Category: US Department of Justice

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Korbein Schultz, a U.S. Army soldier and intelligence analyst, pleaded guilty today to all charges against him in the indictment returned by a federal grand jury in March 2024 charging him with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information, exporting technical data related to defense articles without a license, conspiracy to export defense articles without a license, and bribery of a public official.  

“The defendant abused his access to restricted government systems to sell sensitive military information to a person he knew to be a foreign national,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “By conspiring to transmit national defense information to a person living outside the United States, this defendant callously put our national security at risk to cash in on the trust our military placed in him. Today’s guilty plea is a stark reminder that those who would betray their sworn oath for personal gain will be identified and brought to justice.”  

“This defendant sold national defense information to a foreign actor and conspired to corrupt other members of our military,” said U.S. Attorney Henry C. Leventis for the Middle District of Tennessee. “In doing so, he violated his training and his oath as a member of the armed services and he compromised our national security. Today’s guilty plea to all of the charges in the indictment ensures that he will be held fully accountable for his crimes.” 

“The defendant has admitted guilt in a case that should send a strong message to any U.S. service members thinking about betraying their country,” said Executive Assistant Director Robert Wells of the FBI’s National Security Branch. “The U.S. is governed by the rule of law and when persons placed in a position of trust violate that trust, the FBI and our partners will hold them accountable.  Governments like China are aggressively targeting our military personnel and national security information and we will do everything in our power to ensure that information is safeguarded from hostile foreign governments.” 

“This Soldier swore an oath to faithfully discharge his duties, to include protecting national defense information. Not only did he fail in his sworn duty, but he placed personal gain above his duty to our country and disclosed information that could give advantage to a foreign nation, putting his fellow Soldiers in jeopardy,” said Brigadier General Rhett R. Cox, Commanding General of the Army Counterintelligence Command. “Army Counterintelligence Command, with our partners at the FBI, Department of Justice, and the greater intelligence community will ruthlessly pursue those who commit acts such as these. Let this case serve as a warning: if any member of the Army, past or present, is asked for classified or sensitive information, they should report it to the appropriate authorities within 24 hours or be held fully accountable for their inaction.”

According to charging and plea documents, Schultz – an enlisted intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army who held a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) security clearance – conspired with an individual who lived in Hong Kong and whom Schultz suspected of being associated with the Chinese Government (Conspirator A) to collect national defense information, including classified information and export-controlled technical data related to U.S. military weapons systems, and to transmit that information to Conspirator A in exchange for money. Schultz entered into this conspiracy even though, as part of his official duties in the Army, he was required (1) to protect national defense information, classified information, and controlled unclassified information (CUI); (2) to train other members of his unit on the proper handling, storage and dissemination of classified information and information marked CUI; and (3) to report suspicious incidents, including attempts by anyone without authorization to receive classified or sensitive information about U.S. military operations, organizations, equipment, or personnel.

During the conspiracy, Conspirator A told Schultz the specific information that Conspirator A wanted Schultz to gather and send to him, including sensitive information related to missile defense and mobile artillery systems. Before he was arrested, Schultz sent Conspirator A dozens of sensitive and restricted (but unclassified) U.S. military documents regarding a variety of U.S. military weapons systems and U.S. military tactics and strategy, including documents containing export-controlled technical data. Among the items that Schultz collected and transmitted to Conspirator A were: (1) a document discussing the lessons learned by the U.S. Army from the Ukraine/Russia war that it would apply in a defense of Taiwan; (2) an operations order outlining the deployment of  the defendant’s unit to Eastern Europe in support of NATO operations; (3) an Air Force Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (AFTTP) document relating to the HH-60 helicopter, which included a banner warning that the document contained technical data subject to export controls; (4) an AFTTP manual relating to the F-22A fighter aircraft, which included a banner warning that the document contained technical data subject to export controls; (5) an AFTTP manual relating to the operation of Intercontinental Ballistic Missile systems, which included a banner warning that the document contained technical data subject to export controls; (6) a publication related to the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft; (7) a document describing modifications of the B-52 aircraft; (8) documents describing tactics to counter unmanned aircraft systems and the use of unmanned aircraft systems in large-scale combat operations; (9) documents relating to Chinese military tactics, the Chinese military’s preparedness, and the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force; (10) documents relating to rocket, missile, and artillery weapons systems, including the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile defense system; (11) documents relating to military exercises and U.S. military forces in the Republic of Korea and the Philippines; and (12) a document relating to U.S. military satellites. In exchange for all of this information, Schultz was paid approximately $42,000 by Conspirator A.

