Category: US Department of Justice

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A former Caltrans contract manager and a former contractor were sentenced today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in Sacramento for their roles in a bid-rigging and bribery scheme involving Caltrans improvement and repair contracts.

Choon Foo “Keith” Yong, the former Caltrans contract manager, was sentenced to 49 months’ imprisonment and ordered to pay $984,699.53 in restitution. According to a plea agreement filed on April 11, 2022, Yong and his co-conspirators engaged in a conspiracy, from early 2015 through late 2019, to thwart the competitive bidding process for Caltrans contracts to ensure that companies controlled by Yong’s co-conspirators submitted the winning bid and would be awarded the contract. Yong also pleaded guilty for accepting bribes while working for Caltrans, a California state agency that receives significant federal funding. Yong received the bribes in the form of cash payments, wine, furniture and remodeling services on his home. The total value of the payments and benefits that Yong received neared $1 million.  

William D. Opp, the former contractor, was sentenced to 45 months’ imprisonment and ordered to pay $797,940.23 in restitution. According to a plea agreement filed on Oct. 3, 2022, Opp engaged in the same conspiracy, from early 2015 through at least as late as August 2018. As part of the conspiracy, Opp formed a separate construction company, with his wife as the nominal president, to submit sham bids on Caltrans contracts. During his participation in the conspiracy, Opp and co-conspirators provided nearly $800,000 in cash bribes and other benefits to Yong.

Yong and Opp are the second and third co-conspirators to be sentenced in the case. On April 17, 2023, former construction company owner Bill R. Miller was sentenced to 78 months’ imprisonment and ordered to pay nearly $1 million in restitution.

“These criminals – including a state employee who sought sales commissions for his role in the bid-rigging scheme – put greed and personal gain ahead of the public trust and are being punished accordingly,” said Director Daniel Glad of the Justice Department’s Procurement Collusion Strike Force (PCSF). “The Antitrust Division and our PCSF partners are on the lookout for those that try to cheat on government contracts.”

“A former Caltrans employee and a contractor have been sentenced today for a conspiracy that cheated a state agency out of taxpayer funds and that, if left unchecked, could threaten to undermine public confidence in the proper functioning of government institutions,” said U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert for the Eastern District of California. “The defendants’ abuse of public trust and the length and breadth of the criminal conduct fully warrant today’s sentences. Bribes have no place in government contracting.”

“All government employees are expected to conduct businesses in accordance with both law and policy to ensure the integrity of those transactions and maintain public trust in the agencies they represent,” said Special Agent in Charge Sean Ragan of the FBI Sacramento Field Office. “No government official should put personal gain ahead of the needs of the communities they represent. The FBI stands ever ready to identify, investigate, and disrupt public corruption to ensure the American public’s trust in the institutions designed to serve and protect them is maintained.”

Today’s sentencing is the result of a joint investigation that was conducted by the Antitrust Division’s San Francisco office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California, and the FBI’s Sacramento Field Office as part of the Justice Department’s Procurement Collusion Strike Force (PCSF).

Trial Attorneys Christopher J. Carlberg and Tai S. Milder and Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee S. Bickley prosecuted the case.

In November 2019, the Department of Justice created the Procurement Collusion Strike Force, a joint law enforcement effort to combat antitrust crimes and related fraudulent schemes that impact government procurement, grant, and program funding at all levels of government — federal, state and local. To contact the Procurement Collusion Strike Force, or to report information on market allocation, price fixing, bid rigging and other anticompetitive conduct related to construction or infrastructure, go to www.justice.gov/procurement-collusion-strike-force.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

FARGO –United States Attorney Mac Schneider, District of North Dakota, announced that Marie Um, 42, from Montreal, Québec Canada, was found guilty for the charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribute controlled substances and controlled substance analogues resulting in serious bodily injury and death; conspiracy to import controlled substances and controlled substance analogues resulting in serious bodily injury and death; and international money laundering conspiracy.

On April 11, 2023, the trial of Marie Umcommenced, in Fargo, North Dakota. Marie Um was part of an organization that was receiving fentanyl and fentanyl analogues from China and distributing them to the United States and Canada. After 2 weeks of trial and 3 ½ days of deliberation, the jury found Marie Um guilty of conspiracy to distribute and import controlled substances into the United States and money laundering conspiracy. The jury found that 9 overdoses (4 deaths and 5 serious bodily injuries) were reasonably foreseeable to her.

A sentence date has not yet been scheduled.

This case is part of “Operation Denial,” an Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation into the international trafficking of fentanyl and fentanyl analogues and was significantly aided by the national and international coordination led by the multi-agency Special Operations Division (S.O.D.) near Washington, DC, as part of “Operation Deadly Merchant.” The investigation started in North Dakota, on January 3, 2015, with the overdose death in Grand Forks, ND, of Bailey Henke.

Operation Denial has led to thirty-one (31) defendants charged in North Dakota and three (3) defendants charged in Oregon. The investigation has resulted in nearly $1 million in cash and property forfeited from members of the organization.

In 2021, three Canadian nationals, including Marie Um, were extradited from Canada to the United States. The defendants were detained awaiting trial scheduled in Fargo. On August 31, 2021, the U.S. Department of State offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of People’s Republic of China (PRC) national Jian Zhang, a fugitive in this transnational investigation.

This case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement -Homeland Security Investigations; North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation; U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration; U.S. Postal Inspection Service; Grand Forks Narcotics Task Force; Royal Canadian Mounted Police; Portland Oregon Police Bureau – Drugs and Vice Division; Portland HIDTA Interdiction Task Force; Oregon State Police; and Grand Forks Police Department.

