Legal News

Chief of Securities Fraud at SDNY Hired by Fried Frank

By Amir Efrati

We’ve got some news that might interest the white-collar bar: Bill Johnson, chief of the securities and commodities fraud unit at the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan — also known as the Southern District of New York — will soon leave the government to join the law firm Fried Frank.

Johnson’s unit has been knee-deep in alleged and real fraud schemes, with the Bernard Madoff and Arthur Nadel matters, the Marc Dreier case and even some credit crisis-related work, e.g. Lehman Brothers.

Johnson (Ohio Wesleyan ‘88, American University Law ‘91) became chief about two years ago. He began his career at the Securities and Exchange Commission, where he worked for its office of general counsel, appellate litigation group, and as an enforcement lawyer in New York, according to bios he previously provided to organizers of legal events.

In 1996 he joined SDNY, where he first investigated whether former junk bond icon Michael Milken violated the terms of his probation. He later helped prosecute former WorldCom CEO Bernard J. Ebbers, shoe magnate Steve Madden and the principals of Monroe Parker Securities for market manipulation.

The U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York, based in Brooklyn, has given SDNY a run for its money in recent years, but SDNY remains the largest and best-known office for white-collar criminal prosecutions.

A spokeswoman for Fried Frank confirmed the hire, though it’s not clear when Johnson is expected to start. He didn’t respond to calls from the Law Blog.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on July 14, 2009 (boomark / email).