Author Topic: BREAKING - DOJ Press Conference 9:30 AM EDT, Oct. 4, 2018 (Read 1123 times)

Maria Regina · « **on:** October 03, 2018, 08:46:09 PM »

This must be huge. The National Security Division (NSD), FBI, and others are involved.
When was the last time the DOJ had a press conference?

Matthew · « **Reply #1 on:** October 04, 2018, 08:07:52 AM »

What website is covering the conference? I didn't see any mention on FoxNews.com

Maria Regina · « **Reply #2 on:** October 04, 2018, 10:21:09 AM »

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Justice News

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, October 4, 2018

U.S. Charges Russian GRU Officers with International Hacking and Related Influence and Disinformation Operations

Conspirators Included a Russian Intelligence “Close Access” Hacking Team that Traveled Abroad to Compromise Computer Networks Used by Anti-Doping and Sporting Officials and Organizations Investigating Russia’s Use of Chemical Weapons

A grand jury in the Western District of Pennsylvania has indicted seven defendants, all officers in the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), a military intelligence agency of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, for computer hacking, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering.

According to the indictment, beginning in or around December 2014 and continuing until at least May 2018, the conspiracy conducted persistent and sophisticated computer intrusions affecting U.S. persons, corporate entities, international organizations, and their respective employees located around the world, based on their strategic interest to the Russian government.

Among the goals of the conspiracy was to publicize stolen information as part of an influence and disinformation campaign designed to undermine, retaliate against, and otherwise delegitimize the efforts of international anti-doping organizations and officials who had publicly exposed a Russian state-sponsored athlete doping program and to damage the reputations of athletes around the world by falsely claiming that such athletes were using banned or performance-enhancing drugs.

The charges were announced at a press conference by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania Scott W. Brady, FBI Deputy Assistant Director for Cyber Division, Eric Welling, and Director General Mark Flynn for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

"State-sponsored hacking and disinformation campaigns pose serious threats to our security and to our open society, but the Department of Justice is defending against them," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said. "Today we are indicting seven GRU officers for multiple felonies each, including the use of hacking to spread the personal information of hundreds of anti-doping officials and athletes as part of an effort to distract from Russia’s state-sponsored doping program. The defendants in this case allegedly targeted multiple Americans and American entities for hacking, from our national anti-doping agency to the Westinghouse Electric Company near Pittsburgh. We are determined to achieve justice in these cases and we will continue to protect the American people from hackers and disinformation."

“The investigation leading to the indictments announced t (link is external)oday is the FBI at its best,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “The actions of these seven hackers, all working as officials for the Russian government, were criminal, retaliatory, and damaging to innocent victims and the United States’ economy, as well as to world organizations. Their actions extended beyond borders, but so did the FBI’s investigation. We worked closely with our international partners to identify the actors and disrupt their criminal campaign - and today, we are sending this message: The FBI will not permit any government, group, or individual to threaten our people, our country, or our partners. We will work tirelessly to find them, stop them, and bring them to justice.”

“We want the hundreds of victims of these Russian hackers to know that we will do everything we can to hold these criminals accountable for their crimes,” said U.S. Attorney Brady. State actors who target U.S. citizens and companies are no different than any other common criminal: they will be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

The defendants, all Russian nationals and residents, are Aleksei Sergeyevich Morenets, 41, Evgenii Mikhaylovich, Serebriakov, 37, Ivan Sergeyevich Yermakov, 32, Artem Andreyevich Malyshev, 30, and Dmitriy Sergeyevich Badin, 27, who were each assigned to Military Unit 26165, and Oleg Mikhaylovich Sotnikov, 46, and Alexey Valerevich Minin, 46, who were also GRU officers.

The indictment alleges that defendants Yermakov, Malyshev, Badin, and unidentified conspirators, often using fictitious personas and proxy servers, researched victims, sent spearphishing emails, and compiled, used, and monitored malware command and control servers.

When the conspirators’ remote hacking efforts failed to capture log-in credentials, or if the accounts that were successfully compromised did not have the necessary access privileges for the sought-after information, teams of GRU technical intelligence officers, including Morenets, Serebriakov, Sotnikov, and Minin, traveled to locations around the world where targets were physically located. Using specialized equipment, and with the remote support of conspirators in Russia, including Yermakov, these close access teams hacked computer networks used by victim organizations or their personnel through Wi-Fi connections, including hotel Wi-Fi networks. After a successful hacking operation, the close access team transferred such access to conspirators in Russia for exploitation.

