The war crimes Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina convicted its third defendant in one week on Friday when it sentenced Dragan Damjanovic to twenty years in prison. Damjanovic was found guilty on six of the seven counts of crimes against humanity listed in his indictment, including murder, torture and rape committed during Bosnia's 1992-95 war.

The ruling marks the War Crimes Court's ninth conviction since its establishment last year. Earlier this week, the court sentenced a Bosnian Croat to thirteen years in prison and another Bosnian Serb to twenty-four years in prison for war crimes. Last month, the court sentenced the first defendant to be transferred from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Bosnian lower courts have already tried approximately 1000 war crimes cases to relieve the backlog of the ICTY, and some two dozen other suspects are awaiting trial at the war crimes court.

An Alabama jury returned a verdict in favor of pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. on Friday, concluding that the drug Vioxx did not cause the plaintiff in the case to suffer a heart attack. The jury also found that Merck did not withhold information prior to removing the drug from the market in 2004. The plaintiff, Gary Albright, 57, had asked for over $5 million in damages for the heart attack that he suffered in 2001. Evidence was introduced that other pre-existing conditions may have led to Albright's heart attack. Albright has not announced whether he will appeal the verdict.

The Alabama verdict marks Merck's fourth state victory; it has lost three other state suits, and a New Jersey verdict in its favor was vacated in August. On Wednesday, Merck won its fourth federal victory when a jury in New Orleans found it not liable for damages related to Vioxx. While Merck lost a federal trial in August, the judge rejected the $50 million verdict as excessive and ordered a new trial for damages. Merck continues to face thousands of individual lawsuits and hundreds of class actions over the drug, which was pulled from the market after a study showed that it could double the risk of heart attack or stroke if taken for more than 18 months. Last month, a federal judge rejected a bid to combine all federal lawsuits against Merck into a single class action.

According to the court, Zanfei and Crouse, with the help of South Dakota accounting firm Wohlenberg, Ritzman & Co. LLC, sold illegal or improper health care expense reimbursement plans -- the HI Plan and the HealthIER Plan -- to hundreds of employer-customers. The court concluded that the defendants knowingly misrepresented the tax benefits to employees and employers in selling these plans. According to the government’s complaint, the IRS estimated that the defendants'schemes cost the U.S. Treasury losses of between $12 million and $63 million and would cause ongoing losses of between $6 million to $24 million per year if the defendants were not stopped.

The court also found that the defendants told employers that they could avoid employment tax by contributing to such plans. Employees purportedly would also avoid employment tax and would receive the amounts back by seeking reimbursement of health care expenditures.

The court found that defendants made numerous false statements in promoting the plans and improperly administered them. For example, materials supplied to employees as part of defendants'plans listed "athletic shoes," "electrolysis," "health club fees," "soaps," and "day care" as reimbursable expenses. The court noted that expenses such as these are reimbursable as health care expenses only in rare circumstances. Moreover, the court found that the defendants often reimbursed medical expenses without substantiating them. The court also found that defendants'HI Plan was illegal because it allowed reimbursement for health insurance premiums as opposed to out-of-pocket health care expenses.

The court described IRS audits of two of defendants'customers -- both California firms, with more than 250 participating employees. These two firms used the scheme to under-report taxable wages by a combined amount exceeding $450,000 in one year, and had to file corrected employment tax returns and issue corrected W-2 forms to their employees. The companies had to advise their employees to file amended income tax returns to correct the errors. When the court issued the injunction order, it noted that the defendants have not accepted responsibility for the high level of processing errors in the plans and concluded that the defendants'history "provides no basis for believing that they have either the knowledge or the willingness to step carefully around any [legal] line."

The court also noted that the Department of Labor filed a suit in an Indiana federal court against Zanfei and Crouse for violating their fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) by using employees'monthly health insurance premiums to pay for personal expenses. The federal court enjoined them from acting as ERISA fiduciaries.

Since 2001, the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained more than 210 injunctions to stop the promotion of tax fraud schemes and the preparation of fraudulent returns. Information about these cases is available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2006.htm. Information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division is available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/index.html.

The New Jersey Legislature passed a bill Thursday allowing same-sex civil unions in response to a New Jersey Supreme Court ruling in October that said the state legislature had 180 days to decide whether the state would recognize same-sex marriage or another form of civil partnership.

The measure was approved by the state Assembly 56-19 and passed the Senate 23-12. The bill says:

The Legislature has chosen to establish civil unions by amending the current marriage statute to include same-sex couples. In doing so, the Legislature is continuing its longstanding history of insuring equality under the laws for all New Jersey citizens by providing same-sex couples with the same rights and benefits as heterosexual couples who choose to marry.

Governor Jon Corzine has said he would sign the measure into law. Gay rights advocates welcome the bill as a step forward. But they also say they will continue to push for the right to marry.

