The planning has begun for NAFUSA’s annual conference, to be held this year on October 15-17, at The Phoenician in Scottsdale Arizona. President Matt Orwig has announced the first speaker signed for the conference.

Professor Marianne Jennings, an emeritus professor of legal and ethical studies in business from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, will speak on Friday morning, October 16, on eithics.. She was named professor of the year in the College of Business in 1981, 1987, 2000, and 2010 and was the recipient of a Burlington Northern teaching excellence award in 1985. She served as director of the Joan and David Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics at ASU from 1995-1999. From 2006-2007, she served as the faculty director for the MBA Executive Program. She continues to teach graduate courses in business ethics and ethical culture at colleges around the country, and returned to ASU to teach graduate courses in the MBA and MACC masters programs.

Professor Jennings has authored hundreds of articles in academic, professional and trade journals. She was given best article awards by the institute of Internal Auditors and the Association of Government Accountants in 2001 and 2004. In 2006, her article, “Ethics and Investment Management: True Reform,” was selected by the United Kingdom’s Emerald Management Review from 15,000 articles in 400 journals as one of the top 50 articles in 2005. She was named one of the Top 100 Thought Leaders by Trust Across America in 2010. In 2012 she was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics by Ethisphere magazine.

Currently she has six textbooks and monographs in circulation. The eighth edition of her textbook, Case Studies in Business Ethics, and the tenth edition of her textbook, Business: lts Legal, Ethical and Global Environment were published in January 2014. Her first textbook, Real Estate Law, will have its 11th edition published in January 2016. Her text, Anderson’s Business and the Legal Environment will have its 23rd edition published in January 2016.

Her book, Business Strategy for the Political Arena, was selected in 1985 by Library Journal as one of its recommended books in business/government relations. A Business Tale: A Story of Ethics, Choices, Success, and a Very Large Rabbit, a fable about business ethics, was chosen by Library Journal in 2004 as its business book of the year. A Business Tale was also a finalist for two other literary awards for 2004. In 2000, her book on corporate governance was published by the New York Times MBA Pocket Series. Professor Jennings’ book on long-term success, Building a Business Through Good Times and Bad: Lessons from Fifteen Companies, Each With a Century of Dividends, was published in October 2002 and has been used by Booz, Allen, Hamilton for its work on business longevity. Her book, The Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse is used by auditors in advance detection of fraud and is a primer on corporate culture, including analysis of board efficacy. Her books have been translated into five languages.

She is a contributing editor for the Real Estate Law Journal, New Perspectives, The Smart Manager, and the Corporate Finance Review. She served on the Board of Editors for the Financial Analysts Journal from 2007-2012. She served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Legal Studies Education during 2003-2004.

Her columns have been syndicated around the country, and her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, the  New York Times, Washington Post, and the Reader’s Digest. A collection of her essays, Nobody Fixes Real Carrot Sticks Anymore, first published in 1994 is still being published. She was given an Arizona Press Club award in 1994 for her work as a feature columnist. She has been a commentator on business issues on All Things Considered for National Public Radio. She served as chair of the Bonneville International Advisory Board for KHTC/KIDR from 1994-1997 and was a weekly commentator on KGLE during 1998. She has appeared on CNBC, CBS This Morning, the Today Show, and CBS Evening News.

Professor Jennings earned her undergraduate degree in finance and her J. D. from Brigham Young University. She has done consulting work for law firms, government agencies, businesses and professional groups.

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Several hundred photos from the October 2014 Boston conference have been added to the NAFUSA online photo gallery.

The five most recent thumbnails in the gallery represent the Thursday evening reception, the Friday CLE and harbor cruise, and the Saturday CLE and banquet. When you click on an event, a new page opens with thumbnails of images from that particular day or event. (Direct links to the five individual events are below.)

• On an event thumbnail page, you may enlarge (or decrease) the size of the thumbnails with the slider at the top right.
• For a slideshow of all of the images from that event, click Slideshow at the top left.
• Click on any image on the thumbnails page for a large version of that photo. You can then proceed through the photos one-at-a-time (using the v-shaped arrows at the right and left of image).
• You may download or order a print of any individual photo using the buttons at the top. For the 2014 Conference downloaded files are 4928 × 3264, approximately 3 MB each.

• 2014 Boston Conference Thursday Reception
• 2014 Boston Conference Friday CLE
• 2014 Boston Conference Harbor Cruise
• 2014 Boston Conference Saturday CLE
• 2014 Boston Conference Saturday Banquet

The NAFUSA annual conference was held in Boston October 9-11, 2014, and opened with a successful cocktail reception honoring Bob Mueller. NAFUSA President Don Stern contacted the Boston Red Sox after he learned that Bob was a true fan, and Red Sox Vice President David Friedman, shown below right, presented Mueller with a Red Sox jersey with his name and the number “12” representing Bob’s 12 years as the Director of the FBI and a bat autographed by the Red Sox manager, John Farrell.

