MIL Security Engine-1

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The president of a metal fabrication and manufacturing company pleaded guilty on Feb. 5, to a conspiracy to rig bids for maintenance, repair, and operations contracts affecting United States military installations, earning his company more than $8.5 million dollars in rigged procurements.

According to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Thomas C. Rollins, of Wilmington, North Carolina. Between at least 2015 and 2022, Rollins conspired with other individuals and companies to suppress and eliminate competition by rigging bids for the procurements administered by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), which were awarded to subcontractors through a competitive bidding process. Rollins and his co-conspirators coordinated their submission of rigged bids by agreeing in advance which co-conspirator would submit the lowest pricing and instructing each other how to price “comp” or “cover” bids. In the plea agreement, Rollins admitted that the volume of commerce attributable to him and related to the conspiracy was approximately $8.47 million.

“For seven years, this defendant deliberately chose to cheat instead of compete, harming the Department of War and the American people in the process,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Omeed A. Assefi of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “The Antitrust Division and its partners in the Procurement Collusion Strike Force are laser focused on detecting and prosecuting those who seek to tilt the scales in their favor at the expense of American taxpayers and warfighters.” 

“As the criminal investigative arm of the Department of Defense’s Office of Inspector General, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service remains steadfast in its commitment to safeguarding the integrity of the Department’s acquisition process,” said Special Agent in Charge Christopher Dillard of DCIS’s Mid-Atlantic Field Office. “When individuals conspire to rig bids and eliminate fair competition, they erode taxpayer trust and jeopardize the readiness of our armed forces. Today’s outcome makes clear that this conduct will not be tolerated. DoD contracts must be awarded based on merit, consistent with the best interests of national defense.”

Rollins pleaded guilty to one felony count of restraining trade by conspiring to rig bids, in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act. The maximum penalty for individuals is 10 years in prison and a $1 million criminal fine.

A sentencing hearing has not been scheduled in this case. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. The Department of Defense’s Office of Inspector General’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DoD-OIG) is investigating this case. The Antitrust Division’s Washington Criminal Section is prosecuting the case.

The Justice Department’s Procurement Collusion Strike Force (PCSF) is a joint law enforcement effort to combat antitrust crimes and related fraudulent schemes that impact government procurement, grant and program funding at all levels of government — federal, state and local. To learn more about the PCSF, or to report information on bid rigging, price fixing, market allocation and other anticompetitive conduct related to government spending, go to www.justice.gov/procurement-collusion-strike-force.

Whistleblowers who voluntarily report original information about antitrust and related offenses that result in criminal fines or other recoveries of at least $1 million may be eligible to receive a whistleblower reward. Whistleblower awards can range from 15 to 30 percent of the money collected. For more information on the Antitrust Whistleblower Rewards Program, including a link to submit reports, visit www.justice.gov/atr/whistleblower-rewards.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Seattle – A 37-year-old man who was living in a Des Moines, Washington, hotel, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to six years in prison and three years of supervised release for drug and gun crimes, announced First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd. 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Jawana Washington, 45, of Clovis, was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd for aiding and abetting a felon in possession of a firearm as well as disposing of a firearm to a felon.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Tampa, FL – A federal jury has found Celso Navarro Diaz (65, Colombia) guilty of conspiring to traffic more than five kilograms of cocaine on vessels subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and conspiring to import more than five kilograms of cocaine into the United States. Navarro Diaz faces a minimum penalty of 15 years, up to life, in federal prison for each count. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 22, 2026. U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe made the announcement.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Yesterday, a San Bernardino County man, Yaoning “Mike” Sun, 65, of Chino Hills, California, was sentenced by United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner for the Central District of California to 48 months in federal prison for acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), including while serving as the campaign advisor for a political candidate who was elected to the city council of a Southern California city. Sun pleaded guilty in October 2025 to one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government.

“For years, Sun received and executed taskings from Chinese government officials, distorted our public discourse by disseminating Chinese propaganda, and surveilled groups in the United States that China viewed as threatening its interests as part of a campaign of intimidation,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. “His conduct represents a brazen violation of our national sovereignty. This sentence reflects our commitment to prosecuting those who would extend the authoritarian reach of the Chinese government on U.S. soil.”

“When Americans vote for elected officials, they expect them to represent the interests of their constituents – not those of a foreign adversary like the Chinese government,” said Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division. “By exploiting his position as a campaign advisor, Yaoning Sun attempted to undermine our political processes and democratic institutions for the benefit of the Chinese Communist Party. This sentencing underscores the unwavering commitment of the FBI and our partners to defending the homeland and holding accountable anyone who tries to subvert the will of American voters at the behest of our adversaries.”

“Federal law enforcement will not allow hostile foreign nations to infiltrate the governance of our nation’s political bodies,” said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California. “The relentlessness of PRC intelligence operations in our country must be met by equal relentlessness on our part to secure, protect, and defend the United States.”

According to court documents, from at least 2022 to January 2024, Sun knowingly acted within the United States as an agent of the PRC and officials of its government – without notifying the Attorney General, as required by U.S. law.

At the direction and control of PRC government officials, Sun coordinated with U.S.-based individuals to promote the PRC’s interests by, among other things, “orchestrat[ing]” a team to help elect a politician identified in court documents as “Individual 1” to political office and promoting pro-PRC propaganda in the United States.

Sun also closely surveilled the then-President of Taiwan during her April 2023 visit to Southern California, reporting directly to PRC officials on her movements.

