seeking workers with temporary work visas.  

Under the settlement, American CyberSystems must train its recruiting and human resources staff on the requirements of the INA’s anti-discrimination provision, review its policies to ensure compliance with relevant law and be subject to departmental monitoring and reporting requirements. American CyberSystems also must pay a civil penalty as a result of the discriminatory ads.

The Civil Rights Division’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) is responsible for enforcing the anti-discrimination provision of the INA. The statute prohibits discrimination based on citizenship status and national origin in hiring, firing or recruitment or referral for a fee; unfair documentary practices; and retaliation and intimidation. As explained in a new fact sheet the department issued on April 18, employer obligations under this law do not change when complying with export-control laws and regulations. Another department fact sheet is aimed at helping employers avoid discrimination when recruiting using online job ads.

Learn more about IER’s work and how to get assistance through this brief video. Find more information on how employers can avoid citizenship status discrimination on IER’s website. 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); email IER@usdoj.gov; sign up for a free webinar; or visit IER’s English and Spanish websites. Subscribe for email updates from IER.

Spanish version

Source: United States Department of Justice

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Good afternoon. I am joined by Philip R. Sellinger, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. We are here today to announce that the Department of Justice and Cumberland County, New Jersey, have agreed to a consent decree that outlines remedies to resolve our investigation of the Cumberland County Jail in Bridgeton.

The Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office opened a pattern or practice investigation of the Cumberland County Jail, under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act. We launched the investigation after a spate of six tragic suicides by incarcerated persons who had used opioids prior to their admission to the jail but who were denied medication-assisted treatment (MAT) when they came to the facility. Medication-assisted treatment is the use of medications, in combination with behavioral therapy and counseling, to treat opioid use disorder (OUD). It is an effective, evidence-based treatment that has become a best practice in prisons and jails across the country.

After a thorough investigation, the Justice Department issued a findings report in 2021 concluding that there was reasonable cause to believe that Cumberland County’s failure to provide MAT to incarcerated people with opioid use disorder, together with its failure to provide adequate mental health and suicide prevention measures, was a pattern or practice that violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. Failure to provide such treatment forces incarcerated people with opioid use disorder to suffer painful symptoms of withdrawal; discourages participation in other types of treatment; and increases mortality after discharge. MAT is not merely safe for use in prisons and jails – it is associated with a decline in illicit drug use and a reduction in disciplinary problems.

Since the release of our findings report, we have been engaged in discussions with Cumberland County about the remedies necessary to address these findings. The proposed consent decree is the product of those discussions. The consent decree resolves the department’s claims by ensuring that Cumberland County provides MAT, where clinically appropriate, to incarcerated people experiencing unmedicated opiate withdrawal, and that the County offers adequate mental health care and suicide prevention measures to those at risk of self-harm. The agreement requires the screening and assessment of opioid withdrawal and suicide risk, provision of MAT and mental health care under individualized treatment plans, and adequate supervision and suicide prevention methods.

The agreement stands as a model for other facilities across the county that are confronting high numbers of people with OUD. The agreement calls for an independent monitor, which the parties will jointly select and propose to the court. The independent monitor will assess compliance with the consent decree and issue public reports every six months.

Nearly two million people currently are confined in our nation’s prisons and jails. There are simply too many people incarcerated today who have mental illness and substance use disorders. The Civil Rights Division has long fought to protect the right of incarcerated people to receive treatment for their serious medical and mental health needs. Our work protects some of the most vulnerable people in society, who do not leave their rights at the jailhouse door. Our investigations have been successful at identifying not only systemic constitutional violations, but also the root causes of such violations – so that the causes can be fixed and the violations remedied.

This consent decree follows our work in Virginia, where we are enforcing an agreement that ensures medical and mental health care and appropriate housing for people with serious mental illness incarcerated at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail. In Massachusetts, our agreement with the State Department of Correction ensures that people experiencing mental health crisis are not simply locked away in restrictive housing, but instead receive the services they need.

The Cumberland County Jail consent decree also marks a significant milestone in furtherance of the division’s commitment to protect the civil rights of people with opioid use disorders. The Civil Rights Division, together with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices around the country, have prioritized efforts to combat discrimination against people with opioid use disorders under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The law is clear – people receiving treatment for opioid use disorders are generally considered to have a disability under the ADA. Cutting off treatment for such a disability may constitute discrimination against these individuals in violation of the ADA. Jails and prisons cannot have policies prohibiting the continuation of medications that individuals have already been prescribed to treat opioid use disorder. For example, the Civil Rights Division has worked with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts in a number of ADA enforcement matters that includes the Worchester County Jail, a review that resulted in the first agreement between the Department of Justice and a correctional facility regarding MAT in the entire country. The department also has enforced the ADA’s requirement to provide MAT to incarcerated people in matters in Rhode Island (Wyatt Detention Facility) and Kentucky (Fayette County Detention Center).

The Constitution safeguards the inherent dignity and recognizes the intrinsic worth of every human being. Individuals do not lose that protection in jails. All people are entitled to receive adequate medical and mental health care, and that includes those in jails and prisons. To be adequate, this care must include access to life-saving medications, treatment for opioid use disorder and protection from the risk of self-harm and suicide. 

We recognize Cumberland County for working collaboratively with the Justice Department to ensure that the constitutional rights of people detained at the Cumberland County Jail are protected.

I will now turn it over to Philip R. Sellinger, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, who will discuss the specific details about the agreement for his remarks.