Three U.S. prosecutors win department awards

By Times staff writer

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 2, 2001

TAMPA -- Three local assistant U.S. attorneys have won the Justice Department's top service award for helping secure the largest corporate fraud settlement ever.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft presented the Attorney General's Award for Exceptional Service to Robert Monk, Robert Mosakowski and Ernest "Tony" Peluso during a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

The three prosecutors were part of a larger team that won the award for working on the investigation into HCA -- the Healthcare Co., formerly known as Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp.

The six-agency investigation began in 1997 in El Paso, Texas, and spread to 35 other HCA locations, including 24 in Florida.

Prosecutors convicted two HCA executives of Medicare fraud. The executives received prison terms and were ordered to pay $1.6-million in restitution.

In January, the three prosecutors helped negotiate an agreement in which two non-operating subsidiaries of the Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA pleaded guilty. Columbia Homecare Group and Columbia Management Companies Inc. were accused of taking kickbacks, filing false cost reports with Medicare and conspiring with others to defraud the government.

The company agreed in a Tampa courtroom to pay a criminal fine of $65-million days after agreeing in a Texas courtroom to pay $30-million. HCA also paid $745-million to resolve three civil issues with Justice.

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