Tapped for Attorney General

Loretta E. Lynch, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, which covers all of Long Island, has been nominated by President Barack Obama to be the next attorney general of the United States. The President introduced Ms. Lynch as his nominee in a press conference at the White House on Saturday.

Last year Ms. Lynch began the prosecution of two South Fork cases that came to national attention.

In what she called “one of the largest investment frauds in Long Island history,” Ms. Lynch prosecuted two brothers-in-law, Brian R. Callahan of Old Westbury and Adam J. Manson of New York City, for a Ponzi scheme that involved the Panoramic Resort in Montauk. Both men pleaded guilty in plea-bargained deals and are awaiting sentencing.

She also prosecuted the franchise owners of 10 eastern Long Island 7-Elevens, including the Sag Harbor store on Long Island Avenue, on charges of harboring and exploiting undocumented immigrants. She said in a statement made at the time the nine defendants were charged, that the 7-Eleven owners had “ruthlessly exploited their immigrant employees, stealing their wages and requiring them to live in unregulated boarding houses, in effect creating a modern-day plantation system.” They have since pleaded guilty, and are awaiting sentencing as well, according to Zugiel Soto, a spokesperson for the Eastern District. Ms. Soto said the defendants have agreed to pay restitution to their victims as part of their plea.

Ms. Lynch, 55, a graduate of Harvard Law School, first became part of the prosecutorial team of the Eastern District of the United States in New York in 1990. One of the cases that brought her to national prominence was the prosecution of New York City Police Department Officer Justin Volpe on charges of sodomizing a prisoner, Abner Louima, in 1997 in a Brooklyn police stationhouse. Mr. Volpe is serving a 30-year sentence in federal prison.

Ms. Lynch was first nominated to her current post in 1999 by President Bill Clinton. After George W. Bush took office in 2001, she left the post, but was nominated a second time in 2010 by President Obama, becoming the only attorney confirmed for the Eastern District of New York position twice.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, she will replace Eric Holder, who has been in the position since shortly after President Obama’s swearing in on 2009. She would become the first African-American woman to hold the U.S. attorney general post.