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A Maryland man was sentenced on December 20, to 135 months in prison on federal charges stemming from his role as a key organizer and leader of an identity theft and tax fraud scheme involving the filing of fraudulent returns falsely seeking more than $20 million in refunds, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo, head of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips for the District of Columbia, Acting Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Holloman of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Washington D.C. Field Office, Inspector in Charge Terrence P. McKeown of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Washington Division, and Assistant Inspector General for Investigations John L. Phillips of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

A resident of Portland, Oregon, on December 20, pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo, head of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, and United States Attorney Billy Williams for the District of Oregon.

An insurance salesman and former resident of Parma, on December 19, Ohio was convicted following a five-day jury trial of fifteen counts of willful failure to pay income taxes and five counts of willful failure to file income tax returns, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo, head of the Justice Department’s Tax Division; U.S. Attorney Carole S. Rendon for the Northern District of Ohio; and Acting Special Agent in Charge Troy N. Stemen for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office.

A North Carolina man, who owned a tax preparation business in Rockingham, North Carolina, on December 19, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina to one count of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and two counts of assisting in the preparation of false tax returns, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo, head of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, and U.S. Attorney Ripley Rand for the Middle District of North Carolina.

A federal grand jury sitting in Greensboro, North Carolina, on December 19, returned an indictment charging Jessica Shanice Taylor, a Rockingham, North Carolina resident, with conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), assisting in the preparation of false tax returns, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo, head of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, and U.S. Attorney Ripley Rand for the Middle District of North Carolina.

A Forest City, on December 14, Iowa businessman was sentenced to 13 months in prison in federal court for failing to pay employment taxes, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo, head of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, and U.S. Attorney Kevin W. Techau for the Northern District of Iowa.

Forest Laboratories LLC, located in New York, New York, and its subsidiary, Forest Pharmaceuticals Inc., have agreed to pay $38 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by paying kickbacks to induce physicians to prescribe the drugs Bystolic®, Savella®, and Namenda®, the Department of Justice announced on December 15.

A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a former contracting official for the U.S. Army at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville to five months in prison and five months’ home confinement for filing a false income tax return, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Veronica Hyman-Pillot.

The Department of Justice obtained more than $4.7 billion in settlements and judgments from civil cases involving fraud and false claims against the government in fiscal year 2016 ending Sept. 30, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, announced on December 14. This is the third highest annual recovery in False Claims Act history, bringing the fiscal year average to nearly $4 billion since fiscal year 2009, and the total recovery during that period to $31.3 billion.

Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch announced on December 14, that the Justice Department collected more than $15.3 billion in civil and criminal actions in fiscal year (FY) 2016 ending Sept. 30, 2016. The $15,380,130,434 in collections in FY 2016 represents more than five times the approximately $3 billion appropriated budget for the 94 U.S. Attorneys’ offices and the main litigating divisions of the Justice Department combined in that same period.