NAFUSA Executive Director Rich Rossman is one of the organizers of the James K. Robinson Scholarship Event to be held on Friday, September 26 at the London Chop House in Detroit. The purpose of the event is to raise additional funds for the endowed scholarship that Robinson created to help students at the Wayne State Law School, where Robinson, a past president of NAFUSA, had served as dean. Robinson passed away in 2010 after a three year bout with cancer.
On September 8, 2014, the Detroit Legal News profiled Rossman’s career. He served as Robinson’s chief assistant when Jim was the United States Attorney in Detroit (1977-1980). Rich then succeeded Jim in 1980. Rossman followed Robinson to Washington and served as Jim’s chief of staff in the Criminal Division, 1998-1999.
The Legal News points out that Rossman will be attending his 50th law school reunion this weekend at The University of Michigan Law School and will be among the 50 year honorees at the Michigan State Bar Association the following weekend in Grand Rapids. In a year of 50s, Rich and Patty will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in January.
Each year, NAFUSA recognizes an Assistant U.S. Attorney for outstanding performance through the J. Michael Bradford Memorial Award. The award is named after J. Michael Bradford, who served as a U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Texas from 1994 to 2001. Bradford, who died in 2003, had a distinguished career in public service, including successfully defending the government against lawsuits stemming from the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian’s compound in Waco, Texas. NAFUSA annually solicits nominations from current U.S. Attorneys for the Bradford Award. Typically, the recipient has handled a significant investigation and prosecution or series of prosecutions that has had a significant impact and merits special recognition.
Once again, a number of exceptional nominations were made by U.S. Attorneys around the country. The Michael Bradford Award Committee was chaired by NAFUSA Vice President Greg Vega. Its members included Ed Dowd, Catherine Hanaway, Don Washington, Bart Daniel, Bob Cleary and Rich Rossman. This year, the Board voted to give the award to John Gay, Joseph Minish and Steven Sanders, from the District of New Jersey, nominated by United States Attorney Paul Fishman for their outstanding work in the case United States v. Paul Bergrin.
For nearly a decade, Paul Bergrin, a former assistant Essex County Prosecutor and former AUSA for the District of New Jersey, used his law practice to operate a criminal enterprise brokering narcotics deals, distributing drugs, operating a brothel owned by a client, tampering with witnesses, and conspiring to murder witnesses testifying against his clients. In 2009, after a five-year investigation, the grand jury returned an indictment charging Bergrin with using his law practice as an association-in-fact enterprise to commit racketeering acts, including murdering and conspiring to murder witnesses. The case was vigorously litigated with the Judge dismissing the RICO count stating that it failed to plead a viable offense. That ruling was appealed to the Third Circuit which reversed the dismissal and remanded the case for trial. The Judge remained hostile to the Government’s case and severed two substantive counts relating to a murder, and ordered the Government to try the severed counts first. Among other obstacles, the Judge excluded certain evidence, resulting in the jury’s inability to reach a verdict resulting in a mistrial. Upon retrial, the Judge made more evidentiary rulings against the Government and severed remaining counts prior to retrial of the murder counts. The Government again appealed the Judge’s evidentiary rulings and also sought permission to have the case assigned to a new Judge. The Third Circuit held that the Judge had erroneously excluded certain Rule 404(b) evidence and concluded a reasonable observer could question the judge’s impartiality. The Circuit ordered the case be reassigned and directed the new judge to reconsider whether any severance was necessary. The new judge ordered all counts be tried together. At trial, the Government presented evidence that Bergrin was involved in subornation of perjury; involved with a 2004 murder; attempted to hire a hit-man to murder witnesses; and 54 kilograms of cocaine seized from a restaurant he jointly owned with his girlfriend. The Government called 42 witnesses (some in protective custody) and introduced over 1,000 exhibits.
Bergin represented himself at trial, but was also assisted by a prominent defense team that filed daily motions that required briefing and argument by the prosecution team. The trial team exhibited hard work, cogent legal arguments, skillful presentation of evidence and persuasive advocacy. After three days of deliberation, the jury returned guilty verdicts on all 23 counts and found the Government to have proved every RICO predicate act alleged in the indictment. The Court imposed concurrent life sentences on Bergrin. Despite facing numerous obstacles, the team remained focused in the finest tradition and represented the Government in the finest tradition.
The other nominees were:
Christopher Bodnar and Sean Costello, nominated by United States Attorney Kenyen Ray Brown, SD of Alabama, for their work on Operation Measured Bold, a massive multi-agency international terrorism case.
Bridget M. Brennan, nominated by United States Attorney Steven M. Dettelbach, ND of Ohio, for her in prosecution of of the hate crimes case involving religiously-motivated assaults against the Amish, prosecution of one of the largest credit union cases and prosecution of a religiously motivated arson case involving the Islamic Center for Greater Toledo.
Jay R. Combs, nominated by United States Attorney John Malcolm Bales, ED of Texas, for his work in prosecuting and investigating a significant drug trafficking organization.
Bonnie Jonas, nominated by United States Attorney Preet Bharara, SD of New York, for her work in significant high impact white collar cases, including Aurora Foods, WorldCom, Royal Ahold, Olympus, Deutsche Bank and Toyota.
Melanie K. Pierson, nominated by United States Attorney Laura E. Duffy, SD of California, for her work in protecting the environment from various threats.
Christopher D. Poole, nominated by United States Attorney William C. Killian, ED of Tennessee, for his work in leading an investigation targeting gang members in Chattanooga in Operation Shutdown.
Stephen M. “Mark” McIntyre, nominated by United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson, SD of Texas, for his successful prosecution of Weatherford International Limited for violation of export control laws.
Steven Myhre and Jim Keller, nominated by United States Attorney Daniel G. Bogden, Nevada, for their work in prosecuting Young and Willard for complex securities fraud in the futures market (FOREX).
Matthew D.Segal, nominated by United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner, ED of California, for prosecution of complex and significant white collar cases, including the CEO of a major food processor.
On September 2, 2014, Baker Donelson announced the addition of NAFUSA member Joe D. Whitley and Jason R. Edgecombe to the Firm’s Government Regulatory Actions Group.
Whitley joins Baker Donelson as chair of the Firm’s White Collar Practice and a shareholder in Baker Donelson’s Atlanta and Washington offices, where he represents clients nationally and internationally in white collar criminal matters and regulatory enforcement, corporate internal investigations, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and U.S. export controls and compliance. He also advises on corporate compliance, health care fraud and FDA-related matters. Whitley has had a wide-ranging career in the Department of Justice, having served as the Acting Associate Attorney General during the George H.W. Bush administration, and being appointed by Presidents Reagan and Bush, respectively, to serve as the United States Attorney in the Middle and Northern Districts of Georgia. In 2003, he was appointed by George W. Bush as the first General Counsel of the United States Department of Homeland Security and served in that position for two years before returning to private practice.
A frequent speaker and lecturer on white collar, compliance and corporate governance issues, Whitley has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America since 2001 in the area of Administrative/Regulatory Law and in Chambers USA since 2014 in the area of White-Collar Crime and Government Investigations. He has also been listed in Georgia Super Lawyers since 2010 and in Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers since 2012. Whitley is an active member of the American Bar Association and currently chairs the ABA’s Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Section, and is a member of the Criminal Justice Section.
“Mr. Whitley and Mr. Edgecombe are respected practitioners in the area of white collar criminal matters and government investigations,” said Gary C. Shockley, leader of Baker Donelson’s Government Regulatory Actions Group. “Joe’s extensive legal practice and background in public service and Jason’s experience with internal investigations make them excellent additions to our team. I am pleased Joe will be our new leader as chair of the Firm’s White Collar Group.”
Whitley called his move to Baker Donelson a great opportunity. “Baker Donelson has a wonderful Southern footprint,” he said. The firm, based in Memphis, has 700 lawyers, mostly in the Southeast, Texas and Florida. Whitley said the firm’s institutional clients, particularly in health care, were a draw. “The firm has a large presence in Nashville, the epicenter of health care in the United States, which was an important factor in my decision,” Whitley said.