The prosecutor for this case was Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher C. Myers, District of North Dakota.

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Source: United States Department of Justice News

ANCHORAGE – A federal Grand Jury in Anchorage, Alaska returned an indictment on Friday, April 21, 2023, charging Michael Mikhail Beans of Saint Mary’s Alaska with two (2) felony counts for violations of the Lacey Act and nineteen (19) felony counts for wire fraud in connection with the sale of the illegal moose hunts.

From October of 2021 to the present Beans collected over $59,000 from hunting parties, over thirty hunters in total, for moose hunts to be conducted in Alaska in September of 2022 and September of 2023.

According to court documents, Beans, 34, was charged by the grand jury for Lacey Act violations for guiding two hunters for bull moose when not licensed as a Big Game Guide or Transporter by the State of Alaska. The Lacey Act makes it illegal to transport and illegally sold wildlife in interstate commerce.

Beans was also charged with wire fraud in connection with booking guided moose hunts, receiving over $59,000 in electronic payments from clients, and then canceling the hunts without providing a refund.

If convicted Beans faces up to five (5) year imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.

An arraignment date has not been set. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

U.S. Attorney S. Lane Tucker of the District of Alaska and Special Agent In-Charge Jeff Mihan made the announcement.

The investigation is being handled by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Alaska Wildlife Troopers Investigations Unit.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ainsley McNerney and Steve Skrocki 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

The Justice Department announced today that it has reached a settlement agreement with the Sheriff of Mobile County, Alabama, to resolve the department’s lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama alleging violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII).

The settlement agreement resolves the department’s allegations that female corrections officers at the Mobile County Metro Jail were regularly subjected to severe and pervasive sexual harassment in the workplace by male inmates and that, despite the employees’ numerous reports to jail supervisors objecting to the harassment, the sheriff’s office did not take the complaints seriously and failed to take prompt and effective action to remedy this harassing conduct.

The department’s lawsuit also alleges that male inmates harassed female employees assigned to the jail’s housing units by frequently exposing their genitals to and masturbating at them, and that inmates also directed sexual slurs, sexual propositions, threats of sexual violence and sexually degrading comments toward female employees.

“Employers must take appropriate action to protect their employees from sexual harassment in the workplace,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Just like any other workplace, jails must take steps necessary to ensure that female employees are not subject to a sexually hostile work environment in any form.”

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, if approved by the court, the sheriff will pay $2.02 million into a settlement fund that will be used to compensate those women who were harmed by the employment practices challenged by the United States. The agreement also requires the sheriff to develop a comprehensive inmate sexual misconduct policy; train all jail employees on the new policy related to inmate sexual misconduct; maintain a dedicated housing area to house inmates found guilty of sexual misconduct; and appoint an Inmate Sexual Misconduct Disciplinary Hearing Officer to monitor and track compliance with the new inmate sexual misconduct policy.

This lawsuit is part of the Civil Rights Division’s Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Initiative. The initiative is aimed at eradicating sexual harassment in state and local government workplaces. It focuses on litigation, outreach and development of effective remedial measures to address and prevent future sex discrimination and harassment.

Trial Attorneys Taryn Wilgus Null, Alicia Johnson, Juliet Gray, Emily Given, Catherine Sellers, Sharion Scott and Julia Quinn of the Civil Rights Division’s Employment Litigation Section prosecuted the case. 

The full and fair enforcement of Title VII is a top priority of the Civil Rights Division’s Employment Litigation Section. Additional information about the Civil Rights Division and the Employment Litigation Section is available on its websites www.justice.gov/crt and www.justice.gov/crt/employment-litigation-section.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – On April 20, 2023, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Alexander Joel Rivera-Santos, 25, of Salinas, Puerto Rico, with possession and transportation of child sexual abuse material, announced W. Stephen Muldrow, U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico. The arrest follows an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) with the assistance of the Puerto Rico Police Bureau (PRPB) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Puerto Rico.

According to the indictment, from May 2021 through June 2022, Rivera-Santos knowingly possessed images of child pornography, including child pornography of a minor who had not attained 12 years of age, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A. As such, Rivera-Santos faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years and a maximum of 20 years of imprisonment, if convicted.

“The U.S. Attorney’s Office will continue to work with its law enforcement partners to aggressively investigate and prosecute persons who use technology to victimize children who are victims of child exploitation crimes,” said U.S. Attorney Muldrow.

“Our HSI San Juan agents are collaborating relentlessly with agents from all over the nation to identify and prosecute with solid evidence all those who have the intent to damage the innocence of our children. They can try to hide in chat rooms or cyber spaces, but rest assured, we will find them,” said Rebecca C. González, Acting Special Agent in Charge of HSI San Juan.

Rivera-Santos had his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Marcos López and was ordered to remain temporarily detained at the Guaynabo Metropolitan Detention Center pending further proceedings.

Assistant United States Attorney Emelina Agrait-Barreto, of the Child Exploitation and Immigration Unit, is in charge of the prosecution of this case.

HSI is the principal investigative arm of DHS and a vital U.S. asset in combatting transnational crimes and threats. One of HSI’s top priorities is to protect the public from crimes of victimization, and HSI’s child exploitation investigations program is a central component of this mission. HSI is recognized as a global leader in this investigative discipline, and is committed to utilizing its vast authorities, international footprint and strong government and non-government partnerships to identify and rescue child victims, identify and apprehend offenders, prevent transnational child sexual abuse and help make the internet a safer place for children.

For more information about HSI’s efforts to protect children from online sexual abuse, visit https://www.ice.gov/topics/iGuardians.

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

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