45 Facts About Geoffrey Berman

Geoffrey Steven Berman was born on September 12,1959 and is an American attorney who served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2018 to 2020.

On June 19,2020, Attorney General William Barr announced in a press release that Geoffrey Berman was "stepping down" effective July 3 and that Jay Clayton, the chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, would be nominated as his replacement.

Geoffrey Steven Berman was born in Trenton, New Jersey, the son of Marie and Ronald Berman, a developer of Trenton real estate properties.

Geoffrey Berman then studied law at Stanford Law School, where he obtained a Juris Doctor in 1984.

Geoffrey Berman served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1990 to 1994.

Geoffrey Berman worked on several tax and fraud cases as a prosecutor, including the Masters of Deception computer hacking case.

From 1994 to 1997, Geoffrey Berman represented, pro bono, Maureen and Richard Kanka, defending the constitutionality of Megan's Law in state and federal litigation.

Geoffrey Berman married Joanne Karen Schwartz on August 20,1994.

Geoffrey Berman is a resident of New York, where he previously lived from 1984 to 2002.

Geoffrey Berman then moved to Princeton, New Jersey, where he lived for 14 years.

Geoffrey Berman was a shareholder at Greenberg Traurig, as was Rudy Giuliani.

Geoffrey Berman represented Philip Kwon, the deputy general counsel at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey during the Bridgegate trial.

Geoffrey Berman denied that Kwon was ever told the lane closures were intended to punish anyone.

Geoffrey Berman had performed some part-time volunteer work for the Trump transition.

Geoffrey Berman had the appointment indefinitely, until the Senate confirmed someone nominated by the president.

Since Geoffrey Berman was recused by the US Attorney General's Office from the investigation, he was apparently not involved in the decision to raid Cohen's office.

On October 26,2018, Geoffrey Berman charged Cesar Sayoc with sending a string of homemade incendiary packages to several present and former federal officials, including former President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In October 2018, Geoffrey Berman charged five doctors and one pharmacist with narcotics distribution, including prescribing opioids to individuals who had no medical need for them.

In November 2018, Geoffrey Berman charged recording artist and performer Daniel Hernandez, better known as 6ix9ine, with six felony counts of racketeering and violence to aid racketeering.

On November 26,2018, Geoffrey Berman announced the indictment of former Honduran Congressman Tony Hernandez on drug trafficking and weapons charges.

On January 8,2019, Geoffrey Berman charged Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer, with obstruction of justice in connection with a false and misleading declaration she submitted to a judge in the Southern District of New York.

In May 2019, Geoffrey Berman charged Avenatti with another indictment, alleging that he stole $300,000 from his client Stormy Daniels.

On October 9,2019, Geoffrey Berman announced charges against Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman and two others for campaign violations relating to the illegal use of straw donors and foreign money.

On October 15,2019, Geoffrey Berman announced the indictment of Halkbank, the largest state-owned bank in Turkey, for a multi-billion-dollar scheme to evade US sanctions on Iran.

In June 2019, Attorney General Barr pressed Geoffrey Berman to allow Halkbank to pay a fine and acknowledge some wrongdoing, and to end criminal investigations into senior Halkbank officials involved in the sanctions evasion.

On November 19,2019, Geoffrey Berman charged guards Michael Thomas and Tova Noel with creating false records, and with conspiracy, after video footage obtained by prosecutors revealed that Jeffrey Epstein had, against regulation, been in his cell unchecked for eight hours before being found dead on August 10,2019.

On January 27,2020, at a press conference sponsored by Safe Horizon at the site of Jeffrey Epstein's New York mansion, Geoffrey Berman was asked whether Prince Andrew was cooperating with the SDNY's investigation into Epstein's coconspirators.

Geoffrey Berman responded that to date Andrew had provided "zero cooperation".

On March 9,2020, Geoffrey Berman said that Andrew had "completely shut the door" on voluntary cooperation and that his office was considering its options.

On March 9,2020, Geoffrey Berman announced the indictment of 27 people, including Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro, involved in doping racehorses across the country.

On March 26,2020, Geoffrey Berman announced the indictment of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and other Venezuelan officials on charges of conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism and to import hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States and related weapons offenses.

Geoffrey Berman stated that the indictment alleged that Bonillo conspired with convicted former Honduran congressman Tony Hernandez and his brother, former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez.

On May 21,2020, Geoffrey Berman charged Muge Ma, a Chinese national living in New York, with trying to steal $20 million in government-backed Covid relief loans.

On May 22,2020, Geoffrey Berman announced fraud charges against movie producer William Sadleir, who founded Aviron Pictures.

Geoffrey Berman was charged with siphoning off more than $20 million from his production company and putting more than $14 million of it into his mansion.

Geoffrey Berman is charged with lying to his investor, a New York-based fund.

On June 12,2020, Geoffrey Berman announced the unsealing of a complaint against Inigo Philbrick, an art dealer with galleries in London and Miami, charged with defrauding a client of over $20 million.

Trump felt Geoffrey Berman's investigation of his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was an effort to damage him politically.

Geoffrey Berman said that Trump intended to nominate Jay Clayton, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to take Berman's place as the Manhattan US attorney, and that Trump, on his recommendation, had appointed Craig Carpenito, the US attorney for the District of New Jersey, to serve as the acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, effective July 3,2020, while the Senate takes up Clayton's nomination.

Shortly after Barr's announcement, Geoffrey Berman denied having resigned and said that he had "no intention of resigning," saying that he was appointed by a court, not the president, and that he would remain in office until the Senate confirmed a replacement.

Geoffrey Berman added that he learned about his supposed intention to step down from press reports.

Geoffrey Berman refused to resign until his deputy was named to succeed him, which he said would ensure that the important cases of his office would continue without delay or interruption.

Geoffrey Berman became known in what prosecutors like to affectionately call the 'Sovereign District of New York' for standing up to Washington's demands and left office in June 2020 after a standoff with then-Attorney General William Barr over investigations into Trump's allies.

Williams said Geoffrey Berman promoted him and 'when the hour demanded true courage and independence and a demonstration of what it means to be a Southern District of New York prosecutor, he showed all of America what that means.

In September 2022, Geoffrey Berman published a memoir, Holding the Line: Inside the Nation's Preeminent US Attorney's Office and its Battle with the Trump Justice Department.