Skip to main content
Press Release

Attorney General Holder Recognizes Department Employees And Others For Their Service At Annual Awards Ceremony

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York

Attorney General Eric Holder recognized 278 department employees earlier this week, including six from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, for their distinguished public service at the 62nd Annual Attorney General’s Awards Ceremony. Held Wednesday at DAR Constitution Hall, this annual ceremony recognized both department employees and others for their outstanding dedication to carrying out the Department of Justice’s missions.

Attorney General Holder stated: “With this important event, we come together to honor some of our nation’s most distinguished, dedicated, and deserving public servants. The hard work and impressive achievements of these 278 award recipients have inspired their colleagues at every level of the U.S. Department of Justice – including me. Their leadership has been indispensable in defining the past year as one of historic accomplishment in the face of nearly unprecedented challenge.”

Six Assistant U.S. Attorneys from the Office of Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara were honored at the ceremony.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara stated: “I am exceedingly proud of the accomplishments of the prosecutors in the Bernard Madoff investment fraud. Their tireless work uncovering the breadth of the scheme has led to multiple indictments and convictions, ensuring that all who played a role in the largest Ponzi scheme in history are brought to justice. Their ongoing efforts to achieve meaningful compensation for victims show their commitment not just to holding accountable those responsible for the fraud, but to making the victims whole.”

The John Marshall Award for Asset Forfeiture was presented to Assistant U.S. Attorneys Arlo Devlin-Brown, Christopher D. Frey, Randall Wade Jackson, Paul M. Monteleoni, Matthew L. Schwartz, and John T. Zach for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Barbara A. Ward of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey. This team is responsible for the investigation and prosecution of various cases stemming from the collapse of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, which was revealed in December 2008 to be the largest Ponzi scheme in history. In the five years since Bernard Madoff was arrested for orchestrating his massive Ponzi scheme, the team conducted an international investigation that resulted in the prosecution of more than a dozen individuals; a deferred prosecution agreement with JPMorgan Chase Bank; and the forfeiture and collection of more than $4 billion. The forfeited funds are being distributed through the largest and most ambitious remission project in the department’s history, where it will reach thousands of victims in dozens of countries, and serve as a precedent for future large-scale remission programs. The team’s extraordinary work, including its novel use of forfeiture, has ensured a meaningful measure of recompense to thousands of innocent victims who otherwise would not have recovered anything from the failed investments.

Updated May 15, 2015

Press Release Number: 14-299