The United States Attorney
United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida
R. Alexander Acosta
Professional Summary
R. Alexander Acosta has served as United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida since May 2005. The Southern District comprises 15,197 square miles and extends along more than 300 miles of coastline from Key West in the South to Vero Beach in the North. The District has approximately six million people and covers nine separate counties: Monroe, Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River, Okeechobee, and Highlands. The District is home to a number of federal enclaves, including the Homestead Air Reserve Base, the Miccosukee Indian Reservation, the Everglades National Park, and the U.S. Southern Command, Department of Defense. In addition to more than twenty federal law enforcement agencies, there are approximately 120 state and local police agencies within the Southern District of Florida. As the United States Attorney, Mr. Acosta is the chief federal law enforcement officer for the District.
The Southern District of Florida carries one of the busiest trial calendars in the nation. Some of the District's higher profile cases during Mr. Acosta's tenure include: the prosecutions of Jack Abramoff, Palm Beach County Commission Chairman Masilotti, Palm Beach County Commissioner Newell, and Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne for fraud and public corruption; the prosecution of Jose Padilla; the conviction of Cali Cartel founders Miguel and Gilberto Rodriquez-Orejuela for importation of 200,000 kilos of cocaine, along with a $2.1 billion forfeiture; and the white collar prosecutions of several executives associated with Hamilton Bank and with Bankest, resulting in sentenced of up to 30 years. Mr. Acosta has placed particular focus on health care fraud prosecutions, hosting the first Health Care Fraud strike force in the nation, and on the prosecution of gang and gun-related violence, having seen an increase in the prosecutions in both of these areas of more than 30%.
Prior to his appointment as United States Attorney, Mr. Acosta served as the Senate-confirmed Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. Mr. Acosta was the first Hispanic to serve as an Assistant Attorney General at the Department of Justice. The Civil Rights Division is responsible for enforcing federal civil rights statutes, including those statutes that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, sex, handicap, religion, and national origin in education, employment, credit, housing, public accommodations and facilities, voting, and certain federally funded and conducted programs.
Prior to his service as Assistant Attorney General, Mr. Acosta served as a Senate-confirmed Member of the National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB"), an independent federal agency responsible for administering and interpreting the National Labor Relations Act, the principal national statute regulating private-sector labor relations.
A native of Miami, Florida, Mr. Acosta attended the Gulliver Schools in Miami. He earned his degrees from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. After graduation, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Samuel A. Alito, Jr. on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He then worked at the Washington, D.C. office of the law firm Kirkland and Ellis. Mr. Acosta has also taught several classes at the George Mason School of Law.