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Richland, Washington – Vanessa R. Waldref, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, today announced that a fully staffed branch of the United States Attorney’s Office will be opening in Richland, Washington. At a press event earlier today, US Attorney Waldref stated, “The number of cases prosecuted by the Richland Division of my office has increased significantly over the past two decades. As the number of cases continued to grow, it became clear that we needed dedicated Assistant United States Attorneys, living and working in the Tri-Cities area, to support our federal, state and local partners and ensure that the criminal defendants who commit federal. crimes will be prosecuted to the fullest extent.”

Upon learning that the United States Attorney’s Office will open a staffed Richland Office, Senior United States District Court Judge Edward F. Shea stated, “I am pleased to join in celebrating the -expansion of the United States Attorney’s Office in Richland. This expansion will strengthen ongoing Federal-Local law enforcement efforts in Southeast Washington for the benefit of all who live here.”

The Richland Division of the United States Attorney’s Office is located in the Richland Courthouse and Federal Building, located at 825 Jadwin Avenue in Richland, Washington. As of 2019, the United States Attorney’s Office has prosecuted an average of approximately 70 cases each year arising in the Richland Division. While the US Attorney’s Office continued to prosecute a high volume of cases in Richland, the federal prosecutors handling these cases have been traveling from Spokane and Yakima to appear for hearings in federal court of Richland.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington represents the United States in federal litigation, both criminal and civil, in the twenty counties of Washington east of the crest of the Cascade Mountains. The Eastern District is home to approximately 1.5 million people, of which approximately 400,000 live in the Tri-Cities metropolitan area. The United States Attorney’s Office is responsible for the enforcement of federal criminal, civil, administrative and tax laws. The Office works closely with federal, state and local partners with one main goal: To ensure that justice is served in each individual case. The Richland Office, when fully staffed, is expected to have two full-time Assistant United States Attorneys and one paralegal.

“Many of the most significant cases and federal crimes we prosecute involve conduct in the Tri-Cities area,” said US Attorney Waldref. She continued, “When I became US Attorney a little over a year ago, one of my top priorities was to build on the work the Department of Justice has been doing in the Tri-Cities. Today’s announcement is a realization of our goal to ensure that the United States Attorney’s Office has a permanent, staffed presence serving Benton, Franklin, and Walla Walla Counties. We are fortunate to already have Special Assistant United States Attorney Laurel J. Holland, who has prosecuted state and federal cases in the Tri-Cities area since 2009. In the coming months, we anticipate that two additional AUSAs will be joining SAUSA Holland in our Richland Office to pursue justice on behalf of the Tri-Cities area and the East all of Washington.”

The following are some of the recent significant federal cases prosecuted outside the Tri-Cities area:

• Ayoola Taiwo Adeoti, 4:22-CR-06005-SAB, charged with commercial email compromise, money laundering, and bank fraud conspiracy involving defrauding the government of approximately three-quarters of a million dollars -Benton County;

• HPM Corporation; 4:22-MJ-07038-JPH, a March 2022 global criminal and civil fraud settlement recovering $3 million from the Hanford Site prime contractor for fraudulent COVID-19 relief claims under -Paycheck Protection Program;

• Ali Abed Yaser, et al., 4:21-CR-6042-SMJ, twenty-three people indicted in January 2022, for an alleged staged car accident scheme;

• Cody Easterday, 4:21-cr-06012-SAB, sentenced to 11 years and $244 million in restitution in October 2022 for a massive fraud scheme involving fictitious cattle;

• U.S. ex rel. Avila v. Sunrhys, LLC, 4:21-cv-05013-TOR, a civil prosecution involving civil rights violations and housing fraud, resulting in a July 2022 recovery of significant civil penalties and other remedial measures for a landlord in ‘Walla Walla who was overcharging tenants and fraudulently obtained federal subsidies intended to assist homeless veterans;

• U.S. ex rel. Yam v. Providence Health and Services; 4:20-CV-05004-SMJ, civil fraud prosecution and recovery in April 2022 of more than $22.7 million for fraudulent billing of medically unnecessary neurosurgical procedures to Medicare and Medicaid at Providence Medical Center St. Mary’s Walla Walla;

