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Tag: United States Department of Justice

  • Feds seize more than $170 million in cash accounts linked to Sam Bankman-Fried

    Feds seize more than $170 million in cash accounts linked to Sam Bankman-Fried

    FTX founder pleads not guilty to fraud


    FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty to fraud

    05:37

    The Justice Department has seized more than $170 million in cash from multiple accounts associated with disgraced FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, according to court documents filed Friday. This is in addition to an estimated $526 million in stock which was also seized by the federal government.

    According to the federal court documents obtained by CBS News, the seizures occurred on Jan. 4.

    They included $94.5 million in an account in Silvergate Bank, a California based bank specializing in cryptocurrencies, along with nearly $50 million held at Farmington State Bank, which is based in Washington state, and $20.7 million in currency in accounts in ED&F Man Capital Markets.  

    Prosecutors also seized 55.27 million shares of Robinhood stock from an ED&F Man Capital Markets account, according to the court filing. The stock for Robinhood, an online trading platform, closed at $9.52 a share Friday, putting the value of that seizure at more than $526 million.

    On Dec. 12, the 30-year-old Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas on federal charges of wire fraud and conspiracy related to the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

    After being extradited to the U.S., he pleaded not guilty to all charges in a Jan. 3 hearing. He remains free on $250 million bond. He has been ordered to live at his parents’ house in California until his trial, which is scheduled to begin in October.

    The sudden collapse of FTX has reverberated throughout the financial world and garnered questions about the viability of cryptocurrency. On Nov. 11, FTX filed for bankruptcy, just after Bankman-Fried told investors the company was experiencing an $8 billion shortfall. 


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  • A man allegedly hired a contract killer to murder his wife and her boyfriend. The hitman turned out to be an undercover U.S. agent.

    A man allegedly hired a contract killer to murder his wife and her boyfriend. The hitman turned out to be an undercover U.S. agent.

    A Boston man offered to pay a total of $8,000 to someone he thought was a contract killer, but who was actually an undercover federal agent, to have his estranged wife and her new boyfriend killed, prosecutors said Wednesday.

    Mohammed Chowdhury, 46, was held at an initial hearing on a murder-for-hire charge in federal court on Tuesday pending a detention hearing scheduled for Friday, the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston said in a statement.

    An email seeking comment was sent to his federal public defender.

    Authorities were tipped off by an informant in November that Chowdhury was soliciting assistance to have his wife killed and the informant provided his phone number to law enforcement, prosecutors said.

    An undercover agent posing as a contract killer then contacted him, authorities said.

    Chowdhury met with the undercover agent and agreed to pay $4,000 per killing, prosecutors alleged.

    He provided the agent with photographs of his wife and the boyfriend, told them where they lived and worked, and provided their work schedules, prosecutors said. He was apprehended Tuesday when he allegedly paid a $500 deposit.

    Chowdhury told agents his wife wouldn’t let him see his children and he wanted the killings to look like a beating and robbery, prosecutors said.

    Chowdhury allegedly asked the agents, “So how we gonna disappear his, uh, body?” and said, “No evidence. No evidence. No evidence from like, you know, that, uh, I did something, you know?”

    He provided the undercover agents with photographs of his wife and her new boyfriend, where they lived, where they worked and their work schedules, prosecutors said.

    If convicted, Chowdhury faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.

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  • DOJ sues pharma giant AmerisourceBergen Corp. for allegedly helping to fuel the opioid epidemic

    DOJ sues pharma giant AmerisourceBergen Corp. for allegedly helping to fuel the opioid epidemic

    The Justice Department is suing AmerisourceBergen Corp., accusing the pharmaceutical giant of helping fuel the opioid epidemic by allegedly repeatedly failing to report suspicious orders of opioids for nearly a decade. 

    Federal law requires opioid makers to alert the Drug Enforcement Administration to any suspicious orders or “red flags” to help identify pharmacies that divert drugs to illegal avenues. The law also requires makers to refuse to ship orders it deems suspicious. 

    The civil complaint, filed in federal court in Philadelphia, alleged AmerisourceBergen and two of its subsidiaries failed to comply with these laws and could have failed to report hundreds of thousands of potentially suspicious orders. 

