Legal News

SDNY Prosecutor Tapped to Oversee Treasury Bailout Program

By Amir Efrati

For now, all focus is on President-elect Obama’s possible appointments — Will Hillary Clinton (Yale Law) become Secretary of State? Larry Summers (no law degree) for Treasury Secretary? Bob Gates (no law degree) or Richard Danzig (Yale Law) for Defense?

But President Bush still sits in the Oval Office, and he’s still got a few appointments of his own up his sleeve. The latest: Neil Barofsky, a federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, was nominated by Friday to be the Treasury Department’s special inspector general of the $700 billion bailout program, which has come under criticism lately for alleged lack of oversight.

If confirmed by the Senate, the 38-year-old (who appears to have never been photographed) will be in charge of auditing and investigating how the government spends the money. Here are stories from WaPo and AP.

Barofsky (Penn, NYU Law ‘95) is currently head of SDNY’s mortgage fraud unit and was previously involved in the prosecution of former executives at collapsed financial firm Refco Inc., as well as international drug traffickers. WaPo said Barofsky, a Miami native, contributed $200 to the Obama campaign. He worked at Weil Gotshal and Morvillo Abramowitz before becoming an assistant U.S. attorney in 2000.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on November 17, 2008 (boomark / email).