U.S. Attorney Walt Green Announces His Resignation

BATON ROUGE, LA - United States Attorney Walt Green announced today that he has submitted his resignation as United States Attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana effective March 10, 2017.

U.S. Attorney Green stated: “I wish to thank my incredible staff and law enforcement family for all their support over the years as I respectfully submit my resignation as United States Attorney. With over twenty-seven years as a United States Marine and twenty years as a member of the Department of Justice, I will treasure all my memories of public service to this great nation.”

As U.S. Attorney, Mr. Green prioritized protecting the district from terrorism and threats to national security, violent crime, human trafficking, as well as cyber threats, corruption, and fraud, with a special emphasis on assisting victims of crime.

Mr. Green fought human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children by surging the number of prosecutors to aggressively pursue offenders and significantly expanding his Middle District Human Trafficking Task Force. His tenure saw prosecutions resulting in human traffickers being sentenced to 192 and 115 month sentences; a 20-year sentence for an offender who extorted children into producing child pornography; and a 25-year sentence for an offender who expressed interest in kidnapping and sexually abusing a child. He and his task force also engaged in outreach efforts aimed at educating law enforcement agencies, non-profit organizations, medical providers, and others about recognizing and investigating human trafficking and, most importantly, assisting its victims.

Violent crime was a focus throughout his tenure, forming a united front with federal, state, and local law enforcement. His leadership saw a doubling of the number of Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) operations aimed at large-scale and violent drug organizations, gangs, and cartels (including the prosecution of 39 offenders in Operation Third World, the largest such prosecution in the history of the district); a surge in the number of federal gun prosecutions over the last year through Operation Joint Endeavor; the launching of a new initiative, dubbed “Project Infiniti”, to increase federal prosecutions of violent drug offenders; the creation and staffing of the multi-jurisdictional Violent Crimes Unit and the Crime Strategies Unit; co-leading the Baton Rouge Area Violence Elimination program; and leading reentry and diversion efforts aimed at reducing recidivism.

Mr. Green created and led the Middle District of Louisiana’s innovative cyber security initiative, a comprehensive effort to increase awareness of cyber security issues, better protect potential victims in the district, and take a more aggressive approach at initiating criminal investigations and prosecutions where appropriate. Through his leadership, Mr. Green established new relationships with his district’s federal, state, and local law enforcement partners; established a new law enforcement working group to better address and respond to cyber threats affecting the Middle District; and directed a significant investment in outreach to the private sector and business community. Mr. Green’s efforts led to a significant increase in the number of cyber- and computer crime-related criminal investigations being led by his office.

Mr. Green aggressively pursued white collar criminals, including corrupt public officials and those seeking to defraud government programs and private entities, which included the district’s first insider trading prosecutions, in connection with the sale of The Shaw Group, and its first prosecution of the Bank Secrecy Act’s anti-money laundering provisions.

His efforts included overseeing the continuation of the district’s successful health care fraud initiative, including the efforts of the Baton Rouge Medicare Fraud Strike Force, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Justice’s multi-agency effort to fight Medicare fraud. By dedicating significant, additional office resources to the anti-health care fraud effort, and partnering with the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division and dedicated Strike Force attorneys, Mr. Green’s office convicted numerous defendants of health care fraud and related schemes, obtained dozens of lengthy prison sentences (including several of the longest sentences for health care fraud in the history of the district), and obtained judgments and restitution orders totaling tens of millions of dollars.

Throughout his tenure, Mr. Green demonstrated his commitment to bringing to justice those who violated the civil rights of others, including convicting three former state corrections officers in the beating of an inmate, convicting the Sorrento police chief in a civil rights investigation, and, most recently, charging four former supervisory correctional officers with beating a handcuffed and shackled inmate.

Mr. Green led his civil division in using the civil process to combat healthcare fraud, protect the interests of the United States, forfeit criminal proceeds, and collect millions of dollars in criminal and civil judgments for victims of crime, the U.S. Treasury, and various agencies.

Mr. Green is also the Executive Director of the National Center for Disaster Fraud (“NCDF”), formerly the Hurricane Katrina Fraud Command Center, located in Baton Rouge. The NCDF is the central point for the receipt and processing of disaster fraud-related complaints nationwide and facilitates complaints to the appropriate federal, state, and local investigative agencies.

On March 13, 2014, President Obama nominated Mr. Green for the position of United States Attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana. The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Mr. Green’s nomination on May 1, 2014, and he was sworn-in on June 2, 2014. Mr. Green oversaw a district comprised of nine parishes and approximately one million residents, managing a staff of 60 attorneys and support personnel.

Mr. Green earned his B.A. from Louisiana State University and his J.D. from Tulane Law School. From 1993 through 1997, he served on active duty in the United States Marine Corps. In 1999, he became an Assistant United States Attorney in Las Vegas. He then returned to Baton Rouge where he continued serving as an Assistant United States Attorney. Prior to becoming U.S. Attorney, Green served as the Acting United States Attorney (2013-2014), the First Assistant United States Attorney (2010-2013), and the Deputy Criminal Chief in charge of the Violent Crime and Narcotics Section (2001-2010). He also served as the Anti-Terrorism Advisory Committee Coordinator, the Anti-Terrorism Task Force Coordinator, and the Weapons of Mass Destruction Coordinator.

Mr. Green’s commitment to public service also includes twenty-seven years of disguished service in the United States Marine Corps, including two tours of duty in Iraq. He continues to serve in the Reserve, holding the rank of Colonel.