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Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The owner of a fuel truck supply company, Kris Bird, 62, was sentenced today in Boise, Idaho, to three months in prison and a $24,000 fine for his role in schemes to rig bids, allocate territories, and commit wire fraud over an eight-year period. Further, Bird was ordered to forfeit to the federal government $1,542,387 as proceeds of his wire fraud offenses. The conspiracies Bird participated in related to contracts to provide fuel trucks that assist the U.S. Forest Service’s efforts to battle wildfires in Idaho and the mountain west.

Bird pleaded guilty in March 2025 — two weeks before his trial was set to begin — to the seven-count indictment. The plea followed an investigation that involved evidence from a judicially authorized wiretap and led to charges against two executives in December 2023. Earlier this month on June 5, Bird’s co-defendant, Ike Tomlinson, 61, was sentenced to 12 months in prison and a $20,000 fine for his leadership role in the criminal conduct.

“Mr. Bird stole taxpayer funds allocated for critical wildfire-fighting efforts protecting the American people to line his own pockets,” said Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “The Trump Antitrust Division’s Procurement Collusion Strike Force and its law enforcement partners will continue the fight to ensure that the fraudulent use of taxpayer money results in incarceration.”

“Today’s sentencing underscores the FBI’s commitment to protecting the integrity of our markets,” said Assistant Director Jose A. Perez of the FBI Criminal Investigative Division. “Antitrust violations are not just corporate misconduct, they’re federal crimes that distort competition, drive up costs for consumers and erode public trust. We will continue to work with our law enforcement and regulatory partners to hold accountable those who rig the system for personal gain.”

“Bid rigging is not a victimless crime. It cheats taxpayers and the honest contractors who play by the rules,” said Assistant Inspector General for Investigations Jason Suffredini of the General Services Administration (GSA) Office of Inspector General (OIG). “GSA OIG and our partners remain committed to pursuing those who engage in procurement fraud.”

According to court documents, the co-conspirators coordinated their bids to inflate prices and to determine who would have priority to receive business from the U.S. Forest Service and other federal agencies in the event of a wildfire in a specific geographic area. The co-conspirators further coordinated to exclude and punish potential competitors to further maintain the success of their conspiracy. During the conspiracies, from March 2015 to March 2023, Bird annually submitted false SAM certifications to the federal government covering up his bid-rigging conspiracy and committing wire fraud. 

The Antitrust Division’s San Francisco Office, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Idaho, FBI Salt Lake City Field Office, Boise Resident Agency, and General Services Administration Office of Inspector General investigated the case. Assistant Chief Christopher J. Carlberg and Trial Attorneys Elena A. Goldstein, Daniel B. Twomey, and Matthew Chou of the Antitrust Division’s San Francisco Office, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean M. Mazorol for the District of Idaho have been prosecuting the case.

In addition to today’s criminal sentence, in May 2025, the United States, on behalf of the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Small Business Administration, entered into a civil settlement with Kris Bird and other related entities and individuals who agreed to pay $781,186 to resolve civil claims after admitting to allegations that they obtained government contracts through bid-rigging and the submission of false SAM Certifications, as well as wrongly obtained a Paycheck Protection Program loan.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Idaho and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General investigated the civil case. Assistant United States Attorney Robert B. Firpo and Civil Chief James Schaefer are handling the case.

In November 2019, the Justice Department created the Procurement Collusion Strike Force (PCSF), 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. Anyone with information in connection with this investigation can contact the PCSF at the link listed above. 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A Mexican national was sentenced to eight years and four months in prison and three years of supervised release for his role in the collection of drug proceeds in the United States and the repatriation of those proceeds or their equivalent value to Mexico as part of a money laundering conspiracy.

According to court documents, Jose Manuel Martinez Gomez, also known as Meno, 52, of Guadalajara, Mexico, served as a “money broker” in an organization that conspired with drug traffickers to launder money for them in Mexico. Martinez personally brokered contracts to launder approximately $5.5 million and used a network of co-conspirators to pick up the drug proceeds all over the United States. Martinez then directed the transfer of the funds to Mexico via cryptocurrency and kept a percentage for himself as a fee. 