Among other instances, the indictment alleges that following a series of high-profile independent investigations starting in 2015, which publicly exposed Russia’s systematic state-sponsored subversion of the drug testing processes prior to, during, and subsequent to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics (according to one report, known as the “McLaren Report”), the conspirators began targeting systems used by international anti-doping organizations and officials. After compromising those systems, the defendants stole credentials, medical records, and other data, including information regarding therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs), which allow athletes to use otherwise prohibited substances.

Using social media accounts and other infrastructure acquired and maintained by GRU Unit 74455 in Russia, the conspiracy thereafter publicly released selected items of stolen information, in many cases in a manner that did not accurately reflect their original form, under the false auspices of a hacktivist group calling itself the “Fancy Bears’ Hack Team.” As part of its influence and disinformation efforts, the Fancy Bears’ Hack Team engaged in a concerted effort to draw media attention to the leaks through a proactive outreach campaign. The conspirators exchanged e-mails and private messages with approximately 186 reporters in an apparent attempt to amplify the exposure and effect of their message.

Each defendant is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, one count each of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, both of which carry a maximum sentence of 20 years. Defendants Morenets, Serebriakov, Yermakov, Malyshev, and Badin are each also charged with two counts of aggravated identity theft, which carries a consecutive sentence of two years in prison. Defendant Yermakov is also charged with five counts of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.

Defendants Yermakov, Malyshev, and Badin are also charged defendants in federal indictment number CR 18-215 in the District of Columbia, and accused of conspiring to gain unauthorized access into the computers of U.S. persons and entities involved in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, steal docuмents from those computers, and stage releases of the stolen docuмents to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

According to the indictment:

Context of the Hacking and Related Influence and Disinformation Efforts

In July 2016, the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) Independent Person Report (the “First McLaren Report”) was released, describing Russia’s systematic state-sponsored subversion of the drug testing process prior to, during, and subsequent to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. This investigation had the support of advocates for clean sports, including the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES, Canada’s anti-doping agency). Eventually, in some instances only after arbitration rulings by the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS/CAS), approximately 111 Russian athletes were excluded from the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by a number of international athletics federations, including track-and-field’s International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) further imposed a blanket ban of Russian athletes from the 2016 Paralympic Games, which were also held in Rio.

Intrusion Activities in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Days after the release of the First McLaren Report and the International Olympic Committee’s and IPC’s subsequent decisions regarding the exclusion of Russian athletes, the conspirators prepared to hack into the networks of WADA, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), and TAS/CAS. The conspirators, including specifically defendants Yermakov and Malyshev, procured spoofed domains (which mimicked legitimate WADA and TAS/CAS domains) and other infrastructure, probed such entities’ networks, and spearphished WADA and USADA employees. Although Yermakov and Malyshev are both alleged to have prepared to send spearphishing e-mails to TAS/CAS, the indictment does not allege that organization was compromised.

Likely as a result of the conspirators’ failure to capture necessary log-in credentials, or because those victim accounts that were successfully compromised did not have the necessary access privileges for the sought-after information, defendants Morenets and Serebriakov, in at least one instance with the remote support of Yermakov, deployed to Rio to conduct hacking operations targeting and maintaining persistent access to Wi-Fi networks used by anti-doping officials. As a result of these efforts, in August 2016, the conspirators captured that IOC official’s credentials and thereafter used them, and another set of credentials belonging to the same official to gain unauthorized access to an account in WADA’s ADAMS database and medical and anti-doping related information contained therein. (The broader ADAMS database was not compromised in the intrusion.)

Also in 2016, a senior USADA anti-doping official traveled to Rio de Janeiro for the Olympics and Paralympic games. While there, the USADA official used Wi-Fi at the hotel and other Wi-Fi access points in Rio to remotely access USADA’s computer systems and conduct official business. While the USADA official was in Rio, conspirators successfully compromised the credentials for his or her USADA email account, which included summaries of athlete test results and prescribed medications.

Intrusion Activities in Lausanne, Switzerland

In mid-September 2016, WADA hosted an anti-doping conference in Lausanne, Switzerland. On September 18, 2016, defendants Morenets and Serebriakov traveled to Lausanne with equipment used in close access Wi-Fi compromises. On or about September 19, 2016, Morenets and Serebriakov compromised the Wi-Fi network of a hotel hosting the conference and leveraged that access to compromise the laptop and credentials of a senior CCES official staying at the hotel. Other conspirators thereafter used the stolen credentials to compromise CCES’s networks in Canada, using a tool used to extract hashed passwords, the metadata of which indicated it was compiled by Badin.

