Latest US Justice Department Stories

Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Last week a coalition composed of companies like Microsoft, Nokia and Oracle filed a complaint with European regulators about what they believe are Google’s anti-competitive behaviors. In short, the companies believe that Google’s Android is a “Trojan horse” which is used to steer more traffic towards their own sites and services. The FairSearch coalition likely filed their complaint with European regulators because...

IP relay call systems allow people in the US to communicate by text to a live AT&T operator, who will then read the typed words to people with hearing or speech impairments they are trying to call on the phone. However AT&T is accused of pocketing millions of dollars from US taxpayers with fraudulent use of that system by the US Justice Department. The service cannot, however, stop people without impairments from using it, writes Tom Cheredar for Venture Beat. “We will pursue...

Megaupload, one of the top file-sharing websites on the internet, was shut down as the US Justice Department and FBI arrested the founder and several company officials. CEO Kim Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz and Mathias Ortmann Chief Technology Officer were arrested in Auckland, New Zealand as well as Bram van der Kolk head of programming and Finn Batato chief marketing officer at the request of the United States government. Julius Bencko, the site’s graphic designer, Sven Echternach...

  Google agreed late last week to a $500 million settlement, the amount made in illegal advertising, in a US Justice Department probe focusing on Canadian pharmacies advertising to American customers through Google’s AdSense program. The Canadian pharmacies had been selling prescription drugs without a doctor’s order to customers in the US, a violation of federal law. According to Forbes, government investigators sorted through more than four million documents and found emails that...

The FBI and police agencies in seven other countries have seized computers and servers from which a "scareware" scheme was being operated. According to Reuters, the operation had bilked more than $72 million from victims by selling software that claimed to find security risks on PCs and then asked for cash to fix the non-existent problems.In the US, 22 computers and servers were seized along with 25 others in France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom,...

In 1998, the powerhouse known as Microsoft was accused of breaking antitrust law by the US Justice Department. Fast forward 13 years later, and the expiration of the antitrust settlement against the software company passed with little notice on Thursday. In the 13 years since, Apple has gone from having just a small slice of the PC market to dominating the mobile media market. And Google, barely in existence in 1998, is now the top Internet search and online advertising business in the world....

American computer tech company Oracle has agreed to pay a $46 million settlement over allegations that Sun Microsystems -- acquired by the tech company last year for $7.4 billion -- submitted false claims to US agencies, according to the US Justice Department. Sun allegedly paid monies to systems integrator companies in return for recommendations that government agencies purchase products from Sun Microsystems, The Justice Department said in a statement. "Sun executed agreements with...

The North Atlantic nation of Iceland has formally asked the American Ambassador to Iceland, Luis E. Arreaga, to answer questions as to why US investigators are attempting to access the private details of the online activity of an Icelandic lawmaker. Building a case against Wikileaks by the US Justice Department, a court order was obtained to examine records and data posted on Twitter Inc. by Icelandic parliamentarian Birgitta Jonsdottir who sits on the country's Foreign Affairs Committee....

BP and eight other companies have had lawsuits brought against them for the first time by the United States for billions of dollars in damages from the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which has been labeled the worst oil disaster in US history. The complaint was filed by the US Justice Department with a federal court in New Orleans, where thousands of individuals and small businesses have already sued the British oil company. Attorney General Eric Holder said the complaint alleges...

Three pharmaceutical companies charged with reporting inflated drug prices to the US government have agreed to pay 421 million dollars in fines, according to officials on Tuesday. The US Justice Department said the three companies -- Abbott Laboratories, Roxane Laboratories, and German drug maker Braun Medical Inc -- all agreed to pay the fines. The companies are accused of falsely inflating the prices of the drugs reimbursed by the federal government under the Medicare and Medicaid health...