James Paul Clifton, 35, of Newport News, Va., was also ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Liam O’Grady to serve three years of supervised release following the prison term.  Clifton pleaded guilty to one count of bribery on Aug. 7, 2009, in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The U.S. Army operates the Bagram Airfield in support of military operations in Afghanistan.  According to court documents, the Army assigns a contracting officer representative (COR) to review all transportation requests and transportation providers.  The Army assigned Clifton, a staff sergeant, to be the COR at the Bagram Airfield in February 2008.  Clifton’s duties included overseeing the companies providing ground transportation to and from Bagram Airfield and objectively determining whether the companies’ service had been adequate.

According to the plea agreement, employees for AIT, a trucking company operating at Bagram Airfield, began to offer Clifton gifts almost immediately after he was assigned to his position.  Despite initially refusing the gifts, Clifton admitted he accepted a cellular telephone in May 2008, paid for by AIT.  According to court documents, AIT then began to make payments to Clifton at a rate of $20,000 a month.  Clifton admitted that in exchange for the payments, he agreed to assign one extra day of trucking service to the company.  Clifton also admitted that later in the month, another Afghan trucking company, ATT, entered into a similar illegal agreement with him.   Clifton further admitted that in exchange for bribe payments of $15,000 a month, he assigned ATT an additional day of trucking service a month.  Between May and October 2008, Clifton admitted, ATT and AIT made $87,000 in payments to him.  According to court documents, affiliates of both companies wired the payments from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Clifton’s then-girlfriend in Newport News, Va.  According to the terms of their agreement, the companies had agreed to pay Clifton an additional $10,000, although he never received the payments.

The case is being prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve A. Linick, Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, and Fraud Section Trial Attorney Liam Brennan.  The investigation is being conducted by Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the FBI and members of the National Procurement Fraud Task Force.

The National Procurement Fraud Task Force, created in October 2006 by the Department of Justice, was designed to promote the early detection, identification, prevention and prosecution of procurement fraud associated with the increase in government contracting activity for national security and other government programs.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is the principal federal U.S. agency that extends assistance to countries that are recovering from disaster, are trying to escape poverty and are engaging in democratic reforms. The agency works to support long-term and equitable economic growth and advance U.S. foreign policy objectives.

In August 2006, USAID awarded a $1.4 billion contract known as the Afghanistan Infrastructure Rehabilitation Project (the AIRP contract). The AIRP contract required the award of numerous subcontracts, including for the provision of security services to protect AIRP workers.

According to the indictment, McMonigle was employed from approximately February 2009 until May 2009 in Kabul, Afghanistan, by Civilian Police International, a Virginia-based company that provides law enforcement training internationally. The indictment alleges that McMonigle, Bryan Lee Burrows and others conspired to solicit kickbacks from security vendors in return for favorable treatment for those potential bidders in connection with the award of a subcontract to provide security services to protect USAID personnel and contractors in Afghanistan operating under the AIRP contract.

McMonigle is charged with one count of conspiracy to solicit a kickback and one count of aiding and abetting the solicitation of a kickback.

Burrows pleaded guilty on Sept. 2, 2009, to conspiring with others to solicit kickbacks from the security vendors in return for favorable treatment for those potential bidders in connection with the award of a security services subcontract.

If convicted, McMonigle faces up to 10 years in prison on the kickback solicitation charge and an additional five years in prison on the conspiracy charge, as well as a fine of $250,000 for each charge. The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum.

Criminal indictments are only charges and not evidence of guilt.  A defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty.

The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Bradford L. Geyer of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, Trial Attorneys Kimberly A. Justice and Joseph Muoio of the Antitrust Division’s Philadelphia Field Office and Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy D. Belevetz of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. The investigation is being conducted by USAID’s Office of Inspector General as well as members of the National Procurement Fraud Task Force and the International Contract Corruption Task Force (ICCTF).

The National Procurement Fraud Task Force, created in October 2006 by the Department of Justice, was designed to promote the early detection, identification, prevention and prosecution of procurement fraud associated with the increase in government contracting activity for national security and other government programs. The ICCTF is a joint law enforcement agency task force that seeks to detect, investigate and dismantle corruption and contract fraud resulting from U.S. Overseas Contingency Operations, including in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait.

