Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Claire Murray Delivers Remarks at Department of Justice Georgia Grant Announcement

Good afternoon. Thank you General Landry for that kind introduction, and thank you to the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) for inviting me to join you today. It is an honor and privilege to be here with my fellow attorneys general.

A former civilian employee of the U.S. Air Force (USAF) pleaded guilty today for making false statements in connection with a federal investigation into the employee’s theft of government funds.

Nihad Rosic, 31, of Utica, New York, pleaded guilty today to one count of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and one count of providing material support to terrorists. Rosic appeared today before Judge Catherine D. Perry who accepted his plea and set his sentencing for April 16, 2020.

HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) SA (HSBC Switzerland), a private bank headquartered in Geneva, has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with the Department of Justice today in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, announced Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Department of Justice’s Tax Division, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Ariana Fajardo Orshan, and Chief Don Fort for Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Criminal Investigation. HSBC Switzerland admitted to conspiring with U.S. taxpayers to evade taxes and, as part of the agreement, HSBC Switzerland will pay $192.35 million in penalties.

A Nigerian citizen residing in Accra, Ghana, has been extradited to stand trial for an indictment charging him with wire fraud, money laundering, computer fraud and aggravated identity theft.

The Justice Department today filed a Statement of Interest in a federal lawsuit in Mississippi, explaining that public colleges cannot trample on their students’ First Amendment rights to free speech. The lawsuit is brought by a student organization and J. Michael Brown, a former student at Jones County Junior College, a public institution of higher education in Mississippi. The college’s policies require campus administrators to preapprove all “meetings or gatherings,” and Mr. Brown alleges that college officials called the campus police on him when he sought to engage on campus with fellow students about topics such as free speech and civil liberties.

Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband and U.S. Attorney Jason R. Dunn for the District of Colorado announced today that a federal grand jury in Denver has returned a 68-count indictment charging Robert Lewis Dear Jr., 61, with crimes related to the Nov. 27, 2015, shooting at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs where three people died, including a police officer. Eight others were wounded, including four police officers. Dear was taken into federal custody early this morning at the State Mental Hospital in Pueblo, Colorado. The defendant is scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nina Y. Wang in Denver at 2:00 p.m. for an initial appearance, where he will be advised of his rights and the charges pending against him.