Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: United States Department of Justice

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery at George Washington Law School by Acting Assistant Attorney General Omeed A. Assefi of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division

Good evening. Thank you for having me here — it is a pleasure to join you all. I’d first like to thank George Washington Law School for hosting this event and inviting me to speak today. GW Law is a fixture in the D.C. legal landscape, and the platform it provides to connect deep ideas with the real work of government is incredibly valuable. I’d also like to thank MLex, who is a go-to follow for all the real-time developments in our not-so-little antitrust world.

People often say that in politics, you campaign in poetry and govern in prose. Dialogues like this are an important part of how we connect the two and relate theory to practice.

I thought I’d start tonight by answering the question I am asked most often. People ask: what are your antitrust enforcement and policy philosophies?

Well, as we are in the second year of the Trump Administration, we have both laid out a policy vision and begun racking up enforcement wins that signal the direction of the movement going forward. 

As we began 2025, the vision for America First antitrust at DOJ was clear: it “empowers America’s forgotten men and women to shape their own economic destinies in the free market.”[1] This is the same approach that was adopted by our partners at the FTC through Chairman Andrew Ferguson.[2] The approach is not a mystery. This Administration is focused on enforcing the law against the lawbreakers, getting out of the way of law-abiding businesses, and ultimately ensuring the free market supports the American Dream. Our desire for aggressive enforcement and a thriving free market is paired with our openness in forging a constructive dialogue with the antitrust bar to improve antitrust enforcement and compliance, respectively.

As a recovering criminal prosecutor, I’d just add two points. First, the economic harm associated with white-collar crime can be every bit as nefarious, and often more nefarious, than harm from violent crime. Just because price fixing and monopolization may appear more sophisticated and socially acceptable than picking someone’s pockets doesn’t make them any less harmful, particularly when antitrust offenses can impact millions of consumers and their way of life.

Second, antitrust enforcement isn’t only about bringing the economic benefits of the free market to the American people. It’s about delivering justice.

It is inevitable that some companies and their executives will continue to violate the antitrust laws and our free markets. Equally inevitable, however, is our Division’s unrelenting pursuit of holding wrongdoers accountable. To quote Hyman Roth in Godfather II, “this is the business we’ve chosen.”[3] Meaning, businesses who choose to violate the antitrust laws and corrupt our free markets should know the consequences they’ll face from the Antitrust Division.

Now what does the prose look like?

The answer is simple. My job is to develop and support the incredible career staff of the Antitrust Division to empower them to do their work. The staff of the Antitrust Division are the most talented, hard-working people I’ve ever worked with. They represent the best the Department of Justice has to offer. And they are getting real results and delivering on this mission day in and day out.

While the media and very online pundits elect to view everything through a political lens, our Division is focused on building and bringing good cases that deliver the benefits of competition to the American people. The lack of headlines about the continued enforcement agenda this Division promotes every single day doesn’t make the genuine, impactful results any less real.

And we’re getting great results. With my time today, I’d like to talk about the great work we are doing across our program areas.

1. Finding and Prosecuting Criminal Antitrust Violations

Last year was a historic year for criminal antitrust enforcement. In 2025 alone, the Antitrust Division obtained 37 corporate and individual convictions. Comparing FY 2025 to FY 2024, the number of defendants sentenced to prison more than doubled, and the number of prison days imposed jumped by more than 1200 percent. Put simply: commit an antitrust crime, and the Antitrust Division will track you down, prosecute you, and put you behind bars. For decades, the criminal program accumulated and tracked its fines as a purported metric of success despite the clear lack of deterrent effect from financial settlements. Now, the number the criminal program exclusively tracks is the days of incarceration imposed.

There are few better examples of that commitment than our historic win in United States v. Eduardo Lopez.[4]

For years, armchair critics scoffed that prosecuting labor market collusion was a failed experiment and mocked the Division’s prior enforcement actions in this area.  Their recommendation? Pack up and go home. Just focus on moving financial settlement numbers up or down.

Our answer? To continue doing our job. In April 2025, a federal jury in Las Vegas proved that justice ultimately always prevails. Eddie Lopez, the CEO of a home healthcare staffing agency, chose to fix the wages of his own nurses. This way, he could line his own pockets while ensuring his own nurses would never receive higher wages and better benefits through open competition.

