Thursday, April 5, 2012
SENTENCED FOR LIFE DRUG CARTEL LEADER ADMITS LINK TO OVER 1,500 MURDERS
FROM DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Juarez Drug Cartel Leader Pleads Guilty to Charges Related to U.S. Consulate Murders and Is Sentenced to Life in Prison Defendant Admits to Directing or Participating in More Than 1,500 Murders since 2008
WASHINGTON – The Juarez Drug Cartel’s leader in Juarez and Chihuahua, Mexico, pleaded guilty today in El Paso, Texas, and was sentenced to life in prison for his participation in drug-trafficking and numerous acts of violence in connection with the Barrio Azteca gang, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman for the Western District of Texas, FBI Special Agent in Charge Mark Morgan of the FBI’s El Paso Office and Administrator Michele M. Leonhart of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Jose Antonio Acosta-Hernandez, 34, aka “Diego,” “Dienton,” “Diez” and “Bablazo,” of Chihuahua, was extradited to the United States from Mexico on March 16, 2012. Today, he pleaded guilty to four counts of racketeering, narcotics trafficking and money laundering. Acosta-Hernandez also pleaded guilty to seven counts of murder and weapons charges, which specifically related to the March 13, 2010, triple homicide in Juarez of U.S. Consulate employee Leslie Enriquez, her husband Arthur Redelfs and Jorge Salcido Ceniceros, the husband of another U.S. Consulate employee. Immediately after the guilty plea hearing, Acosta-Hernandez was sentenced to seven concurrent life terms, three additional consecutive life terms and 20 years in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone of the Western District of Texas, El Paso Division.
Today’s action is the result of close coordination between U.S. law enforcement and the government of Mexico in the investigation and prosecution of this case. The cooperation and assistance of the government of Mexico was essential to achieving the successful extradition, plea and sentencing of Acosta-Hernandez.
“As the leader of La Linea’s enforcement wing, Mr. Acosta-Hernandez directed a reign of terror,” said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. “Today’s guilty plea and sentence are a significant step in our effort to bring to justice those responsible for the consulate murders, and it would not have been possible without the extraordinary assistance of our law enforcement partners in Mexico, including Attorney General Marisela Morales Ibáñez. We are determined to hold accountable those individuals who committed the consulate murders, and to dismantle the dangerous criminal enterprise that fueled these and many other tragic and senseless acts of violence. Gangs and other criminal organizations that threaten public safety on both sides of the border are on notice that we are working more closely than ever with our Mexican counterparts to shut them down.”
“This plea represents the culmination of a virtual textbook example of cooperation among law enforcement agencies, both in the United States and in Mexico, to hold accountable those at the highest level of the drug trafficking trade,” said U.S. Attorney Pitman. “We will continue to work together with our counterparts in Mexico to target those responsible for the heinous crimes associated with cartel activity.”
“This investigation exemplifies the FBI’s commitment and that of our federal, state, local and international partners to investigate and prosecute individuals and organized criminal organizations who commit violent acts and other crimes impacting the U.S. and our border area with the Republic of Mexico,” said Special Agent in Charge Morgan. “The joint effort included the participation of USM Service, CBP, DEA, HSI, DOS, Texas DPS, El Paso Police, El Paso County Sheriff’s office and our Mexican partners.”
“Acosta-Hernandez is a cold blooded murderer with no respect for human life or the rule of law,” said DEA Administrator Leonhart. “His violent and deadly actions were put to a stop due to the combined efforts of U.S. law enforcement, and the will of the Mexican government. Together, we will relentlessly continue our pressure on the Mexican cartels and gangs that carry out violence on both sides of the border.”
The third superseding indictment, returned on March 2, 2011, alleged that Acosta-Hernandez was an associate of the Barrio Azteca (BA), a violent street and prison gang that began in the late 1980s and expanded into a transnational criminal organization. According to information presented in court, the BA formed an alliance with “La Linea,” which is part of the Juarez Drug Cartel and is also known as the Vincente Carrillo Fuentes Drug Cartel or “VCF.” The purpose of the BA-La Linea alliance was to battle the Chapo Guzman Cartel and its allies for control of the drug trafficking routes through Juarez and Chihuahua. The drug routes through Juarez, known as the Juarez Plaza, are important to drug trafficking organizations because they are a principal illicit drug trafficking conduit into the United States.
Acosta-Hernandez admitted that in approximately 2008, he became the leader of La Linea’s armed enforcement wing and acted as the VCF’s plaza boss in Chihuahua and Juarez. In this role, Acosta-Hernandez, in coordination with the BA, led violent attacks against their common enemies. Acosta-Hernandez admitted that he directed or participated in more than 1,500 murders since 2008.
For example, Acosta-Hernandez admitted that on Jan. 30, 2010, he ordered hit-men in his organization to kill members of the opposition that were sighted at a daytime birthday party at a home in Juarez. As part of this incident, 16 individuals were killed and 10 individuals were wounded at three different residences in Juarez. On July 15, 2010, Acosta-Hernandez directed a car bombing in Juarez that ultimately killed four people.
Acosta-Hernandez admitted that his purpose for engaging in these violent attacks was, in part, to protect and enhance the La Linea-BA alliance’s importation of heroin, cocaine and marijuana into the Western District of Texas and elsewhere, and ultimately to make possible the distribution of those drugs in the United States. Acosta-Hernandez admitted that he knew that the La Linea-BA alliance earned millions of dollars in drug trafficking profits each year. He also knew that these profits were reinvested into the organization to purchase additional drugs to import into the United States and/or to purchase weapons, ammunition or supplies to continue fighting enemies of La Linea and the BA.
During the guilty plea hearing, Acosta-Hernandez also pleaded guilty to charges relating to the triple homicide of Enriquez, Redelfs and Salcido, based on his leadership position within La Linea and association with the BA. According to information presented in court, on March 13, 2010, Enriquez, her husband Redelfs, and Salcido, the Mexican national husband of a second U.S. Consulate employee, were shot and killed by other BA members in Juarez in separate but related incidents. According to information presented in court, on March 13, employees of the U.S. Consulate hosted a child’s birthday party in Juarez. Salcido was shot and killed in his vehicle as he left the party. His three children also were in the car and sustained minor injuries. His wife, a Mexican national employee at the U.S. Consulate, was following Salcido in a separate vehicle and was unharmed in the attack.
At approximately the same time, U.S. citizens Enriquez and Redelfs left the same party and were shot and killed in their vehicle. Enriquez was four months pregnant at the time of the shooting. Enriquez’s and Redelfs’ nine-month-old daughter also was in the vehicle but was unharmed.
During the hearing, Acosta-Hernandez acknowledged that Salcido, Enriquez and Redelfs were murdered by members and associates of the BA to further the gang’s racketeering activities. Acosta-Hernandez admitted that at the time, under his leadership as VCF’s plaza boss and coordinator of enforcement actions with the BA in Juarez, La Linea and the BA had agreed to unite and commit murders to further their criminal enterprise.
A total of 35 defendants were charged in the third superseding indictment and are alleged to have committed various criminal acts, including racketeering, narcotics distribution and importation, retaliation against persons providing information to U.S. law enforcement, extortion, money laundering, obstruction of justice and murder, including the 2010 Juarez consulate murders. Of the 35 defendants charged, 32 have been apprehended; 23 of those defendants have pleaded guilty, while seven others are pending extradition from Mexico. U.S. and Mexican law enforcement are actively seeking to apprehend the three remaining fugitives in this case, including Eduardo Ravelo, an FBI Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitive. Trial against Ramon Renteria, aka “Spooky,” is scheduled to begin in El Paso on May 18, 2012.
The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Joseph A. Cooley of the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section, Trial Attorney Brian Skaret of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney George Leal of the Western District of Texas - El Paso Division. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico provided significant assistance in this case, including by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Davenport. Valuable assistance was provided by the Criminal Division’s Offices of International Affairs and Enforcement Operations.
The case was investigated by the FBI’s El Paso Field Office, Albuquerque Field Office (Las Cruces Resident Agency), DEA Juarez and DEA El Paso. Special assistance was provided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Immigration and Customs Enforcement; the U.S. Marshals Service; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Federal Bureau of Prisons; U.S. Diplomatic Security Service; the Texas Department of Public Safety; the Texas Department of Criminal Justice; El Paso Police Department; El Paso County Sheriff’s Office; El Paso Independent School District Police Department; Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission; New Mexico State Police; Dona Ana County, N.M., Sheriff’s Office; Las Cruces, N.M., Police Department; Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility; and Otero County Prison Facility New Mexico.
FORMER OCEANS BANK EXECUTIVE SENTENCED FOR BRIBERY AND FALSE TAX RETURNS
FROM U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Former Executive of Miami-Based Ocean Bank Sentenced to Serve 37 Months in Prison for Participating in Bribery Scheme and Filing False Tax Returns
WASHINGTON – A former executive of Ocean Bank, a financial institution headquartered in Miami, was sentenced today for participating in a scheme to accept bribes and for failing to report income on federal income tax returns, the Department of Justice announced.
Danilo P. Perez, a former vice president of Ocean Bank, was sentenced today in the U.S. District Court in Miami by District Judge Donald L. Graham to serve 37 months in prison followed by one year of supervised release.
