Jacquelyn Kasulis, veteran of high posts in U.S. Attorney’s Office, named acting U.S. attorney for Eastern District

June 22, 2021 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

Acting United States Attorney Jacquelyn M. Kasulis was sworn in Monday afternoon by Chief Judge Margo K. Brodie at Brooklyn Federal Court. Photo courtesy of U.S. Attorney’s Office, EDNY

Share this:

Jacquelyn M. Kasulis was sworn in on Monday as acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York by Chief Judge Margo K. Brodie, EDNY.

Acting U.S. Attorney Kasulis succeeds Mark J. Lesko, who will soon be appointed acting assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s National Security Division.

Kasulis has served as the chief assistant United States attorney since March 2021. In that role, she has been second in command at the U.S. Attorney’s Office and responsible for overseeing the Criminal, Civil, Administrative and Appeals divisions as well as the day-to-day operations of the office, including the Office’s COVID-19 response.

“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,” she said.

Ms. Kasulis joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in January 2008 and has served in the General Crimes, Organized Crime and the Business and Securities Fraud sections. She began serving as acting chief of the Criminal Division in March 2019 and was appointed chief of the division in June 2019. She established and supervised the Office’s Bank Integrity Task Force.

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 multibillion-dollar money laundering and bribery conspiracy related to 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (lMDB), Malaysia’s investment development fund. The Goldman Sachs resolution represents the largest penalty ever paid to U.S. authorities in a foreign bribery case.

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, known as the “Pharma Bro,” 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 he founded.

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.

Ms. Kasulis graduated from Columbia Law School in 2003 and received her B.A. in History from Davidson College.