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Friday, June 16, 2023
Canadian Man Convicted in Multimillion-Dollar Psychic Mass-Mailing Fraud Scheme
A federal jury in the Eastern District of New York convicted a Canadian man today for perpetrating a decades-long mass-mailing fraud scheme that stole more than $175 million from victims in the United States.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Patrice Runner, 57, a Canadian and French citizen, operated a mass-mailing fraud scheme from 1994 through November 2014. As part of the scheme, Runner sent letters to millions of U.S. consumers, many of whom were elderly and vulnerable. The letters falsely purported to be individualized, personal communications from so-called “psychics,” including Maria Duval (leading this type of fraud scheme to be referred to as a “Maria Duval Scam”), and promised that the recipient had the opportunity to achieve great wealth and happiness with the psychic’s assistance, in exchange for payment of a fee. Once..

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Friday, June 16, 2023
Man Convicted of $54M Bribery and Kickback Scheme Involving Fraudulent Prescriptions
A federal jury convicted a Florida man for his role in a $54 million bribery and kickback scheme involving TRICARE, a federal program that provides health insurance benefits to active duty and retired service members and their families.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, David Byron Copeland, 55, of Tallahassee, was a part-owner and senior sales manager at Florida Pharmacy Solutions (FPS), a Florida-based pharmacy that specialized in compounded prescription drugs. Copeland, along with his accomplices, engaged in a practice known as “test billing” to develop the most expensive combination of compounded drugs to maximize reimbursement from TRICARE. Copeland and his accomplices targeted physicians who treated TRICARE beneficiaries and paid bribes and kickbacks to physicians and salespeople to encourage the referral of prescrip..

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Thursday, June 15, 2023
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Statement on Haaland v. Brackeen
The Justice Department issued the following statement from Attorney General Merrick B. Garland following the Supreme Court’s decision in Haaland v. Brackeen:

“The Justice Department is committed to honoring Tribal sovereignty and protecting Indian children and families. For nearly 45 years, the Indian Child Welfare Act has helped protect Tribal children from being unnecessarily separated from their parents, extended family, and Tribal communities.

I am pleased that today’s Supreme Court decision in Haaland v. Brackeen rejected this challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act. The Justice Department vigorously defended the statute before the Supreme Court and will continue to support the Indian Child Welfare Act and do everything in our power to protect Tribal communities and affirm Tribal sovereignty.”

Topic(s): Indian Country Law and JusticeComponent(s): Office of ..

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Thursday, June 15, 2023
Russian National Arrested and Charged with Conspiring to Commit LockBit Ransomware Attacks Against U.S. and Foreign Businesses
The Justice Department today announced charges against a Russian national for his involvement in deploying numerous LockBit ransomware and other cyberattacks against victim computer systems in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Africa.

Ruslan Magomedovich Astamirov (АСТАМИРОВ, Руслан Магомедовичь), 20, of Chechen Republic, will make his initial appearance later today.

“This LockBit-related arrest, the second in six months, underscores the Justice Department’s unwavering commitment to hold ransomware actors accountable,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco. “In securing the arrest of a second Russian national affiliated with the LockBit ransomware, the Department has once again demonstrated the long arm of the law. We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to disrupt cybercrime, and while cyb..

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Thursday, June 15, 2023
Foreign National Sentenced for Trafficking Child Pornography
A Bulgarian national was sentenced today to 25 years in prison for conspiracy to traffic images and videos depicting the sexual exploitation of young children.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Plamen Georgiev Velinov, 49, of Sofia, helped manage and administer the Newstar Enterprise, an internet-based business that profited from the sexual exploitation of vulnerable children under the guise of “child modeling,” through a collection of websites called the Newstar Websites. Beginning in around 2006 and continuing until 2019, Velinov assisted the enterprise by selecting children to be featured on the Newstar Websites, editing images and videos on those websites, communicating with customers, setting prices for videos, activating new websites, and creating advertising banners. While chatting with a co-conspirator, Velinov described one child as “nucle..