The 32-count indictment charges Mendelsohn with mail and wire fraud, aiding and abetting mail and wire fraud, and making false statements to federal agents.  Mendelsohn will make his initial appearance today at 11 a.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lurana Snow in Ft. Lauderdale.

According to the indictment, beginning in approximately 1999, Mendelsohn, a practicing physician, was involved in lobbying members of the Florida legislature and other state officials for legislation and budget expenditures of importance mainly to ophthalmologists.  The indictment alleges that in approximately late 2002, Mendelsohn was asked by various lobbyists and businesspeople if he would use his political connections to assist their clients in obtaining and defeating legislation and in obtaining other favorable government action.  According to the indictment, beginning in approximately 2002, Mendelsohn allegedly created a series of political organizations and corporations for the purpose of soliciting and then transferring contributions between the entities in ways that would be difficult to trace.

Beginning in approximately 2002, through a pattern of false representations and promises, Mendelsohn allegedly solicited and received more than $2 million in donations to the political organizations he controlled from persons for whom he agreed to provide lobbying and other services.  According to the indictment, Mendelsohn allegedly represented to the contributors that their funds would be used for media and other campaigns on political issues of importance to them and to support political candidates.  In fact, the indictment alleges that Mendelsohn secretly diverted more than $350,000 in contributed funds to his personal use and benefit through payments made in ways that were misrepresented or concealed entirely in required public disclosure reports for the political organizations.  The indictment alleges that Mendelsohn used the diverted funds, in part, to purchase a residence and a car, to pay for tutors and tuition for his children, to pay his personal credit card bills, and to pay bonuses to an employee of his medical practice.

The indictment also alleges that Mendelsohn falsely represented to a contributor that he secured bribery agreements with senior government officials.  During 2003 and 2004, the indictment alleges that Mendelsohn falsely represented to the contributor that he had brokered an agreement with senior government officials to close an ongoing criminal investigation by state officials in Florida of the contributor and others in exchange for campaign donations and other payments totaling more than $1 million.  The indictment also alleges that in subsequent conversations in 2007, Mendelsohn falsely told the contributor that senior government officials had agreed to exert pressure on federal prosecutors investigating the contributor to close the investigation in exchange for $400,000 in contributions.  As a result of Mendelsohn’s false representations, the contributor caused more than $1 million in payments to be made, as directed by Mendelsohn.  The indictment states that, in fact, no such unlawful agreements to close
any investigations had been made with any public officials.

The indictment alleges that in order to increase his power and influence as a lobbyist so that he could obtain more contributions and consequently more funds for himself, Mendelsohn made approximately $87,000 in payments to a now-former public official. These payments, which were made from the political organizations Mendelsohn controlled, were disguised as payments for consulting services rendered by an intermediary to whom the checks were written. In addition, the indictment alleges that Mendelsohn undertook or directed others to undertake actions to conceal the true source of certain campaign contributions.  The indictment also alleges that Mendelsohn caused income and expense amounts to be falsely characterized or omitted in the books and records of political organizations and corporations he controlled and from public disclosure reports that required the accurate reporting of income and expenditures.

Mendelsohn also allegedly made several material false statements to federal agents investigating these allegations beginning in late May 2007.  For example, according to the indictment, Mendelsohn falsely denied that he had represented to one of the contributors that he had secured an agreement with senior government officials to terminate the state investigation involving the contributor.  Mendelsohn also falsely claimed that he did not receive any personal benefit from using his political connections.  In addition, the indictment alleges he falsely denied that he ever received any financial benefit from the political organizations for which he solicited contributions and controlled.

An indictment is merely an accusation. All defendants are innocent until proven guilty.

The charges of mail and wire fraud each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.  The charges of false statements each carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

This case is being prosecuted by Senior Trial Attorney Mary K. Butler and Trial Attorneys Justin V. Shur and Eric G. Olshan of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section, headed by William M. Welch, II, Chief.  This case is being investigated by the FBI’s Miami Field Office.

A one-count indictment, handed up in the Southern District of California on Sept. 1, 2009, and unsealed on Sept. 15, 2009, charges seven defendants each with one count of conspiracy to commit several offenses against the United States, including conspiracy to steal money and other property from Indian tribal casinos, and conspiracy to travel in interstate and foreign commerce in aid of racketeering.  Defendants charged in this indictment include Jason Cavin, Connie Marie Holmes, Brandon Pete Landry, Nedra Fay Landry, Geraldo Montaz, Jesus Rodriguez and Mike Waseleski.

