Preet Bharara confirmed Attorney for Manhattan

Preet Bharara

WASHINGTON: Punjab-born Preet Bharara has been confirmed by the US Senate as the new Attorney for Manhattan in New York, considered the most prestigious federal prosecutor's post outside Washington.

President Barack Obama had announced his intent to appoint Bharara as the US Attorney on May 15.

Bharara's nomination was confirmed by the Senate on Friday, New York Senator Charles Schumer said in a statement.

He served as chief counsel to Schumer for more than four years.

In his new post, Bharara will oversee more than 200 lawyers who handle some of the country's most prominent cases, like the prosecution of Bernard L Madoff for his multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, The New York Times reported.

A naturalized American citizen from India, The Times said Bharara brings a diversity of background to the post.

"He contributes things that we've not seen before," Daniel C Richman, a law professor at the Columbia University and a former Southern District prosecutor, said.

"He's thought hard about what a US attorney's place should be within a broader federal enforcement system and the train wrecks that can develop when unthinking or ill-thinking bureaucrats tamper with that," The Times quoted him as saying.

Bharara was born in Ferozepur India and moved to the US as an infant as his parents migrated to America in 1970.-PTI