    The company is accused of ignoring alerts from its red flag system and continuing to sell to pharmacies, knowing they might be diverting some prescription drugs to illicit markets. The lawsuit also alleged AmerisourceBergen intentionally altered its own internal monitoring system to limit the alert system. In one year, the company spent more on taxis and office supplies than on the internal monitoring system, the Justice Department said.  

    “[T]he company’s repeated and systemic failure to fulfill this simple obligation helped ignite an opioid epidemic that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths over the past decade,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in a news release Thursday. 

    AmerisourceBergen’s alleged crimes could be billions of dollars in violations.

    In a statement, the company said the Justice Department’s lawsuit focuses on five pharmacies that are “cherry picked” out of tens of thousands of pharmacies it works with and ignores the DEA’s “absence of action.” 

    “In fact, AmerisourceBergen terminated relationships with four of them before DEA ever took any enforcement action while two of the five pharmacies maintain their DEA controlled substance registration to this day,” the company said. 

    Between 1999 to 2020, more than 564,000 people died from an overdose involving opioids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 80,000 deaths in 2021 involved opioids. 

    AmerisourceBergen was part of a $26 billion settlement in 2021 for its role in the opioid crisis. 

    Caitlin Yilek

    Caitlin Yilek is a digital producer for CBS News. Reach her at caitlin.yilek@cbsinteractive.com. Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/hausofcait

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  • Top Justice Department official calls on social media companies to do more as teens die from fentanyl

    Top Justice Department official calls on social media companies to do more as teens die from fentanyl

    Landen Hausman, a high school sophomore, died in January after buying fentanyl-laced Percocet through a dealer on social media. His family found him collapsed on the bathroom floor and tried to revive him with CPR, but it was too late. 

    “Sometimes with fentanyl you don’t get a second chance,” his father Marc Hausman told CBS News. 

    Hausman said his son probably did not recognize that counterfeit Percocet could be laced with fentanyl. 

    “He basically bought two of these counterfeit Percocet pills,” Hausman said. “He took one. One killed him. We found the other one [in his bedroom].” 

    Sadly, Landen’s story is all too common. Last year, more than 100,000 Americans died from fentanyl — more deaths than there were of Americans killed in the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq combined. Deaths among teens have more than tripled since 2019. 

    The Drug Enforcement Administration says it is investigating more than 120 cases that involve social media. The agency has issued a warning about emoji code language dealers use to target young buyers. 

    Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who oversees the DEA, says fentanyl is the agency’s top priority. 

    “No longer are we talking about meeting on the street and making that connection,” Monaco told CBS News. “The dealer is in your kid’s pocket along with the phone.” 

    Monaco said many who die “are unsuspecting users thinking they’re getting one thing and they’re getting something else in the form of fentanyl.” 

    “So those really that’s not actually an overdose,” she said. “That’s a poisoning.” 

    Monaco also said the Justice Department is pushing social media companies to crack down on dealers, calling the crisis “a national security issue, “a public safety issue” and “a public health issue.” 

    “We’re asking them to do more,” she said. “They need to do more. They need to be policing their platforms. … They need to use, quite frankly, the same tools and the technology that allows them to exquisitely serve up those ads for all sorts of things that we’re buying online and identify those drug dealers and getting them off.” 

    The dealer who sold the fake Percocet to Landen is facing federal charges, but for Hausman, just one arrest isn’t enough. 

    “I don’t know who this dealer is. I really don’t care,” he said. “So for me, justice is, I can’t go back and change what happened. But what I can do is try to do everything possible so maybe this doesn’t happen to someone else.” 

    Norah O’Donnell


    Norah O'Donnell

    Norah O’Donnell is the anchor and managing editor of the “CBS Evening News.” She also contributes to “60 Minutes.”

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  • Texas man arrested, charged with threatening Boston doctor caring for transgender children

    Texas man arrested, charged with threatening Boston doctor caring for transgender children

    A Texas man who authorities say threatened a Boston doctor providing care to transgender people was arrested Friday on federal charges. 