Julie Myers Wood at the Atlanta conference in 2012
Julie Myers Wood, C.E.O of NAFUSA sponsor Guidepost Solutions, is featured in today’s New York Times column in the Sunday Business Section, Corner Office by Adam Bryant: Eat Your Sushi, and Expand Your Horizons. Wood served as the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for nearly three years in the Bush administration and previously as the assistant secretary for Export Enforcement at the Department of Commerce, chief of staff for the Criminal Division at the Department of Justice, and deputy assistant secretary at the Treasury Department. She also served as an assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Wood was a participant on the panel on immigration at NAFUSA’s Atlanta conference in 2012 and is married to NAFUSA member John Frederick Wood, who served as the United States Attorney in the Western District of Missouri, 2007-2009. She will be attending the Boston conference in October.
The secret to NAFUSA’s member Robert Morgenthau’s long life may have been disclosed. The 95 year old former United States Attorney in the Kennedy Administration who served 34 years as the Manhattan district attorney, is the subject (or co-subject) of his wife’s new book, Timeless Love, Morgenthau, and Me, by Lucinda Franks. Sara Crichton Books/ Farra, Straus & Giroux. $28.
Franks and Morgenthau were married in the 70s, when Franks was a 26 year old former New York Times reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner. As Kati Marton put it in her book review, May Loves December in The New York Times, “The secret to a long and passionate union is to marry someone almost 30 years your senior.”
Tom Wales was a celebrated and very well-regarded Assistant United States Attorney in the Western District of Washington who was murdered on the evening of October 11, 2001 as he sat working at his computer in the basement of his residence in Seattle. A gunman standing in the yard fired into the basement window of Tom’s home office in what can only be characterized as an assassination. Tom was hit with multiple rounds, but managed to phone 911 before losing consciousness.
The killer was familiar with both Tom’s property and his work habits, and was careful to avoid setting off floodlights in the yard that were attached to motion detectors, leading investigators to conclude that it was a carefully planned execution. One investigator observed that, “This may be as close as you come to a perfect murder, . . . the only physical evidence left behind was the bullets and shell casings, and nothing else.” The only witnesses to the crime heard several shots and then saw a man walk quickly down the sidewalk in front of the Wales house, get into a parked car, and drive away. It is widely believed that the murder was in retaliation for Tom’s work as an Assistant United States Attorney and was perpetrated or arranged by the target of a criminal investigation. If so, Tom would be the first AUSA in the history of our country to be killed in the line of duty.
Most media reports indicate that the focus of the criminal investigation of Tom’s murder is on someone he had prosecuted for a white collar crime, an individual who was accused of falsifying aviation records submitted to the FAA. The Wales’ case has not been solved and the prosecutors believe that until someone comes forward and talks, the case will never be prosecuted.
Shortly after AUSA Wales’ murder, DOJ offered a reward of $1,000,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who committed this crime. The NAFUSA Foundation is leading a drive to raise another $1,000,000 to match the reward offered by the Department of Justice. The Foundation has been working closely with the head of the FBI task force, Special Agent Russell E. Fox, who says that should the Foundation be able to raise an additional $1 million for a reward, his efforts will be greatly enhanced.
The Foundation has set a goal of raising $1 Million in pledges by December 31, 2014. More than $360,000 has already been pledged by prominent firms, including Williams & Connolly ($100,000), DLA Piper ($100,000), Perkins Coie ($100,000), as well as NAFUSA ($25,000). Several NAFUSA board members have made individual pledges. These are just pledges. Payments will be made only if someone comes forward with information leading to the arrest and conviction of Tom’s murderer(s) and only after the DOJ determines that the person providing the information qualifies for payment of the reward funds put up by the United States government. And if this occurs, payments will be made through the NAFUSA Foundation, a 501(c)(3) entity.
We encourage your firm or company to make a pledge, or make an individual pledge. Foundation President Mike McKay (U.S. Attorney, WDWA, 1989-1993) is happy to answer any questions and provide pledge forms (mdm@mckay-chadwell.com). Special Agent Fox is also available to talk about how an increased reward fund would help his team’s efforts to find the person or persons behind AUSA Tom Wales’ murder.
As reported here on June 26, 2014, long time NAFUSA member Johnnie Mac Walters died on June 24. NAFUSA arranged for an American flag to be flown over the Department of Justice in Mac’s honor, and NAFUSA member Walt Wilkins (South Carolina 2008-2010), currently the Circuit Solicitor in Greenville, presented the flag to Mac’s four children at a memorial service in Greenville, South Carolina on July 19. Walt reports that the children were very grateful and sincerely appreciated the gift from NAFUSA. Letters to the family were also sent by NAFUSA members Bill Sessions and John Clark.
Clark shared his “refreshed recollections” contained in his letter. He recalled the assistance Walters gave to Sessions and Clark in ensuring that their requests for timely decisions on matters crucial to their 1972 grand jury investigation did not get bogged down in the bureaucracy. Clark’s reference to “George” refers to George Parr, the notorious South Texas political boss under investigation for income tax evasion. The reference to “my book” refers to Clark’s non-fiction book The Fall of the Duke of Duval (Eakin Press, 1995), chronicling the year-long grand jury investigation and the multiple prosecutions that grew out of it.
Clark writes:
After re-reading the Times piece and thinking further about the chronology of events, it’s my recollection that Scott Crampton succeeded Johnnie as Ass’t AG – Tax Division in 1971, when Johnnie became IRS Commissioner. We knew Johnnie, of course, as well as Scott. We knew at the outset of our investigation in the Spring of 1972 that we had a tight Statute of Limitations deadline for George’s 1966 tax year ; and when we needed an expedited decision on an immunity grant for Karl Stautz to help us meet that deadline, Scott (at DoJ), and Johnnie (at IRS) helped to accomplish getting the facts reviewed and the decision made promptly. When we needed assurance a little later in 1972 that the mandatory review by IRS Regional Counsel of the proposed indictment wouldn’t get bogged down in needless bureaucratic delays, Johnnie assured us that it wouldn’t, and it didn’t. Johnnie believed in us and in the validity of our investigation, and he was helpful to us in ensuring that key decisions were made after proper review and without unnecessary delay. As you may recall, we were concerned because Regional Counsel reviews and decisions had a reputation among US Attorneys’ offices as needlessly slow, as did immunity requests at DoJ. Our District Director, Bob Phinney, was also concerned about the potential delay we might encounter at Regional Counsel level. I.A. Filer told me that he thought George Stephen (the Chief of Intelligence in Phinney’s office) was the one who selected the team of agents that was assigned to our investigation. We had three Special Agents (I.A. Filer, Jerry Culver, and Charlie Volz) and crack Revenue Agent Ed Watts. As I wrote in my book, I never worked with a more professional or a more capable team of investigators.
John
At the time of the Parr investigation, Sessions was the United States Attorney for the WD of Texas (1971-1974) and Clark was the First Assistant. Sessions later became a United States District Judge for the WD of Texas and the Director of the FBI. Clark succeeded Sessions as U.S. Attorney (1975-1977) and is currently of counsel with the San Antonio law firm of Goode Casseb Jones Riklin Choate & Watson. He is also a past president of NAFUSA and one of the founders. Sessions is currently a partner at Holland & Knight in Washington.
Clark says, “Johnnie Mac Walters truly believed, as the oft-quoted maxim puts it, that ‘A public office is a public trust.’ I felt privileged to know him.”
In an interview published today in Corporate Crime Reporter, Davis Polk Partner Neil MacBride On the Shift of Prosecutorial Power from New York to DC, NAFUSA member Neil MacBride, who served as the United States Attorney for the ED of Virginia 2009-2013, talks about his perception that the center of the corporate crime universe is shifting from New York to Washington and northern Virginia.
In MacBride’s view, a paradigm shift occurred in the national security area with 9/11and the Patriot Act and other statutes began to tear down artificial walls and federal agencies began to share information. According to MacBride, the shift spilled over into the enforcement and regulatory space.
The result has been a consolidation of enforcement authority in Washington. You have this proliferation of regulatory and enforcement agencies that just didn’t exist a decade ago.
When I was U.S. Attorney, I created the Virginia Financial Securities Fraud Task Force. That brought together criminal law enforcement agencies like the FBI, the Postal Inspection Service, the IRS on the one side. And then we brought in civil regulators like the SEC, the CFTC, state securities commissions. We brought them together in a way that allowed them to share information with the goal of detecting and disrupting financial frauds when they were relatively small, before they ballooned into Madoff style billion dollar ponzi schemes.
We stole the playbook from the national security counterterrorism side and have now applied it in the financial fraud and regulatory space. Companies increasingly have a sense that the locus of power has shifted from New York to Washington and northern Virginia. The regulators and enforcers here are much more active and will soon, if they haven’t already, eclipse New York as being the center of the U.S. government’s efforts against financial fraud.
The interview also discusses the “rocket docket”in the Eastern District of Virginia- rules created to speed cases on both the civil and criminal side. MacBride also discusses his view that the pendulum is swinging back from deferred and non prosecution agreements toward more guilty pleas in corporate cases. He is also quoted on the “rocket docket” in the July 15th posting of Legal Bisnow (DC).
The NAFUSA annual conference will be held in Boston on October 9-12, 2014 at the Fairmont Copley Plaza. Member Registration remains open (members: click on red link below) although the Copley is sold out. There are rooms available at nearby hotels. Click here to view: NAFUSA Program Boston 2014. Click on “Conferences” (above) to view full bios of speakers.
President Don Stern and his planning committee promise an outstanding program. The conference will open with Thursday morning, October 9, golf at Belmont Country Club.
Thursday evening will feature a cocktail reception at the Copley, honoring NAFUSA’s member, Robert S. Mueller III, who completed 12 years last fall as the sixth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a position he took one week prior to the September 11 attacks and held under two presidents.
The Friday morning CLE program will feature two panels. Jeff Taylor, Raytheon Company, will moderate a panel on Corporate Monitors. The panel members are Leslie Caldwell, shown right, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division; Michael Bromwich, Goodwin Procter and the Apple monitor; Kevin O’Connor, United Technologies; and Eric Feldman, Affiliated Monitors.
The second panel will be on National Security, moderated by Ken Wainstein, with Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin, Professor Stephen Vladeck, left, American University Washington College of Law, and Charlie Savage, below right, of the New York Times. On Friday afternoon, a boat cruise and lunch is planned in the Boston Harbor. Friday evening will be reserved for class reunion dinners.
The Saturday morning CLE will feature the awarding of this year’s Bradford Award to the AUSAs of the Year: Joseph Minish, John Gay and Steve Sanders of the District of New Jersey.
The morning will include a Dialogue with EOUSA and the AGAC, moderated by President Don Stern and featuring Loretta Lynch, left, Chair of the AGAC and Monty Wilkinson, Director of EOUSA.
William Leone, of Norton Rose Fulbright, will moderate a panel on The Ethical Issues Arising in Internal Investigations with panel members Prof. Stephen Gillers of NYU, shown above, Mary Pat Brown, former head of OPR at DOJ, and Karen Hewitt of Jones Day.
The CLE program will close with a panel discussion dealing with the 50 year anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act, moderated by Doug Jones and featuring Gerald Stern, who was a young civil rights lawyer in the Justice Department during the Freedom Rides, John Stewart, former aide to Sen. Humphrey, Steven Pollack and Frank Mackaman, shown right, of the Dirksen Center.
On Saturday afternoon, there will be an optional tour of Fenway Park.
Commissioner Ed Davis
The conference will close on Saturday evening with a closing reception and dinner. The keynote speaker will be Edward F. Davis, former Boston Police Department Commissioner who will speak on “Lessons Learned from the Boston Marathon Bombing.” Davis has been in law enforcement for 35 years. He served as the 40th Police Commissioner of the City of Boston from December 2006 until October 2013. Commissioner Davis was Boston’s lead police official during the tragic Marathon bombing and testified before Congress about the bombing and lessons learned. Prior to that, Davis was the Superintendent of the Lowell Police Department, a position he held for 12 years and one he rose to after starting out as a patrol officer in 1978.
The conference will be held on Columbus Day weekend with several offices closed on Monday, October 13. The fall is a great time in the East and a fine time to plan some extra days to watch the leaves turn.
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