Every year, the Partnership for Public Service awards Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals (the “Sammies” – or kind of the Oscars for feds) to highlight excellence in the federal workforce, and programs that make the country better, safer and stronger. This year, the FTC is proud to be a finalist in the Homeland Security and Law Enforcement Category, for our team’s work in creating IdentityTheft.gov. (Please vote for the People’s Choice.) But we’re just as proud that the FTC’s work is represented in three of the four finalists in that category.
The first of the three is Volkswagen, the biggest false advertising case in FTC history. In June 2016, Volkswagen settled with the FTC over false advertising charges. VW had said their 2.0 liter diesel cars had low levels of emissions – but they didn’t. But 550,000 cars did have devices that illegally cheated emissions tests. The FTC team led by Jonathan Cohen got $10 billion dollars back for owners and lessees – and another $1.25 billion back for 3.0 liter diesel owners in early 2017. EPA, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the California Air Resource Board worked hard to build a case that showed blatant violations of the clean air law, and laid the foundation for criminal investigations that resulted in indictments against VW execs, and an additional $4.3 billion in civil and criminal penalties. But those billions and billions of dollars back in the pockets of hundreds of thousands of people? That was the FTC team.
The second finalist is the powerhouse team that fought IRS impersonator calls. Led by Treasury’s Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), this team fought against the avalanche of millions of threatening – and phony – IRS calls that cost 10,000 people about $54 million. TIGTA brought together DOJ, the FCC, local police, Homeland Security, and the FTC. Betsy Broder – from the FTC’s the Office of International Affairs, a group that helps fight international fraud by working with their counterparts in other countries – worked with this team. The TIGTA-led team even got telephone and money transfer companies to help stop these scammers. Their work led to the indictment of 61 people in 2016, including 32 people from five call centers in India.
The third finalist is, of course, our IdentityTheft.gov team, led by Nat Wood. You can read the story of how we created this powerful online tool that lets people report identity theft and build their own personal recovery plan. More than 600,000 people have reported their identity theft through the website since its launch. They’ve been able to get a list of steps to take – specific to their own experience – and track their recovery. With the ongoing threat of identity theft, each of us now has a tool that makes recovery easier should it ever happen. So please vote early and often – up to once a day until September 15 – for the People’s Choice! Winners will be announced in September.
