Attorney General Applauds FBI’s Massive Sex Trafficking Crackdown

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.

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.

The Justice Department today filed a lawsuit seeking to revoke the naturalized U.S. citizenship of José Vilchis, who allegedly concealed from U.S. immigration authorities his repeated sexual abuse of at least three minor female athletes.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development Assistance and Training (OPDAT) and International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP) helps foreign governments combat corruption. OPDAT provides expert assistance and case-based mentoring to foreign counterparts to help develop justice systems that can effectively combat corruption in furtherance of U.S. national security. ICITAP helps foreign governments combat corruption by building capacity of law enforcement institutions and other government entities to investigate misconduct and corruption and to implement internal controls that encourage professional conduct among government employees.