Professional Experience:

Mr. Ruggiero established his own law firm in 1982 after having been an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.  

Mr. Ruggiero's professional career began in public accounting where he prepared the financial statements and tax returns of many businesses and audited the financial records of large companies. The accounting, auditing and tax experience he gained led to his becoming an Internal Revenue Agent. He began this part of his career conducting tax audits of large companies. 

Shortly thereafter, Mr.Ruggiero was assigned to a congressionally created unit where he audited and investigated individuals and suspected criminal enterprises identified by Congress. It was during that assignment that he developed and supervised what was then the Treasury Department's largest and most sensitive investigation of official corruption and organized crime. Mr. Ruggiero was an undercover agent for the final several years of that investigation. 

As a result of the many organized crime and official corruptions cases that stemmed from  Mr. Ruggiero's undercover activities, he was assigned to the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York for several years. There he assisted in the trial preparation of those cases in which he testified as the chief government witness. While assigned to the United States Attorney's Office Mr. Ruggiero also testified at federal trials as an expert witness in the areas of accounting and federal criminal investigations. 

Upon the completion of his assignment at the United States Attorney's Office Mr. Ruggiero left the Treasury Department and became the Chief Fraud Investigator for the New York City Comptroller's Office. His highly publicized work led to the recovery of hundreds of millions of dollars of public funds. 

Thereafter, Mr. Ruggiero returned to the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Criminal Division. Mr. Ruggiero received many awards for prosecuting a wide range of large and complex  criminal cases. 

In 1982, he left the United States Attorney's Office for his own private practice. 

In his private practice, Mr. Ruggiero uses his extensive experience in criminal law, accounting, taxation and finance to successfully represent individuals and business entities in complex investigations, trials, appeals and arbitrations. His work as a criminal defense attorney has included representing defendants in high profile cases in which he has had charges dismissed against several of those clients. He has tried the longest federal criminal trial in history after which the charges against his client were also eventually dismissed. He has had a high rate of federal charge dismissals. His experience in accounting, taxation and finance has also led to his winning tax cases saving his clients tens of millions of dollars as well as winning one of the largest awards against the securities industry.