On Jan. 25, 2012, Perez pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to solicit or demand money and other things of value to influence an employee of a financial institution and three counts of tax offenses. The charges against Perez stemmed from his accepting nearly $500,000 in cash and other items from co-conspirators in connection with his supervision of certain customer business with the bank. As vice president, Perez generally oversaw Ocean Bank’s lending relationships with corporate customers of the bank.
Perez admitted to accepting bribes, including payments for expensive watches, Super Bowl tickets and other items for his personal use, as well as substantial amounts of cash. Perez accepted the payments intending to be rewarded and influenced in connection with his role in approving Ocean Bank’s issuance of letters of credit, loans and overdraft privileges to his co-conspirators. Perez also admitted that he failed to report income from those bribes for tax years 2005, 2006 and 2007, resulting in lost tax revenue of approximately $91,000 to the federal government.
PENTAGON WATCHES FOR NORTH KOREAN LONG-RANGE ROCKET LAUNCH
FROM AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE
Pentagon: U.S. Takes Prospect of North Korea Launch Seriously
By Cheryl Pellerin
WASHINGTON, April 5, 2012 - The Defense Department is closely monitoring the prospect of a long-range rocket launch this month by North Korea, a senior Pentagon official told reporters today.
"The North Koreans will be violating [United Nations] Security Council resolutions if they move ahead with such a launch," said George Little, acting assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, "and we call on them, as other countries have, not to launch the missile."
A spokesman for the Korean Committee for Space Technology announced March 16 that North Korea would launch a long-range Unha-3 rocket between April 12 and 16.
The rocket would carry a North Korean-made Kwangmyongsong-3 polar-orbiting observation satellite to mark the 100th birthday of the late President Kim Il Sung on April 15.
"This is very serious business when North Korea does something like this," Little said. "We're monitoring it closely. We understand the impact it could have on regional stability."
North Korea tried to launch satellites into space in 1998 and in 2009, but the launches' success has never been confirmed.
"We're working very closely with our Republic of Korea allies as well as our Japanese allies to monitor what's happening with respect to this missile launch," Little said. "We hope it doesn't happen. But if it does, we'll be ready to track it."
If launched, the satellite would travel southward from the Sohae satellite launch station in North Phyongan province's Cholsan County, North Korean officials said in the statement.
"A safe flight orbit has been chosen so that carrier rocket debris to be generated during the flight would not have any impact on neighboring countries," they added.
North Korean officials said they will "strictly abide by relevant international regulations and usage concerning the launch of scientific and technological satellites for peaceful purposes."
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said March 16 that U.N. Security Council Resolutions 1718 and 1874 "clearly and unequivocally prohibit North Korea from conducting launches that use ballistic-missile technology."
"Such a missile launch would pose a threat to regional security," she added, "and would also be inconsistent with North Korea's recent undertaking to refrain from long-range missile launches."
State Department officials are consulting closely with international partners on next steps, Nuland said.
At the Pentagon today, Little said the Defense Department is operating on the assumption that the launch could happen. The North Koreans have indicated that they intend to launch the satellite, he noted.
"They have done so in the past," Little said, "so if history is any guide to the future, we would be remiss if we didn't take those North Korean announcements for what they are."
In terms of U.S. allies in the region who could potentially be affected by the launch, Little said, "we have an unwavering commitment to the security of both Japan and the Republic of South Korea."
Such a launch is unacceptable to the United States and other nations, Little said.
"I believe we have what we need to track [the launch] and to also work closely with our allies in the region to respond," he added.
COUNTER=PIRACY IN HORN OF AFRICA
FROM U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Counter-Piracy Contact Group Confronts Maritime Crime in the Horn of Africa
Fact Sheet Office of the Spokesperson Washington, DC
April 5, 2012
The United States joined more than 60 nations and international organizations at the United Nations in New York on March 29, 2012, for a meeting of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia.
In a communiqué following the meeting, the Contact Group called for a renewed international commitment to countering piracy, both at sea and on land in Somalia, through robust and integrated military, law enforcement, and development activities. Among their recommendations, the Contact Group:
Recognized steps taken toward the development of counter-piracy messaging guidelines and continued efforts to develop effective strategic communications, including the use of social media;
Placed a priority on prosecutions and imprisonment as a deterrent to piracy;
Reiterated the importance of bringing suspected pirates to trial, including high-level suspects, and detaining those convicted, in Somalia as well as other nations in the region;
Called on the international community, including the global maritime industry, to make continued efforts to facilitate more effective prosecutions of pirates; and
Attributed the low success rate of attacks to many factors, including the application of best management practices by the shipping industry, the continuing naval presence, and the use of military vessel protection detachments and privately contracted armed security personnel.
GOVERNMENT AND MARATHON PETROLEUM CO. REACH AIR POLLUTION AGREEMENT
FROM U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
U.S. Announces Innovative Clean Air Agreement For Industrial Flares With Marathon Petroleum Company
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Justice today announced an innovative environmental agreement with Ohio-based Marathon Petroleum Company that already has significantly reduced air pollution from all six of the company’s petroleum refineries. In a first for the refining industry, Marathon has agreed to state-of-the-art controls on combustion devices known as flares and to a cap on the volume of waste gas it will send to its flares. When fully implemented, the agreement is expected to reduce harmful air pollution by approximately 5,400 tons per year and result in future cost savings for the company.
“Today’s agreement will result in cleaner air for communities across the South and Midwest,” said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “By working with EPA, Marathon helped advance new approaches that reduce air pollution and improve efficiency at its refineries and provide the U.S. with new knowledge to bring similar improvements in air quality to other communities across the nation.”
“This agreement is a great victory for the environment and will result in cleaner and healthier air for the benefit of communities across the country in Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio and Texas,” said Ignacia S. Moreno, assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice. “By spurring corporate ingenuity, this settlement will dramatically reduce emissions from all 22 flares at Marathon’s six refineries.”
The settlement is part of EPA’s national effort to reduce air pollution from refinery, petrochemical and chemical flares. A flare is a mechanical device, ordinarily elevated high off the ground, used to combust waste gases. The more waste gas a company sends to a flare, the more pollution occurs. The less efficient a flare is in burning waste gas, the more pollution occurs. EPA wants companies to flare less, and when they do flare, to fully combust the harmful chemicals found in the waste gas.
A consent decree filed today in the U.S. District Court in Detroit resolves Marathon’s alleged violations of the Clean Air Act. As part of the effort to reach this agreement, Marathon, under the direction and oversight of EPA, spent more than $2.4 million to develop and conduct pioneering combustion efficiency testing of flares and to advance the understanding of the relationship between flare operating parameters and flare combustion efficiency.
In addition, beginning in 2009, Marathon installed equipment, such as flow monitors and gas chromatographs, to improve the combustion efficiency of its flares. To date, Marathon has spent approximately $45 million on this equipment and projects, and plans to spend an additional $6.5 million. Marathon also will spend an as yet undetermined sum to comply with the flaring caps required in the consent decree.
At the same time, Marathon indicates that the equipment it already has installed is saving it approximately $5 million per year through reduced steam usage and product recovery. Marathon also projects additional savings through the operation of the equipment to be installed in the future.
From 2008 to the end of 2011, the controls Marathon installed eliminated approximately 4720 tons per year of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and 110 tons per year of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) from the air. An additional 530 tons per year of VOCs and 30 tons per year of HAPs are projected to be eliminated in the future.
Under the agreement, Marathon will also implement a project at its Detroit refinery to remove another 15 tons per year of VOCs and another one ton per year of benzene from the air. At an estimated cost of $2.2 million, Marathon will install controls on numerous sludge handling tanks and equipment.
Marathon’s six refineries are located in: Robinson, Ill.; Catlettsburg, Ky.; Garyville, La.; Detroit; Canton, Ohio; and Texas City, Texas. Together, the refineries have a capacity of more than 1.15 million barrels per day.
Marathon, headquartered in Findlay, Ohio, will pay a civil penalty of $460,000 to the United States.
U.S. Announces Innovative Clean Air Agreement For Industrial Flares With Marathon Petroleum Company
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Justice today announced an innovative environmental agreement with Ohio-based Marathon Petroleum Company that already has significantly reduced air pollution from all six of the company’s petroleum refineries. In a first for the refining industry, Marathon has agreed to state-of-the-art controls on combustion devices known as flares and to a cap on the volume of waste gas it will send to its flares. When fully implemented, the agreement is expected to reduce harmful air pollution by approximately 5,400 tons per year and result in future cost savings for the company.
“Today’s agreement will result in cleaner air for communities across the South and Midwest,” said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “By working with EPA, Marathon helped advance new approaches that reduce air pollution and improve efficiency at its refineries and provide the U.S. with new knowledge to bring similar improvements in air quality to other communities across the nation.”
“This agreement is a great victory for the environment and will result in cleaner and healthier air for the benefit of communities across the country in Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio and Texas,” said Ignacia S. Moreno, assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice. “By spurring corporate ingenuity, this settlement will dramatically reduce emissions from all 22 flares at Marathon’s six refineries.”
The settlement is part of EPA’s national effort to reduce air pollution from refinery, petrochemical and chemical flares. A flare is a mechanical device, ordinarily elevated high off the ground, used to combust waste gases. The more waste gas a company sends to a flare, the more pollution occurs. The less efficient a flare is in burning waste gas, the more pollution occurs. EPA wants companies to flare less, and when they do flare, to fully combust the harmful chemicals found in the waste gas.
