Press Releases

Roger Ver, an early bitcoin investor known as “Bitcoin Jesus,” entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department to resolve federal tax charges brought against him. 

An indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, charging Cambodian national Chen Zhi, also known as Vincent, 37, the founder and chairman of Prince Holding Group (Prince Group), a multinational business conglomerate based in Cambodia, with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy for directing Prince Group’s operation of forced-labor scam compounds across Cambodia. 

A criminal complaint was unsealed today charging George Russell Isbell Jr., 69, of San Diego, with mailing a threatening communication. Isbell was arrested on Oct. 7 in San Diego.

Peter Bardunias, 59, of Clifton Park, New York, was charged today with attempting to entice a minor to engage in prohibited sexual activity. Acting United States Attorney John A. Sarcone III and Craig L. Tremaroli, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), made the announcement.

Nicholas John Roske, 29, of Simi Valley, California, was sentenced today to 97 months in federal prison to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release for attempting to kill a United States Supreme Court Justice. The Department of Justice advocated for a sentence of at least 30 years to life.

WASHINGTON – Yesterday, the Religious Liberty Commission held its third hearing to discuss religious liberty issues in education from the perspectives of teachers and coaches, as well as religious liberty issues in school funding and educational choice, including testimony from school leaders, families, and experts impacted by religious liberty issues in school funding. The hearing’s objective was to understand the historic landscape of religious liberty in the educational setting, recognize present threats to religious liberty in education, and identify opportunities to secure religious

Georgia Tech Research Corporation (GTRC) has agreed to pay the United States $875,000 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act and federal common law by failing to meet cybersecurity requirements in connection with certain Air Force and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contracts. GTRC contracts with government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), for research performed at its affiliate, the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech).

Today, a federal jury in Memphis convicted Mervin Anderson, 40, of Memphis, Tennessee, of one count of possession of contraband in prison, including two homemade knives, or shanks.

The Justice Department announced today that it filed a lawsuit against Eddie Joe Hankins and the Housing Authority of the City of Bloomfield, Missouri, for sexually harassing a female housing applicant in violation of the Fair Housing Act. Hankins was the executive director of the Missouri Housing Authority from 2019 through 2022. 

The Justice Department’s U.S. Trustee Program (USTP) obtained a judgment against a nationwide consumer bankruptcy law firm imposing more than $392,000 in penalties and a three-year suspension based on the firm’s false and misleading disclosures in more than 200 bankruptcy cases.

Today, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division launched an investigation into the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) to determine whether the University has denied equal treatment of individuals based on race or national origin, in violation of Title IV and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Latvian national, Oleg Chistyakov, aka Olegs Čitsjakovs, 56, pleaded guilty today for his role in a years-long conspiracy to circumvent U.S. export laws by filing false export forms with the U.S. government and, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, continuing to procure and sell sophisticated and controlled avionics equipment to customers in Russia without the required licenses from the U.S. Department of Commerce.