We are pleased to announce that Benet Kearney, a seasoned prosecutor with ten years in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, has joined the firm’s New York office as a managing director. Kearney was most recently detailed to Washington, DC, where she served as Deputy Chief of the Capitol Siege Section, Breach & Assault Unit. She will bolster Nardello & Co.’s white collar criminal defense, anti-corruption and fraud investigations, and litigation and arbitration support practices, among others.
Kearney brings deep expertise investigating and prosecuting individual and corporate wrongdoers in complex criminal and civil matters involving fraud, money laundering, sanctions violations, asset forfeiture and white-collar crime, among others. During her time at SDNY, Kearney prosecuted international financial institutions for sanctions and Bank Secrecy Act violations; owners of a Miami-based export company for operating an unlicensed money transmitting business that transferred more than $100 million into and out of the United States; and a nation-wide racketeering enterprise in connection with a long-running identity theft and fraudulent financing scheme.
When speaking with Law360, Nardello & Co. CEO Sabina Menschel said, “Benet brings a unique depth of experience in high-stakes investigations from her time at the Southern District of New York. Her expertise navigating high-stakes criminal and civil matters will be highly valuable to our clients as they face increasingly complex legal and regulatory challenges.”
In this same interview, Kearney said, “Part of being a lawyer, part of being a prosecutor, part of being an investigator, is being able to develop the factual basis that you need to make your case. When people think of prosecutors, they think of trial attorneys, they think of lawyers, but I was able to partner with so many high-quality, diligent investigators in their own right — learn from them and do really top-notch investigations. And so, it’s that work that I’m excited to bring to Nardello & Co.”
Earlier in her career, Kearney served as Deputy General Counsel of the New York City Department of Investigation and was a litigation associate at a top global law firm.
