The office is organized into divisions handling civil, criminal, and appellate matters, in addition to the Special Prosecutions Division, which oversees political corruption investigations.[2] The District of New Jersey is also divided into three vicinages: Newark, Trenton and Camden, with the southern two offices supervised by a Deputy U.S. Attorney. The office employs approximately 170 Assistant U.S. Attorneys.[3] It is the fifth-largest U.S. Attorney's Office in the nation, behind those in the District of Columbia, Los Angeles,
Manhattan, and
Miami.[4]
High-profile cases
Hugh Addonizio - Conviction of former Newark mayor on conspiracy and extortion charges
BitClub Network (2019) - Indicted five individuals for operating and promoting the BitClub Network, an elaborate, worldwide
Ponzi scheme that law enforcement estimates took in more than $1 billion from investors.
Joseph Centanni (2020) - Filed a civil rights lawsuit against a major landlord who repeatedly engaged in a pattern or practice of sexual harassment of numerous tenants and applicants.
Cognizant (2019) - Charged the former President and the former Chief Legal Officer of Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. with violations of the
FCPA in connection with a foreign bribery scheme.
Crazy Eddie - Conviction of
Eddie Antar, founder and CEO of Crazy Eddie, a consumer electronics chain, for fraud
EDGAR Hacking Attack (2019) - Indicted Artem Radchenko and Oleksandr Ieremenko for a large-scale, international conspiracy to hack into the
Securities and Exchange Commission’s Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval (EDGAR) system and profit by trading on critical information they stole.
Fort Dix Six (2007) - Conviction of group of six radical Islamist men allegedly plotting attack on Fort Dix military base[6]
Nelson G. Gross - Conviction of former Republican state chairman on perjury and obstruction of justice charges
Sharpe James (2008) - Conviction of former Newark mayor on corruption charges[8]
Robert C. Janiszewski (2002) - Guilty plea of Hudson County Executive for tax evasion and bribery[9]
John V. Kenny - Conviction of former Jersey City mayor and chairman of Hudson County Democratic Party on conspiracy, bribery, and extortion charges
Charles Kushner (2004) - Guilty plea of real estate developer—and largest campaign donor to former New Jersey Governor
James E. McGreevey—for filing false tax returns and for attempting to retaliate against a witness in a federal criminal case[10]
Hemant Lakhani (2005) - Conviction of black market arms dealer attempting to sell shoulder-fired missiles[11]
Gene Levoff (2019) - indicted former Corporate secretary and Director of corporate law at
Apple Inc. for orchestrating a five-year
insider trading scheme.
Newark Violent Crime Initiative (VCI) (2018-2020) - awarded an Attorney General’s Award in October 2019 as the model for cooperative law enforcement among federal, state, county and city agencies. The VCI led to a 30 percent reduction in the number of shooting victims city-wide between 2017 and 2018 and another 39 percent decline in 2019. In 2020, a year in which violent crime spiked in various places across the country, Newark maintained the same low in the number of murders.
Novartis/
Alcon (2020) - Two deferred prosecution agreements regarding significant violations of the
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act at Greek and Vietnamese subsidiaries of the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis, resulting in penalties of $345 million, representing the second largest criminal and regulatory fine imposed against pharmaceutical companies under the FCPA.
Operation Brace Yourself (2019) - Investigation and prosecution of sweeping
durable medical equipment kickback schemes that resulted in the largest healthcare fraud takedown yet pursued by the Department.
Purdue Pharma (2020) - prosecution of opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma L.P. for three felonies, including conspiracy to defraud the
DEA and
Anti-Kickback Statute violations—for its gross misconduct in misbranding and mismarketing
OxyContin that amounted to over $8 billion in penalties.
Samsam Ransomware (2018) - Indicted two Iranians—Faramarz Shahi Savandi and Mohammad Mehdi Shah Mansouri—for conducting the largest ransomware attack in the U.S. that crippled institutions in New Jersey and elsewhere.
UMDNJ (2005) - Deferred prosecution agreement overseen by federal monitor
Herbert Stern involving Medicaid double-billing and other cases of health care fraud at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.[14]
Thomas J. Whelan - Conviction of mayor of Jersey City on conspiracy, bribery and extortion charges
Woodcliff Lake (2018) - Filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Borough of Woodcliff Lake for violations of
RLUIPA resulting from the Borough’s efforts to prevent an Orthodox Jewish congregation from building a new place of worship.