Former Manhattan U.S. attorney Preet Bharara, Wall Street’s top enforcer until President Donald Trump fired him from the post in 2017, has joined WilmerHale as a partner in New York.
Bharara will handle matters including internal and congressional investigations, and compliance assessments, according to a WilmerHale statement.
“Preet’s values are our values,” said Robert Novick, WilmerHale’s co-managing partner, in the statement. “He is one of the most public-spirited and dynamic lawyers of his generation.”
Bharara quickly became one of the best-known federal prosecutors during his eight years as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, prosecuting scores of Wall Street executives for insider trading. He was investigating Deutsche Bank AG, the largest known lender to Trump’s businesses, at the time of his dismissal.
He has since become a broadcaster as host of Stay Tuned with Preet and as co-founder of the podcast company Cafe Studios.
WilmerHale resonated for him for its track record for success and its “commitment to the democratic values and principles I have spent my career fighting for,” Bharara said in the statement.
Bharara’s office in 2016 charged Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian gold dealer, with circumventing sanction controls in a case that roiled relations between Turkey and the U.S. His office also was investigating political corruption cases involving then New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and aides to then New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Soon after Joe Biden’s election in 2020, Bharara’s name was mentioned as a possibility to lead the Justice Department or the Securities and Exchange Commission, Bloomberg News reported then.
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