A consent decree filed today in the U.S. District Court in Detroit resolves Marathon’s alleged violations of the Clean Air Act. As part of the effort to reach this agreement, Marathon, under the direction and oversight of EPA, spent more than $2.4 million to develop and conduct pioneering combustion efficiency testing of flares and to advance the understanding of the relationship between flare operating parameters and flare combustion efficiency.
In addition, beginning in 2009, Marathon installed equipment, such as flow monitors and gas chromatographs, to improve the combustion efficiency of its flares. To date, Marathon has spent approximately $45 million on this equipment and projects, and plans to spend an additional $6.5 million. Marathon also will spend an as yet undetermined sum to comply with the flaring caps required in the consent decree.
At the same time, Marathon indicates that the equipment it already has installed is saving it approximately $5 million per year through reduced steam usage and product recovery. Marathon also projects additional savings through the operation of the equipment to be installed in the future.
From 2008 to the end of 2011, the controls Marathon installed eliminated approximately 4720 tons per year of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and 110 tons per year of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) from the air. An additional 530 tons per year of VOCs and 30 tons per year of HAPs are projected to be eliminated in the future.
Under the agreement, Marathon will also implement a project at its Detroit refinery to remove another 15 tons per year of VOCs and another one ton per year of benzene from the air. At an estimated cost of $2.2 million, Marathon will install controls on numerous sludge handling tanks and equipment.
Marathon’s six refineries are located in: Robinson, Ill.; Catlettsburg, Ky.; Garyville, La.; Detroit; Canton, Ohio; and Texas City, Texas. Together, the refineries have a capacity of more than 1.15 million barrels per day.
Marathon, headquartered in Findlay, Ohio, will pay a civil penalty of $460,000 to the United States.
REMARKS TO U.N. BY U.S. AMBASSADOR SUSAN E. RICE
FROM U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks by Ambassador Susan E. Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, in Response to a Question Submitted on Twitter
Susan E. Rice
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
U.S. Mission to the United Nations New York, NYApril 3, 2012
AS DELIVERED
AMBASSADOR RICE: So the question that we received – Mark, would you read it again?
MODERATOR: One more time, this is from @freeppl. Why are you not acting swiftly towards the killing in Syria as you did in Libya?
AMBASSADOR RICE: And I take that as, in the first instance, directed at the Security Council.
And I think as is well known, and I will say for the benefit of the folks at @freeppl, that the Security Council has been shamefully and woefully divided on the issue of Syria. And unable to adopt resolutions that even would entail relatively modest action.
In the case of Libya, we had Resolution 1970, which imposed strong sanctions and made a referral of Qadhafi to the International Criminal Court. And then we had 1973, which was a result of the regional group, the Arab League, making a request to the Security Council for intervention, and the Council coming together to authorize protection of civilians in a no-fly zone.
Now the circumstances in Syria are quite different. And, indeed, the circumstances in various countries within the Arab world have evolved in a different way.
There’s no such request from the Arab League. There’s no such unity in the Security Council. And, indeed, the circumstances on the ground are quite a bit different and more complex, with an opposition that is struggling to unify, that doesn’t control a clear and geographically identified swath of territory, as was the case in the east in Libya.
And therefore, very regrettably, and much to the frustration of the United States and many others in the international community, the Security Council, the international community, has not been able to respond robustly and swiftly, as we have sought. And even to go to the step of implementing meaningful sanctions.
But we will keep at it.
ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER SPEAKS ABOUT HEALTH CARE FRAUD
FROM DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks at the Chicago Health Care Fraud Prevention Summit Chicago ~ Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Thank you, Dr. Budetti for those kind words – and for your outstanding leadership as Deputy Administrator for Program Integrity for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It’s a pleasure to be back in Chicago today – and a privilege to join with you and Pat Fitzgerald, the outstanding United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, as well as my good friend, Secretary Sebelius – in discussing the extraordinary progress we’ve made in preventing and combating health care fraud across this region – and in exploring strategies, and new technological tools, for taking our national efforts to a new level.
I’d particularly like to recognize each of the Administration leaders, law enforcement officials, investigators, prosecutors, industry representatives, and other critical partners who are with us today. In so many ways, the people in this room are at the heart of our efforts to protect the American people from health care fraud – not just in the Chicago area, but in communities throughout the country.
Although you’re approaching this problem from many different perspectives, you have seen the devastating impact of health care fraud firsthand. Many of you have called attention to the fact that modern schemes are as diverse as the imaginations of those who perpetrate them, and as sophisticated as technology will permit. And there’s no question that – here in Illinois and across the nation – the challenges before us have reached crisis proportions.
Fortunately – as a result of your engagement, your expertise, and your unwavering commitment – we’ve made remarkable, measurable strides in implementing the solutions that we need – and that American consumers, patients, and taxpayers deserve. We’re being innovative, proactive, and collaborative. And, as a result, the last three years have been characterized by significant – and, in many cases, record – progress, particularly in our ability to analyze claims and other data in order to rapidly identify emerging fraud patterns.
How did we get here? In large part, because – nearly three years ago – the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services came together in a new way, and made a collective commitment to meeting our shared goals and responsibilities. This commitment inspired Secretary Sebelius and I to launch a landmark joint initiative – the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team, known as “HEAT.” Since then, Secretary Sebelius and I have traveled across the country – and held six other regional summits like this one – in order to ensure that this fight will remain a top priority for state and local officials, for federal investigators and prosecutors, and for our industry partners.
With each of these gatherings – as with today’s important Summit here in Chicago – we’re sending a powerful signal to all those who would threaten the strength and integrity of our health care system: that a new era of communication and cooperation has begun. And that this Administration has never been more determined to move aggressively in protecting patients and consumers, bringing criminals to justice, and building on what’s already been achieved.
Since its inception, HEAT has helped to leverage the tremendous strength of federal, state, and local partnerships – and enhanced our ability to protect taxpayer dollars and the integrity of government programs that depend on those dollars. It also has strengthened our ability to hold accountable those who have violated our laws in order to victimize the most vulnerable members of our society. A driving force behind this work has been our Medicare Strike Forces, which focus attention and resources on major fraud “hot spots” across the country.
To date, Strike Force operations have charged more than 1,200 defendants for fraudulently billing the Medicare program for more than $3.7 billion. Our agencies have expanded Medicare Strike Forces to nine locations – including, as of last February, Chicago.
This has enabled us to build substantial momentum. And the results we’ve achieved have been nothing less than historic.
In fact, during the last fiscal year alone, civil and criminal health care fraud enforcement efforts by the Justice Department and HHS recovered nearly $4.1 billion in funds stolen or taken improperly from federal health care programs across the country. This is an unprecedented accomplishment. It represents the highest amount ever recovered in a single year. And the landmark Affordable Care Act gave us additional critical resources, tools, and authorities to continue this important work. Over the same period, we also opened thousands of new criminal and civil health care fraud investigations, dismantled criminal enterprises, thwarted large-scale fraud schemes, and secured more than 700 convictions. Perhaps most notably, our investments in this work are yielding extraordinary returns: over the last three years, for every dollar we’ve spent fighting against health-care fraud, we’ve returned an average of seven dollars to the U.S. Treasury, the Medicare Trust Fund and others.
These numbers are stunning. But – as you’ve seen right here in Chicago – they are only the beginning.
Last September – as part of a nationwide Medicare Strike Force takedown – four Chicago residents – including one doctor – were charged for their roles in a variety of alleged schemes defrauding the Medicare program of more than $4 million. In all, a total of 91 defendants were charged for submitting more than $295 million in false billings – marking the highest amount of false Medicare billings for a single operation in the Strike Force’s history.
In February, a judgment of over $16 million was entered in a civil lawsuit filed by the United States against a healthcare clinic. The clinic was charged for illegally administering prescriptions and for allowing unlicensed and unqualified practitioners to treat patients for mental health issues. In a separate case, last month, 11 new defendants were added to a federal indictment against an individual who operated two home health care businesses in Chicago. The new defendants allegedly conspired to swindle Medicare of at least $20 million over a five year period. And a little over two weeks ago, the Department of Justice reached an $18.5 million settlement with a Chicago-area firm charged with improperly billing Medicare for ambulatory cardiac telemetry services.
Thanks largely to the remarkable efforts of U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald and his team, as well as the Justice Department’s Criminal and Civil Divisions, the HHS Office of the Inspector General, and other key federal, state, and local law enforcement partners – since HEAT expanded to Chicago in February 2011, we’ve charged a total of 37 defendants in 15 separate criminal cases related to health care fraud right here in the Northern District of Illinois. They’ve set an excellent example – and, in the fight against health care fraud, are providing a model for success.
These cases, and countless other local civil and criminal enforcement actions, are emblematic of our nationwide achievements. They prove that our collaborative efforts are working. And they reinforce the importance of engagement, the value of public-private partnerships, and the critical nature of conversations like the one we’re hosting today – focused on harnessing the power of science and technology to make our efforts both more efficient and more effective.
