The University of Phoenix will pay the United States $67.5 million to settle a False Claims Act suit brought by two former employees who accused the private for-profit school of failing to abide by certain recruitment provisions, according to a Department of Justice news release.

Whistleblowers Mary Hendow and Julie Behn filed suit in the Eastern District of California. They accused the school of accepting federal student financial aid while violating regulatory and statutory provisions that prohibit colleges from paying admissions counselors some forms of incentive pay based on the number of students they recruit.

The U.S. did not intervene in the case but provided support to the two whistleblowers, who will receive $19 million in the settlement. The U.S. Department of Education assisted the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California with the case. The case marks the second-largest settlement for a False Claims Act suit in which the government did not intervene, the Arizona Republic reports.

Read the settlement agreement here.

“The Government recognizes the important role institutions like the University of Phoenix play in providing higher education for many people,” Tony West, Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Division of the Department of Justice, said in the statement. “At the same time, we must ensure that all educational institutions comply with the law and do not misuse taxpayer funds.”

The University of Phoenix is a for-profit school offering online courses, and it is a subsidiary of  publicly traded Apollo Group, which admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement, according to Bloomberg. The suit dates to 2003, and in 2004 Apollo separately paid $9.8 million to the Department of Education to settle similar allegations, Bloomberg reports.

Hendow and Behn allege that University of Phoenix paid cash bonuses to them and other employees based entirely on how many students they enrolled, though the school denied that allegation, Inside Higher Ed reports. A federal court initially dismissed the suit in 2004, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in 2006 that the whistleblowers offered valid theories as to how the school sought to defraud the government, according to Inside Higher Ed. The case was set to go to trial in March 2010.

The new U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California filled two of the top leadership positions in his office, The Sacramento Bee reported today.

Benjamin Wagner (DOJ)

Benjamin Wagner, who was sworn in yesterday as U.S. Attorney, elevated Carolyn Delaney to be First Assistant U.S. Attorney, the office’s number two job. She was previously the Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney, the third highest position in the office.

Former interim U.S. Attorney Lawrence Brown was named as the office’s Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney. Brown served as acting U.S. Attorney after McGregor Scott stepped down in January. He previously served as Scott’s First Assistant.

“Larry Brown is a true professional,” Wagner said, according to The Bee.

The Senate confirmed four Justice Department officials by unanimous consent tonight.

They are:

Laurie O. Robinson (DOJ)

-Laurie O. Robinson (Office of Justice Programs Assistant Attorney General): The OJP Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General and former office chief will succeed Bush OJP head Jeffrey Sedgwick, who resigned in January. She was nominated Sept. 14. Read our previous report on Robinson here.

Carmen Ortiz (Adelphi Univ.)

-Carmen M. Ortiz (Massachusetts U.S. Attorney): The Massachusetts Assistant U.S. Attorney will replace Michael J. Sullivan, who stepped down in April to join a law firm headed by former Attorney General John Ashcroft. Read more about Ortiz here.

Ed Tarver (Tarverforgeorgiasenate.com)

-Ed Tarver (Southern District of Georgia U.S. Attorney): The Georgia state senator and partner at Augusta, Ga., law firm Hull, Towill, Norman, Barrett & Salley will succeed Edmund A. Booth Jr., who resigned earlier this month. Read more about Tarver here.

-Benjamin Wagner (Eastern District of California U.S. Attorney): The Assistant U.S. Attorney will succeed McGregor Scott, who resigned in January. Wagner was nominated Aug. 6. Read more about Wagner here.

The Senate has now confirmed 21 U.S. Attorneys. The chamber must still consider three more U.S. Attorney nominees that were reported out of committee today.

Robinson is the second Assistant Attorney General to be confirmed today. The Senate confirmed Ignacia Moreno as the next Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division earlier this evening. There are three more Assistant Attorney General nominees waiting for confirmation in the Senate, including long-stalled Dawn Johnsen for the Office of Legal Counsel.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved two Justice Department nominees at its business meeting this morning by unanimous consent.

They are:

Laurie O. Robinson (DOJ)

-Laurie O. Robinson (Office of Justice Programs Assistant Attorney General): The OJP Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General and former office chief would succeed Bush OJP head Jeffrey Sedgwick, who resigned in January. She was nominated Sept. 14. Her confirmation hearing was Oct. 7. Read our previous report on the nominee here.

-Benjamin Wagner (Eastern District of California U.S. Attorney): The Assistant U.S. Attorney would succeed McGregor Scott, who resigned in January. Wagner was nominated Aug. 6. Read more about the nominee here.

The panel has now approved 19 U.S. Attorneys, including the 18 U.S. Attorneys who have been confirmed by the Senate. There are another 11 U.S. Attorney nominees who have not been considered by the committee yet.

Robinson was the last Assistant Attorney General nominee to come before the panel. She joins four Assistant Attorney General nominees, who are waiting for confirmation in the Senate.

President Obama’s U.S. Attorney nominees are turning out to be a diverse bunch in terms of race, gender — and net worth.

Of the 29 U.S. Attorney candidates who have been confirmed or nominated so far, reported net worth ranges from nearly $6 million to less than $10,000, according to an analysis of financial disclosure data filed with the Senate Judiciary Committtee.

Jenny Durkan is the wealthiest of President Obama's U.S. Attorney picks announced so far.

The wealthiest include recently confirmed U.S. Attorneys Jenny Durkan of the Western District of Washington ($5.9 million) and Paul Fishman of New Jersey ($5.1 million).

Four nominees reported net worth of less than $200,000. They are Stephanie Rose, nominated to lead Iowa’s Northern District; Richard Callahan, nominated for Missouri’s Eastern District; Carter Stewart of Ohio’s Southern District; and Nick Klinefeldt, of Iowa’s Northern District.

Both Rose and Klinefeldt are under 40. Moreover, Rose has spent most of her career in government, as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Iowa. Klinefeldt, meanwhile, reported little equity in his personal residence and student loan debt for both himself and his wife.

Before taking on the Western Washington job, Durkan ran her own law firm in Seattle and worked at a number of other law firms, including Williams & Connolly. She donated $288,205 to Democratic candidates, causes and organizations on the state and federal levels from 1998 to 2008, election records show.

Fishman was a partner at Friedman, Kaplan, Seiler & Adelman in New York, specializing in white-collar defense, corporate investigations and complex civil litigation.

Below is a ranking of the U.S. Attorney picks by net worth. We’ll update the table as more nominees for the 93 federal prosecuting jobs are announced.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is slated to consider two Justice Department nominees at its business meeting Thursday.

They are:

Laurie O. Robinson (DOJ)

-Laurie O. Robinson (Office of Justice Programs Assistant Attorney General): The OJP Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General and former office chief would succeed Bush OJP head Jeffrey Sedgwick, who resigned in January. She was nominated Sept. 14. Her confirmation hearing was Oct. 7. Read our previous report on the nominee here.

-Benjamin Wagner (Eastern District of California U.S. Attorney): The Assistant U.S. Attorney would succeed McGregor Scott, who resigned in January. Wagner was nominated Aug. 6. Read more about the nominee here.

After Wagner, the panel has another 11 more U.S. Attorney nominees who are queued up and ready to go. Robinson is the last Assistant Attorney General nominee to come before the committee.

The search for the Southern District of California’s next top federal prosecutor is close to wrapping up, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported today.

The screening panel established by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) stopped accepting applications earlier this summer, according to the newspaper. Boxer will advise President Obama on who he should nominate, but it is unknown if she has made recommendations yet, the Union-Tribune reported.

Here are the finalists for the post, lawyers familiar with the screening committee told the newspaper:

Jerry Coughlan (Coughlan, Semmer & Lipman)

-Timothy Coughlin (Assistant U.S. Attorney, Southern District of California)

-Laura Duffy (Assistant U.S. Attorney, Southern District of California)

-Kevin Kelly (First Assistant U.S. Attorney, Southern District of California)

-Jerry Coughlan (Partner at San Diego law firm Coughlan, Semmer & Lipman)

Acting U.S. Attorney Karen Hewitt currently leads the Southern District office. She was appointed by the district’s judges after Carol Lam was fired during the 2006 U.S. Attorney purge.

Boxer must also make U.S. Attorney recommendations for the Northern District of California. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is in charge of recommending candidates for the Central and Eastern districts.

Obama nominated Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner to be the top federal prosecutor in the Eastern District. Read about possible candidates for the California posts in our U.S. Attorney’s chart.

Benjamin Wagner (DOJ)

Benjamin Wagner (Dartmouth College, New York University School of Law) is nominated to replace McGregor W. Scott, who resigned in January.

His vitals:

• Born in New York, N.Y., in 1960.
• Has worked in the U.S. Attorney’s office since 1992, serving as Assistant U.S. Attorney from 1992 to 1999 and as the chief of the special prosecutions unit. Wagner also was a resident legal adviser detailed to the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia from 2005 to 2006.
• Was a summer associate at Cahill Gordon & Reindel in New York, N.Y.
• Has tried 18 criminal cases to verdict.
• As a “youngster,” volunteer for the Independent Neighborhood Democratic club, which helped campaign for a number of Democratic candidates including George McGovern and  Al Lowenstein in 1972 and Mo Udall in 1976.
• Interned for Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) in 1981.
• Received the Department of Justice’s Special Achievement Award for outstanding performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney three times since 1996.
• Plays on an over-40 soccer team in the Sacramento Adult Soccer League.

Click here for his full questionnaire.

UPDATE: On his Office of Government Ethics financial disclosure Wagner reports owning a 50 percent interest in a beach house in Balboa, Calif.

Benjamin B. Wagner, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of California, was nominated Thursday to lead the Sacramento-based office. The White House made the announcement in a brief news release Thursday evening that was not posted on the White House Web site. No biographical information was given about Wagner in the news release.

If confirmed, Wagner would replace Acting United States Attorney Lawrence G. Brown, who has been running the office since January, after Bush-appointee McGregor William Scott resigned.

Brown was caught up in the controversy about fired AmeriCorps inspector general, Gerald Walpin. Read our previous report about Walpin here.