Wall Street Sheriff Preet Bharara on Time cover

Malaysia Sun (IANS) Friday 3rd February, 2012

Indian-American attorney Preet Bharara, nicknamed the Sheriff of Wall Street for prosecuting the likes of Rajat Gupta, the poster boy of Indian business in America, has made it to the cover of Time magazine.

"This man is busting Wall Street" screams the cover of the magazine hitting the stands Friday detailing Ferozepur-born Bharara's anti-corruption crusade as the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

"US Attorney Preet Bharara has already taken down some of the financial world's most prominent figures. He's just getting started," notes the cover story written by Bill Saporito and Massimo Calabresi.

After successfully winning the conviction of Sri Lankan American hedge fund tycoon Raj Rajaratnam for insider trading, he is now prosecuting Gupta, former McKinsey head and a former Goldman Sachs director, for allegedly giving tips to Rajaratnam.

Born to a Sikh father and a Hindu mother, 43-year-old Bharara grew in New Jersey, a State which has a significant Indian-American population. He graduated from the prestigious Harvard College in 1990.

Bharara's picture appeared in the latest edition of Time, a day after he announced to have taken action against one of the oldest Swiss banks for having evaded American taxes and helping in flight of US money.

Giving an overview of Bharara's insider-trading probe to date, it begins with an anecdote of the conference call at hedge fund Level Global Investors Nov 4, 2009 that kicked the investigation into high gear.

Unknown to the participants, Bharara was recording the conversation. He had obtained a secret court order to join the conference call after a confidential informant told his office that the party line was being used illegally to trade inside information.

Sworn in on August 13, 2009, Bharara oversees hundreds of criminal and civil cases, involving international terrorism, financial fraud, insider trading, public corruption, and gang violence, as well as the resolution of alleged civil rights violations at various public venues.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)