Alvin Hellerstein, Judge in Maduro, 9/11 Cases, Dies at 92

(Bloomberg) — Alvin Hellerstein, the federal judge who oversaw the cases against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the founder of family office Archegos Capital Management Bill Hwang and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, has died at the age of 92.

The Jewish Center, a Manhattan synagogue, announced to congregants that Hellerstein, a longtime member and trustee, had died. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York said the judge died Wednesday morning surrounded by family.

“Judge Hellerstein was a bright and dedicated jurist who served with distinction for more than 25 years as a distinguished litigator of this court after a distinguished career in the private sector,” Chief Justice Laura Swain said in a statement. “His energetic and dedicated service to this court continued until his death.”

A native New Yorker, Hellerstein served in the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps before joining the New York law firm of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP in 1960. He was appointed to the Senate by President Bill Clinton in 1998.

Since then, he has overseen high-profile white-collar prosecutions and complex litigation. He most recently oversaw the narco-terrorism case against Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

The couple are due to face trial in June. The new judges will be randomly assigned to the Maduro case and other cases Hellerstein oversaw.

During his first years on the bench, Hellerstein built his reputation by overseeing years of litigation related to the attacks of September 11, 2001. In 2010, he rejected a settlement for 10,000 emergency responders and cleanup workers who became ill while working at Ground Zero because payouts might have been too small after legal fees were collected. Months later, Hellerstein approved a $712 million pact well above the original proposal.

In a separate case, he ruled against families trying to recover human remains from the wreckage of 9/11.

In the courtroom, the Columbia Law School graduate was notorious for interrupting lawyers who did not cross-examine witnesses to his satisfaction or lost the jury’s attention.

In the 2024 criminal trial of Hwang, whose collapse of the family office caused chaos on Wall Street, Hellerstein interrupted a witness to announce the birth of his great-grandson. “He’s a wonderful kid,” Hellerstein remarked as he turned his phone to the bemused lawyers in the courtroom. The jury burst into applause.

In the same trial, he chastised a lawyer for boring the jury to tears.

He sentenced Hwang to 18 years in prison, something the judge never took lightly.

In rare public comments, Hellerstein, an Orthodox Jew, talked about how his faith intersected with his work. In a 2020 podcast, he said he was holding sentencing hearings on Fridays so he could use the Sabbath to reflect on the consequences of his decisions.

“I never felt that my punishment was fair and proportionate,” he said. “And that’s good. I think the judge should be upset about what he’s doing. I’m taking someone’s freedom away.”

In recent years, Hellerstein has overseen the trials involving Charlie Javic, the start-up founder convicted of fraud at JPMorgan Chase, as well as the human rights case against BNP Paribas.

Roger Stavis, head of Mintz & Gold’s white-collar defense department, who tried cases before Hellerstein, recalled that he had a sense of humor that made him likable even when Stavis lost.

At one hearing in Hellerstein’s lower Manhattan courtroom, Stavis recalled that he objected to the prosecution presenting the same evidence over and over again. The judge took a shot at Stavis, asking him to identify legal precedent on how many times is too many.

“I said ‘United States v. Dayen’ — the Hebrew word for it would do — and he started snapping,” Stavis said.

(Adds details of previous cases, history)

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