U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder honored Wednesday eight Connecticut state and federal prosecutors and FBI agents for their work cleaning up civil and criminal fraud and abuses rooted in the U.S. and abroad.
Assistant Connecticut Attorney General Matthew J. Budzik received the second-highest award available from Holder’s office for his work in helping to negotiate the $25 billion settlement with the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers earlier this year, his boss Attorney General George Jepsen announced.
Budzik, who heads the state AG’s finance department, was in Washington Wednesday to collect the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service from Holder.
“This recognition is well deserved,” Jepsen said in a statement. “Matt Budzik worked countless hours over several years to help produce the settlement agreement …”
On April 5, Bank of America, CitiMortgage, Inc., Ally Financial, Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase Bank and Wells Fargo agreed to the settlement with Connecticut, 48 other states, and the federal government for the supposed robo-signing of foreclosure documents.
Connecticut’s share of the settlement is pegged at $190 million, much of it going to jilted mortgage borrowers.
Among Connecticut’s federal fraud busters, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Edward Chang and David C. Nelson, and FBI Special Agents Jane M. Domboski, Kenneth W. Keller, Thomas S. Lawler, Briana L. Neumiller and Stephen L. Ney received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award.
They were honored, authorities said, for their contribution as part of a team that successfully investigated and dismantled the Coreflood Botnet.
Also known as Operation Adeona, authorities say it was a collection of approximately 2.3 million compromised computers illegally controlled by subjects in Russia, which were then used to steal personal information and commit financial fraud on a massive scale.
