Peter Kevin Castel (born August 5, 1950) is a

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...

of the

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a United States district court, federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of New York (state), New York ...

Education and career

Born on August 5, 1950, in

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, Castel received a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree from St. John's University in 1972 and a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from St. John's University School of Law in 1975. He was a

law clerk A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...

to Kevin Thomas Duffy of the

from 1975 to 1977. He was in private practice of law at

Cahill Gordon & Reindel Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP (founded 1919) is a New York-based international law firm with offices in New York, Washington, D.C. and London. The firm is prominent in the practice areas of capital markets and banking & finance. History Cahil ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, New York, from 1977 to 2003.

Federal judicial service

On March 5, 2003, Castel was nominated by President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

to a seat on the

vacated by Lawrence M. McKenna. Castel was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

on September 17, 2003, and received his commission on September 22, 2003. He took

senior status Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the Federal judiciary of the United States, federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of servi ...

on August 5, 2017.

Notable cases

''BMS Entertainment v. Christopher Bridges and Kanye West'', 04-cv-2584: Castel presided over a 2006 copyright-infringement trial against Christopher "Ludacris" Bridges and

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

. Bridges and West prevailed over claims that the song "Stand Up" copied from the work of a group of New Jersey musicians. ''In re: Bank of America Corp. Securities Litigation'', 09-md-2058: Castel presided over a securities-fraud class action arising out of Bank of America's acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co. during the height of the

2008 financial crisis 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

. In 2013, Castel approved the action's settlement for $2.43 billion. ''

United States v. One Tyrannosaurus Bataar Skeleton ''United States v. One Tyrannosaurus Bataar Skeleton'' (1:13−cv−00857) is a 2013 United States District Court for the Southern District of New York judgment regarding a requested order from the United States government to seize an imported ...

'', 13-cv-857: Castel presided over civil forfeiture proceedings relating to the return of a rare Tyrannosaurus Bataar skeleton to the nation of Mongolia. ''U.S. Bank National Association v. UBS Real Estate Securities Inc.'', 12 Civ. 7322: In 2016, Castel presided over a one-month trial of claims brought by investors who asserted that defective residential loans were packaged and sold as residential mortgage-backed securities. After Castel issued a lengthy decision, the parties settled the claims for $850 million. ''United States v. Tucker'', 16-cr-91: Castel presided over the 2017 criminal trial of Scott Tucker, who was charged with fourteen counts related to his operation of a payday-lending business. The jury returned a guilty verdict on all counts. In 2018, Castel sentenced Tucker to a term of imprisonment of sixteen years and eight months. ''United States v. Hernandez'', 15-cr-379: Castel presided over the 2019 drug trafficking trial of Juan Antonio Hernandez, a former Honduran congressman and the brother of the then-sitting president of Honduras. A jury returned a guilty verdict on all counts. In 2021, Castel sentenced Hernandez to a term of imprisonment of life plus thirty years. ''S.E.C. v. Telegram Group, Inc.'', 19 Civ. 9439: In a March 2020 decision, Castel concluded that the

Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

was likely to prove that a

cryptocurrency A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. It i ...

issued by the

Telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

company qualified as a security and was subject to federal registration requirements. Telegram later agreed to pay $18.5 million in civil penalties. ''In re: Google Digital Advertising Antitrust Litigation'', 21-md-3010: In 2021, Castel was assigned to preside over a group of civil actions alleging that Google's advertising auctions violated the

Sherman Antitrust Act The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 (, ) is a United States antitrust law which prescribes the rule of free competition among those engaged in commerce. It was passed by Congress and is named for Senator John Sherman, its principal author. Th ...

. ''Mata v. Avianca, Inc.'', 22-cv-1461 (PKC): In a June 2023 decision, Castel dismissed the

personal injury Personal injury is a legal term for an injury to the body, mind or emotions, as opposed to an injury to property. In common law jurisdictions the term is most commonly used to refer to a type of tort lawsuit in which the person bringing the suit (t ...

case against the airline

Avianca Avianca S.A. (acronym in Spanish for ''Aerovias del Continente Americano S.A.'', "Airways of the American Continent") is a Colombian airline. It has been the flag carrier of Colombia since December 5, 1919, when it was initially registered under ...

and issued a $5,000 fine to two lawyers representing the plaintiff, who had submitted fake precedents generated by

ChatGPT ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a chatbot launched by OpenAI in November 2022. It is built on top of OpenAI's GPT-3 family of large language models, and is fine-tuned (an approach to transfer learning) with both supervised and ...

in their

briefs Briefs (or a brief) are a type of short, form-fitting Undergarment, underwear and swimsuit, swimwear, as opposed to styles where material extends down the thighs. Briefs have various different styles, usually with a waistband attached to fabric ...

. He noted numerous inconsistencies in the opinion summaries, describing one of the cases' legal analysis as "gibberish".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Castel, P. Kevin 1950 births Living people St. John's University (New York City) alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York United States district court judges appointed by George W. Bush 21st-century American judges People from Jamaica, Queens Xavier High School (New York City) alumni People associated with Cahill Gordon & Reindel