MIL Security Engine-1

Source: United States Department of Justice

Remarks as prepared for delivery.

Thank you for all for the opportunity to be here. And thank you to the entire Environmental and Natural Resources Division staff for bringing together key stakeholders to collaborate on and discuss an important priority of President Trump’s Administration.

We are here today to join forces to implement a set of federal initiatives that protect three fundamental ideas:

First, that we, American citizens, deserve to be protected from transnational criminal organizations that threaten and exploit our borders and our citizens;

Second, that the American timber industry – the industry that builds our homes, schools, hospitals, and military installations that defend our families and friends – should not be stifled by foreign supply chains;

And lastly, that we should embrace our country’s network of timber resources, which should not be paralyzed by a burdensome regulatory framework.

Illegal logging is the most profitable natural resource crime on the planet. It is also the third most profitable transnational crime. Ending illegal timber shipments from entering our country protects Americans from unfair competition and blocks unlawful revenue streams from transnational criminal organizations.

These criminal organizations exploit the complex innerworkings of the global supply chain to conceal their unlawful activities.

Preventing these bad actors like China – the world’s large importer of illegal timber – from profiting off of illegal logging means that we are simultaneously thwarting their efforts to finance violent conflicts, drug and wildlife trafficking, and illegal mining.

The United States has some of the most abundant timber resources on earth. Yet, we have allowed ourselves to rely on imports to support our timber needs.

We must take action to stymie the United States’ continued reliance on foreign timber. We have been ceding influence to foreign producers, who exploit the complexity of the global supply chain and then benefit from their illicit activities. 

At the same time, our country has been hamstrung by the regulatory framework in this industry, which, in turn, causes years-long delay in timber sales.

The wood that frames our homes, builds our schools and hospitals, and constructs military installations are either compelled to rely on shady foreign importers or stifled by burdensome regulatory schemes.

But this is why we are here today. To collaborate on how we fix this problem. Timber is the backbone of national security and American society.

I now leave it to the experts in the room. I trust that we will have productive discussions today, and look forward to working with you all.

Source: United States Department of Justice

Remarks as prepared for delivery.

Thank you all for attending this important event to share the United States’ efforts to combat illegal cross-border trade of timber and wood products. This is a priority of the Trump Administration, vital to our nation’s national and economic security and that of our global trading partners. 

I want to start by expressing my sincere thanks to the members of the Timber Interdiction Membership Board and Enforcement Resources Working Group — better known as the TIMBER Working Group — for your continued work to combat illegal timber trafficking and for organizing this event.

In addition to DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD), the TIMBER Working Group includes the Departments of Agriculture, Homeland Security, and Interior, each of which you will hear from today. This team is designed to develop complex timber investigations, eliminate bureaucratic obstacles that hinder them, and serve as a resource to enhance our investigative and prosecutorial capacity as well as that of our foreign partners.

I also thank our non-member interagency partners for being here today and my staff from ENRD for supporting the logistics for this event. It takes a lot of work to organize these events, and it is truly appreciated.

ENRD continues to uphold its long-standing commitment to enforcing the nation’s environmental laws and defending the responsible use of her natural resources. Today’s event is designed to provide an overview of what the federal government is doing to combat one of the most pervasive and lucrative forms of transnational crime. We also want industry, NGOs, and the public to know who to reach out to with tips, compliance questions, and enforcement ideas.

The United States was the first country to criminalize the transnational trafficking of plants and plant products, including timber, when the Lacey Act was amended in 2008. This amendment came about thanks to universal support from industry, NGOs, civil society, and the government to address what everyone agreed was a problem, even if for different reasons.

Since 2008, we have seen other countries follow the lead of the United States in adopting similar statutory frameworks. This includes Australia, the European Union, Japan, and the United Kingdom among others. However, the United States continues to be the leader in prosecutions of timber trafficking cases.

A key guiding principle of this Administration is to make the United States “stronger, safer, and more prosperous.” And that is how ENRD is approaching the problem of timber trafficking.

During his first term, President Trump was the first president to prioritize combatting wildlife trafficking, including both flora and fauna, along with drugs, weapons, and human trafficking.