Of course, despite everything we’ve achieved in recent years, we cannot yet be satisfied. And we can’t afford to become complacent. We have a great deal of work before us – and many more challenges and obstacles to confront. But, with your continued dedication, leadership, and partnership, I believe that the successes you’ve already helped bring about here in Chicago and beyond are just the beginning. In the work of protecting the American people from health care fraud, I am proud to count you as colleagues – and as partners. I am honored to stand with you today. And I look forward to all that we can – and will – accomplish together in the days ahead.
At this time, it’s my privilege to introduce another key leader of these efforts – my good friend, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius.
Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks at the Chicago Health Care Fraud Prevention Summit Chicago ~ Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Thank you, Dr. Budetti for those kind words – and for your outstanding leadership as Deputy Administrator for Program Integrity for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It’s a pleasure to be back in Chicago today – and a privilege to join with you and Pat Fitzgerald, the outstanding United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, as well as my good friend, Secretary Sebelius – in discussing the extraordinary progress we’ve made in preventing and combating health care fraud across this region – and in exploring strategies, and new technological tools, for taking our national efforts to a new level.
I’d particularly like to recognize each of the Administration leaders, law enforcement officials, investigators, prosecutors, industry representatives, and other critical partners who are with us today. In so many ways, the people in this room are at the heart of our efforts to protect the American people from health care fraud – not just in the Chicago area, but in communities throughout the country.
Although you’re approaching this problem from many different perspectives, you have seen the devastating impact of health care fraud firsthand. Many of you have called attention to the fact that modern schemes are as diverse as the imaginations of those who perpetrate them, and as sophisticated as technology will permit. And there’s no question that – here in Illinois and across the nation – the challenges before us have reached crisis proportions.
Fortunately – as a result of your engagement, your expertise, and your unwavering commitment – we’ve made remarkable, measurable strides in implementing the solutions that we need – and that American consumers, patients, and taxpayers deserve. We’re being innovative, proactive, and collaborative. And, as a result, the last three years have been characterized by significant – and, in many cases, record – progress, particularly in our ability to analyze claims and other data in order to rapidly identify emerging fraud patterns.
How did we get here? In large part, because – nearly three years ago – the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services came together in a new way, and made a collective commitment to meeting our shared goals and responsibilities. This commitment inspired Secretary Sebelius and I to launch a landmark joint initiative – the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team, known as “HEAT.” Since then, Secretary Sebelius and I have traveled across the country – and held six other regional summits like this one – in order to ensure that this fight will remain a top priority for state and local officials, for federal investigators and prosecutors, and for our industry partners.
With each of these gatherings – as with today’s important Summit here in Chicago – we’re sending a powerful signal to all those who would threaten the strength and integrity of our health care system: that a new era of communication and cooperation has begun. And that this Administration has never been more determined to move aggressively in protecting patients and consumers, bringing criminals to justice, and building on what’s already been achieved.
Since its inception, HEAT has helped to leverage the tremendous strength of federal, state, and local partnerships – and enhanced our ability to protect taxpayer dollars and the integrity of government programs that depend on those dollars. It also has strengthened our ability to hold accountable those who have violated our laws in order to victimize the most vulnerable members of our society. A driving force behind this work has been our Medicare Strike Forces, which focus attention and resources on major fraud “hot spots” across the country.
To date, Strike Force operations have charged more than 1,200 defendants for fraudulently billing the Medicare program for more than $3.7 billion. Our agencies have expanded Medicare Strike Forces to nine locations – including, as of last February, Chicago.
This has enabled us to build substantial momentum. And the results we’ve achieved have been nothing less than historic.
In fact, during the last fiscal year alone, civil and criminal health care fraud enforcement efforts by the Justice Department and HHS recovered nearly $4.1 billion in funds stolen or taken improperly from federal health care programs across the country. This is an unprecedented accomplishment. It represents the highest amount ever recovered in a single year. And the landmark Affordable Care Act gave us additional critical resources, tools, and authorities to continue this important work. Over the same period, we also opened thousands of new criminal and civil health care fraud investigations, dismantled criminal enterprises, thwarted large-scale fraud schemes, and secured more than 700 convictions. Perhaps most notably, our investments in this work are yielding extraordinary returns: over the last three years, for every dollar we’ve spent fighting against health-care fraud, we’ve returned an average of seven dollars to the U.S. Treasury, the Medicare Trust Fund and others.
These numbers are stunning. But – as you’ve seen right here in Chicago – they are only the beginning.
Last September – as part of a nationwide Medicare Strike Force takedown – four Chicago residents – including one doctor – were charged for their roles in a variety of alleged schemes defrauding the Medicare program of more than $4 million. In all, a total of 91 defendants were charged for submitting more than $295 million in false billings – marking the highest amount of false Medicare billings for a single operation in the Strike Force’s history.
In February, a judgment of over $16 million was entered in a civil lawsuit filed by the United States against a healthcare clinic. The clinic was charged for illegally administering prescriptions and for allowing unlicensed and unqualified practitioners to treat patients for mental health issues. In a separate case, last month, 11 new defendants were added to a federal indictment against an individual who operated two home health care businesses in Chicago. The new defendants allegedly conspired to swindle Medicare of at least $20 million over a five year period. And a little over two weeks ago, the Department of Justice reached an $18.5 million settlement with a Chicago-area firm charged with improperly billing Medicare for ambulatory cardiac telemetry services.
Thanks largely to the remarkable efforts of U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald and his team, as well as the Justice Department’s Criminal and Civil Divisions, the HHS Office of the Inspector General, and other key federal, state, and local law enforcement partners – since HEAT expanded to Chicago in February 2011, we’ve charged a total of 37 defendants in 15 separate criminal cases related to health care fraud right here in the Northern District of Illinois. They’ve set an excellent example – and, in the fight against health care fraud, are providing a model for success.
These cases, and countless other local civil and criminal enforcement actions, are emblematic of our nationwide achievements. They prove that our collaborative efforts are working. And they reinforce the importance of engagement, the value of public-private partnerships, and the critical nature of conversations like the one we’re hosting today – focused on harnessing the power of science and technology to make our efforts both more efficient and more effective.
Of course, despite everything we’ve achieved in recent years, we cannot yet be satisfied. And we can’t afford to become complacent. We have a great deal of work before us – and many more challenges and obstacles to confront. But, with your continued dedication, leadership, and partnership, I believe that the successes you’ve already helped bring about here in Chicago and beyond are just the beginning. In the work of protecting the American people from health care fraud, I am proud to count you as colleagues – and as partners. I am honored to stand with you today. And I look forward to all that we can – and will – accomplish together in the days ahead.
At this time, it’s my privilege to introduce another key leader of these efforts – my good friend, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius.
UN SECURITY COUNCIL STATEMENT ON SYRIA
FROM DEPARTMENT OF STATE
UN Security Council Presidential Statement on Syria
New York, NY
April 5, 2012
The Security Council recalls its Presidential Statements of 3 August 2011 and 21 March 2012 and its Press Statement of 1 March 2012.
The Security Council reaffirms its strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity of Syria, and to the purposes and principles of the Charter.
The Security Council expresses its appreciation for the 2 April 2012 briefing of the Joint Special Envoy of the United Nations and the League of Arab States, Kofi Annan. The Security Council notes that the Syrian government committed on 25 March 2012 to implement the Envoy’s six-point proposal.
The Security Council calls upon the Syrian government to implement urgently and visibly its commitments, as it agreed to do in its communication to the Envoy of 1 April, to (a) cease troop movements towards population centres, (b) cease all use of heavy weapons in such centres, and (c) begin pullback of military concentrations in and around population centres, and to fulfil these in their entirety by no later than 10 April 2012.
The Security Council calls upon all parties, including the opposition, to cease armed violence in all its forms within 48 hours of the implementation in their entirety by the Syrian government of measures (a), (b), (c) above. The Security Council further calls upon the opposition to engage with the Envoy in this regard.
The Security Council reiterates its call for the Syrian authorities to allow immediate, full and unimpeded access of humanitarian personnel to all populations in need of assistance, in accordance with international law and guiding principles of humanitarian assistance. The Security Council calls upon all parties in Syria, in particular the Syrian authorities, to cooperate fully with the United Nations and relevant humanitarian organizations to facilitate the provision of humanitarian assistance. To this end, the Security Council calls on all parties to immediately implement a daily two hour humanitarian pause as called for in the Envoy’s six-point proposal.
The Security Council underscores the importance of an effective and credible United Nations supervision mechanism in Syria to monitor a cessation of armed violence in all its forms by all parties and relevant aspects of the Envoy’s six-point proposal. The Security Council requests the Secretary-General to provide proposals for such a mechanism as soon as appropriate, after consultations with the government of Syria. The Security Council stands ready to consider these proposals and to authorise an effective and impartial supervision mechanism upon implementation of a cessation of armed violence in all its forms by all parties.
The Security Council underscores the central importance of a peaceful political settlement to the Syrian crisis and reiterates its call for the urgent, comprehensive, and immediate implementation of all aspects of the Envoy’s six-point proposal. The Security Council reiterates its full support for the Envoy’s six-point proposal aimed at bringing an immediate end to all violence and human rights violations, securing humanitarian access and facilitating a Syrian-led political transition leading to a democratic, plural political system, in which citizens are equal regardless of their affiliations, ethnicities or beliefs, including through commencing a comprehensive political dialogue between the Syrian government and the whole spectrum of the Syrian opposition.
