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KEY POINTS A 3,500-year-old clay tablet purchased by the Hobby Lobby arts and crafts chain for $1.6 million has been forfeited to the United States. The tablet was illegally transported to the U.S. in 2003 and 2014. In a complaint filed in May 2020, prosecutors said the 5-by-6-inch tablet is considered the property of the Iraqi government and should be returned. ========================================================================== A 3,500-year-old clay tablet purchased by the Hobby Lobby arts and crafts chain for $1.6 million has been forfeited to the United States. The tablet, which bears a portion of the epic of Gilgamesh, a Sumerian poem considered...

A Brooklyn man was sentenced to 156 months in prison today for his role in a vast multimillion-dollar health care kickback and money laundering conspiracy, the Department of Justice announced today.  Aleksandr Pikus, 45, of Brooklyn, New York, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ann M. Donnelly of the Eastern District of New York.  Judge Donnelly also ordered Pikus to pay $39.4 million in restitution and to forfeit $2,614,233.  On Nov. 15, 2019, after a two-week trial, Pikus was convicted by a jury of one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, two counts of money laundering, one count of...