Press Releases

Georgian national Michail Chkhikvishvili, also known as Mishka, Michael, Commander Butcher and Butcher, 21, of Tbilisi, was extradited to the United States from Moldova on May 22, and will be arraigned in federal court in Brooklyn today. 

Two Florida men pleaded guilty before Magistrate Judge Leslie Hoffman Price for the Middle District of Florida for their roles in a years-long off-the-books payroll scheme. The pleas must be accepted by a U.S. district court judge.

A federal indictment unsealed today charges Rustam Rafailevich Gallyamov, 48, of Moscow, Russia, with leading a group of cyber criminals who developed and deployed the Qakbot malware. In connection with the charges, the Justice Department filed today a civil forfeiture complaint against over $24 million in cryptocurrency seized from Gallyamov over the course of the investigation.

Today, the Justice Department, joined by the Federal Trade Commission (the “Agencies”) filed a statement of interest in the Eastern District of Texas in the case of Texas et al. v. BlackRock, Inc. The States’ lawsuit—led by the Texas Attorney General—alleges that BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard used their management of stock in competing coal companies to induce reductions in output, resulting in higher energy prices for American consumers. This is the first formal statement by the Agencies in federal court on the antitrust implications of common shareholdings.

A Colombian national was sentenced today in the Southern District of Florida for her role in kidnapping and assaulting two members of the U.S. military who were on temporary duty in Bogotá, Colombia.

A 29-count indictment was unsealed today charging 12 men and 3 women for their roles in a drug trafficking organization and related gun offenses.

Today, the Attorney General and the Department of Justice’s Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement (JCODE) team, and international law enforcement partners announced the results of Operation RapTor, including the arrests of 270 dark web vendors, buyers, and administrators in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

L3 Technologies Inc., a corporation doing business in Utah, has agreed to pay the United States $62 million to settle allegations that its division, Communications System West, violated the False Claims Act and the Truth In Negotiations Act by knowingly making false statements and submitting and causing the submission of false claims by failing to disclose accurate, current, and complete cost or pricing data for communications equipment sold to various Department of Defense agencies, including the Air Force, Army, and Navy, and other government agencies. 

A California man was sentenced to 96 months in prison and ordered to pay $38 million in restitution for a decades-long scheme to evade employment taxes.

An Illinois man and a foreign national were arrested yesterday on criminal charges related to their alleged submission of more than $227 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare.

A Missouri man was sentenced yesterday to 111 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp for the Eastern District of Missouri for burning down a Cape Girardeau, Missouri house of worship in 2021. He was also ordered to pay $6,968,223.36 in restitution for damages incurred by the church.

The Justice Department announced today the unsealing of two warrants authorizing the seizure of five internet domains used by malicious cyber actors to operate the LummaC2 information-stealing malware service.