Alixandra Smith

Alixandra Smith is the Chief of the Criminal Division in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.  As Chief, Alix supervises the work of approximately 115 Assistant U.S. Attorneys in all of the Criminal Division’s practice areas in the Brooklyn office – the General Crimes (GC), International Narcotics and Money Laundering, Organized Crime and Gangs (OCG), National Security and Cybercrime, Business and Securities Fraud (BSF), Public Integrity, Civil Rights and Asset Recovery Sections – as well as in the Central Islip office, which is responsible for investigating and prosecuting the full range of federal crimes.

Alix joined the Office in 2012 and has served in GC, OCG and BSF, and as a Deputy Chief of BSF, Chief of BSF and a Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division.  Among other roles, Alix is Vice Chair of the Criminal Division Hiring Committee, Chair of the Office’s e-Litigation Committee and co-teaches the EDNY Prosecution Externship at New York University Law School.  She became Chief in 2024.

During her time in the Office, Alix led or co-led the investigation and prosecution of significant white-collar cases, including Shkreli and Greebel, in which the defendants were convicted of orchestrating four interrelated fraud schemes following back-to-back six-week and 11-week trials in 2017; Odebrecht, Braskem and related individual cases, in which two Brazilian companies and multiple individuals pled guilty to FCPA violations, and the companies paid a combined penalty of $3.2 billion, for their roles in a scheme to obtain business by paying almost a billion dollars in bribes to government officials in 12 countries; AmerisourceBergen, in which the second-largest U.S. drug distributor pled guilty to a FDCA violation and paid a $885 million penalty for selling millions of oncology drug syringes to immunocompromised cancer patients nationwide that were prepared under insanitary conditions and contaminated; and Goldman Sachs and related cases, in which Goldman, its subsidiary and individuals were charged for their roles in a scheme to pay $1.6 billion in bribes to government officials and launder billions of dollars in criminal proceeds, and which was resolved when the subsidiary pled guilty to a FCPA violation, Goldman entered a DPA and paid $2.9 billion in criminal penalties as part of a global resolution with eight different foreign and domestic authorities, and a Goldman banker was convicted of FCPA and money laundering charges after a nine-week trial.  Alix has also investigated and prosecuted important violent crimes cases, including Rivera et al., in which two defendants were convicted of, among other crimes, racketeering, murder, sex trafficking and sex trafficking of children following an 11-week trial; and Lopez, in which four MS-13 members were convicted of murdering a fellow MS-13 member who they suspected was a cooperator.

Alix is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School and clerked for the Honorable Faith Hochberg, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, and the Honorable Julio Fuentes, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.