Troy Rivetti, RICO Charges, Pennsylvania 2023

Crime and Corruption

In a major shake-up, U.S. Attorney Cindy Chung has announced the office’s new executive leadership team and a restructuring of the Criminal Division that will allow the office to best effectuate the Administration’s priorities in western Pennsylvania.

According to Chung, the restructuring aligns the legal expertise and talents of the 59 Assistant United States Attorneys working in the Pittsburