MIAMI – Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, announced today that that he will step down from his post on March 3, 2017. Mr. Ferrer tendered his resignation to President Donald J. Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“There has been no greater honor than to serve and protect the same community that opened its arms to my parents when they immigrated to this country,” stated U.S. Attorney Ferrer. “For almost seven years, I have been blessed to work alongside the remarkable men and women in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, community leaders, and our federal, state and local law enforcement partners who strive tirelessly to combat crime and promote a safer, stronger and more united District. I am incredibly proud of all that we have been able to accomplish together, in and out of the courtroom, including building meaningful bonds of trust with the diverse community we serve.”
Ferrer was nominated by President Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2010 to serve as the chief federal law enforcement officer for the Southern District of Florida. In 2014, Ferrer was appointed by Attorney General Eric Holder to serve a two-year term on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC). In January 2016, Ferrer was reappointed to serve on the AGAC by Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Since his appointment as U.S. Attorney, Mr. Ferrer has led the nation’s third largest U.S. Attorney’s Office as a dedicated public servant.
During Mr. Ferrer’s tenure, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has indicted over 11,000 cases and charged more than 18,000 defendants for their participation in criminal activity impacting the Southern District of Florida and beyond. With some of the busiest litigators in the country, the Office consistently handles more trials than almost every other office. Since 2010, the Office has conducted almost 1,000 trials. In addition, the Office has seized, forfeited, and collected millions of dollars as part of its efforts to recover money and assets and seek restitution for crime victims. Between 2010-2016, the Office collected approximately $591 million in criminal and civil actions. During this same time period, the Office, working with partner agencies, has collected over $384 million in criminal and civil forfeitures. This is remarkable considering the Office’s annual budget is approximately $43 million.
Protecting Our Nation’s Security
From the outset of his appointment as the District’s U.S. Attorney, Mr. Ferrer’s top priority has been prosecuting and deterring acts of terrorism.
- Since his creation of the Office’s National Security Section in 2013, there has been a threefold increase in the number of active national security cases prosecuted by the Office.
- In support of the National Security mission, Mr. Ferrer created the Department’s First National Security Intelligence Unit at a District level to provide crucial, real time support to time sensitive national security, transnational organized crime and international narcotics matters.
In addition, National Security prosecutors:
- Convicted a man who conspired to raise funds and send them abroad in support of the Pakistani Taliban;
- Convicted a South Florida resident who attempted to use a weapon of mass destruction on a public beach and provide material support to a terrorist organization;
- Obtained lengthy prison sentences against two terror group operatives who conspired and attempted to raise funds and recruits for the al-Qaeda group in Somalia and an affiliate in Syria;
- Secured the maximum statutory sentences for two South Florida brothers who were working to stage a terrorist attack in New York;
- Disrupted a significant number of home grown violent extremists inspired by terror groups to try to carry out terror attacks; and
- Charged the individual alleged to have killed five people and wounded others at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport with federal offenses that authorize penalties up to and including the death penalty.
Combatting Fraud
Throughout Mr. Ferrer’s tenure, he focused on the broad range of evolving financial crimes that plague the district, including health care fraud, identity theft, complex investment and securities frauds, Ponzi schemes, boiler room operations, bank fraud, corporate fraud, broad-scale mortgage fraud, computer fraud, tax fraud, unemployment insurance fraud, and bankruptcy fraud.
Health Care Fraud– Since 2010, the Office has been a nationwide leader in health care fraud prosecutions, charging 658 health care fraud cases and 1,230 defendants. In 2016, the Office was part of a multi-district team that charged the largest single criminal health care fraud case ever brought against individuals by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Identity Theft Schemes - In 2012, Mr. Ferrer created the South Florida Identity Theft Strike Force to aggressively attack rampant identity tax refund fraud in the district. This collective law enforcement initiative evolved into a permanent Stolen Fraud (SIF) Strike Force to combat the multi-faceted criminal enterprises that use stolen personal identifying information to commit other crimes. Since the inception of the Strike Force, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has charged more than 600 defendants responsible for over $400 million in intended losses.
Diverse Financial Fraud Schemes– The Office has also been a leader in financial fraud prosecutions. The Office’s prosecutions and recoveries included:
- Full restitution to the defrauded investors of a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme led by defendant and former high profile civil attorney Scott Rothstein;
- A 40-year prison sentence and over $300 million forfeiture judgment against the orchestrator of a $300 million-dollar fraud scheme involving the sales of vacation rental units;
- The conviction of the owner of a for profit college that orchestrated a scheme to defraud federal loan programs of $25 million;
- A sentence of more than 5 years in prison for the former mayor of North Miami following her conviction at trial for orchestrating an $8 million mortgage fraud scheme; and
- The first extradition of a Jamaican national for his role in a lottery scam targeting senior citizens in the U.S.
