Preet Bharara

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Preet Bharara
United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York
Incumbent
Assumed office
2009
Preceded by Lev L. Dassin (acting)
Constituency Southern District of New York
Personal details
Born 1968
Ferozepur Punjab, India
Political party Democratic
Alma mater Harvard University
Columbia University (J.D.)

Preetinder S. Bharara[1] (born 1968), commonly known as Preet Bharara, is U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.[2]

Contents

[edit] Early life and education

Bharara was born in 1968 in Firozpur, Punjab, India, to a Sikh father and Hindu mother.[1] He grew up in suburban Monmouth County, New Jersey and attended Ranney School in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, where he graduated as valedictorian in 1986.[3][4] He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1990 and Columbia Law School in 1993, where he was a member of the Columbia Law Review.[1]

[edit] Career

Bharara previously served as the chief counsel to Senator Chuck Schumer and played a leading role in the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary investigation into the firings of United States attorneys.[5] He was assistant United States Attorney in Manhattan for five years, bringing criminal cases against the bosses of the Gambino and Colombo crime families and Asian gangs in New York City.[5][6][7]

[edit] U.S. Attorney

Bharara was nominated to become U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York by President Barack Obama on May 15, 2009 and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. He was sworn in to the position on August 13, 2009. Bharara oversees hundreds of criminal and civil cases, involving international terrorism, financial fraud, insider trading, public corruption, and gang violence, as well as the resolution of alleged civil rights violations at various public venues.

Bharara has been responsible for a major crackdown on illegal insider trading on Wall Street, winning scores of convictions in the cases prosecuted by the office. The office recently won the conviction of hedge fund billionaire, Raj Rajaratnam on all 14 counts with which he was charged.[8] He "reaffirmed his office’s leading role in pursuing corporate crime with this landmark insider trading case, which relied on aggressive prosecutorial methods and unprecedented tactics."[9]

Bharara has said the office’s top priority is protecting Americans from the threat of terrorism, whether homegrown or foreign-based.[10] During his tenure as U.S. Attorney, the office has prosecuted several international terrorists, and secured life sentences for Faisal Shazad, the Times Square Bomber, and Ahmed Ghailani, an Al Qaeda associate who was responsible for the mass murder of innocents at the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Bharara’s office convicted Affia Siddiqui for attempting to kill American servicemen in Afghanistan as well as four men for plotting to blow up a synagogue in Riverdale. In February 2011, the first pirate in modern times, Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court to more than 33 years in prison, following prosecution by the office. Bharara’s office is also prosecuting alleged associates of al-Shabaab, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and Hizballah. According to Bharara, after 9/11 “as crime has gone global and national security threats are global, in my view the long arm of the law has to get even longer. We can’t wait until bombs are going off.”[11]

Bharara has said that “there is no prosecutor’s office in the state that takes more seriously the responsibility to root out public corruption in Albany and anywhere else that we might find it, and I think our record speaks for itself.”[12] During his tenure, Bharara has charged several current and former elected officials in public corruption cases, including Senator Vincent Leibell, Senator Hiram Monserrate, NYC Councilman Larry Seabrook and Yonkers City Councilwoman Sandy Annabi. Bharara’s office uncovered an alleged corruption ring involving Senator Carl Kruger and Assemblyman William Boyland, announcing a “breathtaking assortment of corruption charges”[13] against Kruger and Boyland as well as six others. In February 2011, Bharara announced the indictment of five consultants working on New York City’s electronic payroll and timekeeping project, CityTime, for misappropriating more than $80 million from the project. The investigation has expanded with five additional defendants being charged, including a consultant who allegedly received more than $5 million illegal kickbacks on the projects.

Bharara has also been very active in prosecutions related to online poker. In 2010, he "threatened an Australian payment processor with up to 75 years in prison for helping online poker companies do business with their U.S. customers."[14] In April 2011, Bharara charged 11 founding members of internet gambling companies and their associates involved with pay processing with bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA).[15] The case is United States v. Scheinberg. "Bharara does not claim online poker directly violates federal law, which prohibits the use of 'a wire communication facility' to accept bets 'on any sporting event or contest' but is silent on the legality of other online wagers. Instead he piggybacks on a New York statute that makes promoting 'unlawful gambling activity' a Class A misdemeanor. Bharara's indictment also mentions 'the laws of other states,' a few of which do explicitly ban online poker."[14] He has been accused of seeking the "most expedient" cases to pursue, rather than the most serious, such as online poker and insider trading,[16] and of taking "an alleged New York misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of one year in jail and turning it into multiple federal felonies".[17]

Bhararas signature is also found at the indictment against suspected hackers of the LulzSec group. [18]