At the direction of PRC officials, from 2020 through 2023, Sun and Individual 1 worked together to operate a purported news website for the local Chinese American community. Sun and Individual 1 received and executed directives from PRC government officials to post pro-PRC content.

Throughout 2022, Sun also worked as the campaign advisor for Individual 1 who was running for a city council seat in a Southern California city. Individual 1 was elected to that city council in November 2022.

In December 2022, Sun attended a meeting in Southern California with a group of other people, including Individual 1, whom PRC officials were told was a “team dedicated” to PRC interests, according to Sun’s plea agreement.

In February 2023, Sun drafted a report for PRC officials to solicit additional money and taskings from the PRC government. Sun’s report summarized his personal experience, including his past service in the People’s Liberation Army, China’s military. In the report, Sun stated that he had worked in the United States to lead “delegations of U.S. dignitaries and cultural workers to China,” “persist in resisting any hostile forces that undermine the friendship of U.S.-China relations, and Chinese secessionist forces,” and, “most of all, during the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, I orchestrated and organized my team to win the election for city council” for Individual 1, whom Sun called a “new political star,” Sun’s plea agreement states.

Sun’s report described various issues concerning “anti-China forces” overseas, including opposition to independence for Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang as well as issues involving Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned in China. The report further proposed “using part of our Los Angeles organization’s professional core team,” to seek to counteract those forces, according to court documents. To that end, Sun’s report requested $80,000 from the PRC government to fund a pro-PRC demonstration at a Fourth of July parade in Washington, D.C.

Throughout 2023 and 2024, Sun communicated with an official at the consulate general of the People’s Republic of China in Los Angeles regarding activities in Southern California related to Taiwan.

In April 2023, President Tsai Ing-Wen of Taiwan visited Southern California. Sun sent real-time updates on President Tsai’s movements to a Los Angeles-based PRC consular official and sought approval from this official to publish an article about President Tsai’s visit on the website he operated with Individual 1. Sun also took photographs of individuals protesting in support of and opposition to President Tsai and sent those photographs to the consular official.

“As an agent for the PRC, [Sun] worked covertly in the United States with his primary co-conspirator John Chen, a/k/a ‘Chen Jun,’” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “Chen was a high-level member of the PRC intelligence apparatus, who regularly attended elite [Chinese Communist Party] functions, including military parades…[and] met personally with PRC President Xi Jinping . . . . Per his own report, and other communications between Chen and PRC officials, [Sun] served as Chen’s right-hand man in the United States for decades.”

Chen was sentenced in November 2024 to 20 months in federal prison after pleading guilty in the Southern District of New York to acting as an illegal agent of the PRC and conspiracy to bribe a public official.

The FBI investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Amanda B. Elbogen of the National Security Division prosecuted this case with assistance from Trial Attorney Garrett Coyle of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section in the Department of Justice’s National Security Division.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Jacksonville, Florida – Chief U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard has sentenced Teresa Brady (70, Jacksonville) to 27 months in federal prison, and Ruby George (82, Jacksonville) to one year and one day in federal prison followed by six months of home confinement, both in connection with their guilty pleas to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud, aiding and abetting wire fraud, and aiding and abetting mail fraud. Brady also pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering.  As part of their sentences, the court ordered the forfeiture of the proceeds of the charged criminal conduct, which cumulatively totaled $2,600,235.99.  Further, the court ordered Brady and George to pay the same amount in restitution to the victim of their offenses, Duval Teachers United (DTU). United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe made the announcement.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A federal jury has convicted a Chinese national of using his role as a bank employee to access confidential client information to target elderly customers and create a scheme to steal their money and then use it for his personal benefit.

Source: United States Department of Justice

Defendants Used AI to Fabricate Records and Marketed Themselves as “The Housing Guys” at Homeless Shelters

Source: United States Department of Justice

Yesterday, the United States filed a complaint under section 721 of the Defense Production Act of 1950 to enforce a presidential order prohibiting Suirui Group’s acquisition, through Suirui International, of California-based Jupiter Systems and compelling Suirui to divest from Jupiter Systems. On July 8, 2025, the President issued the Order based on his findings that the transaction “threatens to impair the national security of the United States.” This is the first such action ever filed in federal district court.

While foreign direct investment is important to the United States’ economy, foreign investment in certain companies and certain industries, particularly those involved in defense or critical infrastructure, can pose national security concerns. To address these concerns, the President has the authority to take such action for such time as the President considers appropriate to suspend or prohibit such a transaction that threatens to impair the national security of the United States. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) is empowered to review and investigate such transactions.

According to the Complaint, in 2020, Suirui Group, a Chinese company, through its Hong Kong subsidiary Suirui International, acquired all of Jupiter Systems, which provides video communications hardware and software to commercial and U.S. Government customers. On July 8, 2025, the President issued an Order prohibiting the transaction and, among other things, requiring Suirui to divest all its interests in Jupiter Systems within 120 days. According to the Complaint, despite CFIUS granting two extensions of the divestment deadline, to Feb. 3, Suirui and Jupiter Systems have failed to comply with the Order. The United States thus filed this action to protect the country’s national security interests.

The Justice Department’s Civil Division, Federal Programs Branch is handling the matter.  The case is captioned United States v. Suirui Group Co., Ltd., et al., No. 26-cv-00369 (D.D.C.).

This case is being handled by Trial Attorney Sam Bean of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.

The claims asserted in the complaint are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.