Intrusion Targeting Anti-Doping Officials at Sporting Federations

In December 2016 and January 2017, conspirators successfully compromised the networks of IAAF and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (“FIFA”) and targeted computers and accounts used by each organization’s top anti-doping official. Among the data stolen from such officials were keylogs, file directories, anti-doping policies and strategies, lab results, medical reports, contracts with doctors and medical testing labs, information about medical testing procedures, and TUEs.

Related GRU Influence and Disinformation Operations

On September 12, 2016, shortly after the compromise of the IOC official’s ADAMS credentials, but before the compromise of USADA’s and CCES’s networks, conspirators claiming to be the hacktivist group Fancy Bears’ Hack Team used online accounts and other infrastructure procured and managed by Unit 74455, as well as the website fancybears.net, to publicly release TUEs, other medical information, and emails stolen from anti-doping officials at WADA, USADA, CCES, IAAF, FIFA, and approximately 35 other anti-doping agencies or sporting organizations. In some instances, the WADA docuмents were modified from their original form. Ultimately, the Fancy Bears’ Hack Team released stolen information that included private or medical information of approximately 250 athletes from almost 30 countries.

The conspirators’ release of the stolen information was, in some instances, accompanied by posts and other communications that parroted or supported themes that the Russian government had used in its official narrative regarding the anti-doping agencies’ investigative findings. From 2016 through 2018, the conspirators engaged in a proactive outreach campaign, using Twitter and e-mail to communicate with approximately 186 reporters about the stolen information. After articles were published, conspirators used the Fancy Bears’ Hack Team social media accounts to draw attention to the articles in an attempt to amplify the exposure and effect of their message.

Other Targets of the Conspiracy

The conspiracy is also alleged to have targeted other entities in the Western District of Pennsylvania and abroad that were of interest to the Russian government. For example, as early as November 20, 2014, Yermakov performed reconnaissance of Westinghouse Electric Company’s (WEC) networks and personnel. In the following months, Yermakov and conspirators created a fake WEC domain and sent spearphishing emails to WEC employees’ work and personal email accounts, which were designed to harvest the employees’ log-in credentials.

More recently, in April 2018, Morenets, Serebriakov, Sotnikov, and Minin, all using diplomatic passports, traveled to The Hague in the Netherlands in furtherance of another close access operation targeting the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) computer networks through Wi-Fi connections. All four GRU officers intended to travel thereafter to Spiez, Switzerland, to target the Spiez Swiss Chemical Laboratory, an accredited laboratory of the OPCW which was analyzing military chemical agents, including the chemical agent that the United Kingdom authorities connected to the poisoning of a former GRU officer in that country. However, Morenets, Serebriakov, Sotnikov, and Minin were disrupted during their OPCW hacking operation by the Militaire Inlichtingen- en Veiligheidsdienst (MIVD), the Dutch defense intelligence service. As part of this disruption, Morenet’s and Serebriakov’s abandoned the Wi-Fi compromise equipment, which they had placed in the trunk of a rental car parked adjacent to the OPCW property. Data obtained from at least one item of this equipment confirmed its operational use at multiple locations around the world, including connections to the Wi-Fi network of the CCES official’s hotel in Switzerland (the dates the conspirators conducted the Wi-Fi compromise of the senior CCES official’s laptop at the same hotel), and at another hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in December 2017.

***

In connection with the unsealing of the indictment, and in an effort to limit further exposure of the private lives of victim athletes, the FBI seized the fancybears.net and fancybears.org domains pursuant to court orders issued on October 3, 2018, in the Western District of Pennsylvania.

The charges contained in the indictment are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. Moreover, the maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentence of a defendant will be determined by the assigned judge.

The FBI, led by the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia Field Offices, conducted the investigation that resulted in charges announced today. The FBI’s investigation was assisted by a parallel, independent Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigation. This case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania and the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section. The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provided assistance throughout this investigation, as did the MIVD, the Government of the Netherlands, Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General, the U.K.’s National Security and Intelligence Agencies, and many of the FBI’s Legal Attachés and other foreign authorities around the world.

Note: More information can be found at https://www.justice.gov/opa/docuмents-and-resources-october-4-2018-press-conference

Maria Regina · « **Reply #3 on:** October 04, 2018, 10:39:55 AM »

More breaking news. The arrests are just beginning as the Department of Justice cracks down on child pornography, espionage, and other crimes.

