A veteran prosecutor who helped convict crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried has been named performing Manhattan US Legal professional — inheriting Mayor Eric Adams’ corruption case and different high-profile probes.
Danielle Sassoon, who earlier in her profession was a regulation clerk for conservative US Supreme Courtroom Justice Antonin Scalia, was appointed to the highly effective perch Monday afternoon, quickly after President Trump was sworn into workplace.
Sassoon, who has been with the workplace since 2016, assumed the title Monday afternoon “pursuant to an order signed by Performing Legal professional Normal James R. McHenry III,” US Legal professional’s Workplace spokesman Nicholas Biase stated in a press release.
It’s unclear how lengthy Sassoon’s tenure will final, given Trump’s acknowledged plan to appoint Jay Clayton to the important thing Division of Justice put up.
Clayton — a former head of the Securities and Alternate Fee who has by no means prosecuted a case — should be confirmed by the US Senate earlier than taking management of the workplace, which is prepping for trials in its bombshell circumstances towards Adams and Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The Southern District of New York additionally has an extended historical past of bringing headline-grabbing monetary fraud, authorities corruption and intercourse trafficking circumstances.
Former Manhattan US Legal professional Damian Williams, who resigned final month, began as the highest boss at SDNY in October 2021 — practically 10 months after Joe Biden, who nominated him to the put up, grew to become president.
Sassoon is finest identified for main the workplace’s prosecution of Bankman-Fried, by which a jury convicted the scraggly-haired former crypto surprise boy of stealing round $10 billion from customers of his cryptocurrency alternate.
The prosecutor confronted Bankman-Fried throughout a blistering cross-examination — and ripped his declare his hedge fund Alameda Analysis merely “borrowed” billions from his collapsed alternate FTX due to “oversights” in “threat administration,” quite than crimes.
“You possibly can’t stroll into a jewellery retailer, steal a diamond necklace after which stroll out and say there was no safety guard,” Sassoon advised jurors in her closing assertion.
“He knew what he was doing was incorrect.”
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