The Security Council requests the Envoy to update the Council on the cessation of violence in accordance with the above timeline, and progress towards implementation of his six-point proposal in its entirety. In the light of these reports, the Security Council will consider further steps as appropriate.
HORSES AND PTSD RECOVERY PROGRAM
FROM AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE
Horse Therapy Helps Veterans Break Through PTSD
By Terri Moon Cronk
American Forces Press Service
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, April 5, 2012 - A Pentagon Channel documentary sheds light on how military veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder are finding help through the power of horse therapy.
"Recon: Unbridled" highlights "Horses for Veterans," at Flag is Up Farms in California, an intensive three-day program designed to help veterans of all ages who have PTSD, free of charge.
"I think No. 1 is to work with veterans who have given up on life," said Monty Roberts, a renowned horse whisperer. Roberts uses his horse-friendly "Joining Up" techniques on abused and mistreated horses, and adapts it for self-isolating veterans who have post-traumatic stress.
Roberts' program is about learning to trust people by choosing to, rather than by force, he said. By using the language of the horse or the stress of the veteran to communicate, he added, his program engenders trust.
"When they trust you, they will migrate toward you, rather than going away [out of fear]," he said. "Horses are flight animals. They are frightened of everything they don't understand. If they don't trust it, they need to get away from it, and that's how a veteran feels, too."
The old style of "breaking" horses often involved using violence to force them into submission, but Roberts' style, which he calls "gentling" or "natural horsemanship," is nonviolent.
"They get nothing from the fight, so they literally give up," he pointed out.
Veteran Alejandra Sanchez is on her fourth visit to Flag is Up Farms, but remembers her first time like it was yesterday.
"I have never been so scared in my life," she said. "I wasn't even that scared when I was in Iraq. My anxiety was through the roof, because I had to face that I had post-traumatic stress.
"Every night you knew when the sun set, action was going to happen," she continued, recalling her service in Iraq. "I remember coming to the oddly weird term of 'I might not make it.'"
Sanchez faced her fears head-on in the "Horses for Veterans" program.
"You have to work with people you don't know, and you already have trust issues," she said. "It definitely brought out all of the symptoms I face, but at an intense level I normally haven't dealt with." Sanchez said she had to learn to calm herself down for the horses to learn to trust her. "The horses would not respond to me if I was anxious, angry or violent," she said.
Veteran Alicia Watkins isolated herself from friends and family and lost everything she had after she returned from tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. She was homeless, living in her car for a year, and said she'd lost her dignity.
"I know what it's like to get to the point where you no longer want to live," she said. "I remember going on convoys and not being able to handle it." By the time she returned home in 2007, she'd had many near-death experiences, she said.
When she accepted an invitation to attend Roberts' program, she showed up huddled in layers of jackets, a hoodie and sunglasses. Roberts worked with Watkins to help her earn the trust of a horse after he saw room for extreme change in her, he said.
"Hearing him talk about training the horses, I began to realize how horses and my PTSD were ... the same," Watkins said. She said she related to the horses' "flight mentality," because that's what she saw in herself.
"To reprogram the horses to be domesticated was something I could identify with," she said, noting they had been neglected or abused by former owners. "I found something that could almost immediately erase the pain and suffering of all those years. "Within an hour, I was a totally different person."
When her horse began to trust her and obey her commands, Roberts said, Watkins "became the most exuberant, outgoing participant."
"The change in her was like night and day," he said. He invited her back to train for three days with a new class of veterans.
Watkins said she saw herself in the new class of veterans. "To see that shell open up and see that person transform, it's so beautiful to watch yourself in someone else," she said. "'I feel like a victim' becomes 'I feel like a victor.'"
After working through her isolation and related issues with PTSD in "Horses for Veterans," Roberts said, he thinks Watkins is gaining the ability to think through her problems.
Today, more than 30 Veterans Affairs medical centers participate in horse therapy for service members and veterans with challenges ranging from mental and emotional to physical.
"The horses we see that were traumatized and abused never forget it," Roberts said. "But you can mask it over with good behavior, and that's the same with veterans. They're not going to forget the trauma they went through. Their positive behavior outweighs it."
"Horses for Veterans" has given veterans such as Sanchez and Watkins a new start.
"To see how horses can come back to a place of reconnection and bonding lets me know I can recover from this," Watkins said. "I can be the new old me."
FIVE OFFICERS SENTENCED FOR SHOOTINGS ON DANZIGER BRIDGE IN NEW ORLEANS
FROM DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Five New Orleans Police Officers Sentenced on Civil Rights and Obstruction of Justice Violations in the Danziger Bridge Shooting CaseOfficers Sentenced for Role in Shooting Six Victims and for Extensive Cover-Up of Crimes
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced today that five officers from the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) were sentenced in connection with the federal civil rights prosecution of a police-involved shooting that occurred on the Danziger Bridge in the days after Hurricane Katrina, leaving two innocent civilians dead and four others seriously wounded. The defendants were also sentenced for their roles in an extensive cover-up of the shooting
U.S. District Court Judge Kurt Englehardt imposed long prison sentences on the four officers who were involved in the shooting on the bridge. He sentenced those four officers as follows:
Sergeant Kenneth Bowen was sentenced to 40 years in prison;
Sergeant Robert Gisevius was sentenced to 40 years in prison;
Officer Robert Faulcon was sentenced to 65 years in prison; and
Officer Anthony Villavaso was sentenced to 38 years in prison.
The fifth officer, Sergeant Arthur “Archie” Kaufman, was a supervisor who was not involved in the shooting, but who helped the other officers cover up what they had done. Kaufman was sentenced to six years in prison.
“We hope that today’s sentences give a measure of peace and closure to the victims of this terrible shooting, who have suffered unspeakable pain and who have waited so patiently for justice to be done. The officers who shot innocent people on the bridge and then went to great lengths to cover up their own crimes have finally been held accountable for their actions,” said Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Thomas E. Perez. “As a result of today’s sentencing, the city of New Orleans can take another step forward.”
“Our undying gratitude goes to our partners in the Civil Rights Division and FBI who, together with the tremendous professionals in the United States Attorney=s Office, made today=s closure – and justice – possible,” said U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana Jim Letten. “I am equally grateful to the courageous families of James Brissette and Ronald Madison who gave their lives on the bridge, as well as to those who suffered abuse needlessly at the hands of a few corrupt police officers. We will never relent, back down or give up our fight to ensure that our citizens – especially those most vulnerable among us – never have to fear those who are sworn to protect them.”
“Today’s sentencings send a strong message that no one is above the law and the civil rights of all of our citizens are paramount in a free society,” said Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s New Orleans Division David Welker. “My hope as we move forward is that the men and women of NOPD and all law enforcement will conduct themselves always in a manner that will withstand the scrutiny of the bright light of justice.”
Bowen, Gisevius, Faulcon and Villavaso were convicted in connection with the shootings of multiple victims, including 17-year-old James Brissette and 40-year-old Ronald Madison, who died on the bridge. Those four officers and a supervisor, Kaufman, also were convicted of obstructing justice during the subsequent investigations.
Five other officers pleaded guilty before trial and cooperated with the federal investigation. Those officers testified at trial about the unjustified shooting on the bridge and about a massive police cover-up that followed.
The evidence at trial established that a group of police officers – including Sergeant Bowen, Sergeant Gisevius, Officer Faulcon and Officer Villavaso – opened fire with assault rifles and a shotgun, shooting at an unarmed family walking on the east side of the bridge. Police gunfire struck the victims multiple times, wounding a New Orleans couple, their daughter, and their nephew, and killing family-friend James Brissette. Susan Bartholomew, 38, suffered serious injuries, including the loss of her right arm, which was shot off by a high-powered assault rifle; Leonard Bartholomew III, 44, was shot in the leg and the back of the head, but survived his wounds; Lesha Bartholomew, 17, was shot in both legs and in the stomach; and the Bartholomew’s nephew, Jose Holmes, 19, was shot in the face, the neck, both arms, the hand and the stomach. James Brissette, who was shot in the back, the leg, both arms and the back of the head, died on the bridge. The Bartholomew’s 14-year-old son ran away from the shooting and was fired at, but was not injured.
According to the evidence presented at trial, a second shooting occurred several minutes later, on the west side of the Danziger Bridge. After shooting at the Bartholomew Family and James Brissette, officers traveled to the other side of the bridge to chase two men – brothers Lance and Ronald Madison – who had run away when the shooting started. Officers caught up to the Madisons on the west side of the bridge, where Officer Faulcon used a shotgun to shoot Ronald Madison in the back as Madison was running away. Ronald, a 40-year-old man with severe mental and physical disabilities, died near the base of the bridge.
When the shooting was over, according to witnesses at trial, the officers at the scene immediately started a cover-up. Lance Madison was arrested and falsely charged with eight counts of attempting to kill police officers. Officers collected no guns or shell casings on the day of the shooting, and 30 casings they collected more than a month later were fired by officers rather than civilians. Three weeks after the shooting, Kaufman testified at a court appearance for Madison, claiming falsely that Madison had had a gun on the bridge and had shot at police. Madison was held in jail for three weeks, but was eventually released without being formally charged.
