Maxine Moore Waters (D-CA) is currently the chairwoman of the 116th Congress U.S. House Committee on Financial Services. She is an American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for California’s 43rd congressional district since 1991. The district, numbered as the 29th district from 1991–1993 and as the 35th district from 1993 to 2013. Waters is a member of the Democratic Party and is currently in her 15th term in the House. Before becoming a U.S. Representative, Waters served in the California State Assembly, to which she was first elected in 1976. Waters received her Bachelors Degree in Sociology in 1971 at Los Angeles State College (now California State University, Los Angeles), where she received a bachelor’s degree in sociology in 1971.
Subject: Dennis T. Palmeri
Subject of Interest
Dennis T. Palmeri was a former top Shearson Lehman Hutton Inc. executive, who plead guilty to criminal charges in a broad government investigation of the stock-loan industry that also involves other brokerages. Palmeri was in charge of stock loans. The case was said to be derived from information from jailed speculator Ivan F. Boesky, a major source of evidence for Wall Street securities investigations since he was ensnared in an insider trading probe in 1986. Palmeri received illegal kickbacks while head of the stock-loan operation. Palmeri began working at Shearson in 1979. He resigned June 28, 1989. He had supervised a department that specializes in lending blocks of stock mostly to large institutional investors and speculators.
Subject: Benito Romano
Subject of Interest
Benito Romano (born 1950) was the first Puerto Rican to hold the United States Attorney’s post in New York on an interim basis. On February 1, 1989, Romano was named the interim replacement for Giuliani as the Federal prosecutor in Manhattan.He graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Arts in 1972. In 1976, he graduated from Columbia University Law School earning his Juris Doctor law degree, becoming the first member of his family to go to college. In 1977, he was admitted to the New York Bar. Romano is a partner at Freeh Sporkin & Sullivan, LLP, part of the New York office, having joined the firm in May 2018. Prior to joining the firm, Benito was a partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer U.S. LLP, the Litigation Practice Group, where he was a partner since 2009.
Subject: Otto G. Obermaier
Subject of Interest
Otto George Obermaier (born April 16, 1936) was the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from September 1989 until February 1993. He was appointed to this position by George H. W. Bush. Obermaier was raised in Manhattan. He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Manhattan College. After this Obermaier became an examiner for the United States Patent Office and studied law at the Georgetown University Law Center. He later served as a law clerk to Judge Richard H. Levet. During the 1960s Obermaier was an assistant district attorney under Robert M. Morgenthau. Obermaier served for a time as a chief trial counsel for the Securities and Exchange Commission. He was also an associate counsel to the Knapp Commission. In 2006, he established a law firm with John S. Martin Jr., also a former United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Subject: Mary Jo White
Subject of Interest
Mary Jo White is an American attorney who served as the 31st Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from 2013 to 2017. She was the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, serving from 1993 to 2002. On January 24, 2013, President Barack Obama nominated White to replace Elisse B. Walter as Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. She was confirmed by the Senate on April 8, 2013 and was sworn into office on April 10, 2013. On November 14, 2016, White announced she would step down from her SEC position at the end of the president’s term and is now the Senior Chair at Debevoise & Plimpton. She received a bachelor of arts from the College of William & Mary in 1970. She earned an master of arts in psychology in 1971 from The New School for Social Research and a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia Law School in 1974.
Subject: James B. Comey
Subject of Interest
James Brien Comey Jr. is an American lawyer who was the 7th director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2013 until his dismissal in May 2017. Comey was the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York from January 2002 to December 2003, and the United States deputy attorney general from December 2003 to August 2005 in the administration of President George W. Bush. In August 2005, Comey left the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and became a senior vice president of Lockheed Martin as general counsel. In 2010, he became general counsel at Bridgewater Associates, based in Westport, Connecticut. In early 2013, he left Bridgewater to become a senior research scholar and Hertog fellow on national security law at Columbia Law School. He served on the board of directors of HSBC Holdings until July 2013. President Donald Trump fired Comey on May 9, 2017. Comey graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1982, majoring in chemistry and religion. He then received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Chicago Law School in 1985.
Subject: David N. Kelley
Subject of Interest
David N. Kelley is an American attorney and a former interim United States Attorney and Deputy U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY). He was also a co-chair of the United States Justice Department’s nationwide investigation into the September 11 attacks. Kelley was raised in East Hampton, New York, and has lived in the New York metropolitan area for most of his life. He earned his undergraduate degree from The College of William & Mary and his J.D. degree in 1986 from New York Law School. Kelley was a policeman and a fireman while attending law school. After leaving the U.S. Attorney’s office in 2005, Kelley joined Wall Street law firm Cahill Gordon & Reindel as a partner in its litigation and corporate investigations practice. He is currently a partner and co-leader in the White Collar and Securities Litigation practice group at Dechert.
