Attorney General Applauds FBI’s Massive Sex Trafficking Crackdown

A criminal complaint was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, charging Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares (Luis Martinelli Linares) and Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Linares (Ricardo Martinelli Linares) for their roles in a massive bribery and money laundering scheme involving Odebrecht S.A. (Odebrecht), a Brazil-based global construction conglomerate.

Elizabeth Jo Shirley, of Hedgesville, West Virginia, has admitted to unlawfully retaining a document containing national defense information and committing international parental kidnapping, the Department of Justice announced.

The Justice Department announced today that it reached a settlement with Bel USA LLC (Bel USA), an online distributor and retailer of customized promotional products located in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The settlement resolves claims that Bel USA discriminated against work-authorized non-U.S. citizens by requiring them to provide specific and unnecessary immigration documents when verifying their work authorization, because of their citizenship or immigration status. 

Four former supervisory correctional officers at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana — Daniel Davis (43), Scotty Kennedy (52), John Sanders (34), and James Savoy Jr. (42) — were sentenced on July 2, for their roles in assaulting an inmate who was handcuffed, shackled, and not resisting, and for conspiring to cover up their misconduct by devising a false cover story, submitting false reports documenting that cover story, tampering with witnesses, and lying under oath.

United States Attorney Peter G. Strasser and Makan Delrahim, Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, announced that CAJAN WELDING & RENTALS, LTD., a company located in Opelousas, Louisiana, was charged on July 2, 2020 in a one-count bill of information with conspiracy to defraud the United States and to violate the Procurement Integrity Act, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371.

A forfeiture complaint and warrant were filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that all petroleum-product cargo aboard the Bella with international maritime organization (IMO) number 9208124, the Bering with IMO number 9149225, the Pandi with IMO number 9105073, and the Luna with IMO number 9208100 are subject to forfeiture based on the terrorism forfeiture statute.

The Justice Department today announced a settlement of its race discrimination lawsuit against Guaranteed Auto Sales, a used car dealership in Glen Burnie, Maryland.  The agreement also settles the United States’ claims against the dealership’s owner and manager, Kelly Ann West and Robert Chesgreen.