A former FBI agent pleaded guilty on Wednesday to plotting to kill his boss, the Dallas Morning News reported.
In May, Carlos Ortiz Jr., 49,was suspended without pay by Dallas FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Casey Jr. after Ortiz’s wife, an analyst in the Dallas FBI office, accused him of domestic violence. Ortiz filed for divorce in 2009 after eight years of marriage.
On Aug. 19 and 20, Ortiz made several phone calls to a former law enforcement officer and licensed firearms dealer, the newspaper reported. During those cases he made threats against his wife and Casey. He also said he was looking for a .50-caliber rifle.
The former officer notified the FBI, which had him record later calls. During those calls, Ortiz threatened to kill his wife and Casey and accused them of an “illicit relationship,” which FBI officials have denied.
On Aug. 25, Casey fired Ortiz and had agents take him into custody. Ortiz, who is scheduled to be sentenced March 18, faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on a charge of retaliating against a federal official.
U.S. Attorneys brought in the biggest financial collection in the Justice Department’s history during fiscal 2010 from actions in civil and criminal cases, the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s office announced Thursday.
The 94 U.S. Attorneys’ offices located across the nation collected almost $6.7 billion from Oct. 1, 2009, to Sept. 30, 2010 — an increase of more than 45 percent from fiscal 2009.
The offices secured about $3.8 billion through civil actions in fiscal 2010, mostly from fines and the recovery of federal funds lost to fraud. Restitution, fines and felony assessments from criminal cases handled by the offices brought in more than $2.8 billion during the last fiscal year.
Big health care fraud cases and large criminal restitution cases over the past year helped bring the 57 percent increase in the civil collection and 30 percent increase in the criminal collection from fiscal 2009 to 2010, according to the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s office. Attorney General Eric Holder made the fight against health care fraud a top DOJ priority after taking office in 2009.
The U.S. Attorneys’ offices also collected $1.8 billion in fiscal 2010 from asset-forfeiture actions.
“In a time when we all worry about the bottom line, U.S. Attorneys’ offices offer a good return on the taxpayers’ investment,” New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman , vice chairman of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys, said in a statement.
He added: “These numbers show that federal prosecution is remarkably cost-effective.”
A former government lawyer who served 59 years in the Antitrust Division was honored at Justice Department headquarters in Washington on Wednesday with accolades, stories and a toy bulldog.
Bernard Hollander (Andrew Ramonas)
Onetime colleagues of former Senior Trial Attorney Bernard Hollander, 94, described him as a tenacious, dedicated lawyer who was the driving force behind many major antitrust cases from 1949 and 2008, when he retired.
A picture of Hollander can be found in an unabridged dictionary under bulldog, former DOJ official Gerald A. Connell said, drawing laughs from more than 50 of the longtime lawyer’s friends, former colleagues and family members. Connell recalled that he once advised a co-worker to chop off his leg if “if Bernie ever gets his jaws around your ankle.”
“Bernie did what Bernie wanted to do,” Connell said. “Bernie is as dogged and relentless and persistent a person as I’ve ever known. And I think that is one of his shining attributes.”
Hollander handled several groundbreaking cases, including U.S. v. RCA, in which the Supreme Court ruled in 1959 that the DOJ could challenge mergers already endorsed by the Federal Communications Commission. He also received several honors, most notably the first Attorney General’s Award for Lifetime or Career Achievement.
Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney of the Antitrust Division said Hollander is “an extraordinary man” with an “extraordinary career.” Varney said she has become a Hollander fan since she being confirmed to her DOJ post in 2009.
“While I’m late to the school of Bernie admirers, I am now first in class,” Varney said.
John M. Nannes, a former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Antitrust Division, said Hollander was “the mentor-in-chief to generations of Antitrust lawyers.”
“He taught them and us an important lesson: the law applied to everyone,” said Nannes, now a partner at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in D.C. “The rule of law — not politics or power — was the guiding standard.”
The Senate on Thursday evening confirmed four federal judges whose nominations had been stalled, leaving 34 judicial nominations pending.
The newly confirmed judges are John Gibney in the Eastern District of Virginia, James Bredar for the District of Maryland, Catherine Eagles in the Middle District of North Carolina and Kimberly Mueller in the Eastern District of California.
“For months, these nominations have languished before the Senate, without explanation and for no reason,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) in a statement. “Today, we confirm them unanimously. These confirmations will help fill a few of the judicial vacancies around the country, which have reached historically high levels.”
The confirmations were the first for the judiciary since Sept. 13, said Leahy, who has been critical of Senate Republicans for refusing to clear a backlog of President Barack Obama’s nominees.
Eagles and Mueller were approved by the Judiciary Committee on May 6 and Gibney on May 27. Bredar was reported out of committee on June 10.
The Leahy statement noted that most of the pending nominations received unanimous support from the Senate Judiciary Committee, and 19 of the nominations are to fill seats designated as judicial emergencies by the nonpartisan Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
Of the 34 judicial nominations still pending before the Senate, eight are circuit court nominations.
