Category: US Department of Justice

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The Justice Department announced today that it will monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws in the City of Pawtucket (in Providence County), Rhode Island, for the Sept. 10 primary election.

The Justice Department will assign federal observers to monitor the election in the City of Pawtucket to observe the county’s compliance with the Voting Rights Act. Earlier this year, a federal court approved a consent decree to resolve the department’s claims under Sections 203 of the Voting Rights Act regarding the availability of election assistance and materials in Spanish for Spanish-speaking voters with limited English proficiency in the City of Pawtucket. Section 203 requires that certain jurisdictions, including Pawtucket, provide election materials and assistance in other languages, in addition to English. The decree also addresses a claim under Section 302 of the Help America Vote Act. Section 302 requires jurisdictions to provide provisional ballots during federal elections. The consent decree authorizes federal observers to monitor election day activities in the county’s polling places.

The department regularly deploys its staff to monitor for compliance with federal civil rights laws in elections in communities across the country. In addition, the department also deploys federal observers from the Office of Personnel Management, when authorized by federal court order. 

The Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section, working with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, enforces the civil provisions of federal statutes that protect the right to vote, including the Voting Rights Act, National Voter Registration Act, Help America Vote Act, Civil Rights Acts and the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act.

More information about voting and elections is available on the Justice Department’s website at www.justice.gov/voting. Learn more about the Voting Rights Act and other federal voting laws at www.justice.gov/crt/voting-section. Complaints about possible violations of federal voting rights laws can be submitted through the Civil Rights Division’s website at civilrights.justice.gov or by telephone at 1-800-253-3931.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Robert Hunter Biden (Hunter Biden) pleaded guilty in federal court in Los Angeles this afternoon to all counts in a nine-count indictment, including three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses. There was no plea agreement.

Judge Scarsi accepted the defendant’s guilty plea and scheduled sentencing for December 16, 2024.

According to the indictment, Hunter Biden engaged in a four-year scheme in which he chose not to pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019 and to evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns.  As alleged in the indictment, to further this scheme, Hunter Biden:

• subverted the payroll and tax withholding process of his own company by withdrawing millions outside of the payroll and tax withholding process;
• spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills;
• in 2018, stopped paying his outstanding and overdue taxes for tax year 2015;
• willfully failed to pay his 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 taxes on time, despite having access to funds to pay some or all of these taxes;
• willfully failed to file his 2017 and 2018 tax returns, on time; and
• when he did finally file his 2018 returns, included false business deductions in order to reduce the very substantial tax liability he faced as of February 2020.

At sentencing, Hunter Biden faces a maximum penalty of 17 years in prison. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Court documents and information for this case is located on the website of the District Court for the Central District of California or on PACER by searching for Case No. 2:23-cr-00599.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A Pennsylvania man was sentenced today to 24 months in prison for evading his personal and employment taxes.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Brandon Aumiller, of Milroy, owned an insurance sales business. For tax years 2007 and 2009 through 2011, Aumiller filed personal income tax returns reporting that he owed taxes, but did not pay them. He also filed employment tax returns for his business reporting that it owed taxes for the third quarter of 2013 and the first two quarters of 2014, but did not pay those taxes either.

When the IRS sought to collect the taxes Aumiller admitted he owed, Aumiller engaged in a multi-year scheme to thwart the IRS’ efforts by concealing his assets in nominee bank accounts, structuring multiple real estate deals to conceal the transactions from the IRS and submitting false financial disclosure forms to the IRS that did not fully disclose his bank accounts and his real estate assets.

In total, Aumiller caused a tax loss to the IRS of $478,270.

In addition to the term of imprisonment, U.S. District Judge Christopher C. Conner ordered Aumiller to serve three years of supervised release and to pay approximately 180,000 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 Gerard M. Karam for the Middle District of Pennsylvania made the announcement.

IRS Criminal Investigation investigated the case.

Trial Attorney Matthew L. Cofer of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey W. MacArthur for the Middle District of Pennsylvania prosecuted the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A federal grand jury indicted Dun Terrius Bradford, 53, of Sale City, Georgia, on charges of illegally possessing 67 dogs for fighting purposes, manufacturing and possessing with intent to distribute cocaine base and possessing five firearms in furtherance of those offenses. The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia unsealed the indictment in conjunction with Bradford’s arrest today.

According to court documents, the defendant maintained a stock of 67 fighting dogs at his Sale City home. Following the execution of a search warrant, the dogs were seized and will be cared for by a program administered by the U.S. Marshals Service. Agents also recovered tools and supplies used in the training and keeping of dogs used for fighting, including modified treadmills to hold dogs in place for dog fight conditioning, injectable veterinary steroids, a home-made “breeding stand” used to immobilize female dogs who are too dog-aggressive to mate naturally and a “break stick” device used to break the bite hold of a dog during specified intervals in a dog fight. Officers also recovered cocaine base and five firearms.

