News and reports from the Department of Justice.

A federal grand jury in Tyler, Texas, returned an indictment yesterday charging a Texas husband and wife with crimes related to their conspiracy to defraud the United States by seeking fraudulent tax refunds.

An Alaska man was arrested yesterday in Anchorage for allegedly threatening to injure and kill six U.S. Supreme Court Justices and some of their family members.

A California real estate executive was sentenced today to one year and one day in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a fine of $200,000 for engaging in an extensive multi-year conspiracy to falsify financial statements.

Thank you for that introduction, Liz Ryan, and good afternoon, everyone. It’s wonderful to be with you all today. I want to thank Liz for her leadership, both as Administrator of our Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) and as vice chair of the council. She is deeply committed to this council’s work and is such a strong voice for the youth of our country.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke announced the initiation of a civil investigation into the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department and Rankin County, Mississippi. The probe aims to determine whether these entities engage in practices that violate constitutional or federal laws.

The Justice Department announced today that Morningstar Storage, which manages and operates a network of self-storage facilities in the southeastern United States, has agreed to pay $130,000 to resolve allegations of violating the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA). The company allegedly failed to obtain court orders before auctioning the contents of at least three storage units owned by active-duty servicemembers.

Oak Street Health, headquartered in Chicago and a wholly-owned subsidiary of CVS Health since 2023, has agreed to pay $60 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by paying kickbacks to third-party insurance agents in exchange for recruiting seniors to Oak Street Health’s primary care clinics.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced today that OceanFirst Bank, N.A. has agreed to pay over $15 million to resolve allegations of redlining in predominantly Black, Hispanic, and Asian neighborhoods in Middlesex, Monmouth, and Ocean Counties in New Jersey. Redlining is an illegal practice where lenders avoid providing credit services based on the race, color, or national origin of residents.

The Justice Department announced a court-authorized law enforcement operation that disrupted a botnet comprising over 200,000 consumer devices in the United States and globally. According to court documents unsealed in the Western District of Pennsylvania, the botnet was infected by People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-sponsored hackers associated with Integrity Technology Group, a Beijing-based company known as “Flax Typhoon” in the private sector.

The Justice Department has filed a civil claim in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland against Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Private Limited, the Singaporean corporations that owned and operated the container ship responsible for destroying the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte of the Justice Department’s Office of Legislative Affairs traveled to El Paso, Texas, on Sept. 16 to engage with stakeholders in underserved communities and reaffirm the department’s commitment to protecting the civil rights of all Americans. U.S. Attorney Jamie Esparza for the Western District of Texas joined them for the meetings.

A federal jury in San Diego convicted a California man yesterday of wire fraud, conspiracy, and tax crimes for schemes to defraud COVID-19 relief programs and file false tax returns.

The Justice Department convened on Monday its quarterly interagency meeting with LGBTQI+ community stakeholders. Members of the Office of the Attorney General and the LGBTQI+ Working Group of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division outlined relevant enforcement efforts across the department and highlighted actions to address discrimination in education and employment and combat hate crimes. Assistant Secretary of Education Catherine Lhamon of the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights also addressed the attendees and highlighted efforts to ensure safe...

Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed two Acting U.S. Trustees, the Executive Office for U.S. Trustees announced today. Under 28 U.S.C. § 585(a), the Attorney General may fill U.S. Trustee vacancies by appointing an Acting U.S. Trustee.

On September 18, 2024, Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Chetan A. Patil delivered remarks regarding the Justice Department's lawsuit against Grace Ocean and Synergy, the owner and operator of the Motor Vessel DALI. The lawsuit seeks to recover over $100 million in federal taxpayer funds spent in response to the destruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Additionally, punitive damages are sought due to what is described as "reckless and grossly negligent conduct" by these entities.