One of the highlights of the conference was the presentation of this year’s J. Michael Bradford Award to John Gay, Joseph Minish and Steven Sanders of the District of New Jersey for their outstanding prosecution of United States v. Paul Begrin. Paul Fishman, the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey was on hand for the presentation to his nominees. Shown below: President Don Stern, John Gay, Joe Minish, Steve Sanders and Paul Fishman.

The conference concluded with a dinner and business meeting on Saturday night featuring the keynote address by Ed Davis, former Boston Police Department Commissioner, who spoke on “Lessons Learned from the Boston Marathon Bombing”.  Don Stern turned the gavel over to Matt Orwig, the new president for 2014-2015. In the photo below, Matt is presenting Don with a gift of a new golf bag.

In addition, the membership voted the following members to offices: President Elect: Gregory Vega, SD of California; Vice President: Bart Daniel, District of South Carolina; Secretary: Doug Jones, ND of Alabama; and Treasurer: Terry Flynn, WD of New York. The newly elected directors for the class of 2017 were: Zach Carter, ED of New York; Karen Hewitt, SD of California; Chuck Stevens, ED of California; Bob Miller, District of Colorado; and Neil MacBride, ED of Virginia.

Matt Orwig closed the meeting by promising to organize a great conference next year to be held at The Phoenician in Scottsdale, Arizona on October 15-18, 2015.

Steve Sanders, John Gay and Joseph Minish

Each year, NAFUSA recognizes an Assistant U.S. Attorney for outstanding performance through the J. Michael Bradford Memorial Award. The award is named after J. Michael Bradford, who served as a U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Texas from 1994 to 2001. Bradford, who died in 2003, had a distinguished career in public service, including successfully defending the government against lawsuits stemming from the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian’s compound in Waco, Texas. NAFUSA annually solicits nominations from current U.S. Attorneys for the Bradford Award. Typically, the recipient has handled a significant investigation and prosecution or series of prosecutions that has had a significant impact and merits special recognition.

Once again, a number of exceptional nominations were made by U.S. Attorneys around the country. The Michael Bradford Award Committee was chaired by NAFUSA Vice President Greg Vega. Its members included Ed Dowd, Catherine Hanaway, Don Washington, Bart Daniel, Bob Cleary and Rich Rossman. This year, the Board voted to give the award to John Gay, Joseph Minish and Steven Sanders, from the District of New Jersey, nominated by United States Attorney Paul Fishman for their outstanding work in the case United States v. Paul Bergrin.

For nearly a decade, Paul Bergrin, a former assistant Essex County Prosecutor and former  AUSA for the District of New Jersey, used his law practice to operate a criminal enterprise brokering narcotics deals, distributing drugs, operating a brothel owned by a client, tampering with witnesses, and conspiring to murder witnesses testifying against his clients.   In 2009, after a five-year investigation, the grand jury returned an indictment charging Bergrin with using his law practice as an association-in-fact enterprise to commit racketeering acts, including murdering and conspiring to murder witnesses.  The case was vigorously litigated with the Judge dismissing the RICO count stating that it failed to plead a viable offense.  That ruling was appealed to the Third Circuit which reversed the dismissal and remanded the case for trial.  The Judge remained hostile to the Government’s case and severed two substantive counts relating to a murder, and ordered the Government to try the severed counts first.   Among other obstacles, the Judge excluded certain evidence, resulting in the jury’s inability to reach a verdict resulting in a mistrial.  Upon retrial, the Judge made more evidentiary rulings against the Government and severed remaining counts prior to retrial of the murder counts. The Government again appealed the Judge’s evidentiary rulings and also sought permission to have the case assigned to a new Judge.  The Third Circuit held that the Judge had erroneously excluded certain Rule 404(b) evidence and concluded a reasonable observer could question the judge’s impartiality.  The Circuit ordered the case be reassigned  and directed the new judge to reconsider whether any severance was necessary.  The new judge ordered all counts be tried together.   At trial, the Government presented evidence that Bergrin was involved in subornation of perjury; involved  with a 2004 murder;  attempted to hire a hit-man to murder witnesses;  and 54 kilograms of cocaine seized from a restaurant he jointly owned with his girlfriend.  The Government called 42 witnesses (some in protective custody) and introduced over 1,000 exhibits.

Bergin represented himself at trial, but was also assisted  by a prominent defense team that filed daily motions that required briefing and argument by the prosecution team.  The trial team exhibited hard work, cogent legal arguments, skillful presentation of evidence and persuasive advocacy.  After three days of deliberation, the  jury returned guilty verdicts on all 23 counts  and found the Government to have proved every RICO predicate act alleged in the indictment.   The Court imposed  concurrent life sentences on Bergrin. Despite facing numerous obstacles, the team remained focused in the finest tradition and represented the Government in the finest tradition.

