DENVER - Attorney General Eric Holder has appointed Colorado U.S. Attorney John Walsh to serve as co-chair of Holder’s White Collar/Fraud Subcommittee. The subcommittee is part of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC), which is comprised of U.S. Attorneys from across the country to provide the Attorney General with guidance on a variety of critical Department of Justice issues. Walsh recently concluded a two-year appointment to that committee. U.S. Attorney Walsh joins U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag, who serves the Northern District of California, who is currently serving as co-chair of the White Collar/Fraud Subcommittee.
The White Collar/Fraud Subcommittee has been in the forefront of the U.S. Attorney’s efforts to prosecute white collar crime, including investor fraud. In Colorado, while Walsh has been U.S. Attorney, there have been a number of significant fraud cases, including the prosecution of Philip Lochmiller Jr. and Sr., Mark Yost, Michael Van Gilder, Gerald Rising and James Burg.
In addition to Walsh’s role as co-chair of the White Collar/Fraud Subcommittee, he also serves as one of five national co-chairs of the Attorney General’s Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) Fraud Working Group. The Residential Mortgage-Backed Security (RMBS) Working Group of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force was established by the Attorney General in late January 2012. The working group has been dedicated since February 2012 to initiating, organizing, and advancing new and existing investigations by federal and state authorities into fraud and abuse in the RMBS market that helped precipitate the 2008 financial crisis. The RMBS Working Group is part of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (FFETF ).
“It is an honor to serve as co-chair of these critical white collar crime prosecution groups," said U.S. Attorney John Walsh. “Since first becoming an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the 1980s, prosecution of white collar offenses has been a focus and a passion of mine, as reflected in the many cases I’ve worked both while an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles as well as while serving as U.S. Attorney here in Colorado."
Walsh has served as Colorado’s U.S. Attorney since August 2010, after being nominated by President Barack Obama and subsequently unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. #
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
