Mala Ahuja Harker

Mala Ahuja Harker represents individuals and corporations in the technology, healthcare, life sciences, financial services, and other industries in connection with white collar, securities, employment, and complex commercial litigation matters. She has particular strength in matters with both regulatory enforcement and civil litigation elements and significant experience with cross-border matters. In addition to her active white collar and litigation practice, Mala is also a member of the firm's Management Committee.

Prior to rejoining Friedman Kaplan, where she was formerly a partner, Mala served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey from 2011 through 2017.In this role, Mala investigated and prosecuted cases involving sophisticated financial frauds, insider trading, securities violations, mortgage and bank fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, public corruption, identity theft and cybercrime, as well as violent crime and drug offenses, among others. Earlier in her career, Mala practiced at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison LLP.

Mala’s recent notable work includes representing Cognizant, one of the world’s leading professional services companies, in a criminal prosecution by the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey of two former Cognizant executives for violations of the Federal Corrupt Practices Act.

She also represented a subsidiary of a Japanese multinational conglomerate in connection with an unauthorized transfer of over $150 million from an account of an overseas subsidiary, including an internal cyber investigation into the theft of the funds (which had been converted to Bitcoin), coordination of engagement with law enforcement in connection with criminal investigations in the United States and Japan, and the successful recovery through civil forfeiture proceedings of several million dollars more than the company’s original loss due to the well-timed interlocutory sale of the seized Bitcoin.