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ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL BREUER RECOGNIZES CRIMINAL DIVISION EMPLOYEES AND OTHERS AT ANNUAL CRIMINAL DIVISION AWARDS CEREMONY

WASHINGTON – Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Lanny A. Breuer today recognized current and former Criminal Division employees and others for their outstanding achievements in public service at the Annual Criminal Division Awards Ceremony.

“The dedicated public servants honored today have each made significant contributions to their country and sacrificed much in pursuit of the department’s mission,” said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. “Their unwavering commitment to the department has made our country safer and more just, and I am proud of what they have accomplished on behalf of the American people.”

Assistant Attorney General Breuer presented the Henry E. Petersen Memorial Award to Deputy Chief of the Appellate Section Kathleen A. Felton. The Petersen Award is the highest award given by the Criminal Division. It recognizes exceptional service by an individual who has made a lasting contribution to the division. The award honors the memory of Henry Petersen, Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division during the Watergate era and a former chief of the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section in the 1960s.

Ms. Felton joined the Department in 1977, and with the exception of a short detail as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia and a detail to the Office of International Affairs, she has devoted her decades of service to the Appellate Section. She has drafted countless Supreme Court and court of appeals briefs and argued appeals in every regional circuit, including four cases before courts of appeals sitting en banc. For over 30 years, Ms. Felton has represented the department before the courts, on rules committees and working groups and when foreign dignitaries visit. She has successfully litigated criminal cases in the courts of appeals throughout her career and has helped shape the government’s position before the Supreme Court in dozens of cases.

Assistant Attorney General Breuer presented the John C. Keeney Award for Exceptional Integrity and Professionalism to Jonathan J. Wroblewski, Director of the Office of Policy and Legislation. John C. Keeney served in the Department of Justice for nearly 60 years, under 12 U.S. presidents and 23 attorneys general, retiring in September 2010 as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division. The John C. Keeney Award recognizes an employee who has demonstrated outstanding professionalism and integrity over a sustained period of time or an employee who has displayed extraordinary strength of character in a unique situation, as Mr. Keeney displayed during his years of service to the federal government.

Mr. Wroblewski was selected to lead the Criminal Division’s Office of Policy and Legislation in June 2007. Since July 2008, he has also served as the Justice Department’s ex officio member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Mr. Wroblewski’s career in federal public service spans over two decades. In 1988, he joined the Department’s Civil Rights Division. In 1994, he joined the U.S. Sentencing Commission, serving as deputy general counsel and then director of legislative affairs. In 1998, he rejoined the department in the Criminal Division’s Office of Policy and Legislation and has served in the division ever since.

The Mark M. Richard Memorial Award was presented to Betty-Ellen Shave, Assistant Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section. The award was created in memory of Mark M. Richard, who served the Criminal Division from 1967 to 2007, and is given to a Criminal Division employee in recognition of extraordinary vision and leadership in fighting international crime. Mr. Richard saw the crucial importance of making law enforcement a central part of our foreign policy.

Ms. Shave received this award in recognition of her more than 30 years of service to the Criminal Division fighting transnational crime with the Office of Special Investigations and the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section. Her work has included bringing perpetrators of Nazi atrocities to justice, leading the negotiation of the first International Convention on and providing direct assistance to fast-moving transnational cybercrime cases.

Assistant Attorney General Breuer also presented the Assistant Attorney General’s Awards to multiple recipients in recognition of individual and group performance in fulfilling the Criminal Division’s mission, priorities and management goals.

The Assistant Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service was presented to Matthew R. Stiglitz, Marlon Cobar, Arianne Tice and Barry Rhodes of the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section and Jeffrey J. Higgins, Phillip D. Kearney, Nicholas Macri, Gregory Brittain, Frank Thompson, G. Tucker Cowles, Dick Mah, Brandon Ito, Lance R. Lehenhoff, Sean Montgomery, David Keiken, Trovena Rock, William Barlow and Robert Thompson of the Drug Enforcement Administration for their extraordinary efforts in the successful investigation and prosecution of narco-terrorist Haji Bagcho. Bagcho is an Afghan national who was convicted of conspiring to distribute heroin into the and providing material support to the Taliban.

The second Exceptional Service award was presented to the group responsible for securing the extradition from the United Kingdom of five terrorists who now face charges in the United States in connection with, among other things, the 1998 East African Embassy bombings and the taking of 16 hostages in Yemen in 1998. The awardees were Lystra G. Blake and Berit Fitzsimmons of the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs; Chris Synsvoll of the Bureau of Prisons, Colorado; Susan Prose and Juan G. Villasenor of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado; Stephen B. Reynolds and William Nardini of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut; and John P. Cronan, Edward Kim, Michael Farbiarz and Sean Buckley of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

The final Exceptional Service award was presented to the group responsible for the successful prosecution of Robert and his co-conspirators: William J. Stellmach, Jeff Goldberg and Andrew H. Warren of the Criminal Division’s Section; Kondi J. Kleinman of the Criminal Division’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section; Gregg Costa, Debra Gregory, Jason Varnado and Kristine E. Rollinson of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of ; Vanessa Walther, Robert W. Martin and Chad Nunez of the FBI; Clayton Gerber of the U.S. Postal Service; Kalford Young of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS); and Christine Robbins of the Department of Labor. Meredith Whitfield, a contract paralegal with the Fraud Section, was recognized with a Certificate of Appreciation for her work on this matter.

Stanford, the former board of directors chairman of Stanford International Bank, and his co-conspirators orchestrated a 20-year, multi-billion dollar – one of the largest Ponzi schemes in American history. In March 2012, following a six-week jury trial, Stanford was convicted and subsequently sentenced to 110 years in prison and required to forfeit $330 million to the United States. Two senior Stanford executives pleaded guilty for their roles in the fraud: Stanford’s former Chief Financial Officer James Davis, who testified against Stanford at trial and who is cooperating with the government; and Stanford’s former Chief Investment Officer Laura Holt, who recently entered a guilty plea. In November 2012, following a five- week trial, a jury convicted Gilbert Lopez, the former chief accounting officer of Stanford Financial Group and Mark Kuhrt, the former global controller of Stanford Financial Group Global Management, on conspiracy and wire fraud charges relating to their involvement in the investment fraud scheme.

The Assistant Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service was presented to James M. Koukios, Nicola J. Mrazek and Daniel S. Kahn of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section; Aurora Fagan of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida; Kevin Gerrity of the Criminal Division’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section; and Stephan M. Robinson, Jason Smith, Sergio Ramil Jr., Leandro Briones and Charles Hyacinthe of the IRS, for their roles in the “Haiti Teleco case,” which consisted of two related Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) prosecutions following an extraordinarily sensitive and challenging six- year investigation into massive corruption in Haiti. Eight individuals were convicted, and the case produced the longest ever sentence in an FCPA case (15 years in prison) and the first ever conviction at trial of a foreign official for laundering the proceeds of an FCPA violation.

The Award for Distinguished Service was also presented to Evan C. Williams and Thomas Song of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section; Mark L. Krotoski of the Antitrust Division; Cynthia J. Ridgeway of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana; and Jeffrey Paulsen of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota. This team was recognized for its exemplary skill in the successful landmark prosecution of Kexue Huang, a Chinese national, for misappropriating and transporting trade secrets from his former employer, Dow AgroSciences LLC, with the intent to benefit components of the People’s Republic of China. Huang’s actions caused Dow aggregate losses approaching $20 million. Huang pleaded guilty to one count of economic espionage and was sentenced to 87 months in prison.