As a direct result of the money laundering contracts brokered by Martinez, The Drug Enforcement Administration Lexington Field Office and its partners seized approximately 3 kilograms of fentanyl, 52.77 kilograms of cocaine, 7,078.63 kilograms of unconverted methamphetamine in the form of charcoal lumps, 170 gallons of unconverted methamphetamine in the form of coconut oil, 140 kilograms of methamphetamine and 15 gallons of liquid methamphetamine. The DEA also seized $1,352,160 in bulk U.S. currency.

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 the IRS Criminal Investigation Division.

Trial Attorney Elizabeth R. Rabe of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section and Deputy Criminal Chief Gary Todd Bradbury of the Eastern District of Kentucky prosecuted this case.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has opened an investigation into the University of California (UC) system, including its individual campuses, concerning potential race- and sex-based discrimination in university employment practices.

The University of California’s “UC 2030 Capacity Plan” directs its campuses to hire “diverse” faculty members to meet race- and sex-based employment quotas. These initiatives openly measure new hires by their race and sex, which potentially runs afoul of federal law. The Civil Rights Division’s Employment Litigation Section will investigate whether the University of California is engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination based on race, sex, and other protected characteristics, pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“Public employers are bound by federal laws that prohibit racial and other employment discrimination,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Institutional directives that use race- and sex-based hiring practices expose employers to legal risk under federal law.”

The notice letter is available here.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty yesterday to wire fraud and tax evasion.

The following is according to court documents and statements made in court: John (Jack) Griffin of Philadelphia was the principal and founder of Second Story Farming Inc., which did business as Metropolis Farms. Second Story Farming had several lines of business, including growing crops in vertical farms to sell to customers, developing sustainable vertical farming technologies, and selling vertical farming systems to customers. Vertical farming refers to a practice of growing crops vertically and in horizontally stacked layers.

In 2017, Griffin, through Second Story Farming, sold vertical farming systems along with the equipment, supplies, materials, and operational instructions necessary to operate them to two companies. Before entering into the contracts, Griffin provided financial projections to them that grossly overstated the anticipated revenues that could be generated by the vertical farms and grossly understated the anticipated expenses necessary to operate the vertical farms. In reliance on the financial projections, the companies each paid Second Story Farming to set up vertical farms for them. Rather than use those funds to provide them with vertical farms, Griffin used most of the money to pay his own personal expenses and operate Second Story Farming’s research and development line of business.

In 2017, Griffin earned income from his work at Second Story Farming. Despite being legally required to file a tax return for that year, Griffin did not do so. Griffin tried to conceal that he received any income in 2017 by, among other things, withdrawing cash and paying personal expense from his business’s bank accounts and transferring funds from his business to his wife, and withdrawing cash from Second Story Farming’s business bank account.  

Griffin is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 22. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each of the wire fraud charges and a maximum penalty of five years in prison on the tax evasion charge. He also faces a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney Karen E. Kelly of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney David Metcalf for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania made the announcement.

IRS Criminal Investigation, the FBI, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service are investigating the case.

Trial Attorney Catriona Coppler of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis Weber for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania are prosecuting the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Defendant Unlawfully Exported American-Made Firearms Through JFK International Airport

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A Texas woman was sentenced today to three years and five months in prison for her participation in a scheme to file fraudulent applications for loans under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) that the Small Business Administration (SBA) guaranteed under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.

According to court documents, between around May 2020, and March 2021, Shantelle Hawkins, 43, of DeSoto, conspired to submit 17 fraudulent PPP loan applications on behalf of companies she or her relatives owned or controlled. The applications contained false statements about payroll and tax information, which the SBA used to calculate the amount of PPP funds to which the applicant-companies would be entitled. Hawkins used some of the money she obtained from the loans for personal expenses, including to pay off her 2015 Maserati Ghibli luxury car and to purchase property in the greater Dallas area.

Hawkins pleaded guilty on Oct. 8, 2024, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.  At sentencing, Hawkins was ordered to pay more than $1.8 million in restitution and to forfeit the residence purchased with proceeds from the fraud.

Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Acting U.S. Attorney Nancy E. Larson for the Northern District of Texas; and Special Agent in Charge R. Joseph Rothrock of the FBI’s Dallas Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI is investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Dermot Lynch and Kashan Pathan of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elyse Lyons for the Northern District of Texas is handling asset forfeiture.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Justice Department’s National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.