The Agencies are extending the comment period deadline from April 24, 2026 to May 21, 2026 to give all stakeholders more time to provide fulsome input on the development of up-to-date guidance to the business community, building on the previous 2000 Antitrust Guidelines for Collaborations Among Competitors.
Interested parties, including attorneys, economists, academics, consumer groups, industry stakeholders or other members of the public, may now submit public comments no longer than 18 pages to Regulations.gov until May 21, 2026. The information submitted will be used by the Agencies to consider updated guidance.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
KELIJAH RICHARDSON, also known as “KeKe,” “Keek,” and “Lijh,” 28, and ANIBAL RIVERA, also known as “Go,” “Greenlight Go,” and “greenlightgo.1,” 27, both of Bridgeport, have been charged by indictment with robbing a jewelry store in Clinton earlier this year.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
BOSTON – A Dominican national who unlawfully resided in Dorchester has been indicted by a federal grand jury for illegally reentering the United States after having been deported on three separate occasions. The defendant has previously been convicted of drug trafficking, aggravated identity theft and wire fraud dating as far back as 1997.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Earlier today in federal court in Brooklyn, a ten-count indictment was unsealed charging Puthugramam “Harish” Chidambaran, the founder and former Chief Executive Officer of iLearningEngines, Inc. (iLearning), and Sayyed Farhan Ali “Farhan” Naqvi, iLearning’s former Chief Financial Officer, with running a continuing financial crimes enterprise, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and wire fraud. The charges arise from the defendants’ years-long scheme to defraud retail and institutional investors in iLearning, a technology company that claimed to provide artificial intelligence (AI)-driven business automation solutions, and to obtain financing for iLearning through materially false and misleading statements about the company’s financial performance. Chidambaran was arrested this morning in Potomac, Maryland, and will appear this afternoon in federal court in the District of Maryland. Naqvi was arrested this morning in San Jose, California, and will appear this afternoon in federal court in the Northern District of California. Both defendants will appear in federal court in the Eastern District of New York at a later date.
VICENZA, Italy – A three-person tiger team launched in February 2025 has helped transform U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) into the Army’s premier battle lab in Africa. The team now helps the command lead by transforming operational data into fast, actionable decisions.
The team integrates machine learning to fuse information from external sources. This platform replaces fragmented workflows with automated decision support for commanders, enhancing real-time situational awareness.
The push for this system began after an extended joint task force operation spanning multiple geographic combatant commands. A subsequent after-action review revealed severe data silos and a fractured information environment across the staff.
“Staff relied on scattered PowerPoints and inconsistent network drives, causing widespread confusion,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Kevin Ong, the SETAF-AF influence branch chief. “We lacked a central location for all parties to determine the actual ground truth.”
U.S. Army Capt. Josh Digulla and U.S. Army Maj. David Trinh, both members of the early entry command post assigned to U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF), work inside the mobile command post during a communications exercise at Caserma Del Din, Vicenza, Italy, Sept. 3, 2025. SETAF-AF conducted a week-long joint planning process, as well as the COMMEX, both part of a contingency operations exercise which was a critical step toward validating its joint task force capabilities. (U.S. Army photo by Brian Andries) (Photo Credit: Brian Andries)VIEW ORIGINAL
In response, SETAF-AF’s G3 operations directorate tasked Ong to lead a “tiger team.” Starting with three staff members, a limited budget and no dedicated engineering support, they studied data-mature commands like U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and U.S. Central Command. The team borrowed use cases and adapted strategic-level tools to fit operational requirements.
“It felt like being a substitute teacher,” Ong said. “You read the lesson a day ahead and then try to teach the rest of the staff the next day.”
Over the past year, the team built or tailored approximately a dozen tools to make users more efficient. For example, the “Scribe” tool uses artificial intelligence to transcribe meetings, identify speakers and generate action items for staff officers.
SETAF-AF Smart Search enables staff members to query command-specific classified documents without exposing sensitive data to external AI models. Its success has prompted other commands to develop their own tailored versions.
A tailored decision support matrix gives a commander a structured, data-driven framework to evaluate operational courses of action using live feeds. Rather than sifting through disconnected reports, that commander sees competing options ranked side by side against near real-time data, enabling faster, more confident decisions.
This platform dismantles historical information silos and automates manual analytical processes. Its tools slash the time required for administrative tasks and compresses workflows that once took trained staff members days to complete into minutes.
Across every tool, Ong’s team prioritizes machine-human teaming, ensuring that automation focuses on data aggregation and pattern recognition, while the user reviews, interprets and decides.
U.S. Army Master Sgt. Ramon Curiel, left, an operations watch officer assigned to U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF), and U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Erin Guy, the Ready and Resilient Performance Center program manager for SETAF-AF, work inside the tactical operations center at Caserma Del Din, Vicenza, Italy, Sept. 3, 2025. SETAF-AF conducted a week-long, joint planning process in the TOC part of a contingency operations exercise, which was a critical step toward validating its joint task force capabilities. (U.S. Army photo by Brian Andries) (Photo Credit: Brian Andries)VIEW ORIGINAL
“We created tools that flag important activity in near real time, cutting analyst time from hours to minutes,” Ong said. “The commander gets intelligence while it is still actionable.”
The team’s solutions have reached far beyond SETAF-AF, and U.S. Africa Command has since explored integrating Scribe into key meetings across its staff.
Ong’s team also acts as a force multiplier for subordinate units. When a unit under U.S. Army Europe and Africa identified a meeting-transcription requirement, the SETAF-AF tiger team built and delivered the capability. According to Ong, fulfilling this capability request saved the unit over 40 hours of internal development time.
“Our mission requires us to stay adaptable,” Ong said. “Handling multiple operations at once forces us to find smarter ways to work.”
By December 2025, internal demand outpaced the original mandate of the tiger team. The team transitioned into a permanent subordinate component of the newly established Advanced Capabilities Directorate, where it was rebranded as the Operations Data Division. The overall directorate serves as the command’s front door for the innovation ecosystem, translating senior-leader vision into battlefield-ready capabilities through technical scouting and coordination with industry and academia.
The U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) insignia hangs inside the tactical operations center at Caserma Del Din, Vicenza, Italy, Sept. 3, 2025. SETAF-AF conducted a week-long joint planning process in the TOC, part of a contingency operations exercise, which was a critical step toward validating its joint task force capabilities. (U.S. Army photo by Brian Andries) (Photo Credit: Brian Andries)VIEW ORIGINAL
Today, the Operational Data Division comprises five people organized into two sections: operations research and systems analysis officers who verify and structure incoming data, and platform builders who develop applications. To extend its reach, the team supports dedicated platform builders within each staff section across the command, creating a distributed network that ensures continuity and operational ownership.
During the upcoming African Lion 26 exercise, the team will use the system to build shared situational awareness with over 40 partners and allies. This massive multinational effort validates the sensor-to-shooter loop, features multilanguage reporting generation and reinforces interoperability across Africa.
“The idea is to have all our partners and allies in one room looking at the same sheet of music,” Ong said.
For a command managing missions from crisis response to multinational exercises, the Advanced Capabilities Directorate proves the value of bottom-up innovation.
African Lion 2026 is U.S. Africa Command’s largest annual joint exercise, designed to strengthen collective security capabilities of the U.S., African nations and global allies. Co-led by U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) from April 20 to May 8, 2026, and hosted in Ghana, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia, AL26 involves over 5,600 personnel from more than 40 nations, using innovation to drive partner-led regional security.
U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) prepares Army forces, executes crisis response, enables strategic competition and strengthens partners to achieve U.S. Army Europe and Africa and U.S. Africa Command campaign objectives.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Baltimore, Maryland – A Baltimore man is headed to federal prison for more than seven years for possessing a loaded ghost gun and ammunition as a convicted felon. U.S. District Judge Julie R. Rubin sentenced Sequan Branch-Green, 29, to 90 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, in connection with the charge.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
GOTEC Plus Sun LLC (GOTEC), a Delaware company, pleaded guilty today to illegal storage of hazardous waste. GOTEC was sentenced to pay a $275,000 fine and to serve a one-year term of probation.
On March 30, the court sentenced Natalie Fehse, the former general manager of the GOTEC facility, to five years of probation, including a special condition of 10 months of home confinement, and a $5,000 fine for her role in the illegal storage of hazardous waste.
“The illegal accumulation and storage of hundreds of containers of hazardous waste at GOTEC posed a substantial danger to plant workers, emergency responders, and the general public,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). “This prosecution sends the message that hazardous waste generators must properly handle hazardous wastes or potentially face felony prosecution for their illegal conduct.
“Unpermitted storage of hazardous waste that endangers Kentuckians will not be tolerated,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Parman for the Eastern District of Kentucky. “I want to commend the collaborative efforts of the Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection and EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division on the investigation of the illegal conduct of GOTEC and its General Manager, which averted a potential disaster.”
“Companies that cut corners by accumulating hazardous wastes — such the hundreds of drums of flammable and toxic solvents hidden around the site in this case — rather than disposing of them properly endanger communities, workers, and first responders,” said EPA’s Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Jeffrey A. Hall. “Such dangerous neglect is precisely what the law forbids. This case demonstrates cooperative federalism in action. The Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection’s inspection program found persistent, intentional violations of the law while EPA’s criminal investigative and forensic expertise ensured that the company was held criminally accountable.”
GOTEC produced parts for the use of manufacturing vehicles in Williamstown, Kentucky. As part of the production process, it applied coatings and adhesives to metal parts and generated hazardous waste, including spent solvents listed under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).
RCRA establishes a comprehensive cradle-to-grave program to regulate the generation, transportation, treatment, and disposal of hazardous wastes to protect human health and the environment. It prohibits the storage of hazardous waste at industrial facilities for extended periods of time without a permit. According to court documents, on June 27, 2024, the Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection conducted an inspection at GOTEC’s plant and discovered semi-trailers, shipping containers, and an abandoned warehouse containing 249, 55-gallon drums of hazardous waste and approximately 27 cubic yards of hazardous waste stored in cardboard, wooden crates, and yellow totes.
GOTEC admitted that between January 2022 and November 2024 it did not properly dispose of all the hazardous waste it was generating, including hazardous waste that had been accumulating at the facility since 2022. GOTEC admitted that it stopped properly disposing of hazardous due to staffing issues, and decreased revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather, it improperly accumulated and stored hazardous waste at the facility without a RCRA hazardous waste storage permit.
EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Greenfield for the Eastern District of Kentucky and Senior Trial Attorney Matthew Morris of ENRD’s Environmental Crimes Section prosecuted the case.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Attorney for the United States, Acting under Authority Conferred by 28 U.S.C. § 515, Sean S. Buckley, announced that ALI RASHAN, a medical doctor and the CEO and founder of ClearMD LLC, a provider of COVID-19 testing services in New York City, pled guilty to fraudulently billing insurance companies for COVID-19 testing services and submitting fraudulent medical records in furtherance of his scheme, causing at least $24 million in losses.
The Department of Justice’s U.S. Trustee Program (USTP) recently obtained a judgment requiring a nationwide consumer law firm to refund a total of $196,527 in legal fees to dozens of clients based on the firm’s deficient services and other violations of the Bankruptcy Code.
On March 17, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Oregon entered a stipulated judgment against Recovery Law Group APC (RLG); its owner, Nicholas Wajda; and one of its partners, Grover Peters III. As part of the judgment, RLG agreed to refund fees to a debtor who nearly lost her home because of the firm’s poor services and to refund fees paid by 98 clients in Oregon for whom the firm had not yet filed a case. The judgment also bars RLG, Wajda, and Peters from advertising legal services or filing bankruptcy cases in the district for 18 months.
“Consumer debtors’ attorneys who provide substandard services endanger their clients’ pursuit of a fresh start,” said Acting U.S. Trustee Jonas Anderson for Region 18, which includes the District of Oregon. “The USTP will continue to hold these attorneys responsible for their abusive conduct.”
The Oregon judgment marks the USTP’s third successful enforcement action against RLG in about a year for their actions affecting debtors throughout the country. Last April, the USTP obtained an order from the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia imposing $48,000 in sanctions and other relief against RLG and an affiliated attorney for their deficient legal services and violations of court orders. And in September, the USTP won a judgment in the Eastern District of Michigan imposing more than $392,000 in penalties and a three-year suspension against RLG for its false and misleading disclosures in more than 200 bankruptcy cases.
The USTP’s Oregon enforcement action stemmed from a case in which an elderly woman sought RLG’s help filing for bankruptcy to resolve debts she incurred as the victim of a fraud scheme. After a consultation from Wajda, who is not licensed to practice law in Oregon, the debtor paid a $1,838 fee to the firm to represent her in a chapter 7 bankruptcy case, and RLG had its non-attorney staff prepare the debtor’s bankruptcy documents.
RLG filed the case as a chapter 7 liquidation despite the debtor having nonexempt equity in her house that would be at risk for sale by the private trustee overseeing the case to pay creditors. The debtor was eligible for chapter 13, which would allow her to keep the house while paying her debts through a repayment plan, but Peters did not seek to convert the case to chapter 13 until after the chapter 7 trustee took steps to sell the debtor’s house. Peters — who also acknowledged at a hearing that the case never should have been filed under chapter 7 — continued to put the house at risk by failing to file documents on time and by filing documents that required multiple amendments as they were incompetently prepared by RLG’s non-attorney staff. In November 2025, nearly two-and-a-half years after the case was filed, the bankruptcy court confirmed the debtor’s chapter 13 repayment plan.
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 82 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
A Mercer County man was sentenced yesterday to 260 months’ imprisonment for possessing quantities of fentanyl and cocaine with intent to distribute it, for possessing a firearm in furtherance of his drug trafficking, and for his unlawful possession of firearms as a previously convicted felon.