Another Award for Distinguished Service was presented to Mark Eckenwiler of the Criminal Division’s Office of Enforcement Operations; Kathleen A. Felton, Nina Goodman, Vijay Shanker, Robert A. Parker, Kirby Ann Heller, Deborah Watson, Daniel Goodman and Kevin R. Gingras of the Criminal Division’s Appellate Section; and Josh Goldfoot, Jenny Ellickson, Nathan Judish, Scott Eltringham and Nathaniel Gleicher of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section for their exceptional work in issuing guidance to agents and prosecutors around the country relating to United States v. Jones, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the installation of a tracking device on a vehicle and the use of that device to monitor the vehicle’s movements constitute a search under the Fourth Amendment. Following the adverse Jones decision, when prosecutors, agents, division components and other agencies had immediate, pressing questions, the team provided swift assistance by responding to urgent telephone inquiries, circulating updates on the cases interpreting Jones and providing training on the effect of the decision. The team then produced comprehensive written guidance to the department and to the field interpreting the Jones ruling and assessing its impact on past, ongoing and future investigations.

Johnathan Bridbord of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section received the Distinguished Service Award for designing and creating the Victim Impact Statement Application (VISA). Launched on Sept. 28, 2011, VISA is an automated, online system that has vastly improved the distribution of victim impact statements from victims of the distribution, receipt and possession of child pornography, so that these victims’ rights are protected and they can be heard at sentencing. The system has vastly improved the efficiency with which victim impact statements are distributed to the field.

The Distinguished Service Award also was presented to Samuel Nazzaro of the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section and William J. Ferland of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island. Mr. Nazzaro and Mr. Ferland were recognized for their exceptional work in United States v. Anthony Dinunzio, a 10-defendant racketeering and extortion case that led to the dismantling of La Costa Nostra (LCN) in Rhode Island and the conviction of the two successive LCN bosses for all of New England. While the investigation initially focused on the LCN’s criminal acts in Rhode Island, it eventually reached into Boston, the headquarters of the LCN for all of New England. Through this comprehensive investigation, Mr. Nazzaro and Mr. Ferland developed an overwhelming case that ultimately convinced every single defendant to plead guilty to the top charges in the indictment.

Another Award for Distinguished Service was presented to the group responsible for the successful establishment of a national prison system in Iraq: Joseph T. Bartlett, Michael D. Pannek, Dana L. Dohm, Gary L. Barr, Timothy L. Shoop, James E. Slade and David A. Duncan of the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP). The team’s efforts over the last eight years resulted in a professional corrections capability in Iraq that adheres to international human rights standards and effectively supports the establishment of a functioning Iraqi criminal justice system based on the rule of law. The scope of this program was unprecedented in the annals of U.S. foreign law enforcement assistance, and the security situation in which this team had to operate was truly perilous.

Deborah Sorkin, Chief of the Policy & Statutory Enforcement Unit of the Criminal Division’s Office of Enforcement Operations, received the Award for Distinguished Service for her superior and outstanding performance in supporting the mission of the division, the department and the U.S. Attorney community by supervising the review of requests from department attorneys, assistant U.S. attorneys and law enforcement agents to use a number of sensitive tools in the investigation and prosecution of federal criminal offenses.

The Award for Distinguished Service was also presented to Kevin Driscoll, Richard B. Evans, Timothy J. Kelly, Edward J. Loya Jr., Eric G. Olshan, Katherine Albrecht and Peter C. Sprung of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section; Ann C. Brickley of the Professional Responsibility Advisory Office; James A. Crowell of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland; Andrew R. Cogar of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of West Virginia; Mark Pletcher of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California; and Ryan Danks and Emily W. Allen of the Antitrust Division. This group was recognized for its outstanding performance in a long-running investigation and prosecution of a substantial corruption scheme at the U.S. Army Base at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait. The investigation focused on bribes paid by various businessmen to officials in the U.S. Army’s contracting office at Camp Arifjan for lucrative support contracts in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The investigation resulted in the convictions by guilty plea or trial of 19 individuals, including a colonel, three lieutenant colonels, four majors and other public officials for bribery and money laundering offenses. The capstone of this extremely successful investigation was two successful jury trials.

Another Award for Distinguished Service was presented to the group responsible for the development and launch of an improved GS Performance Management Program for the Criminal Division: Lenora Stiles, Monet M. Gregory, Kimberly W. Jackson, Tiffani N. Williams, Ave M. Persaud-Wallace, Mona R. Iyer, Tracy Melton and Renee S. Caputo of the Office of Administration. Over the course of the last year, the Office of Administration undertook a comprehensive review, analysis, development and launch of an improved GS Performance Management Program for the Criminal Division. This team provided oversight, advice and guidance throughout the process and successfully carried out an extremely time-consuming and complex task in a very short period of time. The result is a performance management program that is customized and streamlined and allows for more meaningful evaluations.

The final Distinguished Service Award was presented to Julie B. Mosley, Jeffrey B. Kahan and Jacabed Rodriguez-Coss of the Criminal Division’s Capital Case Unit and Marcela Mateo of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Puerto Rico for their roles in the prosecution of narcotics trafficker Edison Burgos-Montes of Puerto Rico. Burgos-Montes killed Madelyn Semidey-Morales, a government informant and witness, and Burgos-Montes’s girlfriend to retaliate against her for providing information to law enforcement relating to Burgos-Montes’s unlawful narcotics trafficking and to prevent her from providing authorities with additional information. In August 2012, Burgos-Montes was convicted following a five- month trial in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The convictions included not only narcotics-related charges, but also charges of murdering a witness to prevent testimony in an official proceeding and murdering a witness in retaliation for providing information to law enforcement.

The Lois B. Bundy Exceptional Service Award for Administrative Support was presented to Deborah H. Duvall, Supervisory Administrative Management Specialist for the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section. This award recognizes a present or former non- attorney employee whose administrative support has made a lasting contribution to the Criminal Division by best exemplifying the commitment, dedication, interpersonal skills, sensitivity, keen judgment and enthusiasm that Ms. Bundy displayed during her distinguished 34 years of service in the Criminal Division. Ms. Duvall exercises administrative oversight over all aspects of the Organized Crime and Gang Section’s operations, including its national organized crime and gang program and its headquarters operations. She has served the division with distinction for 30 years.

Assistant Attorney General Breuer presented the Excellence in Management Award to Randy Toledo, Deputy Director of the Office of International Affairs, and Stacie Bass, the Director of the Office of Administration’s Finance Staff. The award recognizes individuals in the division who exhibit innovative thinking, business acumen and proven leadership in administration and management.

Ms. Toledo’s dedication, innovation and professionalism have enabled the Office of International Affairs to manage a workload now exceeding 8,000 cases, and to serve as an effective resource to the community of prosecutors and agents who face the challenge of combating transnational crime in a complex and ever-changing international environment. She was the architect of the Office of International Affairs website, which serves as a tremendous resource for Assistant U.S. Attorneys, who access the site more than 30,000 times a year. She also led the office’s effort to enact and then implement legislation to modernize how the department executes the nearly 3,000 foreign requests for evidence received by the Office of International Affairs each year.

Ms. Bass has guided the division to two consecutive solvent years despite severe funding constraints and was able to keep the operation of the division moving forward by digging deep into the budget to find savings. She has displayed leadership in creatively managing various sources of funding to provide resources necessary for the Criminal Division’s sections to investigate and litigate major cases.

Assistant Attorney General Breuer presented the Award for Outstanding Contributions by a New Employee to Scott A.C. Meisler of the Criminal Division’s Appellate Section. The award recognizes the outstanding contributions of a new employee with fewer than five years of service to the Criminal Division.

Mr. Meisler joined the Appellate Section in 2009, and the division regularly calls on him to handle some of its most demanding cases, often with an imminent deadline. This year, he won a groundbreaking Ninth Circuit en banc honest-services fraud decision. He also quickly filed model briefs, used by prosecutors across the country, addressing three difficult Supreme Court decisions.

Carole Jackson of the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section was also recognized with a Certification of Appreciation for her work during the past year in support of the department’s efforts to bring to justice participants in World War II-era Nazi crimes of persecution.

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