DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL THOMPSON ANNOUNCES ADDITION OF OFFICE OF FEDERAL HOUSING ENTERPRISE OVERSIGHT TO TASK FORCE

Deputy Attorney General Larry D. Thompson, Chairman of the President's Corporate Fraud Task Force, today announced that the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) has been added to the membership of the Task Force.

OFHEO promotes housing and a strong economy by ensuring the safety and soundness of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and fostering the vitality of the nation's housing finance system. By order of the Deputy Attorney General under authority granted by Executive Order 13271, Sec. 4, OFHEO will serve on the Task Force.

The Task Force was created by President Bush on July 9, 2002, to target major accounting fraud and other criminal activity in corporate finance, and oversee the investigation of corporate abusers.

The Corporate Fraud Task Force comprises both a Department of Justice group that focuses on enhancing the criminal enforcement activities within the Department of Justice, and an inter-agency group that focuses on maximizing cooperation and joint regulatory and enforcement efforts throughout the federal law enforcement community. The Department of Justice group is comprised of:

The Deputy Attorney General, the Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division, the Assistant Attorney General of the Tax Division, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the United States Attorneys for the Southern District of New York, Eastern District of New York, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Central District of California, Northern District of California, and Southern District of Texas.

In addition to OFHEO, the inter-agency group includes:

The Secretary of the Treasury; the Secretary of Labor; the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission; the Chairman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission; the Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission; the Chief Inspector of the United States Postal Inspection Service.

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