As is the case with most criminals, he didn’t just stop there. He also schemed to keep the proceeds of his crime hidden from the buyer of his business.

And the jury agreed with the government, returning a guilty verdict on all counts — the first-ever criminal trial conviction for wage-fixing in American history. At sentencing, the court reinforced the point, imposing 40 months in prison and more than $13 million in financial penalties. Furthermore, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied Lopez’s motion for bail pending appeal, and he began serving his imprisonment term earlier this month.

The message is clear: if you fix wages, we will seek your incarceration no matter the fine you’re willing or able to pay. That is the business we’ve chosen.

The same story played out in our Transmigrante case spanning a dozen defendants across the U.S.-Mexico border.[5] A ringleader and his co-conspirators created a cartel and enforced it with violence — extorting millions, demanding a tax on every transaction, and punishing those who refused with kidnappings, firebombings, shootings, and murder.

With the help of law enforcement partners, the Antitrust Division dismantled that cartel and put its members behind bars, including one with an eleven-year prison term.

Known by some as “DOGE before DOGE,” our Procurement Collusion Strike Force continues to pursue those who prey on the American taxpayer. In 2025, cases across the country involved fraud on the U.S. military, exploitation of wildfire response contracts, bid rigging affecting roads and infrastructure, and schemes targeting public schools. Most recently in January 2026, Jasen Butler was convicted of 34 felonies in the Southern District of Florida for defrauding our military on fuel contracts.[6]

Far from being a mere technical crime, our attorneys proved that he was such a high-risk offender that the judge agreed to step him back into custody pending sentencing — an extraordinary step in an antitrust case.

We’ve also created more reasons for companies and individuals who are breaking the law to be concerned. In the summer of 2025, the Division launched its first-ever Whistleblower Rewards Program, offering up to 30 percent of recoveries over $1 million. Within six months, the Program generated a flurry of tips, led to charges, and resulted in a $1 million award, which we have good reason to believe will be the floor of future rewards.[7] Cartels depend on silence — from executives to employees across the company. The Division has now put a price on that silence.

The direction and associated message are unmistakable. The Division is building on a year of significant convictions, a twelve-fold increase in prison days, and new detection tools that are already delivering results.

2. Winning Meaningful Civil Relief for Consumers

Our civil enforcement successes have been similarly historic. Earlier this month, the DOJ achieved a remarkable milestone with its Live Nation settlement, securing the first antitrust divestitures in a monopolization case in recent years. Despite the attempts of those who try to make structural relief impossible, the settlement shows that it is a lawful and useful tool in the right circumstances. Thanks to its team of talented and dedicated litigators and economists, the Antitrust Division’s wide-ranging relief will free the ticketing and concert promotions ecosystem from the grip of Live Nation’s monopoly power.

Consider what the settlement includes: Ticketmaster will be forced to enable rival ticketers to sell tickets even when it controls the event. That’s consumer choice and — by enabling competition — affordability. Meanwhile, Live Nation will divest its control of many amphitheaters and dramatically loosen exclusive deals with others. For artists, that’s more choice, more control of their art, and yes, more competition.  And Ticketmaster will cap ever-growing service fees at 15%. That’s affordability, again.

For the first time, concert ticketing will finally use technology that has been in place in other industries for years, including NFL tickets for nearly a decade. No prior administration was ever able to deliver this change. Opening the market to new technology and innovation will pave the way for even greater competition, better services, and lower prices. So too will freeing artists to use rival promoters and gain insights into Live Nation’s collection of their fans’ data. The settlement does all this.

The Live Nation settlement follows another historic monopolization remedy ordered in the Google Search litigation.[8] The court-ordered remedy prevents Google from locking up search distribution in exclusive contracts and includes several measures to stimulate competition across the search ecosystem, including in the development of advanced AI products that search is evolving toward. Opening up markets to competition invites in entry and innovation, and that’s exactly what antitrust remedies should do.

I’m similarly proud of the work we have underway. Since becoming Acting AAG earlier this year, I filed the first new civil conduct case of this administration.[9] Our case against OhioHealth targets anticompetitive restraints a dominant hospital system places on insurers that are designed to deprive patients of choice and that ultimately raise prices for healthcare. Fighting for lower costs and more choices in healthcare is exactly the kind of kitchen table priority we should be pursuing.

And we have several important cases in the pipeline. I am so proud of our incredible career staff who are developing hard cases that will deliver real relief to American consumers and workers.

3. Providing Expert Guidance on Antitrust Law and Policy

Finally, our policy, appellate, and international teams are firing on all cylinders. Our amicus and statement of interest programs have been incredibly active and successful. In just over a year, we have filed 14 statements of interest under this Administration.  This past month, we broke a record when we filed three different statements of interest in a single day.[10]   

Our statement of interest last year in Texas v. Blackrock was the first formal statement by the Antitrust Division and the FTC in federal court that addressed how common shareholdings are treated under the antitrust laws.[11] Like so many of our statements of interest, we were glad to see the court agree with our approach to the issues and cite our submission as a helpful guidepost.[12] Our statements of interest have also been critical in advocating for sound approaches to the intersection of intellectual property and antitrust,[13] and in supporting cases that address pocketbook issues like housing,[14] potato products,[15] and veterinary care.[16]   

We are also working through how we can improve the guidance we provide to businesses in an effort to provide more predictability. As I said when I was Acting AAG last year,[17] having clear, stable guidance for the business community is a critical feature of a vigorous pro-enforcement agenda.

That is why we are considering whether to supplement our Merger Guidelines by reinstituting and improving upon the Competitor Collaboration Guidelines that were withdrawn in December 2024. Just last month, the Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission opened a public inquiry seeking comments for consideration whether we should revise and reissue that guidance.[18] Comments are due April 24, and we very much look forward to getting a better sense through the public comments of how we can best serve the many law-abiding businesses that want to do the right thing and comply with the antitrust laws.

I am also so proud of the work of our International Section. They support the Division’s important work in multilateral organizations such as the International Competition Network (ICN) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). And, on the bilateral side, I’m spending much of this week meeting with counterparts from competition agencies around the globe. My message will be clear: competition policy should be a neutral tool applied based on the law, not a tool for promoting national champions or attacking U.S. businesses. And competition policy works better when economies around the world are in dialogue with one another.

Conclusion

I want to close by underscoring what all this work shows: antitrust enforcement is a live, vital part of this Administration’s approach to unleashing the free market.

We know that competition is a pillar of the American Dream. It’s about economic opportunity and the freedom to build a business or a life for your family. It is those principles and the people we fight for that are the north star of this Division. Not the reality-free assessments that serve to reinforce people’s pre-existing political agenda. Which is why I ask our attorneys, economists, paralegals, and support staff to focus on the results and justice they continue to obtain, not the empty feedback from those who have never been able to secure either. I ask them to focus on winning results, and they consistently do.

And perhaps equally as important as the great results have been the development of our staff this work enables. In Lopez, we had a trial attorney give his first opening at a jury trial and examine multiple civilian witnesses. In Butler, all 3 of our antitrust attorneys got their first jury trial experience. And in Live Nation, multiple trial attorneys similarly tried their first case before a jury and examined witnesses, something that many trial lawyers have never done. We at the Antitrust Division care about our results, but we care equally that our trial attorneys, paralegals, and economists have an opportunity to develop and grow. And you only develop by actually litigating the case yourself.  

That’s how we ensure tomorrow’s lawbreakers will know a ready and capable Antitrust Division stands by to enforce the law against them.

Inside the Division, we are tuning out the noise and focusing on helping the American people who we are so privileged to serve. In fact, it’s the business we’ve chosen.

Thank you.

Source: United States Department of Justice

Click to view: Keynote Q&A With U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton

Securities Enforcement Forum New York is a unique, one-day conference that brings together hundreds of current and former senior SEC officials, securities enforcement and white-collar attorneys, in-house counsel and compliance executives, and other top professionals in the field.

The conference’s stellar faculty – including nearly 50 luminaries in the securities enforcement field — will discuss the most pressing and critical topics in securities enforcement, including cryptocurrency, financial and accounting fraud, the impact of artificial intelligence (AI), advanced litigation and investigation strategies, managing SEC-related criminal matters, financial firms, insider trading, cybersecurity, the macro and micro impact of changes in SEC leadership and policy, and much more.

 

 

Source: United States Department of Justice

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Good afternoon and thank you for that kind introduction. I’m pleased to speak with this audience of dedicated professionals coming together to share ideas about improving the health care industry and stamping out fraud and abuse.

As I have made clear since announcing our enforcement priorities in May, combating white-collar crime is a top priority for the Criminal Division. Relevant to this group, we are keenly focused on health care fraud in a range of industries, including, among others, biopharma, medical devices, and health care insurance.

The reason is simple: health care fraud and related misconduct implicate the most significant values of my Division:

1. Protecting victims: These schemes — many involving false diagnoses and unnecessary procedures — often put patients at serious physical risk.
2. Protecting taxpayer funds: Each year, criminals steal billions of dollars from programs that taxpayers fund and patients depend on. Returning money to the fisc helps ensure these vital programs are adequately resourced and gives due respect to the hard work of contributing Americans.
3. Holding bad actors accountable: Criminal enterprises abuse our system, often by stealing the identities of millions of Americans and profiting off our federal health care system at the expense of seniors, disabled Americans, and our most vulnerable citizens. Justice demands that we hold both culpable individuals and organizations to account.
4. Deterring future misconduct: Our enforcement efforts and relevant policies help shape future behavior, helping prevent fraud before it even happens.
5. Promoting respect for the law: This misconduct has become entrenched, and it requires serious and focused attention. We must demonstrate to the American public that we are tackling this threat head on.

Simply put, the Criminal Division’s Health Care Fraud Unit has had a historic year. In June, the Department announced the largest health care fraud takedown in U.S. history in which over 300 individuals were charged, including nearly 100 medical professionals across the country. These schemes involved $14.6 billion in fraudulent claims targeting Medicare, Medicaid, and other health care programs.

Significant results took place, and will continue to take place, throughout the entire year. As just one example, in March of this year, we obtained a 17-year sentence against a pharmacist convicted at trial and also secured forfeiture of $405 million — the largest ever by the Department of Justice in a health care fraud case.

We are committed to full-spectrum accountability. We will pursue health care fraud wherever it is found, from doctors’ offices to corporate suites. For instance, in June, a federal jury convicted the CEO of a software company for his role in operating a platform that generated false doctors’ orders to defraud Medicare and other federal health care benefit programs of more than $1 billion.

We’re not focused only on individuals. The Criminal Division is utilizing our expertise in corporate cases to ensure accountability for culpable organizations that commit health care fraud and associated criminal violations. So far this year, we have announced two significant corporate health care fraud resolutions with penalties totaling over $41 million and over $12 million in victim compensation — the first two enforcement actions by our Health Care Fraud Unit in nearly a decade.

So, how will we build on these efforts? You can expect continued, aggressive health care fraud enforcement across the board, including increased corporate enforcement. Specifically, you will see more corporate cases in a range of industries and markets involving health care fraud by year’s end, as well as a steady pipeline of cases in the medium and long term.

Among the health care fraud schemes we traditionally prosecute, we will continue our systematic approach to stopping drug-trafficking organizations and their pharmaceutical wholesale suppliers that have fueled an epidemic of prescription opioid abuse.

We’re also devoting increased resources and deploying them across the country. In August, we announced jointly with the Northern District of Illinois the expansion of our health care fraud program to Chicago. In September, we announced the expansion of our Health Care Fraud Unit’s New England Strike Force to the District of Massachusetts. This expansion brings enhanced federal enforcement resources to one of the nation’s most significant health care and life sciences hubs. I am pleased to announce that we are doing the same to cover Philadelphia in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. With our U.S. Attorney partners, we will have increased on-the-ground coverage up and down the East Coast.

You will also see a more proactive and data-driven approach to enforcement. As I announced in June, the Health Care Fraud Data Fusion Center is bringing together experts from the Department and other agencies to leverage cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and advanced analytics to identify emerging health care fraud schemes quickly and efficiently. This work helps the Criminal Division proactively identify the worst actors abusing our system.

Finally, you can expect increased coordination within the Department and with other agencies. We are working closer than ever with our colleagues in the Civil Division, as you saw in this year’s corporate resolution against Kimberly-Clark Corporation, a U.S. consumer-goods and personal-care company that resolved a criminal charge that it introduced adulterated surgical gowns with intent to defraud. And you should expect to see this coordination with the Civil Division extend to violations of the False Claims Act, among other statutes.

Outside of the Department, we are working closely with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which seeks to stop fraudulent payments before they go out the door. In one case announced in June, HHS’s Office of the Inspector General and CMS successfully prevented the organizations from receiving all but a small fraction of the approximately $4.45 billion that was scheduled to be paid out by Medicare.

