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Credit Suisse Prosecutor Leaving Justice Department Tax Division

May 27 (Bloomberg) — Kathryn Keneally, the U.S. tax prosecutor who helped negotiate the guilty plea last week of Credit Suisse AG for helping Americans evade taxes, is leaving her job as assistant attorney general on June 5.

Keneally, 56, helped oversee the guilty plea by Credit Suisse’s main bank subsidiary and imposition of $2.6 billion in penalties, which included the highest payment ever in a criminal tax case. She also designed a program in which 106 Swiss banks are seeking non-prosecution agreements for disclosing how they helped Americans evade taxes.

The Justice Department and Keneally didn’t say where she will next work. A New York resident, she previously was a partner at Fulbright & Jaworski LLP. She was selected by President Barack Obama for the post after an earlier nominee, Mary L. Smith, was blocked by lawmakers. Keneally began her job in April 2012.

“I feel that I’ve accomplished a lot, and it’s time for me to go home to New York,” Keneally said in a phone interview.

Keneally led more than 300 civil and criminal lawyers who handled investigations and litigation. The tax division investigates identity theft, illegal tax shelters and other crimes, while approving every tax case filed by the 94 U.S. attorneys around the country.

Under a U.S. Senate rules change last year, executive branch nominees can now be confirmed with a majority of members instead of 60 votes. That may make it easier for Obama to select Keneally’s replacement.

To contact the reporters on this story: David Voreacos in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, at dvoreacos@bloomberg.net; Tom Schoenberg in Washington at tschoenberg@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net; Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net David Glovin, Stephen Farr

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