Vinoo Varghese is an American criminal defense attorney and legal commentator based in New York City. After beginning his career in 2000 as a prosecutor in the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, where he ran the unit that prosecuted attempted murders of police officers, he founded Varghese & Associates, P.C., a white-collar and criminal defense firm on Wall Street, in 2006. He has represented clients in New York State and federal courts in cases involving insider trading, public corruption, tax fraud, pandemic loan fraud and firearms charges.
Varghese’s clients have included Rengan Rajaratnam, the younger brother of Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam, and former New York City Councilman Dan Halloran, whose 2014 corruption trial ended in a mistrial after Varghese’s cross-examination of an FBI agent revealed recordings the government had not turned over to the defense. In a federal tax case, he won a rare order for a new trial for construction company owner Tomas Olazabal, who was acquited at retrial. In 2021, he petitioned the Supreme Court of the United States on behalf on New York City public school teachers challenging the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. He later represented Dexter Taylor, a Brooklyn man sentenced to 10 years in prison for building and possessing homemade firearms, arguing that the conviction violated Taylor's constitutional rights under the Second Amendment.
Varghese is a frequent legal commentator on television, appearing on CBS News, Fox News, MSNBC, CNN and the BBC, including on programs such as Hardball with Chris Matthews,The Ingraham Angle, Tucker Carlson Tonight, The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, and CBS This Morning.. He has been quoted by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Law Journal, The Christian Science Monitor and Law360.
He has written op-eds for the New York Law Journal, the New York Post, and the New York Daily News, often criticizing the scope of prosecutorial power. He has taught trial advocacy at Harvard Law School and Cardozo School of Law. In 2014, the New York Law Journal recognized Varghese as a “Rising Star.” In 2026, NYU distinguished him as one of “67 alumni changing the world.”
Early Life and Education Varghese’s father was a taxi driver, and his mother was a nurse. As a student, he learned martial arts to defend himself against bullies. He graduated from Chaminade High School and attended New York University (NYU) on the Thomas Sweeney scholarship, a need-based academic scholarship. At NYU, he was a resident assistant, president of the South Asian Student Association, and a University Scholar. Varghese graduated from NYU's College of Arts and Science in January 1996 with a B.A. in philosophy. The first member of his family to attend law school in the United States, he earned his Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Brooklyn Law School in 2000.
Career After graduating from law school in 2000, Varghese began his legal career as a prosecutor with the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, where he worked in the trial bureaus, investigations, and appeals. His last position there was running the Assault on Police Officer Program, a unit which prosecuted attempted murders of NYPD officers. In February 2006, he founded Varghese & Associates, P.C., a white-collar and criminal defense firm located on Wall Street.
Varghese has defended multiple high-profile clients. In 2013, Varghese represented Rengan Rajaratnam, the younger brother of Galleon hedge fund founder, Raj Rajaratnam, on insider trading charges.
In 2014, Varghese defended New York City Councilman Daniel Halloran who was described by then U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara as the “quarterback” of a scheme to put a Democrat, Malcolm Smith on the Republican ticket for New York City Mayor. Varghese later criticized Bharara for his pretrial comments to The New York Times. During the trial, the New York Times noted that Varghese's cross-examination of an FBI agent led to a mistrial. During the cross, the agent admitted there were multiple recordings of an informant the government hadn't turned over to the defense. This led to multiple mistrial motions, which Southern District Judge Kenneth M. Karas ultimately granted.
From 2009 to 2015, Varghese represented Tomas Olazabal, a construction company owner charged with tax fraud by the Department of Justice’s Tax Division. After Olazabal was convicted at his first trial, Varghese moved for a new trial under Rule 33 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, a rarely granted form of relief, and Judge Brian Cogan of the Eastern District of New York granted that motion. The government appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, where Varghese defeated the appeal. When the Tax Division retried the case, Varghese won a full acquittal for Olazabal.
In 2019, Varghese represented Christopher Gooley, a juror on the Chanel Lewis murder retrial in Queens. Lewis, a young black man with a history of mental illness was convicted in a retrial of murdering young Italian American jogger, Karina Vetrano. The case garnered international attention due to the racial optics of the case and Lewis’ mental state. Gooley, shortly after voting guilty spoke with reporters and told them that he was unsure about his verdict and accused the other white jurors of allowing race and other factors to influence their guilty verdict.Judge Upholds Conviction in Karina Vetrano’s Murder, Despite Lone Juror’s Claim It Was Tainted New York Times
On September 30, 2021, Varghese filed an emergency request to the Supreme Court of the United States on behalf of New York City public school teachers challenging Mayor Bill de Blasio's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for Department of Education employees, which did not offer a weekly-testing alternative. The Supreme Court application garnered the attention of many national news outlets such as CNN, ABC, USA Today, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Insider, NPR, and The Hill. Justice Sonia Sotomayor denied the emergency application on October 1, 2021. Varghese then filed a petition for a writ of certiorari on the teachers' behalf, which the Supreme Court denied on April 18, 2022.
