PARTINGS: Ronald C. Machen Jr., Whose Office Led AdSurfDaily Criminal Prosecution, Is Leaving Post As U.S. Attorney For District Of Columbia

“Serving as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia has been the highest honor of my professional career. I am tremendously grateful to the President, Attorney General Holder, and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton for placing their trust in me. The men and women of this office are among the most dedicated and talented public servants in the country. I am proud of the work we have done together to achieve justice in the courthouse and to build bonds of trust with the community that we serve. I leave this position confident that my extraordinary colleagues will continue to pursue justice and protect the residents of the District and this great nation.” — U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr., District of Columbia, March 16, 2015

Ronald C. Machen Jr. is leaving his post as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia after five years.

Ronald C. Machen Jr. led many important prosecutions during his five-year tenure as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. The one PP Blog readers are most apt to remember is the criminal prosecution of AdSurfDaily Ponzi-scheme figure Andy Bowdoin.

Machen, 45, is leaving his post and intends to reenter private practice, the Justice Department said today.

“During more than five years as United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, Ron Machen has distinguished himself as a skilled leader, a devoted public servant, and a forceful champion of justice on behalf of the American people,” said Attorney General Eric Holder.

Upon the sentencing of Bowdoin in August 2012, Machen called the huckster “a master of fraud and deception” who cheated “victims out of their hard-earned money and savings with his get-rich scheme.”

AdSurfDaily gathered $119 million through its Internet-based fraud, a 1-percent-a-day “program” that purported to be in the “advertising” business, not the business of selling securities.

Machen will leave his post on April 1.  Principal Assistant U.S. Attorney Vincent H. Cohen Jr., 44, will become Acting U.S. Attorney on that date.

Two assistant U.S. Attorneys and a special agent of the U.S. Secret Service involved in the ASD case were targeted with false liens by Kenneth Wayne Leaming, a purported “sovereign citizen” from Washington state. Leaming was arrested by an FBI Terrorism Task Force and was successfully prosecuted by the office of then-U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan of the Western District of Washington.

We wish Ronald Machen the best, and we thank him for his service to his country.