    The suspect, identified by the U.S. Attorney’s Office as 38-year-old Matthew Jordan Lindner of Humble, Texas, was charged with one count of transmitting interstate threats. He made his first appearance in a Texas courtroom Friday afternoon, and is expected to appear in federal court in Boston at a later date. 

    Lindner allegedly harassed and threatened to kill a female physician at the Boston-based National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center, targeting her specifically of her work caring for gender non-conforming children, according to a statement from Joseph R. Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston Division.  

    Charging documents allege that on Aug. 31, Lindner called the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center after misinformation spread online about procedures at Boston Children’s Hospital. Lindner left a violent message targeting one of the center’s affiliated doctors, the Justice Department said. 

    Lindner allegedly said “a group of people” were “on their way to handle” the unidentified victim, said the victim would “burn,” and said that the victim and others in their field had “upset enough of us” and “signed (their) own ticket,” federal prosecutors said. The message also included a gender-based slur and accused the victim of “castrating” children.  

    The charge against Linder carries a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison.   

    “While everyone has a right to express their opinion, they don’t have a right to use or threaten violence against individuals who do not share their same set of beliefs,” Bonavolonta said. “No one should have to live in fear of violence because of who they are, what kind of work they do, where they are from, or what they believe. This case is unfortunately one of many others that illustrates FBI Boston’s commitment to thwarting potential violent incidents motivated by hate and bias and holding the individuals behind them accountable.”

    This is not the first time that misinformation related to Boston Children’s Hospital has resulted in threats. In September, Catherine Leavy, of Westfield, Massachusetts, was taken into custody on allegations she had called in a false bomb threat against the hospital on Aug. 30, just one day before Lindner allegedly made his phone call. 

    At the time, Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins said that Boston Children’s Hospital had been the subject of about a dozen similar threats. In October, three major medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate and prosecute similar threats. 

    Several dozen House Democrats signed onto a letter sent to Garland on Nov. 18 requesting that the DOJ outline steps it is taking to counter anti-transgender threats made against health care providers. 

    In the news release announcing Linder’s arrest, Rollins on Friday said that the Justice Department “has pledged to protect the rights of the gender nonconforming and transgendered community, which includes the health care providers who render care and support.” 

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  • Judge okays feds’ bid to step in and manage Jackson, Mississippi’s struggling water system

    Judge okays feds’ bid to step in and manage Jackson, Mississippi’s struggling water system

    Jackson, Miss. — The U.S. Justice Department has won a federal judge’s approval to carry out a rare intervention to improve the precarious water system in Mississippi’s capital city, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Wednesday, months after the system’s partial failure. The department filed the proposal for intervention on Tuesday and U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate approved it later that day in Mississippi.

    The move authorized the appointment of a third-party manager to oversee reforms to Jackson’s water system, which nearly collapsed in late summer and continues to struggle.
     
    At a news conference in Washington, Garland said the proposal is necessary to “stabilize the circumstances” in Jackson as soon as possible while city, state and federal officials negotiate a court-enforced consent decree.


    EPA chief on Jackson, Mississippi’s water crisis: “Government has failed the city”

    05:23

    “We have to get something done immediately,” Garland said. “The water is a problem right now, and we can’t wait until a complaint is resolved.”

    For days last August, people waited in lines for water to drink, bathe, cook and flush toilets in Mississippi’s capital as some businesses were temporarily forced to close for lack of potable water. The partial failure of the water system that month followed flooding on the nearby Pearl River, which exacerbated longstanding problems in one of Jackson’s two water-treatment plants.
     
    The Justice Department also filed a complaint Tuesday on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency against the city of Jackson, alleging it has failed to provide drinking water that is reliably compliant with the Safe Drinking Water Act. By approving the proposal, Wingate put that litigation on hold for six months.
     
    Garland said the purpose of the complaint is to allow the Justice Department to negotiate a consent decree, which would empower a federal court to force changes to Jackson’s water system.
     
    Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said in a news release Wednesday that the proposal, which the city and the state health department signed, was the culmination of months of collaboration.

