Verbena, Alabama - A federal grand jury returned a 23-count indictment last week charging seven Verbena, Alabama, residents with conspiracy to violate the Animal Welfare Act and to operate an illegal gambling business, among other violations, in connection with a large-scale cockfighting and fighting bird breeding operation.

San Francisco, California - The founder of a Russian bank was sentenced Friday for his felony conviction for filing a false tax return. As required under his plea agreement, prior to sentencing, Oleg Tinkov, aka Oleg Tinkoff, paid $508,936,184, more than double what he had sought to escape paying to the U.S. Treasury through a scheme to renounce his U.S. citizenship and conceal from the IRS large stock gains that he knew were reportable. This includes $248,525,339 in taxes, statutory interest on that tax and a nearly $100 million fraud penalty. Tinkov was additionally fined $250,000, which is the maximum allowed by statute, and sentenced to time served and one year of supervised release.

Los Angeles, California - A Chinese appliance manufacturer and two of its subsidiaries have agreed to resolve criminal charges for failing to notify the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) that millions of dehumidifiers they sold to U.S. consumers were defective and could catch fire. The resolutions are the first corporate criminal enforcement actions ever brought under the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA).

Cleveland, Ohio - A Russian national, residing in the Yakutsk region of Russia and in Southeast Asia, had his initial appearance in federal court Thursday after his extradition from the Republic of Korea to the Northern District of Ohio to face charges for his alleged role in a transnational, cybercriminal organization.

Washington, DC - The Department of Justice today announced that the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) will award more than $21 million to investigate and prosecute hate crimes and assist hate crime victims. Funding will help state, local and tribal agencies and community organizations address an alarming rise in violent and property crimes committed on the basis of race, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability.

Washington, DC - Thursday, the Department of Justice announced that it has reached an agreement in principle to settle the civil cases arising out of the June 2015 Mother Emanuel AME Church mass shooting in Charleston, South Carolina.