Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
“Few things are more dangerous than a homicide suspect on the FBI’s Most Wanted list getting his hands on a machinegun,” said U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft. “The Department of Justice and our Homeland Security Task Force are committed to aggressively removing these types of offenders from the streets.”
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
BOSTON – The former Assistant Superintendent at the Norfolk County Sheriff’s Office (NCSO) pleaded guilty on June 5, 2026 in federal court in Boston to using his official position to order NCSO employees to perform maintenance at his residence. The defendant is also convicted of witness tampering.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Greenbelt, Maryland – A Maryland man is headed to prison after pleading guilty to charges stemming from a crash involving a law-enforcement officer on B-W Parkway. Judge C. Bruce Anderson sentenced Khoran Newell, 43, of Washington, D.C., to one year in federal prison for driving under the influence and failing to yield to an emergency vehicle in connection with the crash.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Office of Legal Counsel found guidelines pressured employers to engage in racial discrimination
WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice has issued an opinion to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) that its guidelines about disparate-impact liability under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act are unconstitutional. The Office of Legal Counsel found that EEOC’s guidelines pressured employers to engage in racial discrimination. Under those guidelines, employers could be held liable for unequal hiring and promotion outcomes among different groups, without regard to the employer’s likely intent.
The Justice Department’s opinion for EEOC helps to implement Executive Order 14281, which rejected disparate-impact liability insofar as “it creates a near insurmountable presumption [that] unlawful discrimination exists where there are any differences in outcomes in certain circumstances among different races, sexes, or similar groups.”
“Despite trying to promote equality, EEOC’s disparate impact liability interpretation under Title VII actually fosters the very discrimination its guidelines seek to address,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “This opinion will now allow businesses to hire based on performance, restoring equal opportunities in the American workplace.”
“The EEOC is grateful for the thoughtful and insightful analysis provided by Assistant Attorney General Gaiser and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Craddock regarding disparate impact under Title VII,” EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas said. “We believe this opinion will provide clarity regarding the Constitutional limits of disparate impact in employment discrimination matters.”
According to the opinion, businesses can use hiring practices that are generally related to job performance—such as aptitude tests, knowledge-based tests, criminal-background checks, and SAT scores—without fear of violating Title VII simply because such practices may result in different outcomes for different demographic groups. To justify using such tools, employers only need to show that the practice is reasonable, useful, or helps serve a valid business purpose.
The opinion also states that people bringing a disparate-impact claim must meet two requirements. They must show that the specific hiring practice directly caused the unequal outcomes they are challenging. And they must identify another approach that would be equally effective for employers but would result in fewer unequal outcomes. This means plaintiffs must prove that the employer’s method specifically caused the unequal outcomes—and offer a workable, fairer alternative.
Read the full opinion here.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Today, the Justice Department opened an investigation to determine whether Philadelphia Police use a vague “good cause” standard to cancel permits to carry legal firearms. The U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment protects the civil right keep and bear legal firearms — including the right to legally carry firearms where allowed. The investigation focuses on the Philadelphia Police’s permitting system; the investigation does not support any armed obstruction of federal or local law enforcement.
“I have directed the Civil Rights Division, through our Second Amendment Section, to defend law-abiding citizens from local authorities who infringe the right to safely carry legal firearms,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Law-abiding Americans, regardless of where they live, should not have to worry that their city will revoke their means of self-defense.”
It is a violation of the Second Amendment for government officials to use vague, personal discretion when determining whether to issue or revoke permits to carry firearms. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its landmark decision District of Columbia v. Heller, held that the Second Amendment protects the right of law-abiding citizens to possess weapons that are in common use for lawful purposes. In 2022, the Supreme Court held, in another case, that permitting officials may not base licensing decisions merely on their personal discretion. Here, it is alleged that Philadelphia Police use just such a discretionary standard to improperly limit Second Amendment rights.