According to the indictment, from approximately March 2002 through July 2006, the defendants and co-conspirators allegedly formed and participated in a conspiracy, defined in the indictment as the “Tran Organization,” to cheat at gambling in casinos across the United States.  The indictment lists 10 casinos that were allegedly targeted by members of the conspiracy, including five casinos that are owned and operated by Indian tribes.

An additional defendant, Jimmy Ha, was charged in a superseding indictment that was returned in the Southern District of California on Sept. 1, 2009, and unsealed on Sept. 3, 2009, for an alleged conspiracy, defined in the indictment as the “Tran Organization,” to cheat the Barona Valley Ranch Casino and Resort in Lakeside, Calif., in 2005.  James Root, who was previously indicted in connection with this case, was also charged in the superseding indictment.

If convicted on the conspiracy charge, defendants face a maximum five-year prison sentence.

According to both indictments, the defendants and others executed a “false shuffle” cheating scheme at casinos during blackjack and mini-baccarat games.  The indictments allege that members of the criminal organization bribed casino card dealers and supervisors to perform false shuffles during card games, thereby creating “slugs” of un-shuffled cards.  After tracking the order of cards dealt in a card game, a member of the organization would signal to the card dealer to perform a “false shuffle,” and then members of the group would bet on the known order of cards when the slug appeared on the table.  By doing so, members of the conspiracy won thousands of dollars during card games.

There were two previous indictments in connection with the Tran Organization’s alleged casino-cheating conspiracy.

Nineteen alleged members of the Tran Organization were charged in a three-count indictment returned in San Diego on May 22, 2007, and unsealed on May 24, 2007, including Phuong Quoc Truong, Van Thu Tran, Tai Khiem Tran, Anh Phuong Tran, Phat Ngoc Tran, Martin Lee Aronson, Liem Thanh Lam, George Michael Lee, Tien Duc Vu, Son Hong Johnson, Barry Wellford, Willy Tran, Han Truong Nguyen and Ha Thuy Giang. Each were charged with one count of conspiracy to participate in the affairs of a racketeering enterprise, defined in the indictment as the Tran Organization; one count of conspiracy to commit several offenses against the United States, including conspiracy to steal money and other property from Indian tribal casinos; and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Eleven additional defendants were charged in a separate indictment for conspiring to commit offenses on behalf of the Tran Organization.  A one-count indictment, unsealed in the Southern District of California on Sept. 11, 2008, charged Bryan Arce, Don Man Duong, Hogan Ho, Thang Viet Huynh, Outtama Keovongsa, Leap Kong, Qua Le, Khunsela Prom, James Root, Darrell Saicocie, and Dan Thich each with one count of conspiracy to commit several offenses against the United States, including conspiracy to steal money and other property from Indian tribal casinos, and conspiracy to travel in interstate and foreign commerce in aid of racketeering.

To date, 31 defendants have pleaded guilty to charges relating to the casino-cheating conspiracy including: Phuong Quoc Truong, Tai Khiem Tran, Anh Phuong Tran, Phat Ngoc Tran, Martin Lee Aronson, Liem Thanh Lam, George Michael Lee, Tien Duc Vu, Son Hong Johnson, Barry Wellford, John Tran, Willy Tran, Tuan Mong Le, Duc Cong Nguyen, Han Truong Nguyen, Roderick Vang Thor, Sisouvanh Mounlasy, Navin Nith, Renee Cuc Quang, Ui Suk Weller, Phally Ly, Khunsela Prom, Hop Nguyen, Hogan Ho, Darrell Saicocie, Bryan Arce, Qua Le, Outtama Keovongsa, Leap Kong, Thang Viet Huynh, and Don Man Duong. These defendants admitted to targeting, with the aid of co-conspirators, a combined total of approximately 26 casinos in the United States and Canada during the course of the conspiracy, including:

1) Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi, Miss.;
2) Casino Rama, in Orillia, Ontario, Canada;
3) Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, Conn.;
4) Gold Strike Casino in Tunica, Miss.;
5) Horseshoe Casino in Bossier City, La.;
6) Horseshoe Casino and Hotel in Tunica, Miss.;
7) Isle of Capri Casino in Westlake, La.;
Majestic Star Casino in Gary, Ind.;
9) Mohegan Sun Resort Casino in Uncasville, Conn.;
10) Palace Station Casino in Las Vegas;
11) Resorts East Chicago Hotel and Casino in East Chicago, Ind.;
12) Sycuan Casino in El Cajon, Calif.
13) Cache Creek Indian Bingo and Casino in Brooks, Calif.;
14) Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Wash.;
15) Imperial Palace Casino in Biloxi, Miss.;
16) Argosy Casino in Baton Rouge, La.;
17) Trump 29 Casino in Coachella, Calif.;
18) Isle of Capri Casino in Bossier City, La.;
19) Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage, Calif.;
20) Spa Resort Casino in Palm Springs, Calif.;
21) Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, Calif.;
22) L’Auberge du Lac Casino in Lake Charles, La.;
23) Nooksack River Casino in Deming, Wash.;
24) Barona Valley Ranch Casino and Resort in Lakeside, Calif.;
25) Caesars Indiana Hotel and Casino in Elizabeth, Ind.;
26) Monte Carlo Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.

Two other defendants, Ha Thuy Giang and Tammie Huynh, pleaded guilty to tax offenses stemming from the investigation, and Khai Hong Tran admitted to the offenses alleged in the 2007 U.S. indictment when he pleaded guilty to casino cheating offenses in Canada.

The prosecution of the case is led by the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Section.  Department of Justice Trial Attorneys Joseph K. Wheatley and Robert S. Tully are prosecuting the case in San Diego.  The case is being investigated by the FBI’s San Diego Field Office, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, the San Diego Sheriff’s Department and the California Department of Justice’s Bureau of Gambling Control.  The investigation has received assistance from federal, state, tribal and foreign authorities, including: the Ontario, Canada, Provincial Police; the National Indian Gaming Commission; the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington; FBI Resident Agencies in Gulfport, Miss., Tacoma, and Toledo, Ohio; the Indiana State Police; the Rumsey Rancheria Tribal Gaming Agency; the Sycuan Gaming Commission; the Barona Gaming Commission; the Mississippi Gaming Commission and the Washington State Gambling Commission.

An indictment is merely an allegation and is not evidence of guilt.  A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Anyone with information relating to the investigation may contact the FBI’s San Diego Field Office at (858) 565-1255.

Albert Gonzalez, 28, of Miami, pleaded guilty today to 19 counts of conspiracy, computer fraud, wire fraud, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft relating to hacks into numerous major U.S. retailers including TJX Companies, BJ’s Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Boston Market, Barnes & Noble and Sports Authority. Gonzalez was indicted in August 2008 in the District of Massachusetts on charges related to these hacks.

Gonzalez also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud relating to hacks into the Dave & Buster’s restaurant chain, which were the subject of a May 2008 indictment in the Eastern District of New York. The pleas in both cases were entered before U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris in federal court in Boston.

“Consumers must be able to trust that the credit and debit cards they use everyday in thousands of stores around the world are safe from unlawful access,” said Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division. “Working together with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices around the country and with the invaluable support of law enforcement agencies, we will continue our efforts to identify and prosecute hacking and credit card fraud.”

“The investigation and prosecution of identity theft is a top priority of the Department,” said Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Michael Loucks. “In the past 10 years there has been a dramatic growth in the transfer and storage of credit and debit card data on computer networks. It is thus compellingly important that we work hard to investigate and prosecute the theft of personal identity data that citizens entrust to computer networks every day.”

“Computer hacking and identity theft pose serious risks to our commercial, personal and financial security,” stated U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Benton J. Campbell.  “Hackers, including those who commit their crimes from abroad, will find no refuge from the reach of U.S. criminal justice – they will be found, prosecuted and convicted.”

“Technology has forever changed the way we do business, virtually erasing geographic boundaries,” said U.S. Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan. “However, this case demonstrates that even in the cyber world, there is no such thing as anonymity. The Secret Service, in conjunction with its many law enforcement partners across the United States and around the world, continues to successfully combat these crimes by adapting our investigative methodologies. We realize our success in this investigation is due in part to the cooperation of these partners in more than a dozen international law enforcement agencies.”