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Jan. 23, 2025. Schultz faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for conspiracy to obtain and transmit national defense information; 20 years in prison for exporting technical data related to defense articles to the People’s Republic of China without a license; 20 years in prison for conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR); and 15 years in prison for bribery of a public official. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The FBI and U.S. Army Counterintelligence Command are investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Josh Kurtzman for the Middle District of Tennessee and Trial Attorneys Adam Barry and Christopher Cook of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A Florida man pleaded guilty today to evading nearly $2.4 million in taxes on income he earned from his business. 

According to court documents and statements made in court, Roger Whitman, 76, manufactured and sold medical equipment. Between 2002 and 2018, Whitman generated millions of dollars in gross receipts from the sale of such equipment.  

Whitman has not filed an individual income tax return or made any tax payments since 2000. In 2012, the IRS assessed nearly $800,0000 in taxes against Whitman for tax years 2002 through 2009. In response, to conceal his income and assets, Whitman formed a trust with his girlfriend serving as the trustee. Whitman caused his girlfriend to open two bank accounts in the trust’s name, over which Whitman’s girlfriend had sole signatory authority. Thereafter, Whitman directed his income from the business into the trust’s bank accounts and used the funds from these accounts to pay personal expenses. In approximately July 2019, to further thwart IRS collection efforts, Whitman formed a new entity to operate his business.

Through his actions, Whitman caused a tax loss to the IRS of more than $2.4 million.

Whitman is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 13. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, as well as supervised release and monetary penalties. 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 made the announcement.

IRS Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Melissa Siskind and Andres Chinchilla of the Tax Division are prosecuting the case, with assistance and support from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The Justice Department’s U.S. Trustee Program (USTP) recently obtained a judgment of nearly $105,000 and a permanent injunction against bankruptcy petition preparers whose unfair and deceptive conduct caused a consumer to lose his home of over 20 years to foreclosure.

On July 2, the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas entered a stipulated judgment against CA Enterprises, doing business as Premier Services and Premier Legal Services, and the company’s chief executive, Jescar Denno. Under the stipulated judgment, Premier and Denno paid the debtor almost $95,000 – including $84,032 in actual damages, $6,800 in statutory damages and $3,400 in returned fees – and paid the U.S. Trustee statutory fines of $10,500. Premier and Denno also consented to a permanent injunction in the district prohibiting them from, among other things, acting as bankruptcy petition preparers, soliciting and advertising bankruptcy assistance and providing legal advice.

The debtor paid $3,400 for assistance with a loan modification to save his home from foreclosure. After preparing a skeletal chapter 13 petition for the debtor to file, Premier and Denno provided no meaningful services to the debtor. The bankruptcy case was dismissed with a bar against refiling without court permission, and the debtor lost his home – along with substantial equity – in a foreclosure sale.

“This case is an example of the devastation that dishonest bankruptcy petition preparers can wreak on the lives of consumers afraid of losing their homes to foreclosure,” said Director Tara Twomey of the Executive Office for U.S. Trustees. “The debtor can’t get his home back, but the stipulated judgment is a significant step toward making him whole again.”

The USTP’s San Antonio office filed a complaint alleging multiple violations of the Bankruptcy Code. Premier and Denno initially denied liability, but after discovery conducted by the San Antonio office, they agreed to the entry of a stipulated judgment on all 11 counts alleged in the complaint. Premier has also been barred from providing bankruptcy petition preparer services in at least three other jurisdictions: the District of Kansas, Eastern District of Pennsylvania and District of Maryland. (The USTP issued a press release about the Maryland matter in April 2024.)

