John George Koeltl (born 1945 in New York City) is a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan.
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Koeltl graduated from Regis High School in New York City in 1963. He then studied history at Georgetown University and then obtained his law degree from Harvard University School of Law, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. After graduating from law school Koeltl served as a law clerk for Judge Edward Weinfeld of the Southern District of New York and then for Justice Potter Stewart of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Koeltl then worked briefly in the office of the Watergate special prosecutor before entering private law practice in New York. For several years, Koeltl was a partner at the New York law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton. During these years, Koeltl served on several committees of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and American Bar Association and was the author of several published articles on securities law and other topics.
In 1994, President Bill Clinton nominated Koeltl as a U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York, a position he still holds today.
Judge Koeltl is best known for his October 2006 decision to sentence civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart to 28 months in prison for providing material assistance to a terrorist. Her client, 1993 World Trade Center bombing mastermind Omar Abdel-Rahman, by secretly passing messages to his radical followers in Egypt. Stewart was sentenced to 28 months in prison, rather than the 30 years sought by prosecutors.[1][2][3][4] More recently, he presided over the case involving Raffaello Follieri, who pled guilty to conspiracy, fraud and money laundering in connection with purchases of property from the Catholic Church. The Follieri case received significant media scrutiny due to his relationship with celebrities, notably Anne Hathaway and several politicians, including former president Bill Clinton [5] and 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain. [6] Koeltl also is the judge hearing a case brought by Citigroup against Wells Fargo to halt the latter's purchase of Wachovia, which Citi had earlier announced plans to purchase. [7]