Columbus Assistant U.S. Attorney Receives Distinguished Service Award From U.S. Department of Justice

COLUMBUS—Attorney General Eric Holder today presented Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Squires of Columbus with a Distinguished Service Award during the Justice Department’s Criminal Division’s Annual Award Ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Attorney General Holder and Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, presented Squires with the award in recognition of the successful prosecution of ten executives of National Century Financial Enterprises (NCFE) for a multi-billion dollar securities fraud scheme.

“This recognition salutes the cooperative effort between law enforcement agents and prosecutors over the course of four trials,” Stewart said. “This case started with agents sorting and analyzing a warehouse full of documents and conducting dozens of interviews.”

Stewart commended all members of the trial teams, especially FBI Special Agents Matthew Daly, Tad Morris, Ingrid Schmidt, Jeffrey Williams and David Britton; IRS Special Agents Mark Bailey and former Special Agent Greg Ruwe; ICE Special Agent Celeste Koszut; and U.S. Postal Inspector David Mooney. Stewart also recognized the other members of the U.S. Attorney’s Office who played critical roles in the investigation and prosecution including Legal Assistant Kinya Knight, and Victim/Witness Coordinator Barbara Vanarsdall.

Ten executives of National Century Financial Enterprises (NCFE) were convicted or pleaded guilty in connection with one of the largest frauds in U.S. History. Lance K. Poulsen, former president, owner and chief executive officer of NCFE was sentenced in March 2009 to 30 years prison by U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley. A jury convicted Poulsen on October 31, 2008 on charges of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering. A separate jury convicted Poulsen of witness tampering on March 26, 2008, for his efforts to influence the testimony of a key witness in the then scheduled NCFE fraud trial. Rebecca S. Parrett, NCFE Vice Chairman and owner, was sentenced to 25 years prison. A jury convicted her and four others in March, 2008, following a two-month trial, of conspiracy, six counts of securities fraud, one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering conspiracy. Parrett fled after the conviction and remains at large.

NCFE, which was based in Dublin, Ohio, was one of the largest healthcare finance companies in the United States until it filed for bankruptcy in November 2002. At the trials, witnesses testified that executives engaged in a scheme from 1995 until the collapse of the company to deceive investors and rating agencies about the financial health of NCFE and how investors’ money would be used. Victims of the scheme included institutional investors, pension funds, insurance companies, churches and municipalities.

Other Distinguished Service Award recipients on the NCFE trial team include: Kathleen McGovern, Assistant Chief Criminal Division; N.Nathan Dimock, DOJ Trial Attorney; Wes R. Porter and Leo Wise, former DOJ Trial Attorneys; Sarah Marberg, former DOJ Paralegal Specialist; and Kondi J. Kleinman, DOJ Trial Attorney.