• Trent Drexel Howard, 4:19-CR-06036-SMJ, sentenced to 23 years in federal prison in January 2022 for child pornography offenses after being extradited from Kazakhstan;

• Julio Leal Parra et. al., 4:19-CR-06061-SAB, sentenced to 16 years for a major drug trafficking conspiracy involving ties to the Sinaloa cartel – Parra was one of five defendants charged in the case;

• Dr. Janet Sue Arnold, 4:18-CR-6044-EFS-1, sentenced to four years in federal prison in April 2022, for conspiring to distribute medically unnecessary fentanyl patches, opioid pills and other controlled substances outside of -its medical practice;

• Dale Gordon Black, 4:18-CR-6029-EFS, sentenced to 30 years in prison in July 2019, for producing child pornography;

• Hector Medina, 4:18-cr-06024-SMJ, sentenced to 15 years for overdose death and drug trafficking conspiracy;

• Reynaldo Perez Munoz, 4:18-CR-6008-EFS, sentenced to 26 years in a transnational conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and to launder money obtained from illegal drug distribution;

• Josue Medina-Perez and Francisco Delgado, 19-CR-06018-EFS, a ten-count transnational drug conspiracy, which was one of the first fentanyl conspiracies involving the prosecution of a source of supply based on Arizona;

• Sami Anwar, 4:18-cr-5064-EFS, sentenced to more than 28 years in October, 2020, after a three-week trial for falsifying human clinical research data;

• Rosalio Emmanuel Sanchez, 4:17-CR-06014-WFN-6, sentenced to 22 years in prison in May 2019, for distributing illegal narcotics in the Tri-Cities area after a five-day jury trial in Richland;

• Bechtel Corporation et al., 4:17-CV-5074-SMJ, civil fraud prosecution and recovery in September 2020 of $57.75 million from the Hanford Site prime contractor for fraudulent overbilling on a project radioactive waste treatment plant;

• Miles Barton Nichols, 4:16-CR-6033-EFS-1, sentenced to life in prison in 2018 after being convicted in two separate jury trials of drug trafficking and firearms offenses .

• U.S. ex rel. Savage v. CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company; U.S. ex rel. Savage v. Washington Closure Hanford, et al; 4:14-CV-5002-SMJ and 4:10-CV-5051-SMJ; recoveries of approximately $10 million between 2017 and 2021 from Hanford Site contractors for the use of fraudulent small business front companies in Hanford Site subcontracts.

• Bechtel National Inc., 13-CV-5013-EFS, civil fraud prosecution and $125 million recovery in November 2016 from a Hanford Site contractor for use of substandard materials, quality assurance violations , and improper use of federal funds for lobbying activity.

• CH2M Hill Hanford Group, 09-CV-5038-EFS, civil and criminal prosecutions of time payment fraud at the Hanford Site, resulting in twelve criminal convictions and recovery of more than $18.5 million in damages and penalties between 2012 and 2015.

Currently the Tri-Cities area is served by several federal judges: U.S. Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Salvador Mendoza, Jr.; Senior United States District Court Judge Edward F. Shea, United States District Court Judge Mary K. Dimke, and United States Magistrate Judge Alexander C. Ekstrom. Relatedly, many federal law enforcement agencies – to include the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Customs and Border Protection, Drug Enforcement Administration; FBI; Homeland Security Investigations; Department of Energy Office of Inspector General; and the United States Marshal’s Service to name a few – have offices, agents, and task force officers in the Tri-Cities area.

Regarding the federal presence in the area, US Attorney Waldref added, “We will continue to support our federal, state and local partners who have a long-established presence in Benton, Franklin, and Walla Walla Counties. We have been working closely with our law enforcement partners in Southeast Washington for years, and we are thrilled to build even stronger relationships to make our growing communities in this region more safe and sound.”

United States Attorney Vanessa R. Waldref is the Chief Law Enforcement Officer for the Eastern District of Washington. She leads an office of 29 Assistant United States Attorneys: 23 in Spokane and 6 in Yakima. In the near future, that number is anticipated to grow by at least 2 in the new Richland Office with staff.

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