Tag: U.S. Attorney’s Office

Prosecutor in Ex-Coal CEO Case Manchin's U.S. Attorney Pick

The prosecutor on former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship’s case is Sen. Joe Manchin’s pick for U.S. attorney.

A spokesman for Manchin told the Charleston Gazette-Mail that Manchin wants Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Ruby to replace former U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin.

Goodwin left the Southern District of West Virginia job for a gubernatorial bid.

The president nominates Goodwin’s replacement. The U.S. Senate confirms the nominee.

It’s unclear if the Republican-controlled Senate would consider any nomination before President Obama leaves office.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito’s spokeswoman said she would support Ruby’s nomination, pending appropriate vetting.

Ruby said he wouldn’t comment on any possible nomination at this point.

Ruby landed convictions of Blankenship and several other ex-Massey officials after a deadly blast killed 29 men at Upper Big Branch in 2010.

U.S. Attorney Brings in $3.5M from Civil, Criminal Actions

The U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of West Virginia says it has brought in nearly $3.5 million through civil and criminal actions in fiscal year 2015.

U.S. Attorney William J. Ihlenfeld II says his office collected $1.5 million from criminal actions and $1.3 million from civil actions. It also brought in about $625,000 from civil and criminal asset forfeitures.

Ihlenfeld says his office collected another $4.1 million in civil cases that the state collaborated on with other U.S. attorney’s offices and the Department of Justice.

Ihlenfeld says a “critical aspect of enforcing the federal laws is to recover funds for victims of crimes and taxpayers.”

Freedom Industries Hires Firm to Keep Emails, Data

The West Virginia company at the center of a January chemical spill is hiring experts to preserve emails and phone records for ongoing investigations.
 
Freedom Industries will pay Vestige Ltd. about $42,500 to maintain electronic evidence, which is needed for a U.S. Attorney’s Office investigation and other chemical spill inquiries.
 
Freedom attorney Steve Thompson says the data firm started collecting information around Feb. 1, when the U.S. Attorney’s Office was issuing grand jury subpoenas. Judge Ronald Pearson approved Freedom’s request in bankruptcy court Tuesday.
 
Thompson says some records are with former Freedom executives.

Court documents show the company’s environmental cleanup bill topped $911,000 in January. Freedom expected another $1.7 million in environmental costs from mid-February to mid-March.
 
Freedom’s Jan. 9 spill contaminated drinking water for 300,000 people for days.
 

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