Breuer To Leave Justice Department

Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division will leave the department on March 1, 2013.
 
Breuer was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 20, 2009, and is the longest-serving head of the Criminal Division in recent history. 
 
The DOJ said in a statement that “Protecting the integrity of the banking system and fighting financial fraud have been hallmarks of the Criminal Division during Assistant Attorney General Breuer’s tenure.” The major financial fraud-related developments during his tenure include: 
 
·                Creation of the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, to identify and forfeit the proceeds of foreign official corruption;
·               A substantial increase in the Criminal Division’s enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA);
·                An investigation into manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate by global financial institutions that thus far has led to nearly $2 billion in criminal penalties, as well as a guilty plea by a UBS subsidiary and charges against individuals; 
·                Creation of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Bank Integrity Unit to pursue financial institutions and individuals who violate money laundering statutes and the Bank Secrecy Act; 
·                Prosecution of “numerous significant perpetrators of financial fraud,” including Lee Bentley Farkas, former chairman of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, who perpetrated an approximately $3 billion bank fraud; and R. Allen Stanford, former chairman of Stanford International Bank, who perpetrated a $7 billion investment fraud scheme – both of whom were convicted at trial and are serving 30 and 110 years in prison, respectively;
·                Combating healthcare fraud, helping to expand the Medicare Fraud Strike Force from two to nine cities and carrying out “the two largest Medicare fraud takedowns in history, one involving 111 defendants charged and the other involving $452 million in alleged fraudulent billings”; and
·                Pursuit of cybercrime and intellectual property crime prosecutions. 
 
Prior to joining the Justice Department, Breuer was a partner in the law firm of Covington and Burling LLP.  He earlier served as special counsel to President Clinton, and began his legal career as an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan.  He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia Law School.