The other nominees were:

Christopher Bodnar and Sean Costello, nominated by United States Attorney Kenyen Ray Brown, SD of Alabama, for their work on Operation Measured Bold, a massive multi-agency international terrorism case.

Bridget M. Brennan, nominated by United States Attorney Steven M. Dettelbach, ND of Ohio, for her in prosecution of of the hate crimes case involving religiously-motivated assaults against the Amish, prosecution of one of the largest credit union cases and prosecution of a religiously motivated arson case involving the Islamic Center for Greater Toledo.

Jay R. Combs, nominated by United States Attorney John Malcolm Bales, ED of Texas, for his work in prosecuting and investigating a significant drug trafficking organization.

Bonnie Jonas, nominated by United States Attorney Preet Bharara, SD of New York, for her work in significant high impact white collar cases, including Aurora Foods, WorldCom, Royal Ahold, Olympus, Deutsche Bank and Toyota.

Melanie K. Pierson, nominated by United States Attorney Laura E. Duffy, SD of California, for her work in protecting the environment from various threats.

Christopher D. Poole, nominated by United States Attorney William C. Killian, ED of Tennessee, for his work in leading an investigation targeting gang members in Chattanooga in Operation Shutdown.

Stephen M. “Mark” McIntyre, nominated by United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson, SD of Texas, for his successful prosecution of Weatherford International Limited for violation of export control laws.

Steven Myhre and Jim Keller, nominated by United States Attorney Daniel G. Bogden, Nevada, for their work in prosecuting Young and Willard for complex securities fraud in the futures market (FOREX).

Matthew D. Segal, nominated by United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner, ED of California, for prosecution of complex and significant white collar cases, including the CEO of a major food processor.

The NAFUSA annual conference will be held in Boston on October 9-12, 2014 at the Fairmont Copley Plaza. Member Registration remains open (members: click on red link below) although the Copley is sold out. There are rooms available at nearby hotels. Click here to view: NAFUSA Program Boston 2014. Click on “Conferences” (above) to view full bios of speakers.

NAFUSA members: click here to register

President Don Stern and his planning committee promise an outstanding program. The conference will open with Thursday morning, October 9, golf at Belmont Country Club.

Thursday evening will feature a cocktail reception at the Copley, honoring NAFUSA’s member, Robert S. Mueller III, who completed 12 years last fall as the sixth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a position he took one week prior to the September 11 attacks and held under two presidents.

The Friday morning CLE program will feature two panels. Jeff Taylor, Raytheon Company, will moderate a panel on Corporate Monitors. The panel members are Leslie Caldwell, shown right, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division; Michael Bromwich, Goodwin Procter and the Apple monitor; Kevin O’Connor, United Technologies; and Eric Feldman, Affiliated Monitors.

The second panel will be on National Security, moderated by Ken Wainstein,  with Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin, Professor Stephen Vladeck, left, American University Washington College of Law,  and Charlie Savage, below right, of the New York Times. On Friday afternoon, a boat cruise and lunch is planned in the Boston Harbor. Friday evening will be reserved for class reunion dinners.

The Saturday morning CLE will feature the awarding of this year’s Bradford Award to the AUSAs of the Year: Joseph Minish, John Gay and Steve Sanders of the District of New Jersey.

The morning will include a  Dialogue with EOUSA and the AGAC, moderated by President Don Stern and featuring Loretta Lynch, left, Chair of the AGAC and Monty Wilkinson, Director of EOUSA.

William Leone, of Norton Rose Fulbright, will moderate a panel on The Ethical Issues Arising in Internal Investigations with panel members Prof. Stephen Gillers of NYU, shown above, Mary Pat Brown, former head of OPR at DOJ, and Karen Hewitt of Jones Day.

The CLE program will close with a panel discussion dealing with the 50 year anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act, moderated by Doug Jones and featuring Gerald Stern, who was a young civil rights lawyer in the Justice Department during the Freedom Rides, John Stewart, former aide to Sen. Humphrey, Steven Pollack and Frank Mackaman, shown right, of the Dirksen Center.

On Saturday afternoon, there will be an optional tour of Fenway Park.

Commissioner Ed Davis

The conference will close on Saturday evening with a closing reception and dinner. The keynote speaker will be Edward F. Davis, former Boston Police Department Commissioner who will speak on “Lessons Learned from the Boston Marathon Bombing.”  Davis has been in law enforcement for 35 years. He served as the 40th Police Commissioner of the City of Boston from December 2006 until October 2013. Commissioner Davis was Boston’s lead police official during the tragic Marathon bombing and testified before Congress about the bombing and lessons learned. Prior to that, Davis was the Superintendent of the Lowell Police Department, a position he held for 12 years and one he rose to after starting out as a patrol officer in 1978.

