PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

December 4, 2003 

SANDY KLEIN IS APPOINTED

REGIONAL CRIMINAL COORDINATOR

FOR UNITED STATES TRUSTEE PROGRAM

            WASHINGTON, D.C.–It was announced today that Sandy Klein has been appointed as a Regional Criminal Coordinator for the United States Trustee Program in the Central and Southern Districts of California, the District of Arizona, and the District of Hawaii. The announcement was made by Lawrence Friedman, Director of the Executive Office for United States Trustees.

            The U.S. Trustee Program is a component of the Justice Department that protects the integrity of the bankruptcy system by overseeing case administration and litigating to enforce the bankruptcy laws. The Program established a Criminal Enforcement Unit in July 2003 to build upon its efforts to identify, refer, and assist the United States Attorneys in prosecuting bankruptcy fraud. The Criminal Enforcement Unit is headed by Peter Ainsworth, who previously served as a Trial Attorney in the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section and its Office of Consumer Litigation. Sandra Rasnak, Assistant U.S. Trustee in the Program’s Chicago office, is the Acting Deputy Chief of Criminal Enforcement. Other Regional Criminal Coordinators are Celeste Miller of Boise, Idaho, and Robert Calo of Philadelphia.

            Sandy Klein has been an employee of the U.S. Trustee Program for six years, prosecuting bankruptcy fraud cases as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Los Angeles office. She created the “Stop Identity Theft Now” videotape, which was co-sponsored by the Program and has been distributed to approximately 10,000 recipients nationwide, and she has lectured across the country on bankruptcy fraud and identity theft issues. She received her law degree magna cum laude from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, where she now teaches as an adjunct professor, and her undergraduate degree from the University of Lowell in Lowell, Mass.

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