In 2024, Varghese represented Dexter Taylor, a Brooklyn man charged with building and possessing homemade firearms, often called “ghost guns”. A jury convicted Taylor in April 2024, and he was sentenced to 10 years in prison the following month. Varghese argued that the conviction violated Taylor’s Second Amendment right to keep firearms in his home and said he planned to continue challenging the government in federal court. Gothamist quoted Varghese saying that they were appealing the conviction and were prepared to go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. “He felt what he was doing was completely proper, because the supreme law of the land is the United States Constitution, which guarantees an individual right to bear arms,” said Varghese, “He wasn’t firing them. He wasn’t using them. He wasn’t selling them or even trying to.”
Varghese represented Sandeep Grover, a Long Island tax preparer charged by federal prosecutors in Manhattan in 2023 with fraud involving COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program loans. After Grover pleaded guilty in March 2025, he faced a potential sentence of more than 12 years in prison. Varghese argued for a sentence well below the federal sentencing guidelines. In August 2025, Judge Analisa Torres of the Southern District of New York sentenced Grover to 18 months in prison. At sentencing, Judge Torres noted that more than 35 people, including elected officials, had written letters in support of Grover.
Recognition In 2014, the New York Law Journal named Varghese one of its "Rising Stars," an annual recognition of New York lawyers aged 40 and under. He was one of 42 attorneys selected that year from more than 230 nominees, chosen for their records of accomplishment and their contributions to the practice of law and their communities.
In 2026, Varghese was profiled by NYU Alumni Stories, an independent blog featuring graduates of New York University. The profile describes him as one of New York's most recognized defense lawyers, citing his high-profile federal cases and his work as a legal commentator. It highlights his cross-examination of an FBI agent that led to a mistrial in the Dan Halloran case, his new trial and eventual acquittal in a federal tax fraud case, and his 2021 emergency application to the U.S. Supreme Court challenging New York City's vaccine mandate for teachers. The profile also notes that his 2020 New York Daily News op-ed preceded the state's classification of criminal defense lawyers as essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Media appearances Varghese is a regular legal commentator on news networks including CBS News, Fox Business, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Court TV, BBC, i24, TRT World, CTV, HLN, and The Today Show Australia. Varghese guest hosted on Vanity Fair's True Crime series, reviewing the legal accuracy of financial crime scenes in films and television series, including The Wolf of Wall Street to Billions. Varghese appeared on Inside Edition to comment on the criminal exposure of the photographer who surreptitiously took a picture of Alex Rodriguez on his toilet in his Manhattan high-rise. Varghese was also featured on Nancy Grace's show, Crime Stories, where he commented on the disappearance and murder of Rebecca Hoover. Varghese has also commented on the 2020 presidential election on Arabic-language news network, Sky News Arabia. He has also been quoted in print by outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Law Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, and Law360.
In June 2021, Varghese was the sole sponsor of the 77 WABC Manhattan district attorney debate, hosted by Dominic Carter, and featuring candidates Alvin Bragg, Eliza Orlins, Tali Farhadian Weinstein, Elizabeth Crotty, Dan Quart, Diana Florence, Lucy Lang, and Tahanie Aboushi.
Following the debate, Varghese was asked to join Rudy Giuliani on his show to discuss both of their times in the Brooklyn DA's office, the Derek Chauvin trial, and the suspension of Giuliani's New York law license over statements he made about the 2020 election while representing Donald Trump. Varghese also appeared on Cats at Night, the show hosted by billionaire owner of 77 WABC Radio, John Catsimatidis. Former New York Governor George Pataki, and Lidia Curanaj also joined the discussion. They discussed prosecutorial abuse and ways that prosecutors can be held accountable for their actions. In partnership with 77 WABC Radio NY, Varghese helped launched a radio series called Legal Minute with Vinoo Varghese. Legal Minute breaks down legal issues and relevant news topics in 60-seconds or less with the mission to educate and inform listeners about these issues.
In October 2024, Varghese provided legal commentary to Gothamist ahead of the manslaughter trial of Daniel Penny, a former Marine charged in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway train. Varghese predicted that prosecutors would emphasize Penny's military training to argue that he should have known that the chokehold could be fatal, and that the defense would try to seat jurors who could identify with subway riders who felt unsafe. He said winning over a Manhattan jury would be difficult for Penny, but added, "I think people are fed up with what they have to deal with on the subway." Penny was acquitted in December 2024.
Op-eds