PROVIDENCE - United States Attorney Zachary A. Cunha has named two senior prosecutors to lead the United States Attorney’s Office’s Criminal Division.
Lee H. Vilker, a federal prosecutor since 1999, has been appointed Criminal Chief. Mr. Vilker, who most recently served as the Office’s Deputy Criminal Chief, joined the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island in June 2002, after serving as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of New Jersey for nearly three years. In his more than two decades as a federal prosecutor, Mr. Vilker has specialized in investigating and prosecuting complex fraud cases, to include Ponzi schemes, investment fraud, and corporate embezzlement. Mr. Vilker has also successfully prosecuted a wide range of complex narcotics offenses and crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children.
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.
Assistant United States Attorney Stacey P. Veroni, a prosecutor for nearly thirty years, has been appointed by U.S. Attorney Cunha to serve as Deputy Criminal Chief for Violent Crime and Narcotics. In addition to her criminal trial responsibilities prosecuting violent crime, human trafficking, and complex fraud and narcotics trafficking cases, Ms. Veroni has served as the United States Attorney’s Offices’ Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Coordinator and Human Trafficking Coordinator.
Prior to joining the United States Attorney’s Office in 2019, Ms. Veroni served as a state prosecutor for twenty-five years in the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office. In her distinguished career as a state prosecutor, Ms. Veroni was the lead prosecutor in more than 100 criminal jury trials, including prosecutions for murder, gang violence, sexual assault, drug offenses, robberies, domestic violence, organized crime, and child molestation. In her tenure as a Rhode Island Assistant Attorney General, Ms. Veroni served, at various times, as Criminal Chief, Deputy Criminal Chief, Chief of the Narcotics & Organized Crime Division, and Chief of the Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Unit.
Ms. Veroni, a 1990 graduate of Boston College, received her law degree from Suffolk University in 1993.
“Lee Vilker and Stacey Veroni are profoundly experienced, thoughtful, and effective prosecutors, with a history of accomplishment across virtually every area of criminal enforcement," remarked U.S. Attorney Cunha. “Prosecutors of their caliber are essential to this Office’s efforts to expand the scope, impact, and reach of our work to secure justice and public safety, and I am grateful for their service in these important roles."
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
