1. Preetinder Singh Bharara is an Indian-born American lawyer and former federal prosecutor who served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017.
54 Facts About Preet Bharara
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Preet Bharara is currently a partner at the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr.
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Preet Bharara served as an Assistant US Attorney for five years prior to leading the Southern District of New York.
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Preet Bharara transferred to the US Department of Justice in 2004 as an assistant US Attorney, beginning his career as a federal prosecutor.
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Preet Bharara similarly headed various counter-terrorism probes and cases, particularly against Al-Qaeda.
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Preet Bharara's office used a variety of unconventional tactics to close cases like wiretapping and asset seizure.
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Preet Bharara prosecuted nearly 100 Wall Street executives for insider trading and securities fraud using these legal methods.
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Preet Bharara closed settlements with the four largest banks in the country and shut down multiple hedge funds.
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Preet Bharara was born in 1968 in Firozpur, Punjab, India, to a Sikh father and Hindu mother.
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Preet Bharara's parents immigrated to the United States in 1970.
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Preet Bharara grew up in Eatontown in suburban Monmouth County, New Jersey and attended Ranney School in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, where he graduated as valedictorian in 1986.
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Preet Bharara then received a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia Law School in 1993, where he was a member of the Columbia Law Review.
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Preet Bharara was an assistant United States Attorney in Manhattan for five years, from 2000 to 2005, bringing criminal cases against the bosses of the Gambino crime family, Colombo crime family and Asian gangs in New York City.
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Preet Bharara 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.
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Preet Bharara was nominated to become US Attorney for the Southern District of New York by President Barack Obama on May 15,2009, and unanimously confirmed by the US Senate.
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Preet Bharara was sworn into the position on August 13,2009.
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In September 2014, when Attorney General Eric Holder announced his intention to step down, Preet Bharara was speculated as being a potential candidate as the next United States Attorney General, although Holder's ultimate named successor was Loretta Lynch.
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Preet Bharara's office sent out agents to more than 25 countries to investigate suspects of arms and narcotics trafficking and terrorists, and bring them to Manhattan to face charges.
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In 2012, Preet Bharara was featured on a cover of Time magazine entitled "This Man is Busting Wall Street" for his office's prosecutions of insider trading and other financial fraud on Wall Street.
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From 2009 to 2012, Preet Bharara's office oversaw the Galleon Group insider trading investigation against Raj Rajaratnam, Rajat Gupta, Anil Kumar and more than 60 others.
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Preet Bharara has often spoken publicly about his work and written an op-ed about the culture surrounding corporate crime and its effect on market confidence and business risk.
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On October 22,2015, Preet Bharara dropped seven insider-trading cases two weeks after the US Supreme Court refused to a review a lower court decision that would make it harder to pursue wrongful-trading cases.
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In 2013, Bharara announced criminal and civil charges against one of the largest and most successful hedge-fund firms in the United States, SAC Capital Advisors LP, and its founder Steven A Cohen.
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Preet Bharara made a criminal inquiry into Citibank's Mexican banking unit In 2014, Citi settled with federal prosecutors for $7 billion for ignoring warnings on risky loans.
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Almost as soon as he took office, Preet Bharara began investigating the role of Bernie Madoff's primary banker, JPMorgan Chase.
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Preet Bharara's office handled the criminal prosecutions of several employees at Madoff's firm and their associates.
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In 2012, federal prosecutors under Preet Bharara sued Bank of America for $1 billion, accusing the bank of carrying out a mortgage scheme that defrauded the government during the depths of the financial crisis in 2008.
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In 2013, Preet Bharara began investigating a money laundering fraud scheme in New York City operated by a Russian criminal organization.
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Preet Bharara brought charges in the $2.5-million case of John Re, a man from East Hampton, New York, who sold forged artwork by Jackson Pollock and others and was sentenced to five years in federal prison.
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Preet Bharara admitted the truth of a detailed statement of facts accompanying the DPA, and agreed to submit to a three-year monitorship.
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Preet Bharara's office uncovered an alleged corruption ring involving New York State Senator Carl Kruger.
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In February 2011, Preet 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.
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Preet Bharara made national headlines after investigating 11-term Speaker of the New York State Assembly Sheldon Silver for taking millions of dollars in payoffs, leading to Silver's arrest in January 2015.
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In 2010, Preet Bharara oversaw the prosecution of eight longshoremen on charges of participation in a multimillion-dollar cocaine trafficking enterprise along the Waterfront, operated by a Panamanian drug organization.
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In January 2011, Preet Bharara's office participated in a multi-state organized crime takedown, charging 26 members of the Gambino crime family with racketeering and murder, as well as narcotics and firearms charges.
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Preet Bharara contrasted his office's record of successfully convicting terrorists with the lengthy, secretive, and inefficient Guantanamo practice.
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Some high-profile terrorist figures convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment during Preet Bharara's term include Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, Osama bin Laden's son-in-law.
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Preet Bharara won a massive conviction and 25-year sentence for international arms smuggler Viktor Bout.
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Preet Bharara's tenure saw a number of notable prosecutions for computer hacking:.
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Preet Bharara moved to shut down several of the world's largest Internet poker companies.
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Preet Bharara prosecuted several payment processors for Internet poker companies.
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Preet Bharara said that Trump asked him to remain as US Attorney, and he agreed to stay on.
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On March 10,2017, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered all 46 remaining United States Attorneys who were holdovers from the Obama administration, including Preet Bharara, to submit letters of resignation.
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Preet Bharara declined to resign and was fired the next day from Trump's administration.
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In 2018, Preet Bharara started a second podcast with former New Jersey Attorney General and fellow law professor Anne Milgram, "Cafe Insider", which provides legal commentary on the latest news.
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Preet Bharara's younger brother Vinit "Vinnie" Preet Bharara, a graduate of Columbia Law School, is an entrepreneur.
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In 2012, Preet Bharara was named by Time magazine as one of "The 100 Most Influential People in the World," and by India Abroad as its 2011 Person of the Year.
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In 2013, Preet Bharara delivered the commencement address at Fordham Law School in New York and received an honorary Doctor of Laws.
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Later that week, Preet Bharara delivered the commencement address at his alma mater, Columbia Law School, during his 20th reunion year.
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In 2014, Bharara delivered the commencement address at Benjamin N Cardozo School of Law in New York and spoke at Harvard Law School's Class Day Ceremony.
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In 2016, Preet Bharara delivered the commencement address at Seton Hall University School of Law in Newark, New Jersey.
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In 2018, Preet Bharara delivered the commencement address at St John's University School of Law in New York.
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In 2022, Preet Bharara delivered the commencement address at his alma mater, Columbia Law School.
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Preet Bharara was included in Bloomberg Markets Magazines 2012 "50 Most Influential" list as well as Vanity Fairs 2012 and 2013 annual "New Establishment" lists.