The USTP’s mission is to promote the integrity and efficiency of the bankruptcy system for the benefit of all stakeholders – debtors, creditors and the public. The USTP consists of 21 regions with 89 field offices nationwide and an Executive Office in Washington, D.C. Learn more about the USTP at www.justice.gov/ust.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Thank you, Alex, for that generous introduction. And for your leadership.

Earlier today, Department of the Interior Secretary Haaland and I visited the headquarters of the Unit in the Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs that is dedicated to combating the crisis of Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons. We were briefed by experts from the Unit and prosecutors from this office who work every day to make Indian Country safer. And we all underscored our commitment to ending these tragedies and helping Tribal communities heal.

Then we met with Tribal Leaders from the Eight Northern Pueblos of New Mexico to learn about what each Tribe is experiencing in its community. Since 2021, the Justice Department has provided $12.9 million to support a number of Tribal justice initiatives across the Northern Pueblos. We are committed to working with our partners to ensure that all members of Tribal communities feel safe.

Now, I am grateful to be able to meet with the federal, state, local, and Tribal law enforcement partners gathered around this table.

This group of leaders represent the law enforcement officers across the state who make daily sacrifices to protect the people of New Mexico. This also represents the collaborative approach that is at the heart of the Justice Department’s strategy to combat violent crime.

When I became Attorney General three and a half years ago, I knew that the most powerful tool we would have to address violent crime would be our partnerships. That was my experience as a line attorney prosecuting violent crime and narcotics trafficking in the early 1990s, and as a Justice Department official organizing and supervising those efforts later in the 1990s.

So, we built an anti-violent crime strategy rooted in strengthening our collaboration across federal law enforcement; with state, local, and Tribal law enforcement; with partner agencies like Albuquerque Community Safety; and with the communities we all serve.

And we fortified those partnerships by bringing to bear the latest technologies for identifying and prosecuting the criminals who represent the greatest danger to our communities.

Now we have seen results. According to the Albuquerque Police Department, there was about a 19% decrease in homicides and a 41% decrease in robberies in 2023 compared to 2022.

This is consistent with what we have seen nationally, where last year, we saw one of the lowest violent crime rates in 50 years nationwide. That included the largest drop in homicides in 50 years.

But we know that progress in Albuquerque and many communities is still uneven. And of course, there is no acceptable level of violent crime.

The Justice Department is working here in New Mexico and across the country to arrest violent felons, disrupt violent drug trafficking, and prosecute the individuals responsible for the greatest violence.

Last month — working with the Albuquerque Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and FBI — this U.S. Attorney’s Office successfully prosecuted a felon who unlawfully possessed a firearm and shot a woman in the back of the head at a Walmart. She survived, but she required emergency surgery and extensive rehabilitation. Thanks to the work of this office and its partners, the defendant was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.

Also last month, this office secured a six-year sentence for a man who illegally possessed firearms and used them to threaten his wife.

The defendant in that case was under a court protection order that prohibited him from harassing, stalking, or threatening his wife. Despite that, he went to the family residence, stockpiled an arsenal of weapons, and held his wife in the garage against her will. Their son overheard and called 911. And after hours of negotiations, law enforcement arrested the defendant.

The man’s conduct violated a federal statute that prohibits firearm possession by those who, like the defendant, are under court protection orders that prohibit them from harassing or threatening intimate partners. That is the same statute the Department successfully defended before the Supreme Court just a few months ago.

This case underscores why that statute is so important to the Department’s work to combat domestic violence in New Mexico and across the country.

We will continue to combat violent crime and firearms offenses that endanger our communities.

Now, at the same time, we are working relentlessly to get fentanyl — which is the deadliest drug threat this country has ever faced — out of our communities.

Last year, this U.S. Attorney’s Office participated in a joint enforcement operation in Carlsbad that resulted in eight drug trafficking indictments. In April, three of those defendants pled guilty for their roles in the conspiracies to distribute significant volumes of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine.

