Tag: Justice

Justice Department Nabs a Louisiana Business for Millions in Tax Evasion

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Last week, a business owner in Shreveport, Louisiana was sentenced to 40 months in prison for falsifying tax returns, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana Alexander Van Hook said in a statement.

Robert Poimboeuf, 58, is one of the co-owners of D&G Holdings LLC, a medical laboratory operating as Doctors Lab. The business provided laboratory and phlebotomy services. The co-owner was responsible for filing falsified tax returns for fiscal years 2011 through 2015. According to the Department of Justice, Poimboeuf “underreported gross receipts earned from his business.”

“Poimboeuf concealed from his tax return preparers at least two bank accounts reflecting income earned, and falsely characterized business receipts as non-taxable loans,” a press release from the Justice Department explained. “As a result of these actions, Poimboeuf caused a tax loss of more than $1.9

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Trump’s crackdown on ‘critical race theory’ training leads to cancellation of Justice Department ‘unconscious bias’ program

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Weeks after White House officials called for a halt to training sessions for federal employees that deal with “white privilege” and “critical race theory,” some government staffers are starting to see the memo’s effects, MarketWatch has learned.

Last week, President Donald Trump told the Office of Management and Budget to crack down on federal agencies’ anti-racism training sessions, calling them “divisive, anti-American propaganda.”

Employees in the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division were supposed to hear about “unconscious bias” at a program scheduled for this week — but that has now been postponed pending further guidance.

“It does not appear that the Division has much, if any, discretion related to postponing the training at this moment,” Matthew Hammond, assistant chief of the department’s division’s telecommunications and broadband section, wrote in an email obtained by MarketWatch. “We were excited about this training. We had received a lot of positive responses about the

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Water company withdraws desalination proposal as battle over environmental justice heats up

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A proposed desalination project would be located on the coast of Marina, where a sand mine has operated for decades. <span class="copyright">(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)</span>
A proposed desalination project would be located on the coast of Marina, where a sand mine has operated for decades. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Amid mounting controversy and concerns over environmental justice, California American Water on Wednesday withdrew its application for a desalination project in the small Monterey Bay town of Marina.

The proposal had become one of the most fraught issues to come before the California Coastal Commission, which was set to vote Thursday. The decision would have been the first major test of the commission’s new power to review not only harm to the environment when making decisions but also harm to underrepresented communities.

At stake was the contentious future of water on the Monterey Peninsula as well as the role government should play in addressing issues of environmental inequity.

Water demand projections, local groundwater impacts and other water supply concerns have been hotly disputed across

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Trump’s crack down on ‘critical race theory’ training leads to cancelation of Justice Department ‘unconscious bias’ program

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Weeks after White House officials called for a halt on federal worker training sessions that deal with “white privilege” and “critical race theory,” some government staffers are starting to see the memo’s effects, MarketWatch has learned.



Donald Trump wearing a suit and tie: An order from Trump’s White House about ‘critical race theory’ is putting the breaks on unconscious bias training, MarketWatch learned.

© Alex Wong/Getty Images
An order from Trump’s White House about ‘critical race theory’ is putting the breaks on unconscious bias training, MarketWatch learned.

Last week, President Donald Trump told the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to crack down on federal agencies’ anti-racism training sessions, calling them “divisive, anti-American propaganda.”

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Employees in the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division were supposed to hear about “unconscious bias” at a program scheduled for this week — but a recent White House memo on race-related worker training forced the session’s postponement pending further guidance.

“It does not appear that the Division has much, if any, discretion related to postponing the training at this moment,” Matthew

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Pulaski County justice of the peace reworking his proposal for voting centers

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story.lead_photo.captionA roll of stickers awaiting distribution to early voters sits on a table at the check-in station at the Pulaski County Courthouse Annex in Little Rock.
(AP /
Kelly P. Kissel
)

Voters in Pulaski County will be able to vote at one of 12 conveniently placed voting centers during the 2020 election after the Quorum Court and Election Commission confirmed the plan in August.

County officials are already looking to expand the plan for the 2022 election for ease of voting with an ordinance that was to be discussed last week at the Quorum Court’s agenda meeting on Tuesday.

Justice of the Peace Doug Reed, the ordinance’s sponsor, pulled the ordinance after some thought about cost but said later he would like to continue to pursue the idea after gathering the thoughts of others.

“I realized that it was going to cost too much and I couldn’t vote for

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Justice Dept. Announces Dozens of Fraud Charges in Small-Business Aid Program

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WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said on Thursday that it had charged 57 people with trying to steal more than $175 million from the Paycheck Protection Program to help small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic as questions swirled about how its funds were disbursed.

Some cases involved “individuals or small groups, acting on their own, who lied about having legitimate businesses or who claimed that they needed P.P.P. money for things like paying workers or paying bills, but instead used it to buy splashy luxury items for themselves,” Brian C. Rabbitt, the acting head of the department’s criminal division, said at a news conference.

In other cases, coordinated criminal rings stole large sums of money from the loan program, Mr. Rabbitt said. “We will be focusing on these types of cases going forward,” he said.

The federal government offered emergency loans to small businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program as

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Justice Department questions Seattle racial justice training

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SEATTLE

Seattle broke no laws while conducting racial justice training sessions for municipal employees, city officials said after receiving a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice about potential civil rights violations.

City officials perceived questions from the Justice Department as an attempt by the Trump administration to defend the status quo, The Seattle Times reports.

“This is a stunning illustration of the administration’s warped priorities,” Mayor Jenny Durkan said in a statement last week.

“In the midst of a nationwide reckoning with systemic racism and police violence, (the administration) is considering suing the City of Seattle for a training we provide that specifically seeks to combat racism and advance equity,” Durkan said.

Officials from the DOJ’s Employment Litigation Section sent an Aug. 26 letter to Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes questioning a June training session that was meant to interrupt “internalized racial superiority” and was directed at white employees.

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