Robert C. Bonner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robert C. Bonner (born in Wichita, Kansas on January 29, 1942) has been a prosecutor, federal judge, Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration and Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Bonner graduated from Georgetown Law School in 1966.
From 1984 to 1989, Bonner was the United States Attorney for the Central District of California and a judge of the United States District Court for that same district, 1989-1990. As a U.S. Attorney, he worked closely with the Drug Enforcement Administration on two record-breaking money laundering cases, Operations Pisces and Polar Cap, and had led the prosecution team against the killers of a DEA special agent. Bonner also served in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1967 to 1971.
On May 11, 1990, President George H.W. Bush nominated Robert C. Bonner to be Administrator of the DEA. He was confirmed by the Senate on July 27, 1990 and sworn in as the DEA's fifth Administrator on August 13, 1990. Bonner served as Administrator from August 16, 1990 to October 31, 1993.
From 1993 to 2001, Bonner was a partner in the Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, , an international law firm. His practice focused on business and white-collar crime matters, complex civil cases, internal corporate investigations, and corporate compliance programs. Among his cases, he represented madame Heidi Fleiss.[1]
On June 24, 2001 President George W. Bush nominated Bonner as Commissioner of the United States Customs Service, later known as U.S. Customs and Border Protection. He announced his resignation from that position on September 28, 2005, having served four years which included the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the transfer of the Customs Service to that department, and retired on November 25, 2005.
He is now (again) a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. In 2006, he was hired by Representative Jerry Lewis, who has been linked to an investigation being conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice (see Jerry Lewis - Lowery lobbying firm controversy).
