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Email: jklein@petrilloklein.com
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JOSHUA KLEIN

Joshua Klein represents individuals and entities in complex commercial litigation, government enforcement proceedings and internal investigations. He also advises on compliance matters. Mr. Klein is a litigator who served for a combined thirteen years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and as counsel with the Enforcement Division of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and was widely recognized as one of the most experienced white-collar prosecutors in the Department of Justice. As a member of the SDNY Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force for more than six years, he was counsel in numerous securities fraud investigations and prosecutions including financial statement/accounting fraud schemes, market manipulation conspiracies, investment adviser frauds and insider trading schemes. Most recently, Mr. Klein was co-lead counsel in the Galleon insider trading investigation. Many of these matters involved coordination with parallel investigations and litigation brought by the SEC, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the self regulatory organizations and the New York State Attorney General's Office.

Mr. Klein has extensive trial experience, particularly in the securities fraud area. He was trial counsel in the successful prosecutions of Alberto Vilar and Gary Tanaka (former managers of the $8 billion Amerindo Investment Advisors fund) on charges of investment advisor fraud; Hafiz Naseem (a former investment banker) in relation to a multi-million dollar insider trading scheme; Morris Weissman (the former CEO and Chairman of the Board of American Banknote Corporation) for financial statement and accounting fraud; Frank Skelly and Craig Gross (former principals of Walsh Manning, Inc.) in connection with a $100 million market manipulation scheme; former brokers of Investors Associates, Inc. for their roles in a stock fraud scheme; and George Balis, the CEO of Millenium Direct, Inc. and a former attorney, for orchestrating a kickback scheme. In addition, Mr. Klein conducted other trials and hearings in federal district court and briefed and argued numerous appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

As an AUSA, Mr. Klein also obtained guilty pleas in several additional securities fraud cases including of executives at Aurora Foods Inc. for perpetrating an accounting fraud and, more recently, James Nicholson in the Westgate Ponzi scheme.

In addition to his experience in the securities and investment advisor fraud arenas, Mr. Klein was also a member of Office's Major Crimes Unit, where he handled complex prosecutions involving investment fraud, bank fraud, theft of trade secrets and intellectual property offenses.

Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney's Office, Mr. Klein served as Senior Counsel in the Division of Enforcement of the SEC in Washington, D.C., conducting investigations and litigation concerning violations of the federal securities laws. Before joining the SEC, Mr. Klein, for three years, was an associate with a prominent international law firm, where he was assigned to complex financial transactions, including securities offerings, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, project financings and structured financings. While with the firm, Mr. Klein also represented indigent clients, pro bono, in administrative hearings before the New York State Department of Labor.

Mr. Klein has been a speaker on securities law, corporate governance and criminal law matters at programs sponsored by, among others, the U.S. Department of Justice's National Advocacy Center, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, the Directors' Roundtable, Columbia Business School, and the Federal Law Enforcement Officers' Association. A graduate of Harvard Law School (1993, cum laude) and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1990, Phi Beta Kappa), Mr. Klein is admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

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