Before I close, let me briefly address our corporate enforcement program. As I have said again and again, now is the time for companies to come forward and self-report to get the full benefits available to those who take responsibility for their actions.

Because in addition to health care fraud, the Criminal Division will continue to pursue corporate offenders across the white-collar landscape. From procurement to securities fraud, we will prosecute the most complex schemes that affect American interests.

That includes violations of the FCPA. As you’ve seen this year, following the Deputy Attorney General’s Guidelines, we’ve entered into a resolution with Liberty Mutual under Part I of our Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy; secured a trial conviction against the owner of an Atlanta-based business; and brought charges against individuals. And I expect in the very near term you will see additional activity in this space.

Let me be clear: consistent with the Deputy Attorney General’s guidance, we will continue to enforce the FCPA firmly and fairly. This is not the time to ease up on compliance programs.

So, what should you do if you uncover an issue? Let me answer that by emphasizing the significant benefits available for corporate actors under the CEP, which I updated earlier this year. As you know, the policy strongly encourages self-disclosure of misconduct as soon as it is detected, and provides important benefits to companies that choose to do so.

Liberty Mutual, in particular, exemplifies the benefits of immediate self-reporting: the company self-reported an FCPA violation even before its own internal investigation was complete, and received a declination for its swift admission, cooperation, and remediation, which included significant improvements to its compliance and internal controls.

Importantly, companies may obtain benefits under the policy even if they do not qualify for a declination. Companies that voluntarily self-disclose misconduct and provide full cooperation and remediation but are ineligible for a declination will generally receive a non-prosecution agreement with a term of fewer than three years, no independent monitor, and a reduction of 75% off the low end of the Guidelines fine range. The Criminal Division takes very seriously corporations’ efforts to cooperate and remediate wrongdoing, even outside of the parameters of the voluntary self-disclosure program, and will take such efforts into consideration when resolving a case.

By contrast, companies that fail to self-disclose and fail to cooperate and remediate when approached by law enforcement about their conduct will be prosecuted consistent with applicable law. And we continue to receive a significant volume of tips from corporate whistleblowers through our Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program, pertaining to health care fraud and beyond, which is even more reason to come forward now.

Our pipeline of upcoming voluntary self-disclosure and other corporate cases is strong, as we expect you’ll see in the coming months. I encourage those of you who represent corporations, including those in the health care space, whether as in-house counsel or at an outside law firm, or who serve in compliance departments or business functions, to take the program seriously and to act quickly when misconduct is discovered.

Thank you again for having me. I look forward to continuing the discussion of the Criminal Division’s important work during this Fireside Chat.

Source: United States Department of Justice

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Thank you all for inviting me to address you today. It’s always an honor to speak with the men and of women of the Houston Police Department, who safeguard Texas’ biggest and best city.  The timing of your invitation is particularly meaningful to me, and for maybe some of you, as this week celebrates the feast day of St. Michael, the patron saint of law enforcement and the Archangel that provides protection and comfort to those, like you, that provide protection and comfort to others.

As you know, last November the American people voted in a new administration with a mandate to secure the border, annihilate the drug trade, and crack down on violent crime in their communities. At the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas, we take those priorities very seriously, and you, and your fellow officers, are a major part of our efforts to fulfill these public safety objectives. While we often work with federal agents, we also make great cases on account of high-quality police work done by state and local law enforcement officers like yourselves.  The Southern District of Texas is proud of the work we’ve done so far, and we intend to unapologetically continue enforcing the law and protecting our people, no matter what our critics may say.

And while federal prosecutors are indeed sometimes criticized, we are not subjected to nearly the level of public scrutiny that you are. In recent years, police officers have been on the receiving end of unfair and ill-informed demonization, often driven by agitators and opportunists. Some misguided people view police officers as agents of oppression and believe that putting criminals behind bars is somehow unjust. Instead, they believe that we should try to “understand” violent gang members, not punish them, and the police should be defunded, if not outright abolished.

But as you know, and I know, this view of law enforcement is completely out of touch with reality. And the average American recognizes this. The average American supports and respects the police.  When regular, everyday people are threatened by criminals, when someone’s house is being broken into in the middle of the night, they don’t call social workers or community organizers. They don’t call therapists or life coaches. They call men and women like you, who wear the badge, carry a gun, and are ready, willing, and able put your lives on the line to protect the innocent.

At the Department of Justice, we understand the sacrifices you make when you sign up to be a police officer. In your line of work, unlike any other civilian profession, the public expects you to be willing to take a bullet for your fellow citizens. And many police officers have done so. You’re expected to run towards danger, not away from it. And many officers have done that too, and paid with their lives. You’re expected to work long, hard, stressful hours that take you from your families. And I’ll bet that more than a few of you have had to miss your kid’s baseball game or recital because duty called.

And, perhaps most unfairly, you’re also expected to be perfect. Everything you say and everything you write, are scrutinized by people who sit in comfortable, air-conditioned offices, far from danger. Your actions are nitpicked by people who’ve never had a gun pointed at them or a knife drawn on them. People who have never had to make a split-second decision when life and death are on the line, freely second-guess and judge you.

This lazy, armchair quarterbacking fails to recognize the harsh realities of policing.  The police must interact with the very ugliest aspects of our society.  Officers have to see the after-effects of shocking acts of violence, or make heartbreaking discoveries of neglect or abuse.  They interact with hostile or unstable people on a daily basis.  Police must remain stone-faced as those they are sworn to protect insult, denigrate, or deliberately try to provoke them.  And for that thankless service to our society, there are some that would still consider the police the bad guys.  It’s utterly ridiculous and, in my eyes, completely unacceptable.

Because the truth of the matter is society is safer when police feel empowered to do their job. Perhaps some of you know of fellow officers that, given the past few years, are less willing to make road stops or initiate citizen encounters, out of concern that they—not the criminal—will be the one put under the microscope and investigated.  And that reticence ultimately hurts society as a whole, since fewer criminals are caught, and more citizens are victimized as a result.  And so, if there is a single thing I want you to take away from today, it’s this: as far as the Southern District of Texas is concerned, the days of “blame the cops first” is over.  We here at the U.S. Attorney’s Office want to work with you, not against you.  We want to empower you, not stand in your way.  We recognize what you already know: that you are the front line in ensuring the safety and well-being of millions of Houstonians.  Without you, there is no law and order, and without law and order, there is no civil society.

So, thank you.  Thank you for working with us to make Houston safer, to make Texas safer, and to make America safer. Thank you for the sacrifices you’ve made on behalf of your fellow citizens, and thank you for the innumerable sacrifices that you will inevitably make in the future. We are lucky and proud to have you as a partner.

May God bless you, and be safe out there.

*Editor’s note:

This event occurred on the date indicated but was not published at that time due to the government shutdown. Speech posted and made available following the return to normal operations.   

Source: United States Department of Justice

Seattle – A 53-year-old Federal Way, Washington, woman pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to three counts of wire fraud and two counts of bank fraud in connection with her phony financial advisor scheme, announced First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd. 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – DARWIN MORADEL VELASQUEZ (“VELASQUEZ”), age 40, a native of Honduras, was sentenced on July 2, 2026, for illegal reentry of previously removed alien, in violation of Title 8, United States Code, Section 1326(a), announced United States Attorney David I. Courcelle. 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

BOSTON – A Boston man was sentenced today in federal court in Boston for cocaine trafficking charges, following a series of arrests targeting gangs in the Brockton and Randolph areas. The charges stemmed from the search of a luxury apartment in Dorchester, where over a kilogram of cocaine and two loaded guns were recovered.

Source: United States Department of Justice

BOSTON – A Boston man was sentenced today in federal court in Boston for cocaine trafficking charges, following a series of arrests targeting gangs in the Brockton and Randolph areas. The charges stemmed from the search of a luxury apartment in Dorchester, where over a kilogram of cocaine and two loaded guns were recovered.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Tampa, FL – U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday has sentenced four Tampa men for the armed robberies of two Tampa convenience stores. E’barous Harris (age 27) was sentenced to 14 years and 7 months in prison, Ronald Brown (age 25) to 15 years in prison, Jermaine Dawes (age 33) to 14 years and 10 months in prison, and Tra-Vontae Watson (age 32) to 20 years and 5 months in prison. Each previously pleaded guilty. U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe made the announcement.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A former Marine pled guilty to sending false and fraudulent military orders and United States District Court Orders to various banks to obtain relief under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, forging a document with a judge’s signature, and impersonating a Federal Protective Services Inspector when searching a house.