Five Assistant United States Attorneys Honored for Their Work in Significant Criminal and Civil Cases in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

PHILADELPHIA, PA – United States Attorney William M. McSwain announced today that five members of this Office will be honored for their exemplary service in cases that have had a profound impact on the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.  Assistant United States Attorneys Margaret Hutchinson, Nelson S.T. Thayer, and Linwood C. Wright each were selected for a Director’s Award from the Executive Office of the United States Attorneys (“EOUSA”).  Assistant United States Attorneys Veronica Finkelstein and Charlene Keller Fullmer were selected for the Cooperative Achievement Award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General.

“This talented group of public servants – comprised of AUSAs from our Civil and Criminal Divisions – exemplifies the depth and breadth of talent we have in this Office.  The contributions they have made reflect the hard work, dedication, and sacrifice it takes to serve so honorably in the law enforcement profession.  I am incredibly proud to serve with them every day,” said U.S. Attorney McSwain.  

EOUSA Director’s Awards

EOUSA Director’s Awards recognize employees of the United States Attorneys’ offices (USAOs) and EOUSA, as well as other individuals, who have supported the mission of these offices and who have distinguished themselves through extraordinary professional achievements and excellence.  The awards ceremony will take place in Washington, DC, later this year.  EOUSA provides oversight, general executive assistance, and direction to the 94 United States Attorneys’ offices around the country.  For more information on EOUSA and its mission, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao.

AUSAs Nelson Thayer and Linwood C. (“LC”) Wright.  Thayer and Wright have been named as recipients of the EOUSA Director’s Award for Superior Performance by a Litigative Team, for their successful prosecution in United States v. Mohammed Jabbateh.  They are receiving this award alongside colleagues from the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Embassy in Liberia.

While a commander of one of the warring factions during Liberia’s first civil war, Jabbateh committed acts of the deepest depravity, including sexual assault and enslavement, murder, mutilation, and ritual cannibalism.  As a result of the dedication and tireless efforts of Thayer, Wright, and their team, Jabbateh was convicted in October 2017 following a two-week jury trial on charges of immigration fraud and perjury, based on his multiple lies to U.S. immigration officials in which he concealed his horrendous wartime conduct.  In April 2018, Jabbateh was sentenced to the maximum possible sentence of 30 years’ imprisonment, the most severe sentence ever imposed in such a case. https://www.justice.gov/usao-edpa/pr/former-liberian-war-lord-known-jungle-jabbah-sentenced-30-years-prison-immigration.

Former AUSA and Civil Division Chief Margaret “Peg” Hutchinson.  Hutchinson will be awarded the EOUSA Director’s first-ever Lifetime Exceptional Service Award.  She is being recognized for her exceptional contributions to the USAO community over her nearly thirty years as a civil AUSA, including as the Civil Division Chief and as the leader of the national Civil Chiefs Working Group.  Hutchinson led impactful affirmative civil enforcement litigation against hospitals, pharmaceutical and device companies, elder care providers, polluters, and others in areas that were or would become DOJ priorities.  She also made significant, enduring contributions to DOJ’s efforts to implement programs, develop and deliver training, and shape policies and procedures to support affirmative civil enforcement and to ensure that USAOs have the necessary resources to carry out their missions.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General’s Cooperative Achievement Award

The HHS Inspector General’s Cooperative Achievement Award is given each year to reward exemplary collaboration on case work involving healthcare fraud matters.  The selected recipients have demonstrated extraordinary work on a national level in detecting and combating health care fraud, waste, and abuse.  The awards ceremony will take place later this year.

AUSAs Veronica Finkelstein and Charlene Keller Fullmer.  Finkelstein and Fullmer (as well as team members from the HHS Office of Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice in Washington, DC, and other U.S. Attorney’s offices) are receiving this award for their work in the Health Management Associates (“HMA”) case.  The award recognizes their contribution to the $260 million multi-district resolution of several qui tam suits against HMA, its hospitals Lancaster Regional and Heart of Lancaster, and the physicians group Physicians Alliance Ltd. (“PAL”).  

Finkelstein and Fullmer directly handled a $55 million component of that settlement resolving allegations that the defendants paid kickbacks to physicians at HMA facilities, including PAL members, who solicited and/or received kickbacks.  The financial relationships between the HMA defendants, including subsidiaries and referring physicians, allegedly violated a host of laws, including the Anti-Kickback Statute.  There were numerous kickback methods involved in the scheme:  physicians participating in whole-hospital joint ventures of HMA facilities, physicians receiving excessive compensation, physicians receiving bogus co-management fees, and physicians receiving bogus medical directorship fees. https://www.justice.gov/usao-edpa/pr/national-hospital-chain-will-pay-over-260-million-resolve

The HMA multi-district resolution is one of the largest False Claims Act cases involving hospital systems in the Department’s history, in terms of the number of qui tam actions filed against a single healthcare provider across multiple districts.  The HMA case also is remarkable in its scope of collaboration because it involved both criminal prosecutions and parallel civil enforcement proceedings.