If convicted, Bradford faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison per count of animal fighting charges, a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $1 million on the cocaine charge, a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on the firearms charge to be served consecutively to other counts of conviction and a $250,000 fine for each dog fighting and firearms count. Under federal law, it is illegal not only to fight animals, but also to possess, train, transport, deliver, receive, buy or sell animals intended for use in fighting. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) and U.S. Attorney Peter Leary for the Middle District of Georgia made the announcement.

The Department of Agriculture’s Office of the Inspector General and detectives with the Mitchell County, Georgia, Sheriff’s Office are investigating the case.

Senior Trial Attorney Ethan Eddy of ENRD’s Environmental Crimes Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Elicia Hargrove for the Middle District of Georgia are prosecuting the case.

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

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Thank you joining us this afternoon.

I am Matt Olsen, the Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the Department of Justice. I am joined today by the U.S. Attorney Erek Barron for the District of Maryland and Special Agent in Charge William DelBagno of the FBI Baltimore Field Office.

Today, we are announcing a superseding indictment against five officers of the Russian military intelligence agency, known as the GRU, and one civilian Russian cyber-criminal for their campaign to conduct cyber intrusions.

The superseding indictment adds to charges made public in June of this year against the Russian civilian, Amin Stigal. As alleged, the defendants are responsible for, among other malicious cyber activity, carrying out the series of destructive computer attacks, commonly referred to in the cybersecurity community as the “WhisperGate” campaign, which targeted computers in Ukraine shortly before Russia’s invasion in February 2022. More generally, the indictment alleges conspiracies related to cyber intrusions targeting victims in the United States, in Ukraine and elsewhere.

This WhisperGate campaign included the targeting of civilian infrastructure and Ukrainian computer systems wholly unrelated to the military or national defense, including government agencies responsible for emergency services, the judiciary, food safety and education.

Seeking to sap the morale of the Ukrainian public, the defendants also stole and leaked the personal data of thousands of Ukrainian civilians, including by posting individual patient heath information and other sensitive private data for sale online, and then taunting their victims.

They attempted to cover their tracks by pretending to be criminals engaged in ransomware attacks — leaving behind ransom notes demanding Bitcoin payments to return data from victim systems that the perpetrators knew had been destroyed and could not be recovered. Indeed, Stigal’s involvement demonstrates the Russian government’s continued willingness to provide a haven for cybercriminals in exchange for such criminals being “on call” to provide support and deniability for its military and intelligence services.

These conspirators did not limit their activities to Ukraine. They targeted computers around the world and used computer infrastructure of an unwitting U.S.-based company to conduct the WhisperGate attacks. The conspirators went on to target computer systems in other nations supporting Ukraine in its fight for survival, such as one alleged instance of targeting a European country’s transportation infrastructure. Ultimately, their targets included computer systems in 26 NATO partners, including the United States.

Before I turn it over to U.S. Attorney Barron to discuss this case in more detail, I will note that we are announcing today’s charges alongside the concurrent actions of our partners.

The U.S. Department of State is offering a Rewards for Justice reward of up to $10 million for information on the defendants. Over a dozen domestic and foreign partners have issued a joint cyber security advisory regarding the group’s cyber activities. And Estonia also has announced criminal charges against several individuals involved in the same hacking activity, including two of the same defendants.

The Justice Department stands united with our partners and allies in supporting the Ukrainian people in the wake of Russia’s unlawful and unjust invasion. The National Security Division will continue to use every tool in the department’s arsenal – including our private and international partnerships – to identify the individuals, take down the infrastructure and expose the tools and techniques propping up the Russian Government and carrying out its wide-variety of malicious and destabilizing activities.

When it comes to countering Russia’s cyber-enabled malicious activities, National Security Division prosecutors are operating as a force multiplier for prosecutors and agents throughout the country. They are emphasizing prevention and, since Russia’s invasion, have conducted multiple court-authorized takedowns of the GRU’s and other Russian botnets and malware networks. This includes the April 2022 Cyclops Blink operation to remove the GRU’s malware from infected C2 devices, successfully dismantling the GRU botnet and remediating thousands of infected devices, which Russia could have otherwise deployed against Ukraine and its allies. In May 2023, they executed the court-authorized removal of the FSB’s “Snake” malware from hundreds of computer systems in at least 50 countries, undermining the FSB’s global espionage apparatus. And, just a few months ago, the National Security Cyber Section spearheaded the court-authorized takedown of a network of hundreds of compromised routers that the GRU had set up as the successor to Cyclops Blink. Even as our cyber adversaries evolve and adjust tactics, we are rising to counter them every step of the way.

We are also bringing this proactive posture to disrupting cyber-enabled foreign malign influence operations as well. Just yesterday, the Attorney General announced the department’s “Doppelganger” takedown operation to seize 32 internet domains used by the Russian government and its proxies to impersonate legitimate U.S. and foreign media organizations and perpetrate a covert campaign to interfere in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. This followed an action a few months ago to take down a Russian intelligence-operated, AI-enhanced bot farm that was similarly used to disseminate disinformation and sow discord in the U.S. and elsewhere. 

I want to thank U.S. Attorney Barron and the prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, and the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office, Milwaukee Field Office and Boston Field Office. Their dedication and partnership in disrupting this serious activity illustrates the department’s commitment to meeting national security and cybersecurity threats with action.