Jacquelyn M. Kasulis Appointed Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York

Jacquelyn M. Kasulis has begun serving as Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, as per the Vacancies Reform Act.  Ms. Kasulis was sworn in today by Chief Judge Margo K. Brodie, United States District Court Judge for the Eastern District of New York.  Ms. Kasulis was also appointed First Assistant U.S. Attorney as per the Vacancies Reform Act and will continue to hold that position as well.  Ms. Kasulis has served as the Chief Assistant United States Attorney since March 2021.  In that role she has been second-in-command of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and responsible for overseeing the Criminal, Civil, Administrative and Appeals Divisions and the day-to-day operations of the Office, including the Office’s COVID-19 response.  Ms. Kasulis succeeds Mark J. Lesko who will soon be appointed Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s National Security Division.

“I am honored to serve as the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.  After serving as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for over a decade, and overseeing the work of the Criminal and Civil Divisions, I look forward to leading and supporting the men and women of the Office as they work tirelessly with our law enforcement and agency partners to ensure the safety of our community and pursue the cause of justice,” stated Acting U.S. Attorney Kasulis.  “I am especially grateful to the members of the Office for their unwavering commitment to the people of this District and the country during the pandemic, and look forward to assisting the Office as it emerges from the unprecedented challenges of the last year.”

Ms. Kasulis joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in January 2008 and has served in the General Crimes, Organized Crime, and Business & Securities Fraud Sections. From September 2014 to November 2015, Ms. Kasulis served as Deputy Chief in General Crimes for the Office. She later served as Deputy Chief in the Business & Securities Fraud Section from November 2015 to March 2017 and was appointed Chief of the Business & Securities Fraud Section in March 2017.

Ms. Kasulis began serving as Acting Chief of the Criminal Division in March 2019 and was appointed Chief of the Criminal Division in June 2019. She established and supervised the Office’s Bank Integrity Task Force. She was also selected to be a member of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Chiefs Working Group.

Ms. Kasulis led the Office’s investigation and prosecution of three individuals, including two former Goldman Sachs bankers and a wealthy Malaysian financier, for their participation in a multi-billion dollar money laundering and bribery conspiracy related to 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (lMDB), Malaysia’s investment development fund. In October 2020, Goldman Sachs entered into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement and one of Goldman Sachs’ Malaysian subsidiaries pleaded guilty to a one-count criminal information charging conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. As part of that resolution, Goldman Sachs admitted to paying over $1.6 billion in bribes to high-ranking Malaysian and Abu Dhabi officials to obtain lucrative business deals, including underwriting three bond deals between 2012 and 2014 that totaled $6.5 billion, of which $2.7 billion was embezzled. Goldman Sachs agreed to pay $2.9 billion in penalties -- with $1.2 billion paid to the United States Treasury -- as part of a global resolution with eight different foreign and domestic authorities. The Goldman Sachs resolution represents the largest penalty ever paid to U.S. authorities in a foreign bribery case; the most civil and criminal authorities to ever coordinate on any corporate resolution; and the most bribes paid in a foreign bribery scheme prosecuted by the United States.

Ms. Kasulis was the lead Assistant U.S. Attorney in United States v. Martin Shkreli, a high-profile six-week trial in the summer of 2017. Shkreli was charged in four interrelated fraud schemes that resulted in over $20 million in losses to investors, including two fraud schemes related to hedge funds he founded and ran and two additional frauds related to a pharmaceutical company Shkreli founded. Shkreli was convicted of three of the four fraud schemes and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment.

Additionally, Ms. Kasulis led the investigation and prosecution in United States v. Bandfield, et al., in which 10 defendants and six corporations were charged with orchestrating a massive offshore securities fraud, money laundering and tax evasion schemes. As part of that scheme, the defendants laundered approximately $250 million in securities fraud proceeds and were involved in approximately 40 “pump and dump” schemes. The case represents the first criminal prosecution under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

In United States v. Mitchell, et al., Ms. Kasulis participated in the investigation and prosecution of the Executive Chairman of Forcefield Energy, a NASDAQ-listed company, and nine other individuals -- including five registered broker dealers -- for their role in a $131 million market manipulation scheme involving a network of corrupt investors, stock promoters and broker dealers. In United States v. Peister, Ms. Kasulis led the prosecution and conviction of an investment fund manager who defrauded approximately 75 investors by orchestrating a $17 million Ponzi scheme on Long Island.

During her time in the Organized Crime Section, Ms. Kasulis led the prosecution of over 15 Genovese crime family members and associates in United States v. Depiro, et al., including the conviction of three consecutive International Longshoremen’s Association union presidents for their involvement in a 30-year extortion scheme in which longshoremen were extorted at Christmastime every year at the direction of the Genovese crime family. Ms. Kasulis also led the trial team in United States v. Burke, in which the defendant, a Gambino crime family associate, was convicted of racketeering conspiracy, with predicate acts including two murders, and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Ms. Kasulis graduated from Columbia Law School in 2003 and received her B.A. in History from Davidson College. After graduation, Jackie worked as a litigation associate for four years at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in New York.