Louis F O'Neill

Louis O'Neill - Member of the Special Prosecutions Bureau

This was especially evident during Louis O'Neill's tenure as an Assistant District Attorney for New York County. While working for the DA's office, Mr. O'Neill handled many cases as a member of the Special Prosecutions Bureau. Louis O'Neill's investigative and legal skills were put to good use in many high-profile cases involving fraud and abuse.

For example, Lou O'Neill helped prosecute some of the more than one hundred people arrested for stealing money from the Municipal Credit Union (MCU) in the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center. Twenty seven of those were employees of New York City. The investigation looked into as many as 4,187 members of the Municipal Credit Union and the theft of $15 million. Each of the defendants was charged with stealing more than $5,000 from MCU by using their ATM cards to withdraw funds in the weeks following the WTC attacks far in excess of their account balances.

Another set of disturbing offences were committed by Mildred Perez, a former social worker at Beth Israel Hospital. In 2004, Perez was accused of defrauding up to $35,000 from three of her clients. Taking advantage of her position, Perez ingratiated herself to her clients and earned their trust. As a social worker for a major, metropolitan hospital, Perez's case-load included an acutely paranoid schizophrenic and two elderly sisters, one with dementia and one crippled by major depression. As she worked with these vulnerable people, Perez gained their trust, and eventually, control over their finances. By using cashier's checks made out to herself and her twin brother Milton, Perez made off with thousands of her clients' dollars.

In a statement made shortly after Perez's arrest, the DA of New York County announced that Louis O'Neill would be trying the case, and also had this to say of the Perez twins: "It is reprehensible for anyone to abuse a position of trust and cheat susceptible people - the young, immigrants or, as in this case, the elderly and mentally impaired. In this office, we see cases where millions of dollars are involved and while these defendants may have stolen less money, it was a lot of money for these victims. And, most importantly, these defendants took advantage of very vulnerable people."

Louis O'Neill's time as an Assistant District Attorney was not the only time his job required him to look out for people who were unable to look out for themselves. Eventually, O'Neill was appointed as Ambassador to Moldova for The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The stated goals of the OSCE are to provide security for all citizens in its member-states on human, politico-military and environmental-economic fronts. By trying to bring to reality in Moldova the ideals of the OSCE, O'Neill continued to his efforts to make the world a better place, one step at a time.

Press Releases

CHISINAU, 19 July 2007

New Moldovan anti-torture body needs to be independent and effective, says OSCE Mission Head, Louis O'Neill.

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