James E. Haas Jr., a former representative of a subcontractor that provides common backfill, a type of soil material used to refill an excavation, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey, to charges that he engaged in a kickback and fraud conspiracy at the Federal Creosote Superfund site in Manville, N.J. Haas admitted to paying kickbacks to former employees of a prime contractor at Federal Creosote in exchange for the award of a subcontract. He also admitted to inflating prices for the subcontract to include the amount of the kickbacks paid to his co-conspirators. Haas also pleaded guilty to committing fraud against the United States. The indictment was filed on Aug. 31, 2009. Sentencing is set for Feb. 8, 2010. The remaining individuals charged in the indictment, John A. Bennett, the former chief executive officer of subcontractor Bennett Environmental Inc. (BEI), and Gordon D. McDonald, a former project manager for a prime contractor, await trial, which is set for Jan. 5, 2010.

Separately, Frederick Landgraber of Bridgewater, N.J., the president and co-owner of a Martinsville, N.J., landscaping company was sentenced today to serve five months in jail, five months of home detention and to pay a $5,000 criminal fine for his role in a related kickback and fraud conspiracy at Federal Creosote. Landgraber was also ordered to pay $35,000 in restitution to the EPA, jointly and severally with his co-conspirators. Landgraber originally pleaded guilty on June 25, 2009, in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey, to conspiring to defraud the EPA from approximately March 2002 until approximately June 2005.

The clean-up at the Federal Creosote site is partly funded by the EPA. Under an interagency agreement between the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers, prime contractors oversaw the removal, treatment and disposal of contaminated soil, as well as other operations at the Federal Creosote site.

Today’s plea and sentencing are the result of an ongoing federal antitrust investigation being conducted by the Antitrust Division’s New York Field Office, the EPA Office of Inspector General and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation. To date, a total of three companies and eight individuals have pleaded guilty as a part of the investigation. BEI was sentenced on Dec. 15, 2008, to pay criminal fines and restitution totaling more than $2.66 million. Christopher Tranchina was sentenced on July 13, 2009, to serve 20 months in jail and to pay restitution totaling $154,597. The other individuals and companies are awaiting sentencing.

Today’s proceedings reflect the Department’s commitment to protecting U.S. taxpayers from procurement fraud through its creation of the National Procurement Fraud Task Force. The National Procurement Fraud Initiative, announced in October 2006, is designed to promote the early detection, prosecution, and prevention of procurement fraud associated with the increase in contracting activity for national security and other government programs.

Anyone with information concerning bid rigging, kickbacks or fraud relating to subcontracts awarded at the Federal Creosote Superfund site or the Diamond Alkali Superfund site should contact the New York Field Office of the Antitrust Division at 212-264-9308.

The department’s complaint, filed in May 2009, alleges that the city discriminated against Stacy D. Allen, an African-American and a former part-time patrol officer in the city’s police department, when it did not appoint him as a full-time patrol officer. The complaint alleges that the police department had a history of appointing the most senior part-time patrol officer as a full-time officer when a full-time position became available. However, when Allen, who was the city’s only African-American patrol officer, became the most senior part-time patrol officer and two full-time positions opened, the city appointed two less senior white part-time patrol officers to those positions instead of Allen. The Justice Department’s complaint was based on a charge of discrimination filed by Allen with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

“All Americans are guaranteed the right to know that they can pursue their career of choice without fear of discrimination based on their race,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. “Title VII protects individuals, such as Mr. Allen, from having to suffer discrimination in the workplace. The Justice Department will take swift action against those employers who engage in discrimination, and we appreciate the partnership of the EEOC in these matters.”

The settlement agreement requires that the city not discriminate against on the basis of race, or in any way adversely affect the terms and conditions of employment of, any applicant or person employed in the city’s police department. The agreement also requires that the city provide Allen with a monetary award of $16,000 ($2,250 in back pay and $13,750 in compensatory damages).

The Civil Rights Division is committed to the vigorous enforcement of Title VII. Additional information about the Civil Rights Division is available on its Web sites at http://www.justice.gov/crt/; and http://www.justice.gov/crt/emp/.

A packaged-ice company, headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $9 million criminal fine for allocating customers, the Department of Justice announced today. In addition, three of the company’s former executives pleaded guilty for their roles in the conspiracy to allocate customers.

According to a one-count felony charge filed under seal on Sept. 10, 2009, and unsealed today in the U.S. District Court in Cincinnati, Arctic Glacier International Inc. engaged in a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition by allocating packaged-ice customers in the Detroit metropolitan area and southeastern Michigan, beginning Jan. 1, 2001, and continuing until at least July 17, 2007. Under the plea agreement, which must be approved by the court, Arctic Glacier has agreed to cooperate with the Department’s ongoing investigation.

According to separate one-count felony charges, also filed under seal on Sept. 10, 2009, and unsealed today in the U.S. District Court in Cincinnati, Frank Larson, Arctic Glacier’s former senior vice president of operations, and Keith Corbin, the company’s former vice president of sales and marketing, participated in the same conspiracy beginning at least as early as March 1, 2005, and continuing at least until July 17, 2007. According to an additional one-count felony charge filed under seal on Sept. 10, 2009, in the U.S. District Court in Cincinnati and unsealed today, Gary Cooley, the company’s former vice president of sales and marketing, also participated in the conspiracy from at least as early as June 1, 2006, until July 17, 2007. Under the three separate plea agreements, which must be approved by the court, the former executives have agreed to cooperate with the Department’s ongoing investigation.