The evidence at trial also established that all five defendants conspired with each other, and with the officers who pleaded guilty, to cover-up what had happened on the bridge and to make the shootings appear justified. As part of the conspiracy, Kaufman obtained a gun from his home and claimed to have found the gun at the bridge on the day after the shooting. According to testimony, Kaufman also made up the existence of two phony eyewitnesses and fabricated alleged statements that he claimed to have taken from these witnesses and that he claimed helped justify the shootings. There was also testimony that Kaufman and the other members of the conspiracy held a meeting in an abandoned and gutted out NOPD building, where the officers practiced getting their stories straight before they gave formal audiotaped statements about the shooting.
Kaufman, who wrote a formal report about the incident, in which he concluded that the shooting was justified and that Lance Madison and Jose Holmes should be arrested, was also found guilty of conspiring with other officers to have Madison and Holmes prosecuted on the basis of false evidence.
The five former NOPD officers who pleaded guilty before trial, admitting that they had participated in a conspiracy to obstruct justice and cover-up what happened on Sept. 4, 2005, were all sentenced previously. Former Officer Mike Hunter was sentenced to serve eight years in prison; former officer Ignatius Hills was sentenced to serve six-and-a-half years; former officer Robert Barrios was sentenced to serve five years; former lieutenant Michael Lohman was sentenced to serve four years; and former detective Jeffrey Lehrmann was sentenced to serve three years.
OWNERS OF SERENDIPITY HOME HEALTH INC., PLEAD GUILTY TO FRAUD
FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Monday, April 2, 2012
Two Owners and Two Employees of Miami Home Health Company Plead Guilty in $20 Million Health Care Fraud Scheme
WASHINGTON – Two owners and two employees of a Miami home health care agency pleaded guilty for their participation in a $20 million Medicare fraud scheme involving false billings for home health care services, announced the Department of Justice, the FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Ariel Rodriguez, 41, Reynaldo Navarro, 37, and Ysel Salado, 26, each pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Marcia G. Cooke to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, and Melissa Rodriguez, 24, pleaded guilty on March 28, 2012, before Judge Cooke to the same charge.
According to court documents, Ariel Rodriguez and Reynaldo Navarro were the owners of Serendipity Home Health Inc., a Florida home health agency that purported to provide home health care and physical therapy services to eligible Medicare beneficiaries. Melissa Rodriguez and Ysel Salado were employees at Serendipity Home Health.
According to plea documents, Ariel Rodriguez, Navarro and their co-conspirators paid kickbacks and bribes to patient recruiters. In return, the recruiters provided patients to Serendipity, as well as prescriptions, plans of care (POCs) and certifications for medically unnecessary therapy and home health services. Ariel Rodriguez and Navarro used the prescriptions, POCs and medical certifications to fraudulently bill the Medicare program, which Ariel Rodriguez and Navarro knew was in violation of federal criminal laws.
Melissa Rodriguez and Salado admitted that they cashed checks from Serendipity and provided the cash to Ariel Rodriguez and Navarro to use for the kickback payments.
According to plea documents, Serendipity nurses and office staff falsified patient files for Medicare beneficiaries to make it appear that the beneficiaries qualified for home health care and therapy services. In fact, the beneficiaries did not actually qualify for and did not receive such services. Ariel Rodriguez and Navarro admitted that they knew files were falsified so that Medicare could be billed for medically unnecessary services.
From approximately April 2007 through March 2009, Ariel Rodriguez, Navarro and their co-conspirators submitted approximately $20 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare. Medicare paid approximately $14 million on those claims.
The pleas were announced today by Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer of the Southern District of Florida; John V. Gillies, Special Agent-in-Charge of the FBI’s Miami Field Office; and Special Agent-in-Charge Christopher Dennis of the HHS Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), Office of Investigations Miami Office.
This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Joseph S. Beemsterboer of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. The case was investigated by the FBI and HHS-OIG, and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.
Since their inception in March 2007, Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations in nine locations have charged more than 1,190 defendants who collectively have falsely billed the Medicare program for more than $3.6 billion. In addition, the HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.
CDC SAYS U.S. POPULATION HAS GOOD STUFF IN THEM
FROM: CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL
CDC report finds U.S. population has good levels of some essential vitamins and nutrients
Higher deficiency rates in some groups deserve attentionOverall, the U.S. population has good levels of vitamins A and D and folate in the body, but some groups still need to increase their levels of vitamin D and iron, according to the Second National Report on Biochemical Indicators of Diet and Nutrition, released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The report offers a limited but generally favorable review of the nation’s nutrition status although the findings do not necessarily indicate that people consume healthy and balanced diets.
CDC’s Division of Laboratory Sciences in the National Center for Environmental Health measured these indicators in blood and urine samples collected from participants in CDC’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Data are presented for the years 1999-2006, with emphasis on newly available data for 2003-2006.
“These findings are a snapshot of our nation’s overall nutrition status,” said Christopher Portier, Ph.D., director of CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health. “Measurements of blood and urine levels of these nutrients are critical because they show us whether the sum of nutrient intakes from foods and vitamin supplements is too low, too high, or sufficient.”
The report also found that deficiency rates for vitamins and nutrients vary by age, gender, or race/ethnicity and can be as high as 31 percent for vitamin D deficiency in non-Hispanic blacks.
“Research shows that good nutrition can help lower people’s risk for many chronic diseases. For most nutrients, the low deficiency rates, less than 1 to 10 percent, are encouraging, but higher deficiency rates in certain age and race/ethnic groups are a concern and need additional attention,” said Christine Pfeiffer, Ph.D., lead researcher, in the Division of Laboratory Sciences in CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health.
CDC’s Second Nutrition Report establishes blood and urine reference levels for 58 biochemical indicators; more than twice as many indicators as its first report, published in 2008. The report includes first-time data for a new indicator of iron deficiency and for 24 healthy and unhealthy fatty acids.
Folic acid fortification: A sustained public health success
The report found that the fortification of cereal-grain products with folic acid, which began in 1998, has had a sustained positive impact on blood folate levels. The report shows folate deficiency dropped to less than 1 percent after fortification. The report also shows that blood folate levels in all race/ethnic groups are 50 percent higher since fortification began.
Before fortification began, approximately 12 percent of women of childbearing age were deficient in folate, as determined by blood folate levels. Folate is essential during periods when cells rapidly divide and grow, which is particularly important for women prior to and during pregnancy and for children during infancy. Folic acid can help prevent some major birth defects of the baby’s brain and spine, such as spina bifida.
Vitamin D deficiency much higher in black Americans
The report found the highest rates of vitamin D deficiency in non-Hispanic blacks (31 percent) despite clinical data showing greater bone density and fewer fractures in this group. Further research is needed to explain why non-Hispanic blacks have better bone health but yet have a higher rate of vitamin D deficiency. According to the report, the vitamin D deficiency rate for Mexican-Americans was 12 percent and for non-Hispanic whites it was 3 percent.
Vitamin D is essential for good bone health but it may also improve muscle strength and protect against cancer and type 2 diabetes. Researchers are investigating these potential benefits, as well as, the vitamin D requirements for various groups.
Iodine levels border on insufficiency in women of childbearing age
Findings were not as encouraging with regard to the iodine status in young women (20-39 years of age). This age group had iodine levels that were just above iodine insufficiency. The young women also had the lowest iodine levels among any age group of women. Iodine is an essential component of thyroid hormones that regulate human growth and development. Iodine deficiency disorders include mental retardation, hypothyroidism, goiter, cretinism, and varying degrees of other growth and developmental abnormalities. Iodine is especially important in women during childbearing years to ensure the best possible brain development of the fetus during pregnancy.
First measurements of new iron deficiency marker and of both healthy and unhealthy fatty acids
Using a new marker of iron status, the report indicates higher rates of iron deficiency in Mexican-American children aged 1 to 5 years (11 percent) and in non-Hispanic black (16 percent) and Mexican-American women (13 percent) of childbearing age (12 to 49 years) when compared to other race/ethnic groups. The new iron marker measurements will help clinicians better interpret iron status in individuals, especially in persons with chronic disease that includes inflammation, such as certain cancers.
The report provides first-time data on blood levels of fatty acids in the U.S. population. These include heart healthy polyunsaturated fatty acids as well as saturated fatty acids that increase risk of heart disease. The report found heart healthy polyunsaturated fatty acid levels in plasma differ by race/ethnicity. These first time measurements provide a baseline that will allow CDC to track fatty acid levels over time, which will evaluate our nation’s progress toward heart healthy diets.
Most comprehensive biochemical assessment of the nation’s nutrition status
CDC’s report is a detailed biochemical assessment of the nutrition status of the U.S. population. It is the second in a series of publications that provide an ongoing assessment of the U.S. population’s nutrition status. The series of reports provide information specific to population groups defined by age, gender, and race/ethnicity to show how these factors affect nutrition status in the United States.
CDC plans further analysis of report data that will help identify the influence of socio-economic and lifestyle factors on levels of nutrients in blood and urine. The agency also plans to continue its assessment of the nation’s nutrition status in future reports.
MATH MODELS USED TO STUDY DISEASE OUTBREAKS
FROM NASTIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
PHOTO CREDIT: NIH
Researchers Use Game to Change How Scientists Study Disease Outbreaks
April 3, 2012
It may seem like a game of tag, but it's an innovative tool for teaching the fundamentals of epidemiology, the science of how infectious diseases move through a population.