WASHINGTON – A man skilled in the operation of commercial wireless Internet networks was sentenced today for intentionally bringing down wireless Internet services across the region of Vernal, Utah, the Justice Department announced today.

Ryan Fisher, 24, of Vernal, was sentenced to 24 months in prison to be followed by 36 months of supervised release for intentionally damaging a protected computer. U.S. District Judge Paul G. Cassell also ordered the defendant to pay $65,000 in restitution.

Fisher was charged on Feb. 15, 2006, in a one-count criminal indictment. The defendant worked for SBT Internet, which provided Internet service to residential and business customers around Vernal using wireless radio signals between SBT’s radio towers and its customers’ wireless access points.

Fisher left SBT over business and financial disputes and went on to work for, and eventually own, another Internet service provider in the area. Fisher admitted that he then used SBT’s computer passwords to take control of SBT’s network and reprogram its customers’ wireless access points to cut off their Internet service, including the service of one customer who was relying on electronic mail for news of an organ donor. He intentionally reprogrammed the access points to complicate SBT’s repair efforts which resulted in jammed wireless Internet airwaves that affected others outside SBT’s network, including another wireless Internet service and its customers. In total, more than 170 customers lost Internet service, some of them for as long as three weeks, and collectively caused more than $65,000 in losses.

The case was investigated by the FBI. The case was prosecuted by Senior Counsel Scott L. Garland and Trial Attorney Josh Goldfoot of the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Leshia Lee-Dixon and Jonathan Boyd of the District of Utah.

USDOJ - The Justice Department announced today that a superseding indictment was returned by federal grand jury in Salt Lake City, Utah, charging the parent company of gold and silver refiner Johnson Matthey Inc. with conspiracy to violate the Clean Water Act (CWA). The UK-based corporate parent, Johnson Matthey PLC is a diversified multi-national specialty chemicals producer.

On Mar. 22, 2006, Johnson Matthey Inc. and two senior company managers were charged in a 29-count indictment with conspiracy, concealment by trick, scheme and device, and violations of the CWA. Specifically, the defendants conspired to conceal the high level of pollutants they discharged by cheating on required tests and submitting false information about the amount of selenium released into wastewater. Today’s superseding indictment alleges that the parent company played a role in conspiring to conceal the release of the contaminated wastewater into the sewers.

The conspiracy charge carries a maximum fine of $500,000 for the corporate defendants. Charges in an indictment are merely accusations, and defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in federal court.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Richard Lambert and Jared Bennett and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Aunnie Steward for the District of Utah, and Richard Poole, Trial Attorney in the Environmental Crimes Section of the Department of Justice in Washington.

The Village of South Elgin, Ill., has agreed to settle allegations that it violated the Fair Housing Act by refusing a permit to allow Unity House Inc. to operate a home for seven residents recovering from addictions to drugs and alcohol, the Justice Department announced today.

Under the settlement, which must still be approved by the United States District Court in Chicago, the village must allow Unity House to operate with up to seven residents recovering from drug or alcohol addiction. The settlement also requires the village to pay a total of $25,000 in damages to Unity House, $7,500 each to two residents who were not able to live in the home when the permit was denied, and $15,000 to the United States as a civil penalty. The settlement also requires relevant village officials and employees to receive training on the Fair Housing Act and requires the village to keep and maintain records for the next three years relating to other zoning and land use requests regarding homes for persons with disabilities.

“We are pleased that an amicable settlement was reached in this case,” said Wan J. Kim, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “All persons with disabilities deserve the right to be protected by federal civil rights laws.”

“This settlement should send a message to other communities that no municipality, driven by neighborhood opposition, can prohibit persons recovering from addictions from enjoying the benefits of living in the safe and supportive environment of a group home,” said Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

Unity House is a group home for persons recovering from alcohol or drug dependency. Under the Fair Housing Act, persons recovering from drug or alcohol addiction are protected from discrimination in housing because they are recovering from addiction. Persons who are currently using illegal drugs, however, are not protected by the disability provisions of the Fair Housing Act.

Fighting illegal housing discrimination is a top priority of the Justice Department. In February, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales announced Operation Home Sweet Home, a concentrated initiative to expose and eliminate housing discrimination in America. This initiative was inspired by the plight of displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina who were suddenly forced to find new places to live. Operation Home Sweet Home, however, is not limited to the areas hit by Hurricane Katrina, but targets housing discrimination all over the country.

More information about Operation Home Sweet Home is available at the Justice Department Web site, . Individuals who believe that they may have been victims of housing discrimination can call the Housing Discrimination Tip Line (1-800-896-7793), contact the Department of Housing and Urban Development at 1-800-669-9777, or email the Justice Department at fairhousing@usdoj.gov

The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin and disability. Since Jan. 1, 2001, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has filed 215 cases to enforce the Fair Housing Act, 97 of which have alleged discrimination based on disability. More information about the Civil Rights Division and the laws it enforces is available at .