According to the indictments to which Gonzalez pleaded guilty, he and his co-conspirators broke into retail credit card payment systems through a series of sophisticated techniques, including “wardriving” and installation of sniffer programs to capture credit and debit card numbers used at these retail stores. Wardriving involves driving around in a car with a laptop computer looking for accessible wireless computer networks of retailers. Using these techniques, Gonzalez and his co-conspirators were able to steal more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers from retailers. Also according to the indictments, Gonzalez and his co-conspirators sold the numbers to others for their fraudulent use and engaged in ATM fraud by encoding the data on the magnetic stripes of blank cards and withdrawing tens of thousands of dollars at a time from ATMs. According to the indictments, Gonzalez and his co-conspirators concealed and laundered their fraud proceeds by using anonymous Internet-based currencies both within the United States and abroad, and by channeling funds through bank accounts in Eastern Europe.

Based on the terms of the Boston plea agreement, Gonzalez faces a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 25 years in prison. Based on the New York plea agreement, Gonzalez faces up to 20 years in prison, which the parties have agreed should run concurrently. He also faces a fine of up to twice the pecuniary gain, twice the victims’ pecuniary loss or $250,000, whichever is greatest, per count for the Boston case and a maximum fine of $250,000 for the New York case. Gonzalez also agreed to an order of restitution for the loss suffered by his victims, and forfeiture of more than $2.7 million as well as multiple items of real estate and personal property, including a condo in Miami, a 2006 BMW 330i, a Tiffany diamond ring and Rolex watches. Included in the forfeited currency is more than $1 million in cash, which Gonzalez had buried in a container in his backyard. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 8, 2009.

Gonzalez remains under indictment for charges brought in August 2009 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey of conspiring to hack into computer networks supporting major U.S. retail and financial organizations and steal credit and debit card numbers from those entities. Among the corporate victims named in that indictment are Heartland Payment Systems, a New Jersey-based card payment processor; 7-Eleven Inc., a Texas-based nationwide convenience store chain; and Hannaford Brothers Co. Inc., a Maine-based supermarket chain. Charges in that case remain pending. An indictment is merely an allegation and defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in court. While Gonzalez has pleaded guilty to the Boston and New York charges, he has not pleaded guilty to charges pending in New Jersey and remains presumed innocent of those charges.

The Boston case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stephen Heymann and Donald Cabell of the District of Massachusetts. The New York case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney William Campos of the Eastern District of New York, and Senior Counsel Kimberly Kiefer Peretti and Trial Attorney Evan Williams of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section. All of these cases are being investigated by the U.S. Secret Service.

Saani, 53, a former resident of Kuwait City, Kuwait, worked as a contracting officer in Kuwait from 1994 until his arrest in May 2008. According to the indictment to which Saani pleaded guilty, he worked on detail from 2002 to 2007 at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. Saani pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before Judge Richard J. Leon to a five-count indictment, admitting he filed false tax returns for tax years 2003 through 2007. He also admitted that during that period of time he maintained overseas bank accounts in the United States and the Jersey Channel Islands that he failed to properly report on his income tax returns.

The indictment, filed Sept. 19, 2008, charged that the tax returns Saani filed were false because he failed to disclose his interest in or authority over multiple foreign bank accounts, failed to report interest earned from those bank accounts, and failed to report other additional income on his tax returns for tax years 2003 through 2007.

Saani faces up to three years in prison and a fine of $100,000 for each of the five charged counts to which he pleaded guilty. His sentencing has been scheduled for Oct. 8, 2009.

This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Kathryn H. Albrecht, Richard B. Evans and Ann C. Brickley of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section, which is headed by Chief William M. Welch II, as well as Trial Attorneys Mark W. Pletcher, Emily W. Allen and Ryan Danks of the Antitrust Division’s National Criminal Enforcement Section, which is headed by Chief Lisa Phelan. Assistance was also provided by the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs.

The case is being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, Army Criminal Investigation Division, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, FBI and the Special Inspector General for Iraqi Reconstruction.

Today’s guilty plea resulted from the Department’s ongoing investigation into procurement fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Department’s National Procurement Fraud Initiative, announced in October 2006, is designed to promote the early detection, identification, prevention and prosecution of procurement fraud associated with the increase in contracting activity for national security and other government programs.

Anyone with information concerning bid rigging, bribery or other criminal conduct regarding DOD contracts is urged to call the Defense Criminal Investigative Service at 800-424-9098 or hotline@dodig.mil; Army Criminal Investigation Division at www.cid.army.mil; or the FBI at 800-225-5324.