Alexander Vasilescu is Regional Trial Counsel in the New York office of the Enforcement Division of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Since 2005, he has supervised the Trial Unit of the New York Office, which is the second largest trial unit at the SEC. At the SEC, he has tried and won various jury trials, brought the emergency litigation case against Bernard Madoff, who created the largest Ponzi-scheme, oversaw the following Madoff-related investigations and enforcement cases, and recently litigated and obtained a large settlement against AT&T and its three IR executives for violating Regulation FD.
He also worked on and led various complex investigations and enforcement actions, including Latour Trading LLC ($16 million penalty against HFT firm for Net Capital Rule violations); Athena Capital Research ($1 million penalty in first HFT manipulation case); Town of Ramapo (fraudulent municipal securities violations); Billy Walters (famous gambler for insider trading case); Computer Associates (accounting fraud violations); State Bank of India and Citigroup (unregistered offering of securities); and John G. Bennett and Foundation for New Era Philanthropy ($500 million Ponzi scheme). He has spoke at various PLI and CEP securities conferences.
Prior to joining the SEC, Alexander was a litigator for 7 years at Kramer Levin and at Paul Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. He also worked extensively on pro bono matters, including representing tenant defendants in Housing Court, a client from Sanctuary for Women, a defendant prisoner on death row, a plaintiff prisoner beaten by guards in Rikers Island Prison, and in a class action against New York City and the Department of Education, plaintiff immigrant parents of children in a bilingual elementary school in the Bronx. He also was a Research Associate at Harvard Law School working under then Brandeis Professor of Law Charles M. Haar. Working with Professor Haar, Alexander created two seminars at Harvard Law School, one called Mergers, Acquisitions and Corporate Restructuring: Legal and Policy Perspectives and the other concerning judicial injunctions and special master, focusing on cleaning up Boston Harbor, housing and school litigations in Yonkers, and NIMBY issues.