    Water Woes Mississippi EPA
    EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan, right, addresses a round table of Jackson-area businesspeople, community leaders, residents and educators, about the efforts underway to deliver a sustainable water system for residents as Jackson, Miss., Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, left, listens, Nov. 15, 2022, at Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss.

    Rogelio V. Solis/AP


    “The agreement is another step in a long process and is a collective effort that ensures Jacksonians will not be forgotten, and that our ultimate goal of creating a sustainable water system will be realized,” Lumumba said. “We hope that this collaborative effort to repair, replace and modernize Jackson’s water infrastructure will become a national model for other U.S. cities facing similar issues.”

    Lumumba also praised the selection of Ted Henifin as the interim third-party manager of the Jackson water system and Water Sewer Business Administration, the city’s water billing department. Henifin, a former public works director in Virginia, has been “instrumental” in lending his expertise to local officials, Lumumba said.
     
    The Justice Department proposal lists 13 projects that Henifin will be in charge of implementing. The projects are meant to improve the water system’s near-term stability, according to a news release. Among the most pressing priorities is a winterization project to make the system less vulnerable. A cold snap in 2021 left tens of thousands of people in Jackson without running water after pipes froze.

    Jackson, Mississippi, water crisis
    Residents of Jackson, Mississippi, distribute cases of water at Grove Park Community Center on Sept. 2, 2022. 

    SETH HERALD/AFP/Getty


    Garland said the Justice Department’s involvement in the Jackson water crisis is part of the department’s strategy for achieving environmental justice in “overburdened and underserved communities.”
     
    “The department’s founding purpose was to protect the civil rights of American citizens. Part of the reason that I wanted to be the attorney general was to work on those problems,” Garland said Wednesday. “This is an example of our using all the resources of the Justice Department on civil rights issues.”


    EPA leader vows to help disadvantaged communities impacted by pollution

    12:33

    In May, the Justice Department created an environmental justice division, following up on President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign promise to elevate environmental justice issues in an all-of-government approach. The Justice Department said in July that it was investigating illegal dumping in Black and Latino neighborhoods in Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city.
     
    The situation in Jackson required the Justice Department to respond with the “greatest possible urgency,” Garland said.
     
    “We realize how horrible the circumstances are there,” he said. “It’s hard to imagine not being able to turn on a tap and get safe drinking water.”

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  • U.S. charges former heavyweight boxer with trafficking over $1 billion worth of cocaine

    U.S. charges former heavyweight boxer with trafficking over $1 billion worth of cocaine

    The Department of Justice on Monday charged a former professional heavyweight boxer with trafficking over 20 tons of cocaine worth more than $1 billion through U.S. ports, most of which was from what prosecutors in 2019 called “one of the largest drug seizures in United States history.”

    Goran Gogic, 43, was arrested Sunday after being indicted by a grand jury in New York, the Justice Department said in a news release. Gogic, who is from Montenegro, was arrested while trying to board a flight at Miami International Airport.

    Gogic was charged with three counts of violating the federal Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act, and one count of conspiracy. faces a mandatory minimum 10-year sentence and up to life in prison. 

    The charges stem from the three seizures of cocaine, most notably 19.8 tons from a cargo ship while it was docked at Philadelphia’s Packer Avenue Marine Terminal in 2019. At the time, Ivan Durasevic, the ship’s second mate, and Fonofaavae Tiasaga were arrested in the bust. The ship was on its way to the Netherlands.

    Massive Cocaine Bust in Port of Philadelphia
    Heavily armed officers stand guard as law enforcement officials present some of the evidence from a cocaine bust on the MSC Gayane in the port of Philadelphia, during a press conference on June 21, 2019. 

    Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto via Getty Images


    Prosecutors allege that Gogic and others used “meticulous planning” to transport cocaine to Europe from Colombia through U.S. ports, using commercial cargo ships.

    “Members of the conspiracy loaded the commercial cargo ships at night near the coast and ports, working with crewmembers who would hoist loads of cocaine from speedboats that approached the ships at multiple points along their route,” prosecutors wrote.

    The defendants allegedly loaded the drugs using nets and the ship’s cranes. Once the cocaine was onboard, the crew would hide it within shipping containers, prosecutors said.

