United States Attorney Zane David Memeger
Zane David Memeger was appointed by President Barack Obama as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and the neighboring eight counties) on May 6, 2010, following confirmation by the United States Senate.
After Mr. Memeger was named U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 2010, prosecutions of economic crimes such as Ponzi schemes and bank or mortgage fraud doubled in two years from 75 in 2010 to 150 in 2012 before a federal hiring freeze stunted the pace of case flow in 2013 to 120. And there have been no less than seven defendants sentenced to 20 or more years in prison for their misdeeds and dozens more given in excess of 10 years.
Kline & Specter lawyer David Caputo, a former federal prosecutor who litigates whistleblower cases as well as teaches federal criminal law at Drexel University School of Law, said Memeger has simply executed what U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder wants done across the country.
“With the crisis that led to the last recession, prosecutors felt the only way to make sure these sort of things didn’t happen again was to put people in jail,” Caputo said. “Too often defendants would buy their way out of prison or there would be no affect on their company. Until people truly had to pay for their crimes, it was going to continue to happen.”
Mr. Memeger is currently serving a two-year term on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC), where he serves as Co-Chair for the Health Care Fraud Working Group. He also sits on the following AGAC subcommittees: White Collar/Fraud Subcommittee, Violent Crime and Organized Crime Subcommittee, LECC/Victim/Community Issues Subcommittee, and Cyber Crime/Intellectual Property Subcommittee.
Mr. Memeger leads an office of 250 prosecutors and support staff where he served as an Assistant United States Attorney from 1995 to 2006, investigating and prosecuting a variety of cases including organized crime, government fraud, financial fraud, violent crime, narcotics, extortion, and commercial bribery.
Mr. Memeger returned to the private sector in 2006 where he became a partner with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. He was very involved with Morgan Lewis’ pro bono program, handling cases as a member of the Criminal Justice Act Panel (CJA) for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and supervising young attorneys handling matters for the Support Center for Child Advocates and the Education Law Center.
Mr. Memeger is a 1986 graduate of James Madison University, where he was a four-year letterman in men’s gymnastics .Coming out of high school he did all six men’s events: the pommel horse, rings, parallel bars, high bar, vault, and floor exercise. His strong events were floor exercise, pommel horse, and rings.
He is a 1991 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law. Upon graduation from law school, he received the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Public Service for his work on behalf of federal and state prisoners.