The United States attorney for the Southern District of New York is the chief federal law enforcement officer in eight contiguous New York counties:the counties of New York (Manhattan) and Bronx,and the counties of Westchester,Putnam,Rockland,Orange,Dutchess,and Sullivan. Established by the Judiciary Act of 1789,the office represents the United States government in criminal and civil cases across the country. The SDNY handles a broad array of cases,including but not limited to those involving white collar crime,domestic terrorism,cybercrime,public corruption,organized crime,and civil rights disputes.
The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of the State of New York. Two of these are in New York City:New York (Manhattan) and Bronx;six are in the Hudson Valley:Westchester,Putnam,Rockland,Orange,Dutchess,and Sullivan. Appeals from the Southern District of New York are taken to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Cyrus Roberts Vance Jr. is an American attorney and politician who served as the District Attorney of New York County,New York. He was previously a principal partner at the law firm of Morvillo,Abramowitz,Grand,Iason,Anello,&Bohrer,P.C. He is the son of Cyrus Vance,former Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter. Vance did not seek reelection as District Attorney in the 2021 election,and was succeeded by Alvin Bragg. He is currently a partner at Baker McKenzie.
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. He is currently a partner at the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr. He served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for five years prior to leading the Southern District of New York.
Alejandro Nicolas Mayorkas is an American attorney and government official who is the 7th United States Secretary of Homeland Security,serving since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party,Mayorkas previously served as director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services from 2009 to 2013,and the 6th Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security from 2013 to 2016.
Allan Joseph Bankman is an American legal scholar and psychologist. He is the Ralph M. Parsons Professor of Law and Business at Stanford Law School. He was also employed at FTX,the cryptocurrency company founded by his son,Sam Bankman-Fried,who is an entrepreneur and convicted felon. His tenure at FTX lasted until the company's bankruptcy and subsequent collapse in 2022.
Geoffrey Steven Berman is an American attorney who served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2018 to 2020. He is the Global Chair of the litigation department at the law firm Fried,Frank,Harris,Shriver &Jacobson.
Samuel Benjamin Bankman-Fried,commonly known as SBF,is an American entrepreneur who was convicted of fraud and related crimes in November 2023. Bankman-Fried founded the FTX cryptocurrency exchange and was celebrated as a "poster boy" for crypto,with FTX having a global reach with more than 130 international affiliates. At the peak of his net worth,he was ranked the 41st-richest American in the Forbes 400.
Alvin Leonard Bragg Jr. is an American politician and lawyer who serves as the New York County District Attorney,covering Manhattan. In 2021,he became the first African American elected to that office. Bragg had previously served as Chief Deputy Attorney General of New York and as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York. In 2024,he became the first and only district attorney to secure a conviction of a former United States president.
Carla Beth Freedman is an American lawyer who has served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York since October 2021.
FTX Trading Ltd.,commonly known as FTX,is a bankrupt company that formerly operated a cryptocurrency exchange and crypto hedge fund. The exchange was founded in 2019 by Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang and collapsed in 2022 after massive fraud perpetrated by Bankman-Fried and his partner Caroline Ellison forced the company to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Two related investigations by New York State and City officials were opened by 2020 to determine whether the Trump Organization has committed financial fraud. One of these is a criminal case being conducted by the Manhattan district attorney (DA) and the other is a civil case being conducted by the New York State Attorney General (AG). The DA's case has led to two of the organization's subsidiary companies being found guilty of 17 charges including tax fraud and the indictment of Donald Trump,while the AG has succeeded in imposing an independent monitor to prevent future fraud by the organization.
Alameda Research was a cryptocurrency trading firm,co-founded in September 2017 by Sam Bankman-Fried and Tara MacAulay. In November 2022,FTX,Alameda's sister cryptocurrency exchange,experienced a solvency crisis,and both FTX and Alameda filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. That same month,anonymous sources told The Wall Street Journal that FTX had lent more than half of its customers' funds to Alameda,which was explicitly forbidden by FTX's terms-of-service.
Maxwell Alejandro Frost is an American politician and activist serving as the U.S. representative for Florida's 10th congressional district since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party,he was previously the national organizing director for March for Our Lives. Elected at age 25,Frost is the first member of Generation Z to serve in the United States Congress.
Caroline Ellison is an American business executive who was convicted of fraud in 2023 in relation to the bankruptcy of FTX. She was the CEO of Alameda Research,a trading firm affiliated with the FTX and founded by Sam Bankman-Fried. Ellison was terminated from her position after FTX and Alameda filed for bankruptcy. In 2022,Ellison pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud,two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud,conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The bankruptcy of FTX,a Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange,began in November 2022. The collapse of FTX,caused by a spike in customer withdrawals that exposed an $8 billion hole in FTX's accounts,served as the impetus for its bankruptcy. Prior to its collapse,FTX was the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume and had over one million users.
Gary Wang is an American computer programmer who co-founded the crypto currency exchange FTX with Sam Bankman-Fried. At the height of his success in 2022,Wang was ranked the 227th richest American in the Forbes 400,and the 431st richest person in the world by The World's Billionaires. After FTX collapsed into bankruptcy,caused by massive fraud perpetrated by Wang,Bankman-Fried and a few others,Wang plea bargained a guilty charge in exchange for testifying against his former college roommate and FTX cofounder,Bankman-Fried. Before co-founding FTX,Wang worked at Google Flights,building systems for the aggregation of ticket prices.
Margaret Garnett is an American lawyer from New York who is serving as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
United States of America v. Samuel Bankman-Fried was a 2023 federal criminal trial in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Financial entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried,commonly known as SBF,was convicted on seven charges of fraud and conspiracy following the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange FTX in November 2022. After the jury's verdict in November 2023,on March 28,2024,Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison.