Just last year, President Trump emphasized that the domestic wood products industry is “essential to the national security, economic strength, and industrial resilience of the United States.” (EO 14223, Mar. 1, 2025). Unlawful imports of protected timber species undermine domestic industry and reward law-breaking.

As with many crimes, timber trafficking is all about money. Illegal logging was the third most profitable form of transnational crime with an estimated annual value of $52-157 billion USD. The only more profitable crimes were counterfeiting and drug trafficking. The U.S. Forest Service estimates the U.S. forest products industry loses $500 million USD annually to trafficking through lost export opportunities and depressed wood prices.

The United States is one of the largest producers of timber and wood products. On the flip side, we are also one of the largest consumers of these products. The only way we can end the illegal timber trade is to cut off the demand for illegal wood products. This is done through effective and collaborative enforcement efforts.

Timber trafficking is not a victimless crime. Unlawful profits are funding terrorist organizations and drug cartels, driving government corruption, and undermining law and order.

These crimes also put law-abiding companies at an unfair competitive disadvantage as their competitors cheat and undersell them. In the Quintana case sentenced in 2024, where the husband and wife defendants avoided an estimated $42 million USD in duties for importing unlawful Chinese plywood, it was a competitor complaint that kicked off the investigation led by Homeland Security Investigations. These crimes deprive companies who operate legally of business opportunities and the economic resources to expand their businesses and provide good paying jobs in the United States.

ENRD remains committed to prosecuting these crimes. There are three tangible actions I want to highlight:

First, ENRD has recently posted detail positions for two intelligence analysts within our Environmental Crimes Section that will support timber trafficking investigations as well as other trafficking crimes. We’re excited to have dedicated analytical resources for this important work. I want to thank our partners at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative which is funding one of these positions.

Second, ENRD is a member of the DOJ Trade Fraud Task Force announced last year, that will provide access to additional resources. You will hear from Cody Herche the head of the task force today.

And lastly, ENRD has resumed its trade enforcement programming, supported by the State Department, to help our foreign counterparts investigate and prosecute cases where there is a nexus to the tools the United States. In June, we are concluding an initial workshop series in Indonesia that includes government officials and independent forest monitors. We are resuming our programming with Vietnam and India next month. These efforts will provide greater capacity to work together to tackle timber trafficking.

In order to make the United States, “stronger, safer, and more prosperous,” this global problem requires a global solution. We rely on the work of the NGOs who support open-source data platforms and publish investigative reports to drive results. This work has also helped educate industry and support their due care efforts. We also value information from industry, including confidential tips, to identify bad actors and bring them to justice.

I hope today’s event demonstrates the dedication of DOJ to prosecute these crimes and work with you to ensure the legal trade of timber and wood products. When we get together again in 2028 to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of the Lacey Act amendments, I trust we will also celebrate many victories against illegal timber trade and an economy that is “safer, stronger, and more prosperous.”

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson (second from left) of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division gives remarks at the TIMBER Working Group roundtable.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

DAYTON, Ohio – James Thomas Hurt, 25, of Dayton, was arrested by federal agents and charged with a firearms crime in connection with a shooting at the RTA bus hub in downtown Dayton in September 2025. Hurt appeared in federal court here this afternoon. 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Evan Tangeman, 22, of Newport Beach, California, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 70 months in prison for laundering millions of dollars generated by an elaborate social engineering scheme orchestrated by a multi-state criminal enterprise that stole more than $263 million in cryptocurrency and used the proceeds to support the criminal enterprise’s fantastically extravagant lifestyles.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

VALDOSTA, Ga. – A South Georgia resident was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for attempting to sextort an Ohio teenager he met over Snapchat, threatening her for explicit images.Cenobio Olguin, Jr., 24, of Lenox, Georgia, was sentenced to serve fifteen years in prison to be followed by ten years of supervised release by Senior U.S. District Judge Louis Sands on April 23. Olguin, Jr. pleaded guilty to one count of attempted production of child pornography on Jan. 27. 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

SAN DIEGO – Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of California filed 134 border-related cases this week, including charges of bringing in aliens for financial gain, reentering the U.S. after deportation, and importation of controlled substances. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California is the fourth-busiest federal district, largely due to a high volume of border-related crimes. This district, encompassing San Diego and Imperial counties, shares a 140-mile border with Mexico. It includes the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the world’s busiest land border crossing, connecting San Diego (America’s eighth largest city) and Tijuana (Mexico’s second largest city).

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

BROOKLYN, NY – Today, in federal court in Brooklyn, Taesung Kim, also known as “Terry,” was sentenced today to 63 months in prison for conspiring to launder the proceeds of a $24.4 million pharmacy fraud scheme.  In December 2024, Kim pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.  As part of his sentence, the Court ordered Kim pay $24.4 million in restitution and to forfeit $6 million in fraud proceeds, including several bank accounts and real properties.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Tayon Wright, 26, a previously convicted felon residing in the District of Columbia, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 30 months in prison for unlawful possession of a Glock pistol that was discovered after he fled from a car he had crashed following a police pursuit.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A New York man, Taesung “Terry” Kim, 61, of Harrison, New York, was sentenced today to 63 months in prison for conspiring to launder the proceeds of a $24.4 million pharmacy fraud scheme.

“Mr. Kim’s scheme to pad his pockets with $24 million in taxpayer dollars by peddling unnecessary prescription drugs is despicable and dangerous,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. “This administration is making clear: we will hold accountable anyone who jeopardizes the health of millions of American adults by stealing from Medicare.”

“Today, Taesung Kim was held accountable for the despicable crime of defrauding Medicare and Medicaid, vital federal health care programs that provide insurance coverage to the elderly and those who cannot afford health insurance,” said U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr for the Eastern District of New York. “Fraudsters who think the government is an ATM they can blatantly plunder should take notice of the price this defendant will now pay for his greed.”

“Taesung (Terry) Kim attempted to hide years of health care fraud through illicit kickbacks and bribes. Through the hard work of the FBI and the Department of Health and Human Service – Office of the Inspector General, we were able to peel back the layers of deception to uncover this criminal scheme,” said Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. of the FBI New York Field Office. “The FBI will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to identify and hold accountable individuals defrauding the American people.”

“The defendant deliberately exploited patients and the Medicare program by orchestrating kickback schemes and laundering millions in fraudulent prescription proceeds to fuel his own greed,” said Acting Deputy Inspector General for Investigations Scott J. Lampert of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). “Today’s sentence reinforces HHS-OIG’s continued commitment, alongside our law enforcement partners, to dismantling schemes that abuse federal health care programs and ensuring those who perpetrate them are brought to justice.”

According to court documents, the defendant co-owned several retail pharmacies in Brooklyn and Queens, New York. Between 2015 and 2022, Kim’s pharmacies submitted approximately $24.4 million in claims to Medicare for medically unnecessary prescription drugs. Kim, working with others, acquired prescriptions by paying bribes and cash kickbacks to medical providers and purported patients. He and his conspirators gave bribes to medical providers in the form of office rent and staff to induce them to direct prescriptions to the pharmacies, and he paid customers in the form of supermarket gift certificates and cash to induce them to fill prescriptions at their pharmacies. Kim laundered the proceeds of the scheme through various trading companies, which gave the appearance of legitimate business, facilitated the kickbacks and bribes, and distributed profits among the pharmacies’ owners.

In December 2024, Kim pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. In addition to his prison sentence, the Court ordered Kim pay $24.4 million in restitution and to forfeit $6 million in fraud proceeds, including several bank accounts and real properties. On Oct. 16, 2025, Kim’s partner and co-conspirator, Feng “Jeff” Jiang, 43, of Flushing, was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment.

HHS-OIG and FBI investigated the case.

Trial Attorney Patrick J. Campbell of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanisha R. Payne for the Eastern District of New York assisted with forfeiture matters.

The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since March 2007, this program, currently comprised of 8 strike forces operating in 27 federal districts, has charged more than 5,800 defendants who collectively have billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $30 billion. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with HHS-OIG, 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 Department of Justice Criminal Division

BOSTON – The leader of a violent criminal enterprise that operated in Hampden County was sentenced today in federal court in Boston for directing the trafficking of large amounts of cocaine and crack cocaine throughout Western Massachusetts, as well as for possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking. The defendant used violence and threats of violence to control his territory in Holyoke, including an attempted violent armed kidnapping.