Attorney accidentally releases names of sources

[classicman]

U.S. Attorney accidentally releases names of sources in fraud case

JANUARY 7--In a remarkable screw-up, a Department of Justice official today accidentally distributed to the media a document containing the names of nearly 20 confidential witnesses interviewed during a federal probe targeting the operators of a fraudulent investment scheme. In announcing felony charges against two men for their roles in an alleged $15 million Ponziesque swindle, the spokesman for Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald (he of Rod Blagojevich- and Scooter Libby-prosecuting fame) e-mailed reporters a 62-page U.S. District Court complaint filed against John Walsh and Charles Martin, principals of the now-defunct One World Capital Group. Included in the document was a one-page key that identified by name sources referred to in the complaint only by monikers such as "Employee A," "Customer D," or "Individual F." The inadvertent disclosure of the sources--former One World employees, customers, and "other" individuals who spoke with FBI and IRS agents--caused Fitzgerald spokesman Randall Samborn to send an urgent follow-up email asking journalists to destroy the complaint due to the "non-public information disclosing the identities of persons not named in the affidavit."

Oops.