Criminal Division Chief - Lee H. Vilker

Lee H. Vilker, was appointed Criminal Chief in September 2022, after serving as Deputy Criminal Chief  since December 2020. Mr. Vilker joined the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island as an Assistant United States Attorney in June 2002, after serving as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of New Jersey since May 1999. In his more than two decades as a federal prosecutor, Mr. Vilker has specialized in white-collar fraud and has prosecuted a wide variety of criminal conduct, including Ponzi schemes, investment fraud, corporate embezzlement, narcotics offense and crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children.  In 2013, Mr. Vilker was recognized with the prestigious Attorney General’s Director Award for his work on a high-profile multimillion dollar fraud prosecution.

Prior to his appointment as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, Mr. Vilker was employed as a litigation associate in the New York law firm of Proskauer Rose, LLP from 1995-1999. Mr. Vilker also served as law clerk for the Chief Justice of the Israeli Supreme Court from 1995-1996.

Mr. Vilker is a 1990 graduate of Brandeis University and received his law degree from New York University School of Law in 1993, where he received the annual American Jurisprudence Award in Constitutional Law.