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Justice News
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Massachusetts Man Sentenced to More than 17 Years in Prison for Cyberstalking Former Housemate and Others, Computer Hacking, Sending Child Pornography and Making Over 100 Hoax Bomb Threats

A Massachusetts man was sentenced today to 210 months in prison for conducting an extensive cyberstalking campaign against his former housemate, her family members, co-workers, friends, and others, including hacking into her online accounts, posting fraudulent sɛҳuąƖ solicitations in their names, sending unsolicited images of child pornography, and making over 120 hoax bomb threats.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling for the District of Massachusetts, Special Agent in Charge Harold H. Shaw of the FBI Boston Field Office and Waltham Police Chief Keith MacPherson made the announcement today.

Ryan S. Lin, 25, formerly of Newton, Massachusetts, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge William G. Young of the District of Massachusetts, who also ordered him to serve five years of supervised release following his prison sentence. Lin pleaded guilty in April 2018 to seven counts of cyberstalking, five counts of distribution of child pornography, nine counts of making hoax bomb threats, three counts of computer fraud and abuse and one count of aggravated identity theft. Lin was arrested in October 2017 and has been held in custody since. As part of Lin’s plea agreement, Lin agreed to be sentenced to a minimum of seven years and a maximum of 17 ½ years in prison.

According to admissions made in connection with his plea and evidence presented at sentencing, from about May 2016 through Oct. 5, 2017, Lin engaged in an extensive cyberstalking campaign against a 25-year-old female victim. Lin, the victim’s former housemate, hacked into the victim’s online accounts and devices and stole the victim’s private photographs, personally identifiable information, and private diary entries, which contained highly sensitive details about her medical, psychological and sɛҳuąƖ history, and distributed the victim’s material to hundreds of people associated with her.

Lin also created and posted fraudulent online profiles in the victim’s name and solicited rape fantasies, including “gang bang” and other sɛҳuąƖ activities, which in turn caused men to show up at the victim’s home. Lin engaged in a number of other activities targeting the female victim, including relentless anonymous text messaging and additional hoaxes, from shortly after he met her until October 2017.

In addition to his former housemate, Lin engaged in cyberstalking activity aimed at six additional individuals. Some were associated with the former housemate, and others were entirely unrelated. The additional victims include two female victims who were also Lin’s housemates in Newton at the time of his arrest. On multiple occasions, Lin sent sɛҳuąƖly explicit images of prepubescent children on an unsolicited basis to the primary victim’s mother, the victim’s co-worker and housemate, a friend of the victim who resided in New Jersey, and two of Lin’s former classmates in New York.

In addition to the cyberstalking activity, Lin falsely and repeatedly reported to law enforcement that there were bombs at the primary victim’s Waltham, Massachusetts residence. Lin also created a false social media profile in the name of the primary victim’s housemate in Waltham and posted that he was going to “shoot up” a school in Waltham, stating that there would be “blood and corpses everywhere.” These threats expanded beyond Waltham and became part of an extensive and prolonged pattern of threats to local schools, private homes, businesses, and other institutions in the broader community. Ultimately, Lin pleaded guilty to having made over 100 bomb threats, including 24 in a single day.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI’s Boston Field Office and the Waltham Police Department. The Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office and Watertown, Newton and Wellesley Police Departments assisted in the investigation. Senior Trial Attorney Mona Sedky of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Harman Burkart, Chief of Lelling’s Cybercrime Unit, prosecuted the case.

Topic(s):
Cyber Crime
Component(s):
Criminal Division
Criminal - Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section
Press Release Number:
18-1291

.

https://www.justice.gov/briefing-room

Maria Regina · « **Reply #4 on:** October 04, 2018, 11:02:06 AM »

And from the NSD (National Security Division) ...

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers Delivers Remarks on the Unsealing of an Indictment Against Russian GRU Officers for Various Malicious Cyber Activities
Washington, DC

~

Thursday, October 4, 2018

Remarks as prepared for delivery

Good morning and thank you all for joining us today as we announce an indictment charging seven Russian military officers with violations of several U.S. criminal laws for malicious cyber activities against the United States and its allies.

I am joined by the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Scott Brady; the FBI’s Deputy Assistant Director for Cyber, Eric Welling, and the Director General of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Mark Flynn.

A short while ago, the Dutch Minister of Defense and the United Kingdom’s National Security Advisor held a joint press conference announcing a recent intelligence operation against several Russian agents conducting a clandestine mission in The Hague.

