Press Releases Archive

The Justice Department announced today that SouthEast Bank agreed to pay $1.5 million to resolve allegations that it engaged in a pattern or practice of lending discrimination by disproportionately discouraging and denying Black and American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) graduates seeking to refinance their student loans.

On Jan. 3, the United States reached a settlement in Farrell v. Department of Defense, a class action lawsuit filed in 2023 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The plaintiffs in Farrell alleged that the Department of Defense’s files for military veterans discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and earlier policies barring lesbian, gay and bisexual people from serving openly in the military violate the Constitution’s guarantees of equal protection and due process. 

A Texas woman and man were sentenced to 121 months and 135 months in prison and ordered to pay money judgments of $942,537.00 and $438,119.00, respectively, this week for their roles as the leaders of a human smuggling organization (HSO) that conspired to illegally transport, harbor, and conceal from law enforcement hundreds of undocumented individuals in the United States and launder the proceeds of their illicit human smuggling.

The Justice Department announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against Kurt Williams and Gearhead Properties LC, of Davenport, Iowa, for sexually harassing female tenants in violation of the Fair Housing Act (FHA). Williams has managed residential rental properties in Davenport since at least 2010.

The Justice Department filed a civil injunction suit in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The suit seeks to bar a Broward County, Florida, tax return preparer and his business from owning or operating a tax return preparation business and preparing tax returns for others.

The Justice Department issued the following statements from Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco on the Supreme Court’s decision in TikTok, et al. v. Garland:

BioReference Health LLC, formerly known as BioReference Laboratories Inc. (BioReference) and OPKO Health Inc. (OPKO), have agreed to pay $704,349 to resolve alleged violations of the False Claims Act arising from BioReference’s submission of claims for laboratory tests that had not been ordered by a patient’s provider. OPKO is a Delaware Corporation. BioReference, a subsidiary of OPKO, is headquartered in New Jersey and is one of the largest clinical laboratories in the United States.

Torrance, California-based chain of skilled nursing facilities Unified Care Services LLC (Unified Care), its affiliates and its owner, Emmanual David, have agreed to pay $18 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by knowingly providing false information in support of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan applications and loan forgiveness applications submitted by Unified Care and its affiliates.

A former CIA analyst pleaded guilty today to retaining and transmitting Top Secret National Defense Information to people who were not entitled to receive it, information which was publicly posted on a social media platform in October 2024.

The Justice Department announced today that it has entered into a settlement agreement with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department on the use of custodial informants by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department in California. The agreement, together with an earlier agreement with the Orange County District Attorney, fully resolves the department’s civil investigation into custodial informant activity at the Orange County Jails from 2007 through 2016 that violated criminal defendants’ right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment and right to due process of law under the 14th Amendment to the U.S

Extensive coordination and cooperation efforts between U.S. and Mexican law enforcement authorities resulted in the extradition of a human smuggler who allegedly participated in an international human smuggling conspiracy.

A Virginia man pleaded guilty to real estate and tax fraud related to his scheme to obtain title to a $1.3 million home in Roanoke County. Specifically, he pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, bank fraud and filing false claims against the United States.