Attorney General Eric Holder is heading to the exit door — and that’s making Wall Street nervous.
Executives in the financial services industry see Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara as a possible successor — and with his tough-on-corporate-crime history, believe a renewed focus on Wall Street could be coming to Washington.
Holder, after six years atop the Justice Department, is seen as not interested in highlighting white-collar crimes.
“[Holder] was pretty easy on Wall Street,” Marc LoPresti, a corporate and securities lawyer in New York, told The Post.
“It’s glaring that past financial debacles have led to prosecutions of high-level executives but we have seen almost no prosecution of individuals involved in wrongdoings of financial institutions related to the 2007-2009 financial crisis,” said Anat Admati, a professor of finance at Stanford’s graduate school of business and author of “The Bankers’ New Clothes: What’s Wrong With Banking and What to Do About It.”
Holder announced Thursday that he’ll step down from his position once Congress approves a successor nominated by President Obama.
“It’s probably going to be the Southern District attorney as a direct response to what is the perception of Holder’s lack of aggressive prosecution of financial services executives,” LoPresti added.
Bharara, who has held his position since 2009, has successfully prosecuted more than 80 insider-trading cases, including former Galleon Group head Raj Rajaratnam, ex-SAC Capital trader Matthew Martoma, and forced a guilty plea from SAC Capital itself.
The US attorney has previously dodged questions about his next career moves.