United States Attorney
Northern District of Texas

1100 Commerce St., 3rd Fl.
Dallas, Texas 75242-1699

Telephone (214) 659-8600
Fax (214) 767-0978

FEDERAL PROSECUTORS RECEIVE NATIONAL AWARD

United States Attorney Richard B. Roper announced that Assistant United States Attorneys Joseph M. Revesz and Nancy Larson, Special Assistant United States Attorney David A. Beck, and former Assistant United States Attorney Rose Romero, who now serves as the District Administrator for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, were awarded the prestigious President’s Counsel on Integrity and Efficiency Award at a ceremony held in Washington, D.C. last week.

The President’s Counsel on Integrity and Efficiency (PCIE) was established by Executive Order in 1981 and in 1992, another Executive Order reaffirmed the PCIE and established the Executive Council on Integrity and Efficiency (ECIE). Both councils are inter-agency committees chaired by the Office of Management and Budget’s Deputy Director for Management. Their mission is to continually identify, review and discuss areas of weakness and vulnerability in federal programs and operations to fraud, waste, and abuse, and to develop plans for coordinated, government-wide activities that address these problems and promote economy and efficiency in federal programs and operations.

Assistant United States Attorney Revesz and Special Assistant United States Attorney Beck, a Senior Attorney with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), were recognized, along with Special Agent Ken Meyd, FDIC Office of Inspector General, for their outstanding work in investigating and prosecuting illegal concealment of assets, arising from their work in the successful prosecution and conviction of Edwin T. McBirney, III, who was sentenced this month to 97 months imprisonment and ordered to pay a criminal forfeiture of $2,054,366.00 and $312,828.00 restitution. McBirney was convicted in January on 27 counts of a superseding indictment charging him with six counts of mail fraud, 11 counts of making false statements, nine counts of concealing assets from the FDIC and one count ofmoney laundering. McBirney hid millions of dollars that he was ordered to use to pay the government back after a previous bank fraud conviction, in a trust that he controlled. McBirney, 54, is the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the now defunct Sunbelt Savings of Texas whose insolvency cost taxpayers approximately $1.2 billion, according to the FDIC.

Assistant United States Attorney Larson and then Assistant United States Attorney Romero, along with FBI Special Agent T.J. Gaylor, were recognized for outstanding achievement in the successful prosecution of James Demik and three co-defendants who schemed to defraud the Small Business Administration of more than $100 million. A federal jury convicted Demik, a real-estate lawyer from Dallas, in March 2005 on one count of conspiracy, one count of bank fraud, and eight counts of money laundering. Another co-defendant was convicted at trial and two co-defendants pled guilty to their role in the scheme prior to trial. The defendants submitted fraudulent documents, inflated checking account deposits and submitted fraudulent “gift letters” to deceive bank representatives during the loan approval process. They also used escrowed loan proceeds to purchase cashier’s checks which were then used as down payments for loans to hide that the down payments were funded by the loan proceeds. Demik, age 67, was sentenced to 60 months imprisonment and ordered to pay $8,884,253.00 restitution and a criminal forfeiture of $9,975,000.00

U.S. Attorney Roper said, “These lawyers have a truly remarkable record of outstanding achievements in making contributions to the Department of Justice and its efforts to conquer fraud and corruption. I especially want to recognize David Beck, who worked out of our Financial Litigation Unit to search out McBirney’s assets and others with million dollar judgments owed to the FDIC, and who then teamed up with Joe Revesz and Ken Meyd to investigate and try the case.” Roper continued, “This award from the President’s Counsel on Integrity and Efficiency is true recognition of Joe, Nancy, Rose, David, Ken and T.J’'s dedication to duty and professionalism.”

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