In court documents, the Department said that the three former executives and Arctic Glacier, conspired with another packaged-ice competitor to allocate packaged-ice customers in southeastern Michigan and the Detroit metropolitan areas. As a part of the conspiracy, Arctic Glacier, its former executives and other co-conspirators exchanged information for the purpose of monitoring and enforcing adherence to the agreed customer allocations and refrained from competing for the allocated customers.

Arctic Glacier, Larson, Corbin and Cooley are each charged with allocating packaged-ice customers in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine for individuals and a $100 million fine for corporations. The maximum fines may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims if either of those amounts is greater than the Sherman Act maximum fines.

These charges stem from an ongoing antitrust investigation into the packaged-ice industry. As a part of the same investigation, Home City Ice Company pleaded guilty on June 17, 2008, for its participation in a conspiracy to allocate customers and territories in the packaged-ice industry. The investigation is being conducted by the Antitrust Division’s Cleveland Field Office and by FBI offices in Ann Arbor, Mich.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Dallas, Texas; and Cincinnati and Toledo, Ohio.

Anyone with information concerning customer or territorial allocation agreements, or other anticompetitive conduct in the packaged-ice industry, should contact the Cleveland Field Office of the Antitrust Division at 216-687-8400.

Mitchell, 61, a U.S. citizen and resident of Hawaii, was charged in a criminal complaint filed on Aug. 26, 2009, in U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii with engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place. According to the affidavit filed in support of the complaint, witnesses reported seeing Mitchell engaging in sex acts with a female child on the curbside of a street in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in August 2008. Mitchell was initially arrested in August 2008 by the Cambodian National Police on local charges related to the same incident.

Mitchell returned to Hawaii on Sept. 5, 2009, following his removal from Cambodia. Upon his arrival at Honolulu International Airport, he was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. At yesterday’s hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Kurren ordered Mitchell held without bond pending a detention hearing.

Mitchell is the fourth American arrested by ICE in the past two weeks for sexually exploiting minors in Cambodia. On Aug. 31, 2009, three Americans were taken into custody by ICE at Los Angeles International Airport following their removal from Cambodia on sex tourism charges. The four cases are the result of unprecedented cooperation among U.S. authorities, the Cambodian government and non-governmental organizations to target American sex tourists in Cambodia.

Mitchell faces up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 if convicted of the charges.

Charges in a criminal complaint are merely accusations, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Olson of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Hawaii and Trial Attorney Anitha Ibrahim of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section. The case was investigated by ICE.

A federal grand jury in San Francisco has returned an indictment against a former executive of a large Taiwanese color display tube (CDT) manufacturing company for participating in a global conspiracy to fix prices of CDTs, a type of cathode ray tube used in computer monitors and other specialized applications, the Department of Justice announced today.

The indictment, filed last night in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, charges Wen Jun (Tony) Cheng, a former Assistant Vice President of Sales and Marketing, with conspiring with unnamed co-conspirators to suppress and eliminate competition by fixing prices, reducing output, and allocating market shares of CDTs. The Department alleges that Cheng participated in the conspiracy beginning at least as early as January 1999 until at least September 2004.

Cheng was previously indicted on Feb. 3, 2009, for his participation in a global conspiracy to fix prices of Thin Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display (TFT-LCD) panels.

The indictment alleges, among other things, that Tony Cheng and co-conspirators carried out the CDT conspiracy by attending meetings and engaging in conversations and communications in Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, China and elsewhere to discuss and agree on the prices, output and market shares of CDTs. Cheng and co-conspirators are also alleged to have implemented an auditing system to verify that production lines had been shut down as agreed, and to have taken steps to conceal the conspiracy.

Cheng is charged with violating the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and a fine of $1 million for individuals for violations occurring after June 22, 2004. The maximum fines may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims if either or those amounts is greater than the Sherman Act maximum fines.

This case is part of an ongoing joint investigation by the San Francisco Office of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in San Francisco. Anyone with information concerning illegal conduct in the cathode ray tube industry is urged to call the San Francisco Field Office of the Antitrust Division at 415-436-6660.

The scheme allegedly created the illusion that a customer’s business was based and owned overseas, when in fact the customer continued to operate and own the business in the United States. The lawsuit alleges that Hatcher and Reinhart falsely told customers that these transactions made the customers’ income not subject to U.S. income tax.

According to the complaint, at least 40 current scheme participants located all over the United States, and in Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia use the asset-protection scheme to hide their income and assets. Defendants’ customers allegedly include a motorcycle-parts business in Hollister, Calif.; an air-pollution-control-systems business in Elkton, Fla.; two auto-repair businesses in Ferndale, Wash.; two backyard deck and spa businesses in Fort Pierce, Fla. and Chicago; a medical receivables business in California; a race-horse business in Nevada; and two Internet pornography businesses based in Illinois and Michigan.

The suit further alleges that between 2000 and 2005, these participants funneled approximately $28 million through defendants’ scheme, causing an estimated $4.3 million loss to the U.S. Treasury. The government asked the court to require the defendants to stop the scheme and turn over financial records documenting scheme transactions. The suit says that for Hatcher and Reinhart, the term “asset protection” is a euphemism for “tax fraud.”

“The Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service are working vigorously to stop tax fraud schemes and detect those who use them,” said John A. DiCicco, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

According to the government complaint, Hatcher and Reinhart reside in and operate the scheme from both Florida and the Bahamas.

The complaint states the couple were convicted of bank fraud in a Florida state court in 1993. A Florida federal judge found the couple in contempt of court in 2002 for helping a Rockford, Ill., man violate an injunction that barred him from sending spam advertising for his cyberporn business to America Online subscribers.

In the past decade the Tax Division has obtained injunctions against more than 410 tax preparers and tax-fraud promoters. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department Web site.