03/07/2008 08:15:21 AM EST
Sanjay Bhandari, Former Federal Prosecutor, Joins Sidley Austin as Partner
LOS ANGELES – (AP) Sidley Austin LLP announced today that Sanjay Bhandari, a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of California, has joined the firm's Los Angeles office as a partner in the white collar practice. Mr. Bhandari will focus his practice on white collar crime, internal investigations and securities enforcement matters.
Prior to joining Sidley, Mr. Bhandari served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for eight years, focusing on the investigation and trial of complex white collar crimes. His cases included the largest bribery case prosecuted to date against a sitting U.S. Congressman (the bribery conviction of former Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham and his four main conspirators, for over $2 million in bribes), and the two largest securities fraud cases prosecuted to date in the Southern District of California. For his work as a prosecutor, Mr. Bhandari was twice awarded one of the highest honors in the Department of Justice, the Director's Award. He previously worked as an enforcement attorney with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C., focusing on accounting fraud.
Mr. Bhandari has managed many complex investigations, involving public companies, professional firms, corporate management and boards of directors, city councils and other local government organizations, the United States Congress and various Congressional committees, and federal agencies including the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency. The subject matter of these investigations ranged from corruption to accounting fraud relating to software revenue recognition and the handling of corporate reserves.
Mr. Bhandari is an honors graduate of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and Cornell Law School, where he was an editor of theCornell Law Review.
Sidley's white collar practice, with more than 100 lawyers in the U.S., has significant experience in all aspects of corporate criminal defense and enforcement-related litigation - from internal investigations, to representing clients in grand jury investigations, to managing parallel criminal and civil proceedings, to trial, to extraditions and counseling on foreign criminal investigations and to advising on voluntary disclosure and compliance issues, including issues under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Sidley Austin LLP is one of the world's largest full-service law firms, with more than 1800 lawyers practicing in 16 U.S. and international cities including Beijing, Brussels, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hong Kong, London, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo.