Mark Osler, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, spoke with The Minnesota Star Tribune and Pioneer Press about the role of federal prosecutors and how staff shortages will affect fraud investigations in Minnesota.
From The Minnesota Star Tribune:
The federal government’s ability to prosecute and investigate these complex fraud cases will be further hampered by the loss of institutional knowledge after top prosecutors resigned.
According to CBS News, the Pentagon is asking military attorneys to travel to Minnesota to assist with the fraud investigation in March after the Justice Department asked for additional attorneys.
But simply adding more attorneys will not fix those problems, said Mark Osler, a former federal prosecutor and law professor at the University of St. Thomas.
“To lose the veteran members of a trial team is a very big blow to a prosecution effort,” Osler said.
Those experienced members have relationships with investigators on the case, know the deep details of the cases and also know the communities in Minnesota, he said.
The talent pool of investigators who have the expertise to perform advanced tasks like forensic accounting is limited, he added.
“If the focus right now really was on catching fraud, stopping fraud, getting the money back, then it would be a priority to keep the most talented people doing that work,” Osler said. “And that clearly hasn’t been done.”
From Pioneer Press:
Mark Osler, a University of St. Thomas School of Law professor who once worked as a federal prosecutor in Michigan, echoed what Todd and Folk said and questioned new leadership in Minnesota.
“It is unprecedented to have this kind of a loss,” he said. “It reflects very poorly on the U.S. attorney that he is losing his best people when they are most needed. That’s just bad management.”
Building and prosecuting cases won’t be the only functions that could be affected, Osler said. The complex process of retrieving stolen funds also could be more difficult. In December, Thompson told reporters that the federal government had recovered up to $70 million, about $30 million of which is in bank accounts.
