Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould announced that Lukman Owolabi Ganiyu, a former Senior Immigration Services Officer with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Adeniyi Akeem Somoye were arrested on federal charges for their roles in an alleged multi‑year scheme to receive illegal gratuities in exchange for manipulating and expediting immigration applications.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – JAKE ALEXANDER GRZELKA (“GRZELKA”), age 40, of New Orleans, pled guilty on September 3, 2026, to Receipt of Materials Involving the Sexual Exploitation of Minors, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2252(a)(2) and (b)(1), announced U.S. Attorney David I. Courcelle.
Source: United States Department of Justice
Decree Would Prohibit Algorithmic Coordination and Exchanging Competitively Sensitive Data with Competitors
The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division filed a proposed consent decree today to resolve the United States’ claims against Pinnacle Property Management Services LLC, as part of its ongoing enforcement action in the Middle District of North Carolina against algorithmic coordination, the use of competitors’ competitively sensitive data, and other anticompetitive practices in rental markets across the country that artificially increase housing costs for the American people. Today’s proposed decree builds on the Justice Department’s success in obtaining settlements in the same enforcement action against RealPage Inc. and four other large landlords, Cortland Management LLC, Greystar Management Services LLC, LivCor LLC, and Willow Bridge Property Company LLC.
“This administration will not tolerate illegal actions by corporate landlords that inflate housing prices for Americans,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. “The Department of Justice will fight for every American who is being taken advantage of by corporate greed.”
“The Antitrust Division is diligent in our work of protecting consumers in housing markets, including by putting an end to practices by corporate landlords that illegally prevent honest competition that benefits renters,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole Sarrine of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “This consent decree is an important step in achieving affordable housing for Americans.”
The United States, along with state co-plaintiffs, filed a complaint on Jan. 7, 2025, alleging that Pinnacle, with five other co-defendant landlords, actively participated in a scheme to set their rents using each other’s competitively sensitive information through pricing algorithms. Pinnacle and other landlords shared competitively sensitive data to generate pricing recommendations using RealPage’s algorithms, which also included anticompetitive rules that aligned pricing. Pinnacle and other landlords also conferred on competitively sensitive topics, such as pricing strategies, rents, and selected parameters for RealPage’s software.
If approved by the court, the proposed consent decree would require Pinnacle to:
As required by the Tunney Act, the proposed settlement, along with a competitive impact statement, will be published in the Federal Register. Any interested person should submit written comments concerning the proposed settlement within 60 days following the publication to Danielle Hauck, Acting Chief, Technology and Digital Platforms Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 Fifth Street NW, Suite 7050, Washington, DC 20530. At the conclusion of the public comment period, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina may enter the final judgment upon finding it is in the public interest.
Pinnacle is a residential property manager headquartered in Frisco, Texas.
Note: Read the Proposed Final Judgement here, the Stipulation and Order here, the Explanation of Procedures here, and the Competitive Impact Statement here.
Source: United States Department of Justice
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – RACHEL CRAWFORD, a/k/a “Rachel Davenport,” a/k/a “Rachel Monjure,” a/k/a “Rachel Haygood” (“CRAWFORD”), age 47, of Ponchatoula, pleaded guilty to Theft from an Organization Receiving Federal Funds, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 666(a)(1)(A), announced U.S. Attorney David I. Courcelle.
Source: United States Department of Justice
Decree Would Prohibit Algorithmic Coordination and Exchanging Competitively Sensitive Data with Competitors
The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division filed a proposed consent decree today to resolve the United States’ claims against Pinnacle Property Management Services LLC, as part of its ongoing enforcement action in the Middle District of North Carolina against algorithmic coordination, the use of competitors’ competitively sensitive data, and other anticompetitive practices in rental markets across the country that artificially increase housing costs for the American people. Today’s proposed decree builds on the Justice Department’s success in obtaining settlements in the same enforcement action against RealPage Inc. and four other large landlords, Cortland Management LLC, Greystar Management Services LLC, LivCor LLC, and Willow Bridge Property Company LLC.
“This administration will not tolerate illegal actions by corporate landlords that inflate housing prices for Americans,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. “The Department of Justice will fight for every American who is being taken advantage of by corporate greed.”
“The Antitrust Division is diligent in our work of protecting consumers in housing markets, including by putting an end to practices by corporate landlords that illegally prevent honest competition that benefits renters,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole Sarrine of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “This consent decree is an important step in achieving affordable housing for Americans.”
The United States, along with state co-plaintiffs, filed a complaint on Jan. 7, 2025, alleging that Pinnacle, with five other co-defendant landlords, actively participated in a scheme to set their rents using each other’s competitively sensitive information through pricing algorithms. Pinnacle and other landlords shared competitively sensitive data to generate pricing recommendations using RealPage’s algorithms, which also included anticompetitive rules that aligned pricing. Pinnacle and other landlords also conferred on competitively sensitive topics, such as pricing strategies, rents, and selected parameters for RealPage’s software.
If approved by the court, the proposed consent decree would require Pinnacle to:
As required by the Tunney Act, the proposed settlement, along with a competitive impact statement, will be published in the Federal Register. Any interested person should submit written comments concerning the proposed settlement within 60 days following the publication to Danielle Hauck, Acting Chief, Technology and Digital Platforms Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 Fifth Street NW, Suite 7050, Washington, DC 20530. At the conclusion of the public comment period, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina may enter the final judgment upon finding it is in the public interest.
Pinnacle is a residential property manager headquartered in Frisco, Texas.
