| T. Markus Funk | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American and German[1] |
| Occupation | Lawyer, author, and Academic |
T. Markus Funk is an American lawyer, author, and academic.
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Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Funk taught law at Oxford University, and was a law clerk to Judge Morris S. Arnold, U.S. Court of Appeal for the Eighth Circuit, and Catherine D. Perry, U.S. District Court in St. Louis.[2] Funk also taught law at the University of Chicago Law School, Northwestern University School of Law, and the USDOJ National Advocacy Center[7]
Funk worked for the United States Department of Justice as a criminal prosecutor[3] who from 2000–2010 worked in Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's Office. During this time, Funk investigated and prosecuted numerous white collar fraud cases, including those against various top executives at Gas Technology Institute for procurement fraud and false billing, Dr. Kwan Bo Jin for healthcare fraud, Tuthill Corporation CFO Richard Schilling for corporate embezzlement, US Department of Veterans Affairs Business Administrator Paul J. Romito for procurement fraud and theft of government property,[4] Anriana Furs owner Sohrab Tebyanian for money laundering,[5] Charles L. Killian for bank fraud, and George Apostolopoulos for payroll fraud.
Funk also was part of the three-man trial team prosecuting the landmark Operation Family Secrets case, the most extensive mob-murder racketeering case in U.S. history.[6] Funk and the team tried and convicted twelve high-ranking mobsters and police officers, including the only[7] "made" members of the Chicago Outfit to ever be convicted for mob-related murder, namely, Joey "The Clown" Lombardo, James "Little Jimmie" Marcello, and Frank "The Breeze" Calabrese. Calabrese was later to be held to account for issuing a death threat to Funk during Funk's closing argument.[8]
The murders of the Spilotro brothers, charged as part of the Family Secrets case, received international prominence when they were featured in the movie "Casino".[9] The Family Secrets prosecution, and the work of the trial team, has been the subject of two books, numerous articles, and National Geographic and History Channel specials.[10]
Following the Family Secrets trial, Funk led the successful prosecution of the first Deputy U.S. Marshal to be prosecuted for leaking Witness Security information to the mob[11] John Thomas Ambrose. Funk also led the investigations and prosecutions of reputed Chicago Outfit boss Michael Sarno, ranking Outlaws motorcycle gang member Mark Polchan, and their racketeering co-conspirators;[12] convicted mobsters Joseph "Jerry" Scalise and his burglary and bank robbery crew (notorious for their involvement in the London Graff diamond robbery);[13] paedophile priest Vincent McCaffrey;[14] conman Joseph Kalady;[15] University of Chicago pediatrician Dr. Marc Watzman;[16] Chicago furrier and money launderer Sohrab Tebyanian;[17] Russian organized crime boss Israel Vengerin;[18] and reputed Elmwood Park Capo Rudy Fratto.[19]
In 2005 the U.S. Department of Justice published his book on trial skills.[20] The U.S. Department of Justice and the State Department (for whom Funk worked for two years in post-conflict Kosovo) awarded Funk their highest respective service awards—the Attorney General's Award and the Superior Honor Award—making Funk the only person known to enjoy this distinction.[21]
Funk, now in private practice at the law firm of Perkins Coie,[22] has held various leadership positions within the American Bar Association, including as the National Chair of the Human Trafficking and Organized Crime Committee, Kosovo Task Force, and Global Anti-Corruption Initiatives Task Force, and as a member of the Darfur and Haiti Task Forces.[8] He is on the Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) Criminal Law Reporter Advisory Board, is on the board of the American Bar Association's Litigation Magazine,[23] is the national co-chair of the ABA's Global Anti-Corruption Initiatives Task Force,[24] was recently interviewed on Chicago's ABC 7 concerning the Family Secrets case,[25] and has authored dozens of popular and academic articles and book chapters on a wide variety of legal and non-legal subjects, including on white collar crime, native American remains, child exploitation, juvenile crime, constitutional law, gun control and economic discrimination, comparative law, and international law.[9] Funk's work has been featured in popular outlets such as The Atlantic Monthly, the Cato Journal, CNN, The Economist, Investors Business Daily, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, and MSNBC, as well as in academic journals such as the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Howard Law Review, University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, and the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies. Funk also was a contributing editor to Might Magazine (co-founded by writer Dave Eggers).[26]
In 2010, Funk authored an Oxford University Press book on victims' rights and advocacy at the International Criminal Court.[27]