What makes transnational organized crime function, and why is it so much harder to prosecute than ordinary crime? To what extent do organized criminals cooperate with and do the bidding of hostile nation states? What threats does this partnership pose to the U.S. and other western democracies? Mr. Ohr draws on his almost thirty years of experience in the world of fighting transnational organized crime at the Justice Department to discuss how to frame answers to these questions, and how that in turn leads to effective responses to these threats.
About the Speaker
Bruce Ohr is the former counselor for Transnational Organized Crime and International Affairs in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. He was previously the chief of the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section in the Criminal Division from 1999 through May 2011. Prior to that, Ohr was an assistant United States attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York from 1991 to 1999, and was chief of the Violent Gangs Unit in that Office from 1998 to 1999. Ohr was an associate at the San Francisco law firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe from 1988 through 1991. Ohr graduated from Harvard College in 1984 with a degree in physics. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1987 and clerked for Judge Spottswood Robinson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 1987 to 1988.