Litigation support for financial fraud cases will include many services, including electronic discovery, forensics, document processing, database creation and maintenance, and pretrial and trial support. The program already supports a major case involving investigation of potential wrongdoing by the credit rating agencies. This support includes the provision of clerical, paralegal, and skilled law clerks who perform highly technical data analysis, document review of over 15 million pages, maintenance of web-based databases, and use of a content analysis tool for more efficient document review. Potential recoveries are very substantial. Conclusion Additional Resources Leads to More Investigations, More Recoveries to – Treasury The Civil increasing financial fraud caseload will place a significant strain upon Division’s existing personnel resources. The Fraud Section and the Consumer Protection Branch request $7,000,000 to hire the 51 people (26 FTE) and to provide essential support services and recover millions of dollars and hold fraudsters accountable. The positions are projected to cost $5,171,000 and include the following: Needed to initiate new financial fraud investigations, and to staff cases 38 Attorneys: that are already under investigation; 2 Paralegals Necessary for filing, document management, and legal research; – 9 Investigators/Auditors Required to interview witnesses and analyze the tremendous – volume of documents involved in financial fraud matters; 1 Financial Analyst Provide expert advice in reviewing corporate and financial – structures of entities under investigation and determining the assets of individuals facing False Claims Act liability; 1 Clerical Support Professional Help organize a high volume of sensitive documents – and facilitate office communication. The Civil Division is also seeking $1,829,000 for litigation support services needed to retrieve evidentiary material which will serve as the backbone of the cases we bring. In FY 2011, with limited resources, the Fraud financial fraud efforts returned more Section’s than to the U.S. treasury. During that same period, the Consumer Protection $350 million financial fraud criminal prosecutions led to felony charges against 18 individuals and Branch’s 19 felony convictions. The courts ordered defendants to serve a total of 979 months in federal prison, and to pay over in restitution. $22 million Bottom Line: If the Division receives more resources, it will open more financial fraud investigations, try more cases, and continue to enforce the law. The record shows that when the Division receives additional fraud resources, the U.S. treasury receives hundreds of millions, recently billions, of dollars in return.
Litigation support for financial fraud cases will include many services, including electronic discovery, forensics, document processing, database creation and maintenance, and pretrial and trial support. The program already supports a major case involving investigation of potential wrongdoing by the credit rating agencies. This support includes the provision of clerical, paralegal, and skilled law clerks who perform highly technical data analysis, document review of over 15 million pages, maintenance of web-based databases, and use of a content analysis tool for more efficient document review. Potential recoveries are very substantial. Conclusion – Additional Resources Leads to More Investigations, More Recoveries to Treasury The Civil Division’s increasing financial fraud caseload will place a significant strain upon existing personnel resources. The Fraud Section and the Consumer Protection Branch request $7,000,000 to hire the 51 people (26 FTE) and to provide essential support services and recover millions of dollars and hold fraudsters accountable. The positions are projected to cost $5,171,000 and include the following: 38 Attorneys: Needed to initiate new financial fraud investigations, and to staff cases that are already under investigation; 2 Paralegals – Necessary for filing, document management, and legal research; 9 Investigators/Auditors – Required to interview witnesses and analyze the tremendous volume of documents involved in financial fraud matters; 1 Financial Analyst – Provide expert advice in reviewing corporate and financial structures of entities under investigation and determining the assets of individuals facing False Claims Act liability; 1 Clerical Support Professional – Help organize a high volume of sensitive documents and facilitate office communication. The Civil Division is also seeking $1,829,000 for litigation support services needed to retrieve evidentiary material which will serve as the backbone of the cases we bring. In FY 2011, with limited resources, the Fraud Section’s financial fraud efforts returned more than $350 million to the U.S. treasury. During that same period, the Consumer Protection Branch’s financial fraud criminal prosecutions led to felony charges against 18 individuals and 19 felony convictions. The courts ordered defendants to serve a total of 979 months in federal prison, and to pay over $22 million in restitution. Bottom Line: If the Division receives more resources, it will open more financial fraud investigations, try more cases, and continue to enforce the law. The record shows that when the Division receives additional fraud resources, the U.S. treasury receives hundreds of millions, recently billions, of dollars in return.