Los Angeles, California - Mizrahi-Tefahot Bank Ltd., (Mizrahi-Tefahot) and its subsidiaries, United Mizrahi Bank (Switzerland) Ltd. (UMBS) and Mizrahi Tefahot Trust Company Ltd.  (Mizrahi Trust Company), entered into a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with the Department of Justice filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Department of Justice’s Tax Division, First Assistant United States Attorney Tracy L. Wilkison, and Chief Don Fort for Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation.  As part of the agreement, Mizrahi-Tefahot will pay $195 million to the United States.

Washington, DC - Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc. (Lumber Liquidators) has agreed to pay a total penalty of $33 million for filing a materially false and misleading statement to investors regarding the sale of its laminate flooring from China to its customers in the United States.

Washington, DC - President Trump’s FY 2020 Budget proposal totals $29 billion for the Department of Justice to support federal law enforcement and criminal justice priorities of our state, local, and tribal law enforcement partners.  The request represents a comprehensive investment in the Justice mission and includes increases in funding for strengthening security efforts to reduce violent crime, enforce the nation’s immigration laws, combat the opioid epidemic, and continues its commitment to National Security.

Washington, DC - Forecasting macroeconomic growth is never an exact science. The macroeconomic forecasts that accompany the President’s Budget are no exception. The “policy-inclusive” nature of these forecasts even introduces additional sources of uncertainty. Since policy-inclusive growth forecasts include the estimated effects of the President’s proposed policies, errors in these forecasts can indicate the absence of a policy’s implementation as well as error in the forecast of the growth effects of the given policy. The data available on the forecasts themselves do not permit the disaggregation of these possible sources of error.

West Lafayette, Indiana - Agricultural researchers generate vast amounts of data. Little of it is shared with peers or accessible to the public. A diverse group of scientists led by Sylvie Brouder, a Purdue University professor of agronomy, is calling for change and proposing the infrastructure to make it happen.

Washington, DC - Today, Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Jim Carroll released the Administration’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 National Drug Control Budget, which requests a record $34.6 billion for counter-drug efforts. This represents a $1.3 billion funding increase from the previous fiscal year.