Among the judicial nominees still in limbo are Goodwin Liu for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
A convicted tax defier faces charges for allegedly filing a fraudulent $1.3 billion lien against an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Maryland and seeking false tax refunds, the Justice Department announced Thursday.
Andrew Isaac Chance, a retired D.C. transit authority employee from Clinton, Md., filed the lien last year against the property of the prosecutor who handled the original false income tax return case against him, according to a federal grand jury indictment returned Monday.
The court document identifies the Assistant U.S. Attorney as “S.D.” A news release issued after Chance’s conviction in 2007 names Maryland Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Dunne as the prosecutor in the tax return case.
The Maryland resident is also charged with filing more false tax returns, which allegedly sought $900,000.
A trial date hasn’t been scheduled yet. He faces up to 25 years in prison and a fine as much as $1 million, if convicted.
Chance’s wife, Liza Chance, declined comment to Main Justice when reached by telephone. A DOJ spokeswoman didn’t have an immediate comment.
In October 2007, Chance was sentenced to 27 months in prison and two years of supervised release for filing the false tax return. He was released from prison in June 2009 and is now serving supervised release.
Tax Division Trial Attorneys Jen E. Ihlo and Mark S. McDonald are prosecuting the case.
Edward L. Stanton III (DOJ)
Attorney General Eric Holder is scheduled to attend the ceremonial investiture for the Western District of Tennessee U.S. Attorney on Friday, a Justice Department spokesman told Main Justice.
Edward L. Stanton III officially was sworn in as the Memphis-based U.S. Attorney in August. But U.S. Attorneys often have a ceremonial investiture later on, with local, state and federal leaders present.
Holder has attended 15 U.S. Attorney swearing in ceremonies thus far.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2010
REMARKS AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY BY ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER AT THE REGIONAL HEAT SUMMIT
BOSTON
Good morning. It’s a pleasure to join with Secretary Sebelius – and with U.S. Attorney [Carmen] Ortiz, Deputy Administrator [Peter] Budetti, Inspector General [Dan] Levinson, and Assistant Attorney General [Tony] West – in welcoming you all here. I want to thank Chancellor [J. Keith] Motley and the University of Massachusetts Boston for hosting us. And I want to thank each of you for your participation in today’s discussion – and for your partnership in our national fight against health-care fraud.
We can all be encouraged by the number of people, and the diversity of perspectives, represented here. I am glad to see that top federal and state officials; administration leaders; federal, state, and local law enforcement officers; health-care providers; as well as leading physicians, business executives, caregivers, investigators, and prosecutors have come together for this critical summit.
We share the same goals of protecting potential victims, safeguarding precious taxpayer dollars, and ensuring the strength of our health-care system. Here in Boston – a city known for its world-class medical and nursing schools, its health research institutions, its 14 teaching hospitals, and its historic leadership in expanding access to healthcare – I know that many of you have concerns about the devastating effects of health-care fraud. Despite the commitment you represent and the great work being done across Massachusetts and beyond – we can all agree that it’s time to take our nationwide fight against health-care fraud to the next level.
That’s what today is all about. This summit is an important step forward – an opportunity to build on what has been discussed, and achieved, since January – when Secretary Sebelius and I convened the first “National Summit on Health Care Fraud” in Washington. This past summer, we kicked off a series of regionally-focused conversations so that we could better understand, and more effectively address, the unique challenges being faced in different areas of the country. So far, Secretary Sebelius and I have been to Miami, Los Angeles, and New York. In the coming months, we plan to hold additional summits in Detroit, Philadelphia and Las Vegas. Like Boston, many of these cities have become “hot spots” for health-care fraud schemes. Here, and across New England, these crimes have reached crisis proportions, driving up health-care costs for everyone – and also hurting the long-term solvency of our essential Medicare and Medicaid programs.
But we are fighting back – in bold, innovative, and coordinated ways.
Last year brought an historic step forward in this fight – when the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services launched the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team, known as “HEAT.” Through HEAT, we’ve fostered unprecedented collaboration among our agencies and our law enforcement partners. We’ve ensured that the fight against criminal and civil health-care fraud is a Cabinet-level priority. And we’ve strengthened the work – and the record of success – of our Medicare Strike Forces.
This approach is working.
In fact, HEAT’s impact has been recognized by President Obama, whose FY-2011 budget request includes an additional $60 million to expand our network of Strike Forces to additional cities and to increase our civil False Claims Act enforcement.
With these new resources, and our continued commitment to collaboration, I have no doubt we’ll be able to extend HEAT’s record of achievement. And this record – quite simply – is extraordinary.
In just the last fiscal year, we obtained settlements and judgments amounting to more than $2.5 billion in False Claims Act matters alleging health care fraud – the largest annual figure in history and an increase of more than 60% from fiscal year 2009. We also opened more than 2,000 new criminal and civil health-care fraud investigations, reached an all-time high in the number of health-care fraud defendants charged, stopped numerous large-scale fraud schemes in their tracks, and returned more than $2.5 billion to the Medicare Trust Fund and more than $800 million to cash-strapped state Medicaid programs.