That same month — working with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Homeland Security Investigations, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, and New Mexico State Police — this office secured a 14-year sentence for a man who was caught with more than 19 pounds of fentanyl in his hotel room.

And back in March, the office secured a guilty plea from a man who intended to distribute more than 32,000 fentanyl pills and 1.7 kilograms of methamphetamine. Investigators found that he had used a social media platform to advertise and sell his drugs.

There are too many families in New Mexico and across the country who have suffered, whose lives have been shattered by fentanyl poisoning. That is why we will never give up on fighting this terrible epidemic.

The examples I have shared with you are just a snapshot of the work this office does every day to fulfill the Justice Department’s mission to keep our communities safe, to protect civil rights, and to uphold the rule of law.

I am very proud of the work of the U.S. Attorney and of all the men and women of this office in the District of New Mexico. And I am equally proud of the partnerships they have nurtured with the federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies represented in this room. These people work every single day to keep the communities in New Mexico safe.

And with that, we will begin our discussion.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The Justice Department announced today that it has secured an agreement with the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction (NCDAC) expanding opportunities for group religious practice throughout the state prison system and allowing access to kosher-for-Passover meals and Seders. The agreement resolves the Justice Department’s investigation of NCDAC pursuant to the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA).  

“The Constitution and federal law guarantee all Americans the freedom to practice their religion, including people who are incarcerated in jails and prisons,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “This agreement will protect the religious practices of incarcerated people across North Carolina by allowing members of minority faiths to gather, worship and study. Whether at home with their families, in houses of worship, or behind bars, every person should be able to celebrate religious holidays and gather with their communities of faith.”

“Federal law guarantees all Americans the right to freely exercise their religion, and institutionalized persons have the right to practice their faith and worship together,” said U.S. Attorney Sandra J. Hairston for the Middle District of North Carolina. “We are committed to protecting this fundamental right and are grateful to the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction for its willingness to work with us and revise its policies to protect the religious rights of individuals in its custody.”

“The settlement agreement reaffirms that all individuals in custody retain the right to practice their religion fully and openly during their incarceration,” said U.S. Attorney Dena J. King for the Western District of North Carolina. “It is our duty to ensure that incarcerated persons are afforded the same religious rights, freedoms and protections as any other citizen. My office is committed to enforcing these rights and ensuring that they are upheld within all correctional facilities in North Carolina.”

“Our Constitution protects the religious liberty of all people to exercise their faith,” said U.S. Attorney Michael Easley for the Eastern District of North Carolina. “In America, that means even those who are incarcerated can continue to worship and pray. NCDAC’s new policies ensure that believers can maintain their faith and religious practices, even after they enter the jailhouse door.”

Under the agreement, NCDAC has adopted a policy that reduces the minimum number of people for group worship to two and no longer requires the presence of a faith helper for religious gathering. Under the prior policy, NCDAC had minimum participant and faith helper requirements for congregate religious practices by “minority faith groups” that often prevented these groups from gathering for worship, celebration and study. Minority faith groups were defined as non-Christian faiths, including adherents of Islam or Judaism.

In addition, when the department began the investigation, NCDAC did not provide certified kosher-for-Passover food to incarcerated people who wished to observe the Passover holiday. The agreement requires that NCDAC provide certified kosher-for-Passover meals every year for the eight days of Passover. In addition, NCDAC will provide the opportunity for people who observe Passover to participate in two Seder ritual observances, which will include a Seder plate of ceremonial foods. 

For additional information about the Civil Rights Division and the Special Litigation Section please visit www.justice.gov/crt/special-litigation-section. The Justice Department issued a report on the 20th Anniversary of RLUIPA in 2020 and a statement and on the Institutionalized Persons Provisions of RLUIPA in 2017. Those interested in finding out more about RLUIPA can visit www.justice.gov/crt/religious-land-use-and-institutionalized-persons-act-0.