[edit] Personal

Bharara is a naturalized United States citizen.[1] He is married with three children.[3] His brother, Vinit Bharara, is a successful entrepreneur having started various consumer businesses including but not limited to the diaper production business.[19]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Weiser, Benjamin (August 9, 2009). "For Manhattan’s Next U.S. Attorney, Politics and Prosecution Don’t Mix". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/10/nyregion/10bharara.html. Retrieved April 21, 2011. 
  2. ^ Gary Weiss (2011-05-11). "Raj Rajarathnam Found Guilty: How Prosecutor Preet Bharara Got His Man". The Daily Beast. http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-05-11/raj-rajarathnam-found-guilty-how-prosecutor-preet-bharara-got-his-man/?cid=hp:mainpromo2. Retrieved 2011-11-11. 
  3. ^ a b "Preet Bharara, the new top federal prosecutor zeroes in on white-collar crime". India Times/Reuters. October 20, 2009. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/Preet-Bharara-the-new-top-federal-prosecutor-zeroes-in-on-white-collar-crime/articleshow/5141088.cms. Retrieved April 21, 2011. 
  4. ^ Chang, Ailsa (January 27, 2011). "Meet Preet Bharara: New York's Highest-Profile Prosecutor". WNYC News. http://www.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2011/jan/27/preet-bharara-hard-charging-humble-prosecutor/. Retrieved April 21, 2011. 
  5. ^ a b Shipman, Tim (June 3, 2007). orldnews/1553492/Mafia-prosecutor-now-has-Bush-in-his-sights.html "Mafia prosecutor now has Bush in his sights". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/w orldnews/1553492/Mafia-prosecutor-now-has-Bush-in-his-sights.html. Retrieved April 21, 2011. 
  6. ^ Jones, Ashby (February 11, 2009). "The Likely Next U.S. Attorney for NY’s Southern District: Preet Bharara". The Wall Street Journal. http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/02/11/the-likely-next-us-attorney-for-nys-southern-district-preet-bharara/. Retrieved April 21, 2011. 
  7. ^ Calabresi, Massimo (November 13, 2009). "Prosecuting Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: Much Harder Than You Think". TIME. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1939374,00.html?xid=rss-topstories. Retrieved April 21, 2011. 
  8. ^ U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York (May 11, 2011). "Hedge Fund Billionaire Raj Rajaratnam Found Guilty In Manhattan Federal Court Of Insider Trading Charges". Press Release. http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/index.html. Retrieved 22 June 2011. 
  9. ^ Weiser, Benjamin; Lattman, Peter (May 12, 2011). "U.S. Attorney Sends a Message to Wall Street". The New York Times. http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/u-s-attorney-sends-a-message-to-wall-street/. Retrieved 22 June 2011. 
  10. ^ "Prepared Remarks by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara". New York Financial Writers Association. CUNY School of Journalism. New York, New York. June 6, 2011. 
  11. ^ Weiser, Benjamin (March 27, 2011). "A New York Prosecutor With Worldwide Reach". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/nyregion/28prosecutor.html. Retrieved August 25, 2011. 
  12. ^ Dovere, Isaac-Edward (December 13, 2010). "On Fighting Public and Financial corruption in New York, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara Takes the Lead". City Hall News. http://www.cityhallnews.com/2010/12/department-of-justice/. Retrieved August 25, 2011. 
  13. ^ Shifrel, Scott; Smith, Greg B. (March 10, 2011). "State Sen. Carl Kruger and Assemblyman William Boyland Surrender to Feds to Face Bribe Rap". New York Daily News. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2011/03/10/2011-03-10_state_sen_carl_kruger_and_assemblyman_william_boyland_surrender_to_feds_to_face_.html. Retrieved August 25, 2011. 
  14. ^ a b Sullum, Jacob (2011-04-20) Poker Bars, Reason
  15. ^ Hurtado, Patricia; Van Voris, Bob (April 15, 2011). rg.com/news/2011-04-15/internet-poker-entrepreneurs-charged-with-fraud-money-laundering-by-u-s-.html "Eleven Charged in Manhattan for Fraud in Online-Gambling Money Laundering". Bloomberg. http://www.bloombe rg.com/news/2011-04-15/internet-poker-entrepreneurs-charged-with-fraud-money-laundering-by-u-s-.html. Retrieved April 26, 2011. 
  16. ^ The Next Best Crooks New York Magazine, 10 April 2011
  17. ^ Why should anyone go to prison for helping people play cards? Reason Magazine, 24 April 2011
  18. ^ LulzSec Indictment http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/interactive/2012/mar/06/lulzsec-indictment-documents-prosecution-complaints
  19. ^ "Baby & Toddler Holiday Gifts - Toys, Clothes, More | Free Shipping". Diapers.com. http://www.diapers.com/aboutus/aboutus.aspx. Retrieved 2011-11-11. 

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