- March 29, 2025
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Roger B. Handberg, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, has left the office, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice.
The reason — and timing — of his departure comes as a new administration in Washington, D.C. is making changes in the department nationwide, as new administrations often do.
A department spokesperson did not respond to questions about when Handberg left or what the process is to find his replacement.
For now, Sara C. Sweeney, a first assistant U.S. attorney in the office, will serve as acting U.S. Attorney for the district, the release states.
Handberg leaves after about 23 years working as a federal prosecutor. In December 2021 then-U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland named him U.S. Attorney for the Middle District, with a coverage area that runs from Naples north to Ocala, then east, across Orlando, and north again to Jacksonville.
In a July 2022 interview with the Business Observer, Handberg said he spent a good deal of time in the position focused on fraud cases.
One of his first assignments was investigating and prosecuting FEMA fraud cases after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
After several years of working on those cases, he took on Lou Pearlman, the larger-than-life promoter of boy bands NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys who swindled millions from banks and investors in a long-running Ponzi scheme. An associate U.S. Attorney, Handberg helped send Pearlman to prison for 25 years and, in 2008, got $300 million for victims.
Pearlman died in 2016.
In recent years Handberg has been taking on COVID fraud cases, charging more than 100 people since the founding of a task force that brought several law enforcement agencies together.
Among the COVID-related cases his office pursued was that of Physician Partners of America, its founder Rodolfo Gari and its former chief medical officer Abraham Rivera. In April 2022, the parties were ordered to pay $24.5 million to the U.S. Department of Justice for ordering unnecessary tests, making unlawful payments to doctors and lying on applications for COVID relief funds.
“I wouldn’t say I’m jaded. But I would say that there are times where the conduct I see makes (me) angry because these are well meaning programs that were designed to help people during a pandemic,” Handberg told the Business Observer in the 2022 interview.
“And there’s a group of individuals, and it’s a small group, you’ve always got to keep that in mind and keep that in context, but there’s a small group of people who want to take advantage of it. And that’s not right.”
In all, the Department of Justice says that during his time Handberg successfully prosecuted more than $500 million in fraud cases.
But it wasn’t all about fraud.
Over the past three fiscal years the office increased its number of the criminal cases it pursued by more than 60% according to the statement. That includes a 77% increase of prosecutions of violent crimes; a 70% increase of prosecutions of child exploitation crimes; a 69% increase of prosecutions of immigration crimes; and a 33% increase of prosecutions of drug crimes.
Another priority for the office during Handberg’s tenure was recovering money for crime victims. The office’s Asset Recovery Section won more than $65 million in forfeitures in 2022 and more than $19 million in 2023.
“As someone who was born and raised in this district, I can think of no higher honor than getting the chance, first, to serve as a federal prosecutor in this office and, then, as the United States Attorney,” Handberg says in the statement.
“During my more than two decades with the office, I have worked with incredible public servants at the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Through our work with the excellent local, state, and federal law enforcement partners who serve this district and our country, we have prosecuted and litigated cases that have served to protect the public, to reduce crime, to do justice for victims and the community, and to hold accountable those who have violated the law.”
