Assistant
Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Press Conference
with
the Deputy Attorney General
Department of Justice Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Thank
you [Chris]. Good morning everyone. We are here today
as a result of the efforts of our Enron task force
and the partnership between that task force, DOJ prosecutors,
and investigators from the IRS and SEC.
As these
latest indictments allege, three former employees
of Merrill Lynch engaged in deliberate fraud with
Enron executives to conceal that company's poor performance,
and to enhance their personal prestige and wealth.
One engaged in Obstruction of the Enron Grand Jury
Investigation by giving false and misleading testimony
to impede the investigation.
On behalf
of Director Mueller, I would like to thank members
of the Enron task force for their outstanding work.
Special Agents and professional support employees,
located in Houston, San Francisco, and Washington,
D.C., worked shoulder-to-shoulder with our federal
partners to review almost four million pages of records,
tens of thousands of e-mails, and files from hundreds
of computers. They conducted hundreds of interviews.
While they did not always get full cooperation, they
persevered to uncover a vast web of improper financial
transactions.
The Enron
Task Force was formed on January 14, 2002 as a collaborative
effort to investigate criminal allegations arising
from Enron's collapse. Beginning with the indictment,
trial, and conviction of Arthur Andersen in the spring
of 2002, the Task Force has charged 24 individuals.
The Task Force has also restrained or seized more
than $67 million and assisted the Securities and Exchange
Commission in a civil settlement of $80 million. That
brings the total recovery to more than $147 million.
And the investigation is continuing.
Despite
its scope, the Enron investigation is only part of
the FBI's comprehensive investigative plan to fight
corporate fraud. As part of our overall strategy,
we have assigned agent and support personnel with
accounting, CPA, and securities fraud backgrounds
to corporate fraud investigations where needed.
We created
and advertised a toll-free Corporate Fraud Telephone
Hotline to receive calls from the public about Corporate
Fraud. Since February of this year, over 1300 calls
have been received. As a direct result, numerous cases
have been initiated from private citizens who contacted
the hotline. The telephone number for the Corporate
Fraud Hotline is 888-622-0117.
And of
course, our partnerships with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, the Internal Revenue Service, and others
extend well beyond the Enron investigation. We continue
to pool investigative resources and share expertise
on a wide variety of corporate fraud matters.
And I am
pleased to report that these measures are paying off.
Including the Enron investigation, to date, 162 individuals
have been charged with violations related to the Justice
Department's definition of Corporate Fraud. There
have been 72 convictions, and numerous cases are pending
trial.
At the
present time, there are 126 active Corporate Fraud
investigations being conducted by the FBI. At least
15 of these cases involve losses to public investors
which exceed $1 billion.
As the
President and Attorney General have stated, the recent
pattern of corporate fraud represents a significant
threat to America's well-being. The FBI will continue
to tackle the threat
head on.
Thank you.
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