PROSECUTORS IN TAMPA CELEBRATE 'BANNER YEAR'

TAMPA - The number of indictments in civil cases for the Middle
District of Florida has increased since 2007, along with the amount of
money seized in fraud cases, the U.S. attorney's office said Thursday.

"It's been a banner year," interim U.S. Attorney Robert E. O'Neill
said. "We've had more indictments than we've ever had before."

The U.S. attorney's office handed down 494 indictments in Tampa in
2008, up from 456 last year. For the entire Middle District, federal
prosecutors issued 1,375 indictments, up from 1,148.

The federal agency seized $16.5 million in assets, a $2 million
increase from 2007. The U.S. attorney's office's financial litigation
unit collected more than $9.8 million. Of that number, more than $3
million was connected to health care fraud, according to a preliminary
report released Thursday.

Also, $11.3 million was recovered by the office's affirmative civil
enforcement unit, a department that focuses on fraud that affects
federal programs and the health care industry. This year, the
department recovered $7.4 million from a pharmaceutical company for
the improper sale of prescription drugs to Internet pharmacies and $3
million in cash from a roofing contractor that performed shoddy work
at the officer's club at Patrick Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral.

The total amount of money seized - more than $36 million - exceeds the
office's budget of $20 million, O'Neill said.

"When you bring in double of what you expend, the taxpayers are being
served," he said.

O'Neill pointed out three factors that led to the upswing in
indictments and money seized: a good relationship with local law
enforcement agencies, the hiring of 25 new prosecutors over the past
year, and the more tenured prosecutors "taking stock of what they
have" and realizing they have a good job and have a chance to make a
difference.

The youth and energy of the new hires appears to have rubbed off on
the elder prosecutors, O'Neill said.

"When you have an influx of new people, the energy level goes up," he
said.

The U.S. attorney's office expects to release a more detailed report
in about a month, spokesman Steve Cole said.