In addition, the Southern District is the only Office with an Environmental Crimes Unit outside of Main Justice that investigates and prosecutes criminal violations of environmental and wildlife protection laws. During Mr. Ferrer’s tenure, the Unit has:
- Obtained the largest-ever criminal penalty against a company for deliberate pollution by a seagoing vessel;
- Prosecuted corporations and individuals that violated hazardous material guidelines and illegally applied pesticides resulting in injuries to a child; and
- Convicted individuals who filed approximately $1.5 million in fraudulent reimbursement claims related to the Deepwater Horizon explosion.
Fighting Public Corruption and Civil Rights Violations
Mr. Ferrer’s commitment to holding those accountable who fail to uphold their duties and betray the public trust and deprive our citizens of the equal protections they deserve is unwavering. A few noteworthy examples of the Office’s support of this commitment include:
- Criminal convictions related to the Opa-Locka corruption investigation;
- Over 160 individuals were convicted in corruption cases, including 33 federal officials, 22 state officials, 66 local officials, and 39 private citizens;
- The conviction of local officials included more than 30 police officers on corruption and/or civil rights charges;
- The criminal conviction of the former Mayor of the City of Sweetwater for using his elected position to facilitate a fraud scheme;
- Settlements and consent decrees with the Davie Fire Department and Palm Beach County School Board to resolve allegations of employment discrimination due to pregnancy; and
- In 2016, the Office, in conjunction with the Department of Justice, negotiated a comprehensive settlement agreement with the City of Miami and the Miami Police Department (MPD) following findings of excessive use of force through officer involved shootings. Under the terms of the settlement, MPD committed to comprehensive reforms to ensure constitutional policing and support public trust.
Thwarting Narcotics Trafficking
Mr. Ferrer increased the Office’s commitment to the prosecution of international drug traffickers and money launderers. In support of this mission, the Office:
- Created the first-in-the-nation BACRIM prosecution unit to combat the leaders and associates of Colombia’s largest and most influential criminal drug trafficking group. Since the unit’s inception, the Office has filed charges against hundreds of defendants associated with the BACRIMs. In addition, Mr. Ferrer became the first U.S. Attorney in history to travel to Colombia, where he met on two occasions with the nation’s president to support and encourage our collective enforcement efforts;
- Created the nation’s first Caribbean Basin initiative to tackle maritime narco-trafficking into the U.S., from that region. The Office has charged hundreds of defendants under this initiative. Between June and November of 2016, the Office, working with its federal law enforcement partners, brought criminal prosecutions based on the interception of over 20 metric tons of cocaine on the high seas;
- Obtained a 150-year prison sentence and $14 million forfeiture judgment against the head of an international narcotics trafficking and money laundering syndicate out of Madrid, Spain; and
- Continues to participate in the extradition and prosecution of alleged international drug traffickers and money launders, including the first extradition from Honduras, Joaquin Guzman Loera (“El Chapo”) from Mexico, and Guy Philippe from Haiti.
The Office also waged a battle against the scourges of pill mills, synthetic drugs, heroin, opiates, and performance enhancing drugs. As a result, the Office:
- Obtained the district’s first federal conviction for unlawful distribution of a controlled substance, Fentanyl, which resulted in death;
- Exposed the illegal pipeline of black market suppliers of performance enhancing drugs to professional athletes during the Biogenesis investigation;
- Thwarted the oxycodone crisis with the crack-down on “pill mills;” and
- Convened a Town Hall, with more than 100 concerned community attendees, to confront the heroin crisis.
Protecting Vulnerable Victims - Human Tracking and Child Exploitation
During Mr. Ferrer’s tenure, the Office continued its dedication to the protection of the most vulnerable members of society. As part of that commitment, the Office:
- Prosecuted over 84 offenders in 50 human trafficking cases;
- Obtained life sentences for two defendants convicted in the district’s first sex trafficking by fraud prosecution and successfully prosecuted the first sex trafficking case in the country based on extraterritorial jurisdiction; and
- Convicted traffickers and abusers who used deception to lure unsuspecting foreign university students into prostitution, preyed on minors in shelters and orphanages, used “sextortion” to induce teenage boys to send sexually explicit photographs and videos, and employed forced labor practices against farm workers.