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Thursday, June 15, 2023
Air National Guardsman Indicted for Unlawful Disclosure of Classified National Defense Information
A member of the U.S. Air National Guard (USANG) stationed in Massachusetts was indicted today by a federal grand jury in Boston for allegedly retaining and transmitting classified national defense information on a social media platform beginning in or around 2022 and continuing until his arrest in April.

Jack Douglas Teixeira, 21, of North Dighton, Massachusetts, was indicted on six counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information relating to the national defense (National Defense Information). Teixeira was arrested on April 13, 2023, and charged by criminal complaint with retention and transmission of national defense information and unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or materials. On May 19, 2023, U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge David H. Hennessy granted the government’s motion for dete..

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Thursday, June 15, 2023
Two Jacksonville Compounding Pharmacies and Their Owner Agree to Pay at Least $7.4 Million to Resolve False Claims Act Allegations
The Justice Department announced today that Smart Pharmacy, Inc., SP2, LLC, and owner Gregory Balotin have agreed to pay at least $7.4 million to resolve lawsuits filed in Jacksonville, Florida, alleging they violated the False Claims Act by adding the antipsychotic drug aripiprazole to topical compounded pain creams to boost reimbursement and by routinely waiving patient copayment obligations. The settlement amount is based on the defendants’ ability to pay.

“When pharmacies inflate their revenue with medically unsupported prescription ingredients, they compromise the quality of patient care and waste taxpayer dollars,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The department will hold accountable those who undermine the integrity o..

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Thursday, June 15, 2023
Foreign National Sentenced for International Cocaine Trafficking Conspiracy
A Mexican national was sentenced today in the District of Columbia to 13 years in prison for conspiring to distribute cocaine for importation into the United States.

According to court documents, between 1998 and approximately 2012, Jaime Antonio Mandujano-Eudave, 61, worked with the Sinaloa Cartel to coordinate the transportation of cocaine by boat from Colombia to Culiacan, Los Cabos, and elsewhere in Mexico. Mandujano-Eudave communicated GPS coordinates to the boats’ crew members to facilitate meetings in the Pacific Ocean. There, the cocaine-laden boats from Colombia would meet other boats under the control of the Sinaloa Cartel and offload the cocaine. These boats transported multi-kilogram amounts of cocaine. Once the cocaine arrived in Mexico, other members of Sinaloa Cartel would transport the cocaine to the United States for sale. Mandujano-Eudave knew..

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Thursday, June 15, 2023
Oregon Man Pleads Guilty to Hate Crime Charges for Bias-Motivated Attacks in Boise
An Oregon man pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court in Boise, Idaho, today to two federal hate crimes.

According to court records, on Oct. 8, 2022, while at the Boise Public Library Main Branch in downtown Boise, Matthew Alan Lehigh, 31, approached a transgender library employee, called her a slur, punched her and threatened to stab her. A member of the library’s security staff intervened, and Lehigh fled into the parking lot. When the security guard attempted to speak to Lehigh in the parking lot, Lehigh got into a car and suddenly accelerated it toward the guard, intending to collide with him. The guard narrowly escaped being struck by jumping behind a concrete barricade at the last moment, and Lehigh fled the scene.

Four days later, while sitting in his car in a public parking lot elsewhere in Boise, Lehigh saw two women walking together towards ..

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Thursday, June 15, 2023
Readout from Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta’s Meeting with Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe
Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta traveled to Minnesota today and met with Tribal leaders and members of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. The trip focused on areas – public safety, justice administration, reentry and victims’ services – where the Justice Department provides substantial grant funding to support Tribal self-governance. Associate Attorney General Gupta held government-to-government meetings with the Tribe’s leadership, heard about the Tribe’s work to respond to challenges and reinforced the Justice Department’s commitment to supporting Indian Country. She was joined throughout the trip by Director Tracy Toulou of the Justice Department’s Office of Tribal Justice (OTJ).

The Associate Attorney General’s trip to the Mille Lacs Band is the first in a series of meetings with Tribal governments on Tribal land in the coming months a..