This work continues to grow. Just yesterday, the Department announced settlements of more than $200 million with two pharmaceutical companies – Elan Corporation PLC, and its U.S. subsidiary Elan Pharmaceuticals Inc. – to resolve allegations of illegal and off-label marketing of an anti-seizure medication. And we can all be encouraged, in particular, by what’s been accomplished in Massachusetts.
As Assistant Attorney General West highlighted earlier today, the U.S. Attorneys’ Office in this district played a leading role in reaching historic settlements – including the largest health-care fraud settlement in history. Just last week, this district helped reach a settlement of more than $420 million with several pharmaceutical companies to resolve allegations of a scheme to report false and inflated prices – prices that federal healthcare programs rely on to set payment rates – for numerous pharmaceutical products.
In all, the District of Massachusetts has recovered, as [U.S. Attorney] Carmen [Ortiz] noted this morning, more than $4 billion in civil and criminal health-care fraud settlements over the past two years. That’s right – $4 billion. You should all be proud of these health-care-fraud enforcement efforts. I certainly am.
As figures like these demonstrate, health-care fraud schemes across this region are being aggressively and permanently shut down. This is the result of the hard work of many of the attorneys and investigators in this room. And, in particular, I want to note the great work being done by Boston’s “Special Focus Team,” which attacks large-scale, corporate health-care fraud – from pharmaceutical fraud to medical-device company fraud – head on. These efforts are providing proof that we can make measurable, meaningful progress in the fight against health-care fraud.
But we cannot do it alone.
We need your help. We need your insights. And we will rely on your recommendations to help guide and enhance HEAT’s critical work.
Despite all that’s been accomplished since HEAT was launched, health-care fraud remains a significant problem. At this very moment, for example, we know that an alarming number of scam artists and criminals are attempting to profit from misinformation about the Affordable Care Act, which Congress passed – and President Obama signed into law – earlier this year.
Fortunately, this landmark legislation provides new resources and includes tough new rules and penalties to help stop and prevent health-care fraud. And the Justice Department will continue to work vigorously with our law enforcement and private sector partners to ensure that those who engage in fraud cannot use this new law to steal from taxpayers, patients, seniors, and other vulnerable Americans. We will keep industry leaders informed about emerging fraud schemes and help institute effective compliance and anti-fraud programs. And we will punish offenders to the fullest extent of the law. That’s a promise.
As Secretary Sebelius and I do our part in Washington to build on the progress that’s been made in combating health-care fraud, we want to work closely with you – and with state and local officials, officers, leaders, and advocates across the country. Our continued success depends on the commitment we make, the priorities we establish, and the partnerships we forge now. And your presence here today gives me great hope about what we can accomplish together going forward.
Thank you all, once again, for joining us and for your ongoing commitment to protecting the American people and ensuring the strength and integrity of our health-care system. I look forward to working with you all.
Thank you.
###
California Attorney General-elect Kamala Harris on Wednesday named two former federal prosecutors to her office, Black Voices News reported.
Jack Weiss will serve as chairman of the Gangs, Gun Crimes and Organized Crime Smart on Crime committee. Weiss, who worked in the criminal division of the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney’s office from 1994 to 2000, is now a managing director and head of the Los Angeles office of Kroll’s Business Intelligence and investigations practice. Before joining Kroll in September 2010, he served as a member of the Los Angeles City Council from 2001 to 2009.
Bill Lann Lee will serve as the chairman of the Civil Rights Enforcement Smart on Crime committee. Lee, who was the Assistant Attorney General for civil rights from 1997 to 2001, is now a shareholder at Lewis, Feinberg, Lee, Renaker, & Jackson, P.C. He previously was a partner at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP. Lee also has worked as an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
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Former U.S. Attorney and Wyoming Governor-elect Matt Mead (R) has named two former colleagues to his cabinet, the Associated Press reported.
Tony Young, who will serve as Mead’s deputy chief of staff, served as the head of the Wyoming Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee in the U.S. Attorney’s office. He also worked as Mead’s assistant campaign manager and as deputy chief of the transition team.
Carol Statkus, who will serve as Mead’s general counsel and have responsibility for policy oversight, served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. She also worked as Mead’s campaign manager.
Mead served as Wyoming’s U.S. Attorney from 2001 to 2007.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Lodge was named an Arizona Superior Court judge in Coconino County by Gov. Jan Brewer on Wednesday.
Lodge has been with the U.S. Attorney’s Office since 1989 and now serves as the branch chief of the Flagstaff office. His prosecutions have focused on procurement fraud, white collar offenses and violent crimes occurring on northern Arizona Indian reservations. In addition, he served as the U.S. Attorney’s Office tribal liaison from 1995 to 1999.
From 1981 to 1989 he worked as a judge advocate general in the Army.
“Mr. Lodge is known as one of the finest prosecutors in the State of Arizona,” Brewer said n a prepared statement. “His legal experience and outstanding personal and professional reputation make him well qualified to be a Superior Court judge.”
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