A Commitment to Violence Reduction
Concerned with the rising tide of violence in our communities, particularly youth gun violence, in 2011, Mr. Ferrer created the Violence Reduction Partnership (VRP), a community-based, holistic, approach to violence reduction that focuses on enforcement, prevention, and the successful reentry of returning citizens into South Florida neighborhoods. The blueprint for the VRP consists of the simultaneous, vigorous pursuit of three prongs:
First Prong-Enforcement: Prosecutors are assigned to specific “hot spot” communities plagued by violence. Between 2011 and 2016, AUSAs filed more than 1,500 cases, involving firearms and violent crime, against more than 1,400 defendants. In addition, the Office:
- Convicted eight defendants charged for their participation in a large-scale armed drug trafficking operation that resulted in the seizure of body armor and assault rifles;
- Convicted the killers of a U.S. Postal Service letter carrier; and
- Prosecuted countless members and associates of the Latin Kings and other neighborhood violent-crime squads.
Second Prong – Prevention: U.S. Attorney Ferrer implemented an array of VRP initiatives that strive to prevent crime in violence plagued communities through mentorship, exposure to positive role models and early literacy development.
- Through the Pre-K Reading Program, Office staff partner with City Year Miami, local attorneys, law enforcement officers/agents, judges, and community volunteers to read to more than 1,200 students a month, in 23 district schools. Each child is given a free book at the end of the program. For many, this is the first book they have ever owned. In total, more than 11,000 books have been distributed to area students.
- Since 2013, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has also invited more than 2,500 students from 45 local schools to meet with prosecutors, inmates and courthouse staff to learn about the importance of making smarter choices in their lives.
Third Prong – Successful Reentry: The Office is committed to reducing recidivism by helping formerly incarcerated individuals successfully reintegrate and contribute to their communities. Reentry initiatives include:
- The Southern District of Florida’s first ever federal Reentry Court, the Court-Assisted Re-Entry (CARE) Initiative, a product of extensive collaboration between the U.S. Attorney’s Office, our U.S. District Court, U.S. Probation, the Federal Public Defender’s Office and others; and
- Reentry and Resource (“in-reach”) Meetings at the local and federal penal institutions that are led by Office representatives and have connected more than 2,000 inmates with much needed social services.
Community Outreach and Policing
Mr. Ferrer has also been an invaluable partner in the district’s efforts to improve relationships between law enforcement and the people they serve. As part of that effort:
- In 2016, during her Community Policing Tour, Attorney General Lynch attended a youth town hall in Miami-Dade and met with officers and students selected for the Peace Ambassadors’ Leadership Program, a pilot program supported by the U.S. Attorney’s Office that encourages students in high-crime communities to be "change agents" - to speak out against violence to their family and peers;
- Since 2015, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has partnered with the Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) to support monthly community resource fairs and food distribution events that have provided over 156 tons of free food and reached over 10,500 area residents; and
- Mr. Ferrer has also met directly with leaders and concerned members of the district’s diverse civic, faith-based, academic and law enforcement communities at mosques, temples, churches, schools, police departments and community centers to open channels of communication.
Civil Division
Under Mr. Ferrer’s leadership, Civil Division AUSAs worked on massive civil fraud investigations involving egregious false claims and novel issues. Civil Division attorneys reached countless multi-million dollar settlements, including:
- A record settlement of more than $250 million with more than 500 hospitals to resolve False Claims Act allegations related to the implantation of cardiac devices;
- The largest settlement ever against skilled nursing facilities nationally, $17 million, to resolve kickback allegations; and
- Walgreens agreed to pay a record settlement of $80 million for civil penalties under the Controlled Substances Act.
Appellate Division
The Office has one of the premier Appellate Divisions in the Department of Justice. During Mr. Ferrer’s tenure, the Appellate Division has won significant cases (in published and unpublished decisions), including several that decided issues of first impression. The Division has:
- Successfully argued before the Eleventh Circuit that the statute giving extraterritorial effect to the crime of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion was a constitutional exercise of Congress's authority under the Foreign Commerce Clause; and
- Obtained en banc review of, and the overturning of an adverse panel decision that rendered unconstitutional subsection (d) of the Stored Communications Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2703(d), which permits a federal of state governmental entity to obtain historical cell site information from a telephone service provider without a warrant, in certain circumstances. After full en banc briefing and argument, Appellate Division AUSAs convinced the Eleventh Circuit that the Act did not violate the Fourth Amendment.