Gurbir Grewal

Gurbir Singh Grewal (; born June 23, 1973) is an American attorney and prosecutor who served as the sixty-first attorney general of the State of New Jersey from January 2018 until his resignation in July 2021. Appointed by Governor of New Jersey Phil Murphy, he was confirmed by the New Jersey Senate on January 16, 2018. He is the first Sikh-American attorney general in United States history. Grewal was formerly the county prosecutor of Bergen County, New Jersey, originally appointed in 2016; he was also the first Sikh American to be named a county prosecutor in the United States. He is the second South Asian to be a state attorney general after California's Kamala Harris in 2011.

It was announced Grewal would resign as attorney general to become director of the Enforcement Division at the Securities and Exchange Commission. His resignation as attorney general was effective July 16, 2021.

Early life and career

Grewal is the son of Sikh Indian immigrants to the United States. He grew up in Fairfield Township, Essex County, New Jersey and graduated from West Essex High School. Grewal attended Bates College for one semester before transferring to the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, receiving his B.S.F.S. degree in 1995. He earned a Juris Doctor from William & Mary Law School in 1999. He has served as president of the South Asian Bar Association of New York and a member of the New Jersey Asian Pacific American Lawyers Association.

Career

Before becoming Bergen County's top law enforcement officer, Gurbir Grewal served as the chief of the Economic Crimes Unit at the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey under former federal prosecutor Paul Fishman. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie nominated Grewal to lead the Bergen County Prosecutor's office in 2013, but Grewal was never scheduled for a New Jersey Senate confirmation hearing then. Grewal was confirmed by the State Senate when tapped by Christie the second time around in January 2016 as acting prosecutor, and was finalized in the role in November 2016. In this capacity, Grewal concentrated on fighting the opioid epidemic and white-collar crimes, and strengthening relations between police and communities. In July 2017, while Bergen County prosecutor, Grewal ordered the Mahwah, New Jersey police department not to enforce a ban on non-New Jersey residents using Mahwah parks, stating his concern that a ban could lead to anti-Semitic religious profiling against Orthodox Jews visiting from neighboring Rockland County, New York. On July 26, 2018, two WKXW radio show hosts were suspended for calling Grewal "turban man" on air. In September 2018, then-Bergen County sheriff Michael Saudino resigned under public official pressure, after secretly recorded comments were released disparaging Grewal's wearing a turban alongside derogatory remarks about other groups of people.

New Jersey attorney general

In March 2019, as New Jersey's attorney general, Grewal touted the first arrests resulting from a law signed in 2018 by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy outlawing ghost guns, stating, "When you see repeatedly the same address, with the same individuals, at the same location continuing to order parts for the same types of guns, some red flags have to go up, that what’s going on here is not somebody who’s an enthusiast or a hobbyist, but rather somebody who’s engaged in illegal trafficking. And that is part of the problem with ghost gun manufacturers, that they are playing fast and loose with our rules." Days later, Grewal filed the first of its kind lawsuit against a ghost gun manufacturer, U.S. Patriot Armory, accusing the company of violating New Jersey's ghost gun ban by ignoring a cease-and-desist order to stop selling rifle-assembly kits to New Jersey buyers. Also in March 2019, Grewal filed lawsuits against ExxonMobil, DuPont, and 3M, accusing the companies of polluting sites in New Jersey; he stated, "We’re sending a strong message to polluters that no matter how big you are, or how powerful you are, or how long you’ve been getting away with contaminating your state’s natural resources, we are going to hold you accountable in court." On March 28, 2019, Grewal announced a directive to all 21 New Jersey county prosecutors to institute college campus outreach protocols to impede sexual violence at the collegiate level.

In April 2019, Grewal announced updated standards for dealing with bias incidents. Also in April 2019, he called for monitoring of comments on the Facebook page of "Rise Up Ocean County", a group which has been called a home for anti-Semitic sentiment targeting the rapidly growing Orthodox Jewish population of Lakewood and surrounding Ocean County, New Jersey. On April 26, 2019, Grewal asked for the resignation of the director of the Elizabeth, New Jersey Police Department amid a scandal over racist and sexist slurs and also replaced the Union County county prosecutor.

On May 1, 2019, Grewal announced the dismantling of an organized crime gambling and loansharking operation and also launched an investigation into prior corporate tax loopholes afforded at the time by the New Jersey Development Authority. On May 6, 2019, Grewal filed suit against the Department of Justice to force disclosure of any evidence of influence-peddling upon the Justice Department's decision to oppose legalized online gambling across the U.S. On May 8, 2019, Grewal indicated that the City of Newark had exceeded its statutory authority by affording civilians subpoena powers over the city's police department. On May 10, 2019, Grewal joined state attorneys general from across the country in filing a lawsuit against 20 generic pharmaceuticals companies, 11 of which were based in New Jersey, along with several individuals, accusing them of collusion and price-fixing. On May 14, 2019, Grewal announced a lawsuit against several large chemical companies, accusing them of selling toxic firefighting foam for decades while knowing the health risks they posed to the public and to the environment.

In June 2019, Grewal's office forced a Bloomfield restaurant which had posted a "males only" hiring sign to pay $1,000 and implement an anti-discrimination policy that explains how workers can file complaints, as well as training managers and staff about the anti-discrimination law; Grewal stated that gender discrimination would not be tolerated in the overall hiring process. In mid-June, Grewal filed a lawsuit against a Nevada gun dealer for selling high-capacity gun magazines illegally to an undercover agent in New Jersey, despite a prior cease-and-desist order issued to the company barring the marketing, selling, and shipping of high-capacity gun magazines to New Jersey residents.

On August 6, 2019, Grewal announced the creation of the first U.S. statewide program to support the mental health of police officers. The goal of the program would be to train officers in emotional resiliency and to help destigmatize mental health issues. On August 8, Grewal announced the dismantling of two major drug- and gun-trafficking criminal organizations, accompanied by the arrests of 28 individuals and the seizure of significant amounts of narcotics, ammunition, and cash.

In 2021, Grewal abolished mandatory minimums for six non-violent drug offenses, and allowed inmates who were serving mandatory minimum sentences for those crimes to request a court review and a new sentence.

U.S. SEC

On June 29, 2021, Grewal announced he would be resigning as New Jersey’s attorney general to take an appointment as Director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement, beginning July 26, 2021.

Personal life

Gurbir Grewal is a resident of Glen Rock, New Jersey

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases