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Indictments, Assets Bring 'Banner Year' For Area Prosecutors

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By RAY REYES | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 2, 2008

TAMPA - The number of indictments in civil cases has increased since 2007, along with the amount of money seized in fraud cases, the U.S. attorney's office said Thursday.

"It's been a banner year," interim U.S. Attorney Robert E. O'Neill said. "We've had more indictments than we've ever had before."

The U.S. attorney's office handed down 494 indictments in Tampa in 2008, up from 456 last year. For the entire Middle District of Florida, federal prosecutors issued 1,375 indictments, up from 1,148.

The federal agency seized $16.5 million in assets, a $2 million increase from 2007. The U.S. attorney's office's financial litigation unit collected more than $9.8 million. Of that number, more than $3 million was connected to health care fraud, according to a preliminary report released Thursday.

Also, $11.3 million was recovered by the office's affirmative civil enforcement unit, a department that focuses on fraud that affects federal programs and the health care industry. This year, the department recovered $7.4 million from a pharmaceutical company for the improper sale of prescription drugs to Internet pharmacies and $3 million in cash from a roofing contractor that performed shoddy work at the officer's club at Patrick Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral.

The total amount of money seized — more than $36 million — exceeds the office's budget of $20 million, O'Neill said.

"When you bring in double of what you expend, the taxpayers are being served," O'Neill said.

He pointed out three factors that led to the upswing in indictments and money seized: a good relationship with local law enforcement agencies, the hiring of 25 new prosecutors over the past year, and the more tenured prosecutors "taking stock of what they have" and realizing they have a good job and have a chance in making a difference.

The youth and energy of the new hires appears to have rubbed off on the elder prosecutors, O'Neill said.

"When you have an influx of new people, the energy level goes up," he said.

The U.S. attorney's office expects to release a more detailed report in about a month, spokesman Steve Cole said.

Reporter Ray Reyes can be reached at (813) 259-7920 or rreyes@tampatrib.com.

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