The Joint UK/Dutch intelligence operation led to four Russian GRU officers being caught red handed in The Hague, while they attempted to breach the cyber security of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

This GRU target and an additional laboratory in Switzerland that was their next target were analyzing the deadly Russian nerve-agent recovered in the UK following an assassination attempt, as well as other chemical agents that were used in Syria against innocent civilians.

The Prime Ministers of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement condemning Russia’s behavior. We are including a copy of their statements in the materials provided to the media in this room and online at Justice.gov.

Our indictment today charges some of the same Russian operatives caught in The Hague, along with their colleagues in Moscow, as part of a conspiracy to hack a variety of individuals and organizations, in the United States, Canada, and Europe, to obtain information or access that was then exploited for the benefit of the Russian government.

More specifically, this indictment alleges a conspiracy to use computer hacking to obtain non-public, personal health information about athletes and others in the files of anti-doping agencies and sporting federations in multiple countries, and to release that stolen information selectively, and sometimes misleadingly. All of this was done to undermine those organizations’ efforts to ensure the integrity of the Olympic and other games. Other targets of this conspiracy were the chemical weapons laboratory in The Hague and a nuclear power company here in America.

Three of the seven defendants charged in this case were previously charged in the indictment brought by the Office of Special Counsel in July of this year, which pertained to a conspiracy to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The current indictment did not arise out of the Special Counsel’s work. Nonetheless, these two indictments charge overlapping groups of conspirators. And they evince some of the same methods of computer intrusion and the same overarching Russian strategic goal: to pursue its interests through illegal influence and disinformation operations aimed at muddying or altering perceptions of the truth.

The crux of the indictment, which U.S. Attorney Scott Brady will describe in more detail, is the GRU’s targeting of the World Anti-Doping Agency, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, and the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, which is Canada’s anti-doping body. The GRU did so in response to the efforts of anti-doping officials’ exposure of Russia’s systematic and state-backed athlete doping program. Embarrassed by that truth, Russia fought back by retaliating against the truth tellers and against the truth itself.

The results of Russia’s hacks, however, weren’t just felt by the anti-doping officials and agencies themselves.

Instead, Russia decided that it was fair game to flood social and traditional media with private medical information about more than 250 athletes from 30 countries in a manner that often inaccurately reflected or otherwise omitted the true nature, purpose, and context of this information.

I hope that through today’s charges—which fall far from the electoral arena of our prior charges—we can further educate ourselves as to the scope of the Russian government’s disinformation and influence campaigns.

I also hope that responsible members of the international news media will cast a suspecting eye on future “hack and leak” operations which seek in part to manipulate stories in furtherance of Russian state interests.

It is evident from the allegations in today’s indictment that the defendants believed that they could use their perceived anonymity to act with impunity, in their own countries and on territories of other sovereign nations, to undermine international institutions and to distract from their government’s own wrong-doing.

They were wrong. Working together with our partners in nations that share our values, we can expose the truth for the world to see.

Nations like Russia, and others that engage in malicious and norm-shattering cyber and influence activities, should understand the continuing and steadfast resolve of the United States and its allies to prevent, disrupt, and deter such unacceptable conduct.

The defendants in this case should know that justice is very patient, its reach is long and its memory is even longer.

Before I turn it over to the U.S. Attorney Brady to discuss the charges in greater detail, I’d like to extend my gratitude to the prosecutors in his office, and here in the National Security Division, as well as the team of FBI investigators, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and our other international partners in the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, who are together responsible for where we are today.

Speaker:
John C. Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security

Topic(s):
National Security
Component(s):
National Security Division (NSD)

Maria Regina · « **Reply #5 on:** October 04, 2018, 11:05:19 AM »

From the NSD speech immediately above, this is serious as Russian nerve gas was involved in assassinations done or planned.

Read the two brief paragraphs below.

Quote

The Joint UK/Dutch intelligence operation led to four Russian GRU officers being caught red handed in The Hague, while they attempted to breach the cyber security of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

This GRU target and an additional laboratory in Switzerland that was their next target were analyzing the deadly Russian nerve-agent recovered in the UK following an assassination attempt, as well as other chemical agents that were used in Syria against innocent civilians.

