Preet Bharara
Encyclopedia
Preetinder S. Bharara commonly known as Preet Bharara, is U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York
.
, Punjab
, India
, to a Sikh
father and Hindu
mother. 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. 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.
. 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.
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. 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."
Bharara has said the office’s top priority is protecting Americans from the threat of terrorism, whether homegrown or foreign-based. 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.”
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.” 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” 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." 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). 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." He has been accused of seeking the "most expedient" cases to pursue, rather than the most serious, such as online poker and insider trading, and of taking "an alleged New York misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of one year in jail and turning it into multiple federal felonies".
United States citizen. He is married with three children. His brother, Vinit Bharara, is a successful entrepreneur having started various consumer businesses including but not limited to the diaper production business.
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York is the chief federal law enforcement officer in eight New York counties: New York , Bronx, Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Orange, Dutchess, and Sullivan. Preet Bharara, who was appointed by Barack Obama in 2009 is the U.S. Attorney for the...
.
Early life and education
Bharara was born in 1968 in FirozpurFirozpur
Firozpur is a city on the banks of the Sutlej River in Firozpur District, Punjab, India, founded by Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq , a Muslim ruler of the Tughlaq Dynasty who reigned over the Sultanate of Delhi from 1351 to 1388.The Manj Rajputs say the town was named after their chief, a Rajput of...
, Punjab
Punjab (India)
Punjab ) is a state in the northwest of the Republic of India, forming part of the larger Punjab region. The state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the east, Haryana to the south and southeast and Rajasthan to the southwest as well as the Pakistani province of Punjab to the...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, to a Sikh
Sikh
A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...
father and Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
mother. He grew up in suburban Monmouth County, New Jersey
Monmouth County, New Jersey
Monmouth County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey, within the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 630,380, up from 615,301 at the 2000 census. Its county seat is Freehold Borough. The most populous municipality is Middletown Township with...
and attended Ranney School
Ranney School
Ranney School is a coeducational, nonsectarian, private day school located in Tinton Falls, in Monmouth County, New Jersey, serving students in Beginners through twelfth grade. It was founded in 1960 by educator Russell G...
in Tinton Falls, New Jersey
Tinton Falls, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 15,053 people, 5,883 households, and 3,976 families residing in the borough. The population density was 965.7 people per square mile . There were 6,211 housing units at an average density of 398.4 per square mile...
, where he graduated as valedictorian
Valedictorian
Valedictorian is an academic title conferred upon the student who delivers the closing or farewell statement at a graduation ceremony. Usually, the valedictorian is the highest ranked student among those graduating from an educational institution...
in 1986. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
in 1990 and Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, is one of the oldest and most prestigious law schools in the United States. A member of the Ivy League, Columbia Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Columbia University in New York City. It offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in...
in 1993, where he was a member of the Columbia Law Review.
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 attorneysDismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy
The dismissal of U.S. Attorneys controversy was initiated by the unprecedented midterm dismissal of seven United States Attorneys on December 7, 2006 by the George W. Bush administration's Department of Justice. Congressional investigations focused on whether the Department of Justice and the White...
. He was assistant United States Attorney
United States Attorney
United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...
in Manhattan for five years, bringing criminal cases against the bosses of the Gambino
Gambino
Gambino is an Italian surname. Notable persons with that surname include:*Carlo Gambino, New York mobster and former boss of the family that takes his name; Gambino crime family*Emanuel Gambino, New York mobster and nephew of Carlo Gambino...
and Colombo
Colombo
Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...
crime families and Asian gangs in New York City.
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
Raj Rajaratnam
Raj Rajaratnam is an American former hedge fund manager and founder of the Galleon Group, a New York-based hedge fund management firm. On October 16, 2009, he was arrested by the FBI on allegations of insider trading, which also caused the Galleon Group to close. He stood trial in U.S. v...
on all 14 counts with which he was charged. 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."
Bharara has said the office’s top priority is protecting Americans from the threat of terrorism, whether homegrown or foreign-based. 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
Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse
Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse is a Somali pirate and the sole survivor of a group of four who attacked the MV Maersk Alabama and held the captain for ransom at gunpoint...
, 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.”
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.” 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” 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
Online poker
Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a dramatic increase in the number of poker players worldwide...
. 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." 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
Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006
The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 is United States legislation regulating online gambling. It was added as Title VIII to the SAFE Port Act which otherwise regulated port security...
(UIGEA). The case is United States v. Scheinberg
United States v. Scheinberg
United States v. Scheinberg, 10 Cr. 336 , is a United States federal criminal case against the founders of the three largest online poker companies, PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Cereus , and a handful of their associates, which alleges that the defendants violated the Unlawful Internet Gambling...
. "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." He has been accused of seeking the "most expedient" cases to pursue, rather than the most serious, such as online poker and insider trading, and of taking "an alleged New York misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of one year in jail and turning it into multiple federal felonies".
Personal
Bharara is a naturalizedNaturalization
Naturalization is the acquisition of citizenship and nationality by somebody who was not a citizen of that country at the time of birth....
United States citizen. He is married with three children. His brother, Vinit Bharara, is a successful entrepreneur having started various consumer businesses including but not limited to the diaper production business.