    The complex operation involved having access to each ship’s crew, route, real-time positioning and geolocation data, prosecutors said.

    Gogic is accused of orchestrating the operation by coordinating with crew members, Colombian traffickers and European dockworkers.

    After the massive bust in Philadelphia in 2019, U.S. Attorney William McSwain tweeted: “This is one of the largest drug seizures in United States history. This amount of cocaine could kill millions — MILLIONS — of people.”

    According to online boxing records, the 6 foot 5 inch, 250-pound Gogic competed from 2001 to 2012, winning 21 fights and losing four.

    In a statement, U.S. Attorney Breon Peace called Gogic’s arrest and indictment a “body blow to the organization and individuals responsible for distributing massive quantities of cocaine.”

    Stephen Smith

    Stephen Smith is a senior editor for CBSNews.com

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  • This week on

    This week on

    “Face the Nation” Guest Lineup:

    • Mike Pence – Former vice president

    • Rod Rosenstein – Former Deputy U.S. Attorney General

    • Rep. Zoe Lofgren – (D) California, member of the House Judiciary Committee

    • Rep. Karen Bass – (D) California, Los Angeles, California Mayor-Elect

    • Kara Swisher – Host of “On with Kara Swisher,” co-host of “Pivot”

    • Scott Galloway – Professor of marketing at New York University Stern School of Business, co-host of “Pivot”

    • David Laufman – Former Justice Department official

    How to watch “Face the Nation”

    • Date: Sunday, November 20, 2022

    • TV: “Face the Nation” airs Sunday mornings on CBS. Click here for your local listings

    • Radio: Subscribe to “Face the Nation” from CBS Radio News to listen on-the-go

    • Free online stream: Watch the show on CBS’ streaming network at 10:30 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. ET.

    With the latest news and analysis from Washington, don’t miss Margaret Brennan (@margbrennan) this Sunday on “Face the Nation” (@FaceTheNation). 

    And for the latest from America’s premier public affairs program, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.


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  • Ticketmaster parent Live Nation under investigation by DOJ; apology issued to Swift fans

    Ticketmaster parent Live Nation under investigation by DOJ; apology issued to Swift fans

    The Department of Justice is investigating Ticketmaster parent Live Nation, the company that sparked chaos and anger this week with its mishandling of ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s upcoming “Eras” tour, two people familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News. On Friday night, Ticketmaster issued an apology via Twitter to Swift’s fans.

    The investigation, which predates the Ticketmaster failure with Taylor Swift ticket sales, is focusing on whether Live Nation is abusing its market dominance in the ticket industry. Ticketmaster’s site crashed during a pre-sale period this week, sparking anger from fans who waited hours to get tickets, only to be disappointed. 

    The Justice Department’s antitrust division has recently contacted music venues and participants in the ticket industry to learn more about Live Nation’s methods, with a focus on whether the company has a monopoly over the industry, according to The New York Times, which earlier reported the investigation.

    This week’s Taylor Swift ticket-sales debacle has sparked renewed calls for more scrutiny of the company. Several lawmakers called for an inquiry into Live Nation and Ticketmaster, which has sold more than 115 million tickets to events in the first nine months of the year, up 37% from 2019.

    Ticketmaster on Friday night apologized to Swift’s fans, saying on Twitter: “We want to apologize to Taylor and all of her fans — especially those who had a terrible experience trying to purchase tickets. We feel we owe it to everyone to share some information to help explain what happened.” 

    The tweet included a link to Ticketmaster’s site, where the company explained why the issues occurred.

    On Tuesday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused Ticketmaster of acting as a monopoly in ticket sales and called on the company to be broken up, with the New York Democrat tweeting that the 2010 merger between the company and Live Nation “should never have been approved.”

    The site’s crash has also sparked an investigation by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmettian, who has launched a probe into how Ticketmaster handled the event.

    After the crash, Ticketmaster canceled Friday’s ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s tour.

    “Due to extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand, tomorrow’s public on-sale for Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour has been cancelled,” the company tweeted. 

    —With reporting by CBS News’ Ed O’Keefe.

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