US attorney behind Adani's bribery charges, Breon Peace, to resign as Trump returns
Breon Peace said he will step down Jan. 10, ending a stint as federal prosecutor that included high-profile cases such as singer R Kelly’s trial for sex-trafficking, a fraud indictment of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and the criminal conviction of a US Congressman.
Peace, a 53-year-old native of Brooklyn, New York, said in a statement Wednesday “it has been the honor of a lifetime to serve as United States Attorney.” He’ll be replaced as head of the Brooklyn office, known as the Eastern District of New York, by First Assistant US Attorney Carolyn Pokorny, according to the statement.
He was appointed by President Joe Biden in 2021 and will leave before President-elect Donald Trump takes office Jan. 20.
During Peace’s tenure, his office brought and won several big cases. In August, former US Representative George Santos pleaded guilty to misusing campaign funds. In October, Genaro Garcia Luna, once Mexico’s top public security official, got more than 38 years in prison for secretly providing protection to “El Chapo” and the Sinaloa drug cartel. Kelly, a hip hop star, was sentenced in 2022 to 30 years in prison for sex trafficking.
The Brooklyn office also won major foreign bribery cases: the 2022 conviction of former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker Roger Ng for his role in the looting of Malaysian fund 1MDB; the August conviction of former Mozambique finance minister Manuel Chang for his role in a $2 billion fraud; and the conviction in February of former Vitol Group oil trader Javier Aguilar, who a jury found