Subject: Michael J. Garcia
Subject of Interest
Michael John Garcia is an American lawyer, judge and former government official. Since February 2016, he has served as an Associate Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, that state’s highest court. He is a former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (2005–2008). Between his service as United States Attorney and his appointment to the Court of Appeals, Garcia was a partner at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis. He has also served as chairman of El Museo del Barrio. Garcia previously served as Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (2003–2005), Acting Commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (2002–2003), Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement (2001–2002), and an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York (1992–2001). Garcia graduated from Albany Law School of Union University in 1989.
Subject: Lev L. Dassin
Subject of Interest
Lev L. Dassin is a partner based in the New York office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. He joined the firm in 2009. Before returning to private practice, Dassin served as Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Dassin previously served as Deputy United States Attorney, the second in command of the office, and as Chief of the Criminal Division, in charge of all of the criminal prosecutions and investigations in the district. He received a J.D. from New York University School of Law in 1990, and an undergraduate degree, magna cum laude and with Distinction In All Subjects, from Cornell University in 1987.
Subject: Preet Bharara
Subject of Interest
Preetinder Singh Bharara is an American lawyer, author, and former federal prosecutor who served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017. He served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for five years prior to leading the Southern District. Born in Firozpur, India, his family immigrated to New Jersey in 1970. Bharara became a U.S. Citizen at age 12. Bharara graduated from Harvard College in 1990 and attended Columbia Law School before joining Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher as a litigation associate in 1993. Three years later he moved to Shereff, Friedman, Hoffman & Goodman. Bharara first entered the public sector as chief counsel to Senator Chuck Schumer the he transferred to the U.S. Department of Justice in 2004 as an assistant U.S. Attorney, launching his career as a federal prosecutor. Upon the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, Bharara was dismissed after refusing to submit his resignation as part of the 2017 dismissal of U.S. attorneys. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1990 and a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia Law School in 1993 where he was a member of the Columbia Law Review.
Subject: Joon Kim
Subject of Interest
Joon Hyun Kim is an American attorney who served as the acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from March 2017 to January 2018. He was Deputy U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from July 2015 to March 2017 after serving as the chief of the criminal division since July 2014. From April 2013 to July 2014, Kim was the chief counsel to the U.S. Attorney. Kim attended Phillips Exeter Academy, where he graduated in 1989, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University in 1993 and graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School, in 1996. After law school, he clerked for Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum of the Southern District of New York. From 2006 to 2013, Kim worked at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP.
Subject: Geoffrey S. Berman
Subject of Interest
Geoffrey Steven Berman is an American lawyer serving as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York since 2018. He previously served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1990 to 1994. In January 2018, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Berman’s appointment as interim U.S. Attorney for a statutory period of 120 days. On April 25, 2018, the judges of the Southern District of New York, pursuant to the statute, unanimously appointed Berman U.S. Attorney for an indeterminate term that expires upon the appointment of a Presidential nominee approved by the Senate. Berman earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Bachelor of Science in Economics at the University of Pennsylvania in 1981. He then studied law at Stanford University where he obtained a Juris Doctor degree in 1984. During his studies, he was the Note Editor of the Stanford Law Review.
Subject: Rudolph W. Giuliani
Subject of Interest
Rudolph William Louis Giuliani is an American politician, attorney, and public speaker who served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He currently acts as an attorney to President Donald Trump. Politically first a Democrat, then an Independent in the 1970s, and a Republican since the 1980s, Giuliani served as United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 1983. That year he became the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, holding the position until 1989. In 2002, Giuliani founded Giuliani Partners (consulting), acquired and later sold Giuliani Capital Advisors (investment banking), and joined a Texas firm while opening a Manhattan office for the firm renamed Bracewell & Giuliani.
Subject: Michael R. Bloomberg
Subject of Interest
Michael R. Bloomberg is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner and co-founder of Bloomberg L.P.. He was the 108th mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013. Bloomberg grew up in Medford, Massachusetts and graduated from Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Business School. He began his career at the securities brokerage Salomon Brothers before forming his own company in 1981. That company, Bloomberg L.P., is a financial information, software and media firm that is known for its Bloomberg Terminal. Bloomberg spent the next twenty years as its chairman and CEO.
Subject: Bill de Blasio
Subject of Interest
Bill de Blasio aka Warren Wilhelm Jr. is an American politician who has served as the 109th mayor of New York City since 2014. A member of the Democratic Party, he was New York City’s public advocate from 2010 to 2013. Born in Manhattan and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, de Blasio graduated from New York University and Columbia University before a brief stint as a campaign manager for Charles Rangel and Hillary Clinton. He started his career as an elected official on the New York City Council, representing the 39th district in Brooklyn from 2002 to 2009. After serving one term as public advocate, he was elected mayor of New York City in 2013 and reelected in 2017.