The conference will be held on Columbus Day weekend with several offices closed on Monday, October 13. The fall is a great time in the East and a fine time to plan some extra days to watch the leaves turn.

NAFUSA officers and board members met in Napa Valley on June 6-7, 2014 for their annual spring meeting. The meeting was held at the Villagio Inn and Spa in Yountville, California. As is the custom, members paid their own travel and hotel expenses.

Executive Director Emeritus Mahlon Brown and Pat Brown joined the board for the weekend, and local members Joe Russinello and Chuck Stevens, along with their wives, Moira and Ann, also attended as guests. Joe Russinello hosted a golf outing at Silverado as well.

President Don Stern reported on the early plans for the Boston conference to be held on October 9-11 at the Fairmont Copley Plaza. The Thursday evening cocktail reception will honor Bob Mueller. Registration is expected to begin in July. NAFUSA has the support of $85,000 in sponsors, with more sponsors expected. A full list of sponsors can be found on the website and in each monthly newsletter.

Executive Director Rich Rossman reported that NAFUSA has 261 active members,  including 53 life members and 20 seniors (over 70 and fully retired). Unfortunately 42 members have yet to pay their 2014 dues, which were payable February 28, 2014. The present dues structure is not sufficient to pay operating expenses, and NAFUSA relies upon its sponsors. Nevertheless, the board voted to retain the present schedule of annual dues at $150, seniors at $50 and lifetime dues at $1500. The board also voted to maintain the conference registration fees at $400 per member and $300 for a spouse. These rates have been the same for several years.

For the past three years, the executive director has been assisted by his nephew, Ken Rossman, for technical support. With Ken’s support, the webpage and the newsletter have been significantly upgraded. Ken has decided to step down, and the board approved the hiring of John Steele of Denver, Colorado, as Ken’s replacement. John will be a first year law student in the fall and has significant technical experience. He will continue in the IT field during the day and attend law school at night. The board is hopeful that John will establish a model we can use in the future and when he graduates law school we can find another IT consultant/law student to take his place.

President Elect Matt Orwig confirmed that the 2015 conference will be held on October 15-18 at The Phoenician in Scottsdale, Arizona. Vice President Greg Vega advised that the 2016 conference will be in San Diego.

Reid Schar at the Atlanta conference in 2012

Reid Schar, recipient of NAFUSA’s J. Michael Bradford Award in 2012, has been named  by the New Jersey General Assembly to act as special counsel for the committee to investigate allegations that aides to Governor Christie caused the closure of lanes leading from Fort Lee to the George Washington Bridge for political retaliation.

Schar was nominated for the Bradford Award by NAFUSA member Patrick Fitzgerald, then the U.S. Attorney for the ND of Illinois. The award recognized Schar’s work in the investigation and prosecution of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Schar served as an AUSA from 1999 to 2012, when he left government service to join Jenner & Block in Chicago.

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Several hundred photos from the September 2013 Washington conference have been added to the NAFUSA online photo gallery.

The four most recent thumbnails in the gallery represent the Thursday evening reception at Jones Day, the Friday and Saturday day events, and the Saturday banquet. When you click on an event, a new page opens with thumbnails of images from that particular day or event. (Direct links to the four individual events are below.)

• On an event thumbnail page, you may enlarge (or decrease) the size of the thumbnails with the slider at the top right.
• For a slideshow of all of the images from that event, click Slideshow at the top left.
• Click on any image on the thumbnails page for a large version of that photo. You can then proceed through the photos one-at-a-time (using the v-shaped arrows at the right and left of image).
• You may download or order a print of any individual photo using the buttons at the top. For the 2013 Conference downloaded files are 3456 x 2304, approximately 1 MB each.

• 2013 Washington Conference Thursday Reception
• 2013 Washington Conference Friday
• 2013 Washington Conference Saturday
• 2013 Washington Conference Saturday Banquet

During this year’s NAFUSA conference in Washington, all NAFUSA members were invited to attend a “Day at Justice”: an entire afternoon at Main Justice. The format was informal, with NAFUSA members leading a “dialogue” with Department leaders. NAFUSA President Jay Stephens led a discussion with DAG Jim Cole; Ken Wainstein with FBI Director Jim Comey; Joe Whitley with Associate AG Tony West; and incoming NAFUSA President Don Stern with EOUSA Director Marshall Jarrett, AGAC Chair Loretta Lynch and Associate Deputy AG David Margolis.

The event was hosted by EOUSA which did a great job of making NAFUSA members comfortable and welcome. At the end of the discussion, EOUSA invited the NAFUSA members to gather in the DOJ courtyard for a group photo, shown above.

Jay Stephens with DAG Jim Cole

Ken Wainstein with Director JIm Comey

Joe Whitley with Associate AG Tony West

Don Stern with Loretta Lynch, David Margolis and Marshall Jarrett