FederalDaily - February 6, 2007

Bill Would Fund More Deputy Marshals

A new measure introduced in the Senate would increase security along the nation’s southern border by authorizing the hiring of 250 new deputy U. S. Marshals over the next five years, said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. Domenici, along with Sen. Jeff Bingaman, R-N.M., introduced a bill Feb. 1 that would fund an additional 50 Deputy Marshal positions annually for the next five years, Domenici said. The bill intends to bolster border security by helping the Marshals Service meet increased duties associated with transporting and guarding criminal illegal immigrants. The legislation was previously introduced by Domenici and Bingaman as an amendment to last year’s Securing America’s Borders Act. The Marshals Service is involved in key aspects of the immigration process, including the transport of criminal immigrants and guarding them in federal courthouses. “U.S. marshals play a key role in supporting efforts to secure our borders,” Bingaman said. “Hiring 250 more marshals will free up Border Patrol agents to focus more energy on doing their primary job—patrolling our borders.” To see more, go to: http://domenici.senate.gov/news/record.cfm?id=268373.

:: Back to Top ::

Nicholson Touts VA Electronic Health Records

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has developed a virtually error-free electronic health record system, making it one of the safest health care systems in the nation, said VA Secretary Jim Nicholson. Speaking Feb. 1 at the annual meeting of the Military Health Systems, Nicholson touted what he called “one of the most comprehensive and sophisticated” patient record systems in the nation. VA began creating the electronic records in the 1990s. Today patient records are available 100 percent of the time to healthcare workers, Nicholson said, compared to 60 percent of the time 20 years ago when the VA relied on paper records. To see more, go to: http://www1.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=1285.

:: Back to Top ::

Former IRS Officer Pleads Guilty

A former IRS revenue officer pleaded guilty Feb. 1 for his part in a scheme to evade federal reporting requirements on $1.4 million in bank deposits made from a convenience store he co-owned. Mohamed Hassan Soliman, 56, part owner of the Carrollton Tobacco Co., a convenience store located in Carrollton, Va., admitted to violating a federal law prohibiting individuals from structuring transactions to evade reporting requirements. Soliman admitted to illegally structuring 141 cash deposits totaling $1,404,314 between March 2005 and September 2006, to prevent banks from filing reports that are monitored by the IRS, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said. According to court documents, Soliman was a Revenue Officer with the IRS from September 1990 to April 2004. Knowing that banks must file reports for deposits in excess of $10,000, Soliman began structuring deposits into two accounts by breaking down large sums of cash into amounts of less than $10,000, DOJ said. Soliman faces 10 years in prison. Soliman’s partner and co-defendant, Abdelhady Abdelhady, was convicted of tax fraud in 2003 and is currently a fugitive believed to be living in Egypt. To see more, go to: www.usdoj.gov/usao/vae/Pressreleases/02-FebruaryPDFArchive/07/20070201solimannr.pdf.

:: Back to Top ::