Lesko for the prosecution

The Mark Lesko we know [from our online research] is almost 52, (born February 4, 1967), a native of Washington D.C., a graduate of Yale University and a quarterback on the Yale varsity football team.

Lesko practiced law in Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., mainly as a corporate litigator with large law firms in Pittsburgh, PA and Washington, D.C.

In Pittsburgh, Lesko helped establish the Steel Valley Enterprise Zone Advisory Committee, an organization formed to assist economically depressed communities affected by the closure of steel mills.

He then served as Assistant U.S. Attorney from 1999-2002 in the District of Columbia and 2002-2009 in the Eastern District of New York.  In DC, Lesko served as a prosecutor in the homicide/major crimes section in the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Columbia.

In Long Island, Lesko served as Deputy Chief of the Long Island Criminal Division, where he ran the U.S. Attorney’s Office on Long Island leading all federal investigations and prosecutions in Brookhaven, population 486,000.

Some of his successful cases as Lead Prosecutor include:

1. Muttontown Slavery Case − a Muttontown couple were found guilty of abusing two Indonesian women and holding them as slaves in their home.
2. The Lawrence Aviation Environmental Pollution Case – The leadership of Lawrence Aviation was convicted for dumping 12 tons of hazardous waste into the ground of Port Jefferson Station, New York.
3. The Symbol Technologies Fraud Case − Virtually all of the company’s senior management were found to be involved.
4. A racketeering case involving the murder of an innocent man by gang members.                                                                                                                                                                                        Lesko also managed the federal prosecutions leading to conviction in:
5. The “Asphalt Cartel” Case − Involving the owners of major asphalt companies in Suffolk County for conspiracy to rig bids.
6. The prosecution of officials of the William Floyd School District for tax evasion.
7. The conviction of a sitting New York State Judge.

After leaving the US Attorney’s office, Lesko went into politics. He was elected Brookhaven Town Supervisor in a special election, was elected in a regular election and then reelected – running three times and winning in four years.  Brookhaven is on Long Island, part of Suffolk County.

As Supervisor, Lesko, a Democrat, was known as a fiscal conservative. He froze property taxes for three years in a row and cut spending in the General Fund by 26%. He supported a property tax cap, a spending cap, and a debt management cap for Brookhaven. Voters approved all three measures in referendums in 2010.  Wall Street Rating agencies affirmed Brookhaven’s high bond ratings eight times when Lesko served in office.

Lesko also focused on redeveloping blighted areas of the suburbs and redirecting development away from virgin land through a program he developed called “Blight to Light”.

In 2011, Lesko spearheaded an initiative to commercialize research at Long Island’s major research institutions. The effort was modeled after successful commercialization efforts around the country, such as Connect.org in San Diego and other high-tech economies in Silicon Valley and Boston.

Subsequently, a not for profit called Accelerate Long Island was launched with research institutions and private companies serving on the board of directors.  Accelerate’s partners included Long Island’s major research institutions such as Brookhaven National Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Hofstra University, the North Shore-LIJ Feinstein Institute, Stony Brook University, and the business community.

In 2012, Lesko resigned as Town Supervisor to serve on the Board of Directors of Accelerate and become its first Executive Director. His job: to transform Long Island’s economy by cultivating an ecosystem that connects researchers with entrepreneurs and investors and creating high-technology jobs. He worked at Accelerate from 2012 to 2016.

In 2015, he went to work for Hofstra University, where he served as Vice President of Economic Development, Executive Dean of the Center for Entrepreneurship; Executive Dean of the Wilbur F. Breslin Center for Real Estate Studies and oversaw the Scott Skodnek Business Development Center and School of Continuing Education.

Now, we were surprised to see his name as a prosecutor in the NXIVM case.  Is it the same Mark J. Lesko?

Lesko’s Linked-in page  still lists him as being with the university and makes no mention of a return to the US Attorney’s office.  His Wikipedia page still lists him as the Executive Director of Accelerate, which his Linked-in page states he left in 2016.

Sure, perhaps there are two Mark J. Lesko’s but it seems more likely that the former AUSA, former Brookhaven Supervisor, former ED of Accelerate, and VP of Economic Development at Hofstra U, is back at the US Attorney’s office – and on the team working to prosecute Keith Raniere, Allison Mack, Clare Bronfman, Nancy and Lauren Salzman and Kathy Russell.

That does not augur well for the defendants.

Viva Executive Success!

Frank Parlato