Maria Regina · « **Reply #6 on:** October 04, 2018, 11:16:14 AM »

And another ... this manufacturer was engaged in price fixing resulting in high prices for Japanese cars and electronic car parts.
https://www.justice.gov/news

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Leading Electrolytic Capacitor Manufacturer Ordered to Pay $60 Million Criminal Fine for Price Fixing

Nippon Chemi-Con Is the Eighth Company Sentenced for Participating in Conspiracy

Nippon Chemi-Con was sentenced to pay a $60 million criminal fine for its role in a conspiracy to fix prices for electrolytic capacitors sold to customers in the United States and elsewhere, the Department of Justice announced today. The $60 million fine is the largest fine imposed in the Justice Department’s investigation into collusion in the capacitors industry. In addition to the $60 million criminal fine, Nippon Chemi-Con was also sentenced to a five-year term of probation during which the company must implement an effective compliance program and submit annual written reports on its compliance efforts.
"Today’s sentence affirms the Antitrust Division’s commitment to holding companies, whether foreign or domestic, accountable for conspiring to cheat American consumers,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “In addition to the significant fine, the five-year probation period promotes deterrence and will help to protect the public.”

In May 2018, Nippon Chemi-Con pleaded guilty to conspiring with others to suppress and eliminate competition for electrolytic capacitors from at least as early as November 2001 to January 2014. Nippon Chemi-Con was charged by indictment filed in October 2017 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The indictment charged Nippon Chemi-Con with carrying out the conspiracy by agreeing with co-conspirators to fix prices of electrolytic capacitors during meetings and other communications. Capacitors were then sold in accordance with these agreements. As part of the conspiracy, Nippon Chemi-Con and its co-conspirators took steps to conceal the conspiracy, including the use of code names and providing misleading justifications for prices and bids submitted to customers in order to cover up their collusive conduct.

In total, eight companies and ten individuals have been charged for their participation in this conspiracy. All eight companies have pleaded guilty and have been sentenced to criminal fines collectively totaling over $150 million. Of the ten individuals charged, two have pleaded guilty, and eight remain under indictment, including four Nippon Chemi-Con executives: Takuro Isawa, Takeshi Matsuzaka, Yasutoshi Ohno, and Kaname Takahashi.
Electrolytic capacitors store and regulate electrical current in a variety of electronic products, including computers, televisions, car engine and airbag systems, home appliances, and office equipment.

This case results from ongoing federal antitrust investigations being conducted by the Antitrust Division’s San Francisco Office and the FBI’s San Francisco Field Office into price fixing, bid rigging and other anticompetitive conduct in the capacitor industry. Anyone with information related to the focus of this investigation should contact the Antitrust Division’s Citizen Complaint Center at 1-888-647-3258, visit https://www.justice.gov/atr/report-violations, or call the FBI tip line at 415-553-7400.

Topic(s):
Antitrust
Component(s):
Antitrust Division
Press Release Number:
18-1293

Maria Regina · « **Reply #7 on:** October 04, 2018, 04:31:50 PM »

More importantly, two important arrests have made recent headlines thanks to an FBI and DOJ which can now do its job.

Doxxer Arrested in D.C. -- https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-doxxing-suspect-arrested-worked-or-interned-for-feinstein-jackson-lee-other-dems

Quote

. . . U.S. Capitol Police said 27-year-old Jackson Cosko was charged with making public restricted personal information, witness tampering, threats in interstate communication, unauthorized access of a government computer, identity theft, second-degree burglary and unlawful entry. Police added that the investigation was continuing and more charges could be filed.

Senior congressional sources tell Fox News that Cosko most recently worked as an unpaid intern for Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas. He previously worked with Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and former Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of California. He also worked or interned with the office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, as well as with at least one other unnamed lawmaker. A LinkedIn page with Cosko's name on it describes him as a "Democratic Political Professional & Cybersecurity Graduate Student." ...

Ricin Guy Arrested in Utah -- https://fox13now.com/2018/10/03/report-man-arrested-in-logan-in-connection-with-ricin-mailed-to-president-trump-the-pentagon/

Quote

LOGAN, Utah -- William Clyde Allen, a Logan man, has confessed to sending letters laced with the poison ricin to President Trump and the Pentagon. Allen was arrested on Wednesday morning at his home at 380 North 200 West in Logan. He is a former member of the U.S. Navy.

“We had indication that he may possess dangerous chemicals in the house. I can’t comment further,” said Doug Davis, an FBI Special Agent from the Salt Lake City Office.
...
“The Salt Lake City Division of the FBI has taken William Clyde Allen into custody per a probable cause arrest warrant authorized by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Utah. Per the USAO, a complaint is expected to be filed in federal court on Friday.” ...

Author Topic: BREAKING - DOJ Press Conference 9:30 AM EDT, Oct. 4, 2018 (Read 1123 times)

Maria Regina

BREAKING - DOJ Press Conference 9:30 AM EDT, Oct. 4, 2018

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