The Civil Rights Division’s Second Amendment Section enforces the Second Amendment. If you believe your right to keep and bear arms is being infringed, please submit a complaint through www.justice.gov/crt/second-amendment-section.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida returned a multi-count indictment charging a Miami woman for allegedly orchestrating a years-long scheme to obtain and sell the confidential Medicare beneficiary identifier numbers (BINs) of thousands of patients for use in Medicare fraud schemes. A related criminal information was also filed charging a former health care network employee with conspiring to unlawfully disclose the protected patient information.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Jacksonville, Florida – Santiago Humberto Erazo-Zelaya (32, Orlando) has been sentenced by U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard to one year and two months in federal prison for conspiracy to commit tax fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The court also ordered Erazo-Zelaya to pay $765,446.00 in restitution to the IRS for unpaid payroll taxes and $26,720.12 in restitution to an insurance company for a workers’ compensation claim. The court entered a money judgment against Erazo-Zelaya in the amount of $181,529, representing the proceeds of the wire fraud. U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe made the announcement.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Fort Myers, Florida – Alex Cruz (24, Plant City) has been sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell to 30 months in federal prison for possessing a machinegun. He pleaded guilty on March 3, 2026. U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe made the announcement.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Fort Myers, Florida – Russell Renney (51, Ohio) has been sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell to 3 years and 10 months in federal prison for possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. Renney pleaded guilty on December 4, 2025. U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe made the announcement.
Source: United States Department of Justice
Former Agency Head Failed to Return for Trial and Now Faces a 10-Year Prison Sentence in Ghana
On June 8, the United States extradited Sedina Christine Tamakloe Attionu, also known as “Sedina Sharon Christine Acolatse,” a Ghanaian citizen, to serve a 10-year prison term in Ghana for convictions on more than 70 criminal counts that include charges of stealing, conspiracy, causing financial loss to the State and to public property, money laundering, and other offenses.
Attionu, 60, has been convicted in the Republic of Ghana for exploiting her role as Chief Executive Officer of Ghana’s Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) to steal and misappropriate approximately $6 million. MASLOC is a Ghanaian agency set up to assist small and medium-scale businesses by providing them with low interest loans. As MASLOC’s CEO from November 2013 to January 2017, Attionu was responsible for the overall supervision and management of MASLOC, as well as the day-to-day administration of its affairs and funds. Attionu was convicted of repeatedly abusing her position to enrich herself through a variety of schemes, including directly stealing funds remitted to MASLOC, pocketing public funds that were earmarked to be spent on outreach, training, and disaster relief programs, using public funds to buy cars and cellphones at grossly inflated prices, and making extra, unearned payments to herself and her co-conspirator.
After attending trial in Ghana through the prosecution’s presentation of its witnesses, Attionu obtained the Ghanaian court’s permission to travel to the United States for medical treatment, but Attionu never returned to Ghana. The court issued a warrant for her arrest, concluded her absence was unjustified, and proceeded with her trial. On April 16, 2024, the court found Attionu guilty on all charges and sentenced her to 10 years in prison.
Ghana then requested Attionu’s extradition and, in December 2025, the United States obtained a warrant for Attionu’s arrest based on Ghana’s request. Attionu was arrested on Jan. 6, in Nevada. Following her detention and extradition hearings, a U.S. magistrate judge in the District of Nevada certified Attionu’s extradition to Ghana on April 9. The Secretary of State then authorized her surrender to Ghanaian authorities. On June 8, the U.S. Marshals Service surrendered Attionu to Ghanaian authorities for transportation to Ghana. Attionu’s extradition is now complete.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Oliva of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada handled the extradition litigation in collaboration with the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs (OIA). OIA attorneys and international affairs specialists provided additional critical support to this extradition by coordinating closely with the International Cooperation Unit and the Economic and Organised Crime Office of the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice of Ghana. The U.S. Marshals Service, the FBI’s Legal Attaché Office in Accra, and the Ghana Police Service’s INTERPOL National Central Bureau also provided essential assistance.