Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today the appointments
of Brendan McGuire as Chief and Michael Bosworth as Deputy Chief of the Public Corruption Unit in the Office’s Criminal Division. Mr. McGuire and Mr. Bosworth will be responsible for overseeing criminal investigations and prosecutions of elected and appointed officials at all levels of government – federal, state, and local. Mr. McGuire joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2005, and was most recently a member of the Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit. For the past several years, Mr. McGuire has been a leading terrorism prosecutor in the Office.
He was part of the Southern District teams that successfully prosecuted the Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, who was sentenced to life in prison, and the Somali Pirate, Abduwali Muse, who was sentenced to over 33 years in prison. McGuire also successfully prosecuted and convicted the Syrian arms dealer, Monzer al Kassar, as well as Syed Hashmi, who pled guilty in 2010 to providing material support to al Qaeda. Mr. McGuire also played an instrumental role in the indictment and extradition of the Russian arms dealer, Viktor Bout.
Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Mr. McGuire, 35, worked as an attorney in private practice. He is a graduate of Williams College and New York University Law School and was a law clerk for the Honorable Peter K. Leisure of the Southern District of New York. He replaces Daniel Stein who is leaving the Office for a position at a New York law firm.
Mr. Bosworth first joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2005 and left in 2007 for a clerkship with the Honorable Stephen G. Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court. He returned to the Southern District in 2008 and has been a member of the Public Corruption Unit since early 2009. He was part of the Southern District teams that prosecuted and convicted the former New York City Police Commissioner, Bernard Kerik, and that secured a guilty plea from former financial advisor Kenneth Starr. He is currently prosecuting former New York City Councilman, Larry Seabrook, as well as New York State Senator Carl Kruger, Assemblyman William Boyland, Jr., and six others who were arrested last week for their alleged participation in a vast bribery and conspiracy scheme.
Mr. Bosworth, 33, is a graduate of Princeton University and Yale Law School, where he was a Comments Editor of the Law
Journal. In addition to clerking for Justice Breyer, he also clerked for the Honorable Robert A. Katzmann of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Honorable Jed Rakoff of the Southern District of New York.
In making these appointments, Mr. Bharara stated:
“Brendan McGuire and Michael Bosworth have distinguished themselves as outstanding attorneys and dedicated public servants who embody all the values and traditions of the Southern District of New York. Both men have built stellar records as skilled and successful prosecutors, and I am confident they will effectively carry out the vital mission of the Public Corruption Unit – to hold public officials accountable to the people they serve. As last week’s arrests demonstrate, public corruption remains a top priority of this Office.”