Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street

by Sheelah Kolhatkar

Preet Bharara, along with other top prosecutors around the country, had become increasingly sensitive to the possibility of losing big cases, especially ones that attracted a lot of news media attention. Ambitious young prosecutors from Ivy League law schools did not want to be associated with high-profile failures, especially when they were trying to build their careers and reputations. Bharara had watched prosecutors in the Eastern District lose a closely watched fraud case against two Bear Stearns hedge fund traders a few years earlier, in 2009, a case that had similarly seemed to be a surefire winner. It was one of the first major criminal cases to arise out of the financial crisis, and the two fund managers were acquitted after just six hours. The government was harshly criticized for choosing the case in the first place and for the way it was handled. It was a disaster, and it sent a message to the Justice Department that when it came to pursuing crime on Wall Street, it was much safer to file cases that were close to a sure thing, rather than risk losing after a big trial.