Note: Read the Proposed Final Judgement here, the Stipulation and Order here, the Explanation of Procedures here, and the Competitive Impact Statement here.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Two Florida men were sentenced to multiple years in prison for their roles in a $34.8 million health care fraud conspiracy billing Medicare for thousands of orthotic braces sent to Medicare beneficiaries who did not need them.
“These fraudsters billed Medicare $34.8 million for braces that patients didn’t need and didn’t request — and now they’re paying the price,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. “They paid kickbacks for fake doctors’ orders, shuffled billing among several companies to dodge payment suspensions, and pocketed millions that belonged to American taxpayers. Their prison sentences make clear: if you steal from Medicare, you will be caught, you will be prosecuted, and you will be held accountable.”
According to court documents, Kenneth Charles Kessler III, 43, of Miami, Florida, and Michael Andrew Gomez, 43, of Miramar, Florida, owned and operated seven durable medical equipment (DME) supply companies based in Florida. Through these DME companies, they submitted millions of dollars in false claims to Medicare for medically unnecessary orthotic braces.
Kessler and Gomez also paid illegal kickbacks and bribes to obtain fraudulent signed doctors’ orders. They used these orders to ship orthotic braces to Medicare beneficiaries nationwide, including to beneficiaries who neither requested nor needed the braces, and then claimed payment for those braces from Medicare. Kessler and Gomez used their multiple DME companies to evade Medicare payment suspensions by shifting their fraudulent billing between their DME companies.
Kessler profited more than $1.4 million, and Gomez profited more than $2.3 million from the fraudulent scheme.
Kessler was sentenced to 33 months of in prison, and Gomez was sentenced to 24 months of in prison.
In May 2026, Kessler and Gomez each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division; U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida; Special Agent in Charge Brett Skiles of the FBI Miami Field Office; and Acting Deputy Inspector General for Investigations Miranda Bennett of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) made the announcement.
FBI and HHS-OIG investigated the case.
Trial Attorneys Aisha Schafer Hylton and Owen Dunn of the National Fraud Enforcement Division’s Health Care Fraud Section prosecuted the case.
On April 7, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division (Fraud Division). The Fraud Division is laser-focused on investigating and prosecuting those who commit fraud against the American people. The Department’s work to combat fraud supports President Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit programs.
The Department of Justice’s Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program, currently comprised of nine strike forces operating in federal districts across the country, has charged more than 6,200 defendants who collectively billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $45 billion since 2007. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in health care fraud schemes. More information can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.
Source: United States Navy
Exercise Northern Viking 2026 wrapped Sept. 3 after nine days of bilateral operations between the U.S. and NATO allied nations. More than 1,200 personnel participated in training and operational evolutions in the air, on land and at sea. In addition to the U.S. and Iceland, participating nations included Belgium, Denmark, France, Norway and Poland. Specialized assets from Allied Maritime Command and NATO Joint Force Command Norfolk also took part
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Memphis, TN – Four convicted felons have been sentenced to federal prison for selling firearms at a local hotel and to undercover federal agents. D. Michael Dunavant, United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, announced the sentences today.The individuals involved in the…
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
A Mexican national, Carlos Erick Vazquez Gonzalez, 48, pleaded guilty today for his role in the laundering of approximately $4 million in drug trafficking proceeds in the United States and the return of those proceeds via cryptocurrency to Mexico as part of a money laundering conspiracy.
According to court documents, Vazquez Gonzalez worked with “money brokers” who arranged for the collection of drug profits in cities throughout the United States, which he then laundered and returned through cryptocurrency to Mexico. Vazquez Gonzalez accepted the deposit of approximately $4 million of these narcotic proceeds into a cryptocurrency wallet that he controlled. Vazquez Gonzalez then quickly moved the money to conceal or obfuscate its origins. He also sold the cryptocurrency for U.S. dollars in Mexico and returned the bulk cash to the “money broker” who arranged the pick-up of drug proceeds in the United States. Vazquez Gonzalez received an estimated $40,000 in commission for his participation.
Vazquez Gonzalez pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 17 and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Jason Parman for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and Special Agent in Charge Jim Scott of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Louisville Field Division made the announcement.
The DEA Lexington Resident Office investigated the case, working closely with the Detroit Field Division and Rocky Mountain Field Division and assisted by DEA offices in Mexico, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Birmingham, Chicago, Cincinnati, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Louisville, Baltimore, Des Moines, Milwaukee, Portland, Columbia, and Rapid City, with Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigation.
Deputy Chief Elizabeth R. Rabe of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section (MNF) and Deputy Chief Todd Bradbury for the Eastern District of Kentucky are prosecuting the case.
MNF’s mission is to take the profit out of crime, eliminate drug cartels, and protect the U.S. financial system. MNF pursues criminal prosecutions and criminal and civil asset recovery actions involving: financial facilitators who launder profits for criminals; financial institutions and their officers and employees whose actions threaten the U.S. financial system and financial institutions; international money launderers who support transnational organized crime; and the top command and control of international drug trafficking organizations.
MNF’s Money Laundering and Forfeiture Unit investigates and prosecutes sophisticated money laundering schemes involving financial facilitators, gatekeepers, and other individuals and entities laundering criminal proceeds, and litigates complex civil forfeiture cases to recover assets on behalf of victims.
This prosecution is also part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, HSTF directs the full might of U.S. law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. HSTF utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Jorge Arellano Torres, 33, residing illegally in Modesto, pleaded guilty today to being a deported alien found in the United States and was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison to be served consecutively to his state prison term.