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George A. Stamboulidis

Monitorships

• As part of its investigation into the collapse of Enron, the U.S. Department of Justice selected Mr. Stamboulidis to serve as the outside independent Monitor of Merrill Lynch, at the time the largest firm by capital. Assisted by a team of Baker Hostetler attorneys and auditors from an independent auditing firm, he reviewed Merrill Lynch’s implementation of policies and procedures governing the integrity of complex structured finance transactions and, in close consultation with both senior management and the Justice Department, he made recommendations to optimize policies, controls and training firmwide.
• Baker Hostetler was appointed by the U.S. Department of Justice to serve as Independent Examiner of the Bank of New York with Mr. Stamboulidis as the principal partner responsible for the engagement. Assisted by other Baker Hostetler attorneys and an outside forensic auditing firm, Mr. Stamboulidis lead the team in monitoring the bank’s suspicious activity reporting practices and anti-money-laundering procedures and its compliance with related laws and regulations. In addition to the bank, Mr. Stamboulidis reported directly to the United States Attorneys’ Offices for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the New York State Banking Department.
• The United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania selected Mr. Stamboulidis to serve as the outside independent monitor of Mellon Bank, N.A. (Mellon). Mr. Stamboulidis and his team were responsible for oversight of Mellon’s compliance with the terms and conditions of a settlement agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. They conducted annual assessments of that compliance, providing detailed written reports to the United States Attorney. This monitorship continued after the subsequent merger with the Bank of New York. 
• Since 2007, Mr. Stamboulidis has served as the monitor for the Town of Brookhaven, monitoring certain operations at the Town’s landfill in order to help the Town prevent fraud.
• In November 2009, Mr. Stamboulidis was appointed by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York to serve as the Ethical Practices Attorney for Local 14-14B of the International Union of Operating Engineers.

Mr. Stamboulidis has also assisted other corporations by conducting internal investigations and by evaluating and making recommendations to enhance their financial transaction controls to ensure that adequate internal review procedures exist.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Stamboulidis served for 13 years in a variety of positions in the U.S. Department of Justice. From 1998 until 2001, he was the Chief of the Long Island Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. In that capacity, he investigated and prosecuted cases involving complex business, bank, healthcare and bankruptcy fraud, securities, tax, computer, public and labor corruption, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, extortion, racketeering, environmental, terrorism, murder, arson, money laundering and narcotics offenses. Mr. Stamboulidis has received numerous awards and commendations for his work as a prosecutor and has three times received the Justice Department’s coveted Director’s Award for Superior Performance.

Mr. Stamboulidis joined the Department of Justice through the Attorney General’s Honor Program and was detailed to the Newark Organized Crime Strike Force. In 1989, he joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, where he became the Deputy Chief and Acting Chief of the Office’s Organized Crime Section.

In June 2000, after a nationwide search, the United States Attorney General selected Mr. Stamboulidis as the new lead prosecutor in United States v. Wen Ho Lee, a case involving the mishandling of the United States’ classified nuclear weapons secrets. He was praised by the Judge, the Attorney General, the FBI Director and the U.S. Senate for his handling of the case, which was resolved with a guilty plea in September 2000.

In addition to the Wen Ho Lee nuclear weapons secrets case, Mr. Stamboulidis successfully prosecuted several significant high profile cases such as the 1999 public corruption trial of the most powerful Suffolk County political leader, the 1997 trial of United States v. Vincent “the Chin” Gigante (the boss of the Genovese crime family) and the 1992 trial of the boss of the Colombo crime family.

Before joining the Department of Justice, Mr. Stamboulidis served as a law clerk to the Honorable Louis C. Bechtle of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Following law school, Mr. Stamboulidis was a law clerk to the Honorable Steven F. Lefelt, the Chief Administrative Law Judge in New Jersey.

At the invitation of the Vera Institute of Justice, Mr. Stamboulidis served as a consultant to the South African government on criminal justice issues, including efforts against money laundering, racketeering and carjacking. He is a frequent presenter to financial institutions, brokerage firms and law enforcement on corporate governance and fraud issues, and he speaks regularly before corporate legal conferences and bar associations on issues related to business crimes, corporate investigations and monitorships. He lectures on financial responsibility at the annual Major League Baseball Rookie Career Development Program, which provides the League’s top 100 rookie baseball players with extensive professional training. Mr. Stamboulidis has conducted a continuing legal education program for members of the New York External Bank Fraud Committee. Mr. Stamboulidis has also conducted training programs within the Department of Justice and has lectured at St. John’s University School of Law and Hofstra University School of Law.

Mr. Stamboulidis has been rated by Martindale-Hubbell, the authoritative resource for information on the worldwide legal profession. He also serves as a member of the American Bar Association’s Advisory Panel.

Some of the conferences and CLE panels Mr. Stamboulidis has participated in include:

• ABA 2nd Annual National Institute on Internal Corporate Investigations and In-House Counsel presentation, “The Exit Strategy: Negotiating A Settlement & Monitors” (May 2010)
• ABA White Collar Conference Panel, “Monitors, Examiners and Receivers: Corporate Watchdogs, Investigators or Liquidators?” (February 2010)
• The MLB Rookie Career Development Conference (2005-2010)
• ABA White Collar Conference Panel, “Hardball Tactics & Ethical Obligations of Lawyers.” Related article co-authored for the course materials, “A Quarter Century After Upjohn, In Our Current Culture of Waiver, Do Privileges Still Exist?” (March 2007)
• PLI Hot Topic Briefing, “Investigations of a Board Director: Dos & Don’ts” (November 2006)
• Federal Bar Association Conference, “How to Lose a Client in One Easy Step: A Panel Discussion on the Perils and Pitfalls of Cease and Desist Letters and Bad Decision-Making in Filing for Declaratory or Injunctive Relief” (September 2006)
• PLI conference presentation and article, “Alternatives to Indictment: Remedial Measures in an Age of Deferred Prosecution and Non-Prosecution Agreements” (August 2006)
• Conducting Internal Investigations (August 2006)
• The Federal Bar Council CLE on “Monitorships, IPSIGs and Independent Investigations: The Increasing Privatization of the Investigation and Prosecution Functions in Corporate Oversight” (October 2005)
• The London Bar Conference CLE on cross-border issues (October 2005)
• Internal investigations for the insurance industry
• The Cleveland Tax Institute
• The Society of Professional Journalists’ national convention
• New York External Bank Fraud Committee