Biography
Alixandra Smith is currently the Deputy Chief of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, and previously served as the Chief of the Office’s Business and Securities Fraud Section. She has investigated and prosecuted a wide variety of criminal matters against both individuals and entities, including fraud involving publicly-traded companies, market manipulation, insider trading, healthcare fraud, tax crimes, money laundering, cyber-enabled crimes and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”). Alix is also an adjunct professor at New York University Law School.
During her time at the Office, Alix has worked on significant white collar cases. For example, Alix was the co-lead prosecutor for United States v. Martin Shkreli and Evan Greebel, in which Shkreli, a hedge fund manager and pharmaceutical executive, and Greebel, his attorney, were convicted of securities fraud conspiracy and other charges in connection with four complex fraud schemes in separate trials lasting a combined total of 17 weeks. Alix has prosecuted a number of noteworthy FCPA matters, including leading the trial team for United States v. Goldman Sachs and United States v. Roger Ng and related cases, in which investment bank Goldman Sachs and several individuals were charged for their participation in a multi-billion dollar money laundering and bribery conspiracy related to 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB); Goldman Sachs entered into a deferred prosecution agreement and its Malaysian subsidiary pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA, paid $2.9 billion in criminal penalties as part of a global resolution with eight different foreign and domestic authorities; and Ng, a Goldman Sachs managing director, was convicted of FCPA violations and money laundering following a nine-week trial. Alix also prosecuted United States v. Odebrecht and United States v. Braskem and related cases, in which two Brazilian-based petrochemical companies, along with a number of individuals who worked for the companies, foreign officials and intermediaries, were convicted for their roles in a scheme in which almost a billion dollars in bribes were paid to government officials in at least 12 countries. In addition, Alix led the criminal prosecution of United States v. AmerisourceBergen, in which the second-largest drug distributor in the United States pleaded guilty to a criminal violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act and paid a combined total of $885 million in civil and criminal penalties stemming from its distribution, over a period of ten years, of millions of syringes of oncology drugs to immunocompromised cancer patients nationwide that were prepared under insanitary conditions and contaminated.
Prior to joining the Office, Alix was an associate at two law firms in New York; completed clerkships with the Honorable Julio M. Fuentes, United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and the Honorable Faith S. Hochberg, United States District Court for the District of New Jersey; and served as an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School. She graduated from Harvard University and Harvard Law School.