Latest Features:
- Civil Rights Division ~ Uzbek Man Pleads Guilty to Racketeering Charges
- Tax Division ~ Justice Department Seeks to Shut Down Chicago Tax Return Preparer
- Justice Blog ~ Keeping Them Safe: The Task Force on Drug Endangered Children
- Antitrust Division ~ Georgia Manufacturer of Food Service Equipment Hardware Pays $3.3 Million Fine for Role in Customer Allocation Conspiracy
- Civil Rights Division ~ Justice Department Issues Guidance Letter to State Courts Regarding Their Obligation to Provide Language Access
ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center
SOURCE: DOJ Office of Public Affairs
18August2010 8:35amPDT
GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE:
Uzbek Man Pleads Guilty to Racketeering Charges
WASHINGTON - Ilkham Fazilov pleaded guilty today to racketeering conspiracy for his role in a criminal enterprise that engaged in numerous criminal activities including forced labor, fraud in foreign labor contracting, visa fraud, mail fraud, identity theft, tax evasion and money laundering, the Justice Department announced today.
According to court documents, Fazilov performed payroll functions and executed fraudulent petitions for foreign workers. Fazilov also opened bank accounts for the unlawful transfer of proceeds to facilitate criminal enterprise activities.
"The defendant was part of an organization that for pure greed exploited the hopes and dreams of numerous foreign workers to work legally in this country through foreign worker programs," said Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Thomas E. Perez. "The Department of Justice will continue to vigorously prosecute these cases."
Multiple co-defendants have previously pleaded guilty in connection with the case. Co-defendant Alexandru Frumusache, 24, a citizen of the Republic of Moldova residing in Kansas City, Kan., pleaded guilty on Oct. 7, 2009, to forced labor trafficking, in connection with his role in aiding and abetting others in a scheme to hold foreign workers from the Phillipines, Dominican Republic and Jamaica, in overcrowded, substandard living conditions, and to compel the workers into continued service by causing the workers to believe that they would be deported, or that their work visas would be cancelled, or that they or their families would be penalized, if the workers failed or refused to work where and when they were ordered to work. Trial for the remaining defendants is set for Oct. 18, 2010.
The case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the Department of Labor, the Internal Revenue Service, the Kansas Department of Revenue and the Independence Police Department. U.S. Attorney Criminal Chief Gene Porter, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Meiners and Civil Rights Division Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit Trial Attorney Jim Felte prosecuted this case for the government.
Justice Department Seeks to Shut Down Chicago Tax Return Preparer - CBD Tax Service Allegedly Files Returns with Bogus Claims
WASHINGTON - The United States has sued a Chicago tax return preparer seeking to bar him and his company from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. The civil injunction suit alleges that Charlie Wilson and his Chicago business, CBD Tax Service, claim bogus deductions and credits on customers� federal tax returns.
Wilson allegedly included fabricated claims for charitable deductions, employee business expenses and other deductions on tax returns that he and his business prepared since 2006. According to the government complaint, from 2006 to 2009, CBD Tax Service prepared approximately 6,527 federal income tax returns for customers with an unusually high refund rate of over 98 percent and, in 2009 alone, Wilson himself prepared at least 894 tax returns with a 98 percent refund rate.
In the past 10 years the Justice Department�s Tax Division has obtained injunctions against hundreds of tax-return preparers and tax-fraud promoters. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website.
Keeping Them Safe: The Task Force on Drug Endangered Children
In May of this year an interagency task force was formed at the Department of Justice to help protect drug endangered children. A drug endangered child is a young person under the age of 18 who lives in or is exposed to an environment where drugs, including pharmaceuticals, are present for any number of reasons, including trafficking and manufacturing of these drugs. As a result of that exposure, these children experience or are at high risk of experiencing physical, sexual or emotional abuse, harm or neglect.
Tragically, these children also experience or are at risk of being forced to participate in illegal or sexual activity in exchange for drugs or in exchange for money likely to be used to purchase drugs.
Originally stemming from the methamphetamine crisis, this movement was initiated within the last decade to respond to the growing phenomenon of finding children in meth labs� homes and other areas where they were living or playing. In 2003 alone, 3,300 children were found in the 8,000 methamphetamine labs that were raided. These children had often been severely harmed or neglected, and tested positive in many instances for drugs.
Since that time, the movement to identify and aid these children has expanded in scope and impact to include partners on the federal, state, and local levels and to protect children endangered by various types of drugs.
On a recent conference call, Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary G. Grindler, who leads the Task Force on behalf of the Justice Department, spoke with national advocacy groups, community leaders, tribal representatives, and law enforcement officials who specialize in drug endangered children issues.
Grindler reviewed the Task Force�s intentions, including compiling a comprehensive guide to the variety of ongoing efforts across the country. Gathering this information will allow the Task Force to identify best practices for keeping these children safe. It will also reveal where there are gaps that need to be filled.
The Task Force has also reviewed the full scope of legislative definitions and associated criminal statutes that relate to drug endangered children and hopes to make recommendations on model laws by that have been effective in different states.
The Task Force is also focused on gathering education resources and intends to produce materials that can be used by federal, state and local law enforcement and children�s advocates nationwide. The Task Force will create online resources that will be available to the general public.
Training is a core component of the Task Force mission. In addition to offering training to law enforcement at the federal, state and local level the Task Force is working with state, local and non-profit partners to determine the most effective means to incorporate drug endangered children training into their existing curriculums.
Children everywhere must be protected. By identifying this problem and working together to solve it at the federal level and with our state, local and tribal partners, we can ensure that we put an end to this viscous cycle and protect this especially vulnerable population.
Georgia Manufacturer of Food Service Equipment Hardware Pays $3.3 Million Fine for Role in Customer Allocation Conspiracy
WASHINGTON - A New York corporation, whose principal place of business is Newnan, Ga., was sentenced to pay a $3.3 million criminal fine for conspiring to allocate customers in the food service equipment hardware market, including walk-in refrigeration equipment, the Department of Justice announced today.
Kason Industries Inc., a food service equipment manufacturer, pleaded guilty on May 19, 2010, in U.S. District Court in Atlanta. Kason Industries and its former president, Peter A. Katz, were charged on May 6, 2010, with one count of participating in a conspiracy from December 2004 until at least December 2008, to allocate customers for food service equipment hardware sold in the United States and elsewhere. The department said that the purpose of the conspiracy was to reduce and eliminate competition in the sale of the food service equipment hardware manufactured or sold by Kason Industries, Katz and their co-conspirators. Katz, who also pleaded guilty, is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 5, 2011.
Food service equipment hardware includes fabricated parts, such as cafeteria hardware, equipment legs and casters, and fabrication supplies, and walk-in refrigeration components, such as metal racks, door hinges, handles, latches, closers and panel fasteners.
According to court documents, Katz and co-conspirators agreed during meetings and telephone and e-mail discussions to allocate customers of food service equipment hardware; not to compete for one another�s protected customers or to submit intentionally high prices or bids to certain customers; to exchange prices to customers so as not to undercut one another�s prices; and to sell food service equipment hardware at collusive and noncompetitive prices.
Today�s sentencing is the result of an ongoing federal antitrust investigation of customer allocation in the food service equipment hardware industry. The investigation is being conducted by the Antitrust Division�s Atlanta Field Office and the FBI�s Atlanta Office.
Anyone with information concerning customer allocation or other anticompetitive conduct in the food service equipment hardware industry should contact the Antitrust Division�s Atlanta Field Office at 404-331-7100 or visit www.justice.gov/atr/contact/newcase.htm.
Justice Department Issues Guidance Letter to State Courts Regarding Their Obligation to Provide Language Access
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department today issued a letter to chief justices and administrators of state courts clarifying the obligation of courts that receive federal financial assistance to provide oral interpretation, written translation and other language services to people who are limited English proficient (LEP).� This month marks the 10th anniversary of Executive Order 13166 which requires federal agencies to ensure that recipients of federal financial assistance comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by providing meaningful access to LEP persons.
Today�s letter provides state courts guidance regarding the requirement to provide meaningful access to their programs and services for LEP persons through the provision of language services, pursuant to the prohibition against national origin discrimination contained in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act (Safe Streets Act), and their implementing regulations. The letter includes an overview of applicable civil rights laws, Supreme Court precedent, guidance and illustrative examples of situations that would warrant the provision of language services.
The letter explains that applicable civil rights laws require courts receiving federal financial assistance to provide meaningful access to all civil, criminal or administrative hearings, at no charge to LEP individuals.� It further explains that such access should be extended to LEP parties and other LEP individuals whose presence or participation is appropriate to the court proceedings; should be provided in court programs or activities outside of the courtroom; and should include language services for communication between LEP individuals and court appointed or court managed service providers.�
�Justice requires that all individuals have meaningful access to the critical services provided by the nation�s state court systems, regardless of the individual�s English language skills,� said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.� �As we mark the 10th anniversary of the issuance of Executive Order 13166 this month, it is especially appropriate to remember our shared responsibility to reduce persistent language barriers in court proceedings and services that are of such importance to the daily lives of parties, victims, witnesses and the public.��
For more information about Title VI and the Safe Streets Act, or to obtain copies of the letter, visit www.lep.gov.�
