U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen has big plans for the federal prosecutors' office here in Washington, telling criminal defense lawyers that his team is sure to keep them busy.
Machen spoke briefly last night at the American Bar Association, announcing his priorities to a room full of defense attorneys, prosecutors and recent law school graduates. The ABA's Criminal Justice Section hosted the event.
“The more indictments, the more business you get,” Machen said to laughter. Machen, a former partner in the Washington office of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, was confirmed in February as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, replacing Jeffrey Taylor, who joined Ernst & Young. Machen was an assistant U.S. attorney in the office between 1997 and 2001. Said Machen: “Public corruption is our bread and butter.”
Machen said he wants the office to be “very aggressive” in health care fraud prosecution, and he said he wants to pick up securities fraud cases. “We may not be the Southern District of New York overnight, but the SEC is located here and all the filings are here,” he said. “There’s a way to get venue here in most of these cases.”
Machen ticked off other areas he wants to focus on, including mortgage fraud and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act cases. In one of the most high profile FCPA cases in the country, an assistant U.S. attorney in Washington, Matthew Solomon, is working with the Justice Department’s Fraud Section in the prosecution of 22 individuals in the arms business who are charged in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
“I think the sky’s the limit, frankly,” Machen said. “So it’s good news and bad news for you guys. The bad news is, when you come to see me, I know the playbook because I was reading from it the past eight years. But the good news is, hopefully, we will keep you guys busy.”
Steve Durham, chief of the Fraud and Public Corruption Section at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said yesterday that he’s hopeful the office will bring on additional prosecutors and investigators to tackle health care fraud. The Justice Department had made the prosecution of fraud in the health care arena a priority. “No one has their feet up on their desk at four o’clock in the afternoon in this business,” Durham said.
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