An international team of scientists--including researchers who teach an annual clinic at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in Muizenberg, South Africa--is helping epidemiologists improve the mathematical models they use to study outbreaks of diseases like cholera, AIDS and malaria.
In 2011, attendees at the clinic were treated to a game of "Muizenberg Mathematical Fever," where players simulate a real life epidemic by passing around pieces of paper that say: "You have been infected."
The paper pieces are followed by instructions for propagating the disease.
The exercise proved so effective in demonstrating concepts in epidemiology that a discussion of the game is published in today's issue of the journal PLoS Biology.
"Infectious disease modeling is an established field of study in bio-mathematics," said Juliet Pulliam, a biologist at the University of Florida's Emerging Pathogens Institute and co-author of the paper.
"But there has been a tendency for mathematicians to operate separately from practitioners on the ground who track diseases."
The game was intended to convince all players in the epidemiology field that teamwork is the better approach.
"Reducing disease risk requires sophisticated mathematical models to inform public health officials and other policy-makers," said Sam Scheiner, Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases (EEID) program director at the National Science Foundation (NSF), which funded the research.
EEID is a joint NSF-National Institutes of Health program. At NSF, it is co-funded by the Directorates for Biological Sciences and Geosciences.
"This collaborative effort is training researchers in these techniques," said Scheiner, "as well as strengthening ties between U.S. and African students and scientists."
"Not knowing how data about an outbreak were collected can lead to misinterpretations," Pulliam said.
For example, if procedures change for how infected individuals are counted, it could create a spike in data that falsely portrays how a disease is being spread.
The misinformation, once introduced into a model, could throw off projections and interfere with efforts on the ground to prevent further outbreaks.
Ecologist Steve Bellan of the University of California, Berkeley, lead author of the paper, cites cases where collaborations between bio-mathematicians and classical epidemiologists have resulted in valuable lessons for tracking the spread of diseases.
HIV interventions and efforts to eliminate trachoma, a bacterial infection that causes blindness, successfully have used the tag-team approach, he said.
In both cases, studies have shown that when practitioners employ the power of mathematical modeling to strategically develop, analyze and scale-up interventions, they are more likely to interrupt the progress of an epidemic.
"This is about the importance of collaboration," said Bellan. "No one can be an expert in everything."
"In fact, the two sides typically meet up somewhere along the line during the process of an epidemiological study," he said. "We want to see more scientists working together from the start."
Toward that end, Bellan, Pulliam and six other scientists from South Africa, Canada and the United States offer two-week clinics every year at AIMS.
The clinics immerse epidemiological number-crunchers more fully into the human aspects of how disease spreads.
"We were sitting in the office the night before the recent clinic began, talking about how someone had shown up sick in a previous year and gotten everyone else sick," Pulliam said.
"Then Steve said something about how great it would be if we had captured data from that outbreak for use in the workshop."
The discussion sparked the idea to create a similar scenario in real-time by creating a fictitious disease. "We pieced it together in about an hour," said Bellan.
An "infectious" piece of paper serves as the agent for spreading "Muizenberg Mathematical Fever."
The paper notifies the receiver that he or she has been exposed, then instructs the infectee to email Bellan of his or her fate, use a random number generator to determine how many others should be infected,then pass the appropriate number of papers to other participants at the clinic.
The rules serve to propagate the disease, but also to build a data set of who infected whom and when.
"The drill produced an outbreak with data that looks like a real epidemic," said Pulliam.
Clinic attendees are usually more mathematician than epidemiologist, she said. They typically spend the first week just talking about where data sets come from, who collects them and what the numbers refer to.
"Using the game as a way to demonstrate those issues instead of talking about them is instructive on its own," she said.
But the real benefit came during the second week, when people working in groups experimented with various epidemiological models using actual data sets from HIV studies or other ongoing projects.
"Many opted to work with data sets from the game," said Pulliam, "because they were really tangible."
They found that familiarity with the process for collecting data greatly improved their ability to customize mathematical models so they accurately represented how a disease moved through a population.
That's exactly what we wanted them to get out of the workshop, Bellan and Pulliam said.
A NEW AFGHAN DETENTION CENTER COMMANDER
FROM AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE
Officials Congratulate New Afghan Detention Center Commander
Compiled from International Security Assistance Force and ISAF Joint Command News Releases
WASHINGTON, April 2, 2012 - Top U.S. military and diplomatic officials in Afghanistan offered their congratulations yesterday as an Afghan officer took charge of Afghan Detention Operations Command.
Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen, commander of the International Security Assistance Force and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, joined U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan C. Crocker in congratulating Maj. Gen. Faroq Barekzai on his assumption of command at a ceremony held in Parwan, Afghanistan.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai appointed Barekzai to his new position March 28, officials said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai appointed Barekzai to his new position March 28, officials said.
"Today's event is nothing short of monumental when looking at the significance of Major General Barekzai's assumption of command and the responsibilities he assumes for the Afghan people and his nation's justice system," Allen said at the ceremony. "This is a symbolic and visible step marking the progress we continue to make in partnership with the Afghan government as we work to develop and uphold the sovereignty they rightfully deserve."
Officials said the ceremony marked the first step of an agreed-upon process that will give the Afghan defense ministry full control of the detention facility within six months while protecting U.S. international and domestic legal obligations regarding detainees. Under the terms of a memorandum of understanding signed March 9, the United States will provide ongoing support and advice to the Afghan commander for up to one year.
"This assumption of command marks another step in the transition to Afghan control of security and is a sign of our support for Afghan sovereignty, as well as our commitment to an enduring partnership," Crocker said.
In operations around Afghanistan yesterday:
-- An Afghan-led force in the Daman district of Kandahar province captured a Taliban facilitator who supplied insurgents with weapons, ammunition and equipment. He also participated in roadside bombings and other attacks against Afghan and coalition security forces.
-- A combined force found and destroyed 1,650 pounds of marijuana in the Maiwand district of Kandahar province.
In March 31 operations:
-- A combined force captured a Taliban facilitator, detained another insurgent and seized an Afghan National Police uniform in the Maidan Shahr district of Wardak province. The facilitator provided roadside bombs and other weapons to insurgents for attacks against Afghan and coalition forces. He is also suspected in the Jan. 2 attack along Highway 2 against a convoy escorted by Afghan security forces. Three Afghan soldiers were wounded in that attack.
-- A combined force captured a Taliban facilitator and detained three additional insurgents in the Charhar Darah district of Kunduz province. The facilitator managed the insurgent financial network in the province and provided funds that enabled attacks against Afghan and coalition forces.
-- A combined force detained a suspect while searching for a Taliban facilitator in the Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar province. The facilitator supplies insurgents with weapons, ammunition and equipment for attacks against Afghan and coalition forces in Kandahar City.
-- A combined force captured a Haqqani network leader, detained two additional insurgents and destroyed assault rifles and grenades in the Sayyidabad district of Wardak province. The Haqqani leader directed kidnappings and other insurgent operations against civilians and Afghan and coalition forces.
-- A combined force detained several suspects while searching for a Haqqani leader in the Bak district of Khost province. The insurgent leader organizes roadside bombings and directs other attacks against Afghan and coalition forces.
-- A combined force detained three suspects and seized multiple weapons while searching for a Taliban facilitator in the Gardez district of Paktia province. The facilitator supplies insurgents with roadside bombs, weapons and ammunition for attacks against Afghan and coalition forces.
In March 29 operations:
-- A combined force came under insurgent mortar fire near a combat outpost in the Tagab district of Kapisa province. The mortar rounds landed in a nearby Afghan civilian compound, killing one woman and wounding three children. The children were provided medical treatment by Afghan and coalition forces.
-- An Afghan-led combined force detained several suspected insurgents and seized and destroyed more than 3,000 pounds of various narcotics in the Reg-e Khan Neshin district of Helmand province.
HHS SECRETARY SPEECH ON MEDICARE FRAUD
FROM: DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICE
SECRETARY KATHLEEN SEBELIUS
Chicago Fraud Prevention Summit
April 4, 2012
Chicago, IL
Thank you.
As you know, the work we’re doing together here today – sharing best practices and developing new strategies – is part of a national conversation that began in January 2010 at the first Health Care Fraud Prevention Summit and has continued across the nation.
It was President Obama who asked us to come together. When he came into office, we were, frankly, falling behind. Scams were getting bigger and more sophisticated. Criminals were being more creative and going after larger sums. They were evolving, and we needed to catch up.
So over the last three years that is exactly what we’ve done.
Attorney General Holder just spoke about law enforcement’s strong commitment to stamping out fraud. More boots on the ground has meant more criminals locked up, more schemes taken down, and a stronger health care system for the rest of us.
But we're not just prosecuting fraud. We're also taking steps to prevent it.
In the past, nearly anyone could fill out a form and become a Medicare provider. In a matter of weeks, criminals could set up false clinics, enlist willing accomplices and vulnerable seniors to submit false claims and begin collecting payments. For industrious criminals, this approach was a ripe target.
But that‘s no longer the case. Over the last three years we have made our health care system dramatically less appealing to those who once had thought of stealing from Medicare and Medicaid as easy money.
Today, I want describe how this transformation took place.
To begin, it’s now a lot more difficult for bad actors to get their foot in the door.
Today, before you can become a Medicare provider, you have to go through a rigorous third-party review process that will make sure you meet all the requirements to bill Medicare.
We have a comprehensive database that allows us to systematically screen all current and prospective providers against other key sources like provider licensing and criminal records. If you get banned from one Medicaid program or Medicare, you get banned from all Medicaid programs.
And if a doctor retires, dies, or becomes ineligible, we know about it and can remove his information from our system. In the past, out-of-date and invalid provider numbers would remain on the rolls -- like a forgotten backdoor entrance allowing criminals to sneak in and start billing bogus claims. But no longer.
I am proud to announce today that we have already removed 3,000 ineligible providers from the Medicare program identified in just the first month of these new screening procedures.
But that’s just our first line of defense. We’re also working to make sure that even if criminals do find their way into the system, it’s a lot harder to get away with taxpayer dollars.
In the past, government was often two or three steps behind perpetrators, quickly paying out nearly every properly submitted claim -- then later trying to track down the bad guys after we got a tip. That meant we were often showing up after criminals had already skipped town, taking all of their fraudulent billings with them.
But new data analysis tools allow us to analyze claims in real time, taking away criminals’ head start. Instead of the old ‘pay-and-chase’ model, we’re getting proactive by using a technology similar to the one credit card companies use to identify and stop suspicious payments before they go out. So now, just as Visa can put your card on hold when it is used to buy ten flat screen TVs, we have the ability to freeze questionable payments until we can investigate.
Since this system was put in place, we have stopped, prevented, or identified $30 million in payments that should never have been made. And because the system is designed to get smarter over time, it’s only going to be more effective in the future.
We’re also making it easier for law enforcement officials from the FBI, the Inspector General Office’s and local jurisdictions to share data and access claims information as soon as they are submitted to Medicare.
Under the old system, it was as if police officers in one town weren’t talking to the officers in the next town. Now, we’re all beginning to plug into the same system in real time, so we can respond with the same speed and agility as the criminals.
This new fraud prevention system has changed the equation for any criminal. But we also know that neither law enforcement, nor federal officials are going to stop fraud alone. And no law or technology is as effective at preventing fraud as consumers who are educated and informed.
So with the support of partner organizations across the country, thousands of Senior Medicare Patrol volunteers are giving their friends and neighbors the tools to recognize, resist, and report fraud.
Millions of beneficiaries have taken advantage of the program’s one-on-one or group counseling sessions and over 25 million people have received fraud prevention information through SMP community outreach events.
And it’s clear that this kind of outreach pays off.
In 2010, a home health agency set up an office in the lobby of a Chicago-area affordable senior housing building and offered free blood pressure checks. In the process, they collected seniors’ Medicare numbers.
One of those seniors later noticed something wasn’t right when she reviewed her Medicare Summary Notice. The home health agency had billed Medicare for more than $1,400 in skilled nursing services that she believed she never received. So she contacted the Illinois SMP and they helped her file a complaint.
The complaint triggered an investigation. And the investigation uncovered far more than a single isolated incident, leading Medicare to recoup more than $62,000 in inappropriate payments. Just as importantly, it ended a scheme that, if allowed to continue, could have drained thousands if not millions more from Medicare’s coffers.
And it all started with one cautious citizen who – thanks to the outreach and education of the local Senior Medicare Patrol -- knew to speak up when something wasn’t right.
From 2010 to 2011 the number of calls to the Illinois SMP rose 64 percent and the trend has continued into 2012. And as these numbers increase, the good news is that more and more of them are coming from seniors who are already putting into practice what they have learned from their neighbors, a local presentation, or ‘Fraud Alert’ emails. When someone calls on the phone or knocks on the door asking for their Medicare number, they know to refuse, and then to report it immediately.
This also serves to remind us that no one group, agency, or business owns all of the resources or expertise we need to keep criminals out of our health care system.
Because we all have a stake in preventing health care fraud, we’re all doing our part.
For someone thinking about committing fraud, this means the health care landscape looks a lot less friendly today:
It’s harder than ever to get into the system as a bad actor. Get in and it’s harder still to submit a fraudulent claim. Find a way to submit a claim and you are more likely to get caught. And when you get caught, you’re going to face a tougher punishment.
There is no responsibility that this Administration takes more seriously than safeguarding taxpayer dollars. I am proud of how far we have come. And I look forward to working with all of you in the days and months ahead to build on that progress and protect our health care system for this generation and the next.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
STATE DEPARTMENT LOOKS FOR NEW WAYS TO MANAGE WASTE
FROM THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
U.S. Department of State and Partners Solicit Creative Waste Management Solutions
Media Note Office of the Spokesperson Washington, DC
April 3, 2012
The U.S. Department of State and partners from the LAUNCH: Beyond Waste Forum announce a challenge to identify ten game-changing innovations with the potential to transform current waste management systems and practices. LAUNCH: Beyond Waste seeks transformational solutions to the problem of waste through disruptive innovation, behavioral change, systems design, as well as improved policy and stewardship.
The challenge, which will be open from April 1 to May 15, 2012, asks creative minds to formulate innovative ideas for minimizing waste or transforming it into new products. As the global population increases and consumption trends continue to rise, the importance of sustainable materials management practices cannot be ignored. Safe and environmentally-sound management of waste is essential to conserving natural resources and preventing pollution, improving the health and well-being of global citizens and the environment and helping to prevent conflicts that can stem from resource inequality and poverty.
Ten innovators will be selected to present their technology solutions at the LAUNCH: Beyond Waste sustainability forum hosted by NASA from July 20-22 at the Agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. State Department, along with leaders from a diverse and collaborative world-class body of entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers, government, media and business, will participate in the forum and help guide these innovations forward. The selectees will receive support, mentoring, and networking opportunities from influential business and government leaders.
The State Department, NASA, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and NIKE joined together to form LAUNCH in an effort to identify, showcase and support innovative approaches to global sustainability challenges. LAUNCH searches for visionaries whose world-class ideas, technologies or programs show great promise for making tangible impacts on society in the developed and developing worlds.
VA WORKS TO END VETERAN HOMELESSNESS
FROM AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE
VA Makes Progress on Pledge to End Veteran Homelessness
By Donna Miles
WASHINGTON, April 3, 2012 - The Veterans Affairs Department is making progress on its pledge to end homelessness among veterans, with a focus on getting all homeless veterans off the streets by 2015, VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki told American Forces Press Service.
WASHINGTON, April 3, 2012 - The Veterans Affairs Department is making progress on its pledge to end homelessness among veterans, with a focus on getting all homeless veterans off the streets by 2015, VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki told American Forces Press Service.
Shinseki joined President Barack Obama in announcing the plan in November 2009, proclaiming that no veteran should ever have to be living on the streets.
VA is working toward that goal, Shinseki told Congress last month, reporting that the number of homeless veterans on a given night dropped from 76,300 in 2010 to about 67,500 in 2011. The next goal, he said, is to drive those numbers down to 35,000 by the end of fiscal 2013, and ultimately, to zero.
As Shinseki set out to transform VA after arriving in 2009, he made the homeless issue a top priority in getting to the bottom of what he viewed as an institutional problem.
"Homelessness among veterans was a demonstration to me that we didn't have all our programs knitted together," he said. "As good as we thought we were doing in health care and other benefits, ... we had people who were slipping through the gaps in our programs -- most visibly, the homeless."
Getting homeless veterans off the streets, particularly within such a tight timeline, would be the driving force in creating positive change throughout VA, he explained.
"If you say you are going to end homelessness, then you have to be good at everything else," he said. "If you declare to end it, you have to figure out all the pieces that contribute to it so you can begin solving the pieces in order for the whole to be solved."
That, he said, requires making sure VA is addressing the root causes behind homelessness.
It means more than simply getting veterans into school; it means making sure they graduate, he explained. It's not just sending them for vocational training; it's ensuring they finish the training and are postured to land a job.
"That's how you beat homelessness," Shinseki said. "It's not the front door. It's the back door. What did they gain out of the program?"
To support this effort, VA's budget request for fiscal 2013 includes nearly $1.4 billion for programs designed to prevent or end homelessness among veterans. This represents a 33 percent increase, or $333 million, over the 2012 funding level.
The additional funding will provide grants and technical assistance to community nonprofit organizations to maintain veterans and their families in current housing or get them quickly into new housing. It also will provide grants and per diem payments for community-based organizations offering transitional housing to 32,000 veterans.
Shinseki also plans to hire 200 coordinators to help homeless veterans with disability claims, housing problems, job and vocational opportunities and problems with the courts.
Since announcing his homeless initiative, Shinseki said, he's come to understand that dealing with homelessness is really a two-part challenge.
It's one thing to get homeless veterans physically off the streets in what he calls the "rescue" part of the challenge. Shinseki said he feels confident that this part of the mission to be completed by 2015, as promised.
But the less visible and more challenging part of the problem, he said, is addressing a population that's at risk of becoming homeless. These, Shinseki explained, are veterans who are "one paycheck, one mortgage payment, one more missed utility bill away from being evicted."
"We never see that. But if we are going to truly end homelessness, we have to have a better picture of [that]... and go into prevention mode," Shinseki said. "Otherwise, you will never be able to solve this."
So while he expects the rescue mission to wrap up in 2015, Shinseki said, he'll be able to dedicate more resources toward an ongoing prevention effort.
"If you don't stop this faucet, you never end homelessness," he said.
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