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Press Release

Three Individuals In Southern District Of Texas To Receive Attorney General Award

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

HOUSTON - Attorney General Eric Holder announced today that 270 Justice Department employees and 53 individuals, including one former and two current Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSAs) in the Southern District of Texas, will receive an Attorney General Award. These annual awards recognize department employees and other individuals for their dedication to carrying out the Department of Justice’s mission.   

“Despite significant challenges, evolving threats, and unprecedented budgetary difficulties, these dedicated employees have exemplified the very best of what it means to serve the American people,” said Holder. “Over the past year, each of them has gone above and beyond the call of duty to carry out the Justice Department’s critical mission and protect our fellow citizens. Some of these remarkable men and women have placed their own lives at great risk in order to save others. All of these employees and their families have made tremendous sacrifices in the name of public service. I am proud, and humbled, to count them as colleagues. And I congratulate them on this prestigious and well-deserved recognition.”

AUSAs Jason Varnado and Kristine Rollinson and former AUSA Gregg Costa (now a U.S. District Judge in the Southern District of Texas) will be honored with the John Marshall Award for Trial of Litigation.

“The prosecution efforts demonstrated by these three AUSAs exemplified the highest standards that all attorneys in the Department of Justice attempt to achieve,” said United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson. “It is a true demonstration of the high quality work of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas. 

TheJohn Marshall Awards are the Department of Justice’s highest awards offered to attorneys, for contributions and excellence in specialized areas of legal performance. 

The John Marshall Award for Trial of Litigation is being presented to Varnado, Rollinson and Costa from the Southern District of Texas along with a team of attorneys from the Criminal Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the District of Columbia for the successful prosecution of Allen Stanford, a perpetrator of one of the largest white collar crimes in history. The tenacity and skill of this team of attorneys directly led to a 110-year prison conviction for devastating the lives of more than 30,000 victims in a fraudulent scheme that cost the perpetrator’s investors more than $7 billion in losses. Over the course of two hard-fought jury trials, this team’s work ethic and meticulous attention to detail proved successful in finding justice for these victims.

Also being honored in this case are Trial Attorney Andrew H. Warren and Deputy Chiefs Jeffrey A. Goldbergand William J. Stellmach of the Fraud Section of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division as well as Kondi Kleinman, AUSA in the District of Columbia and former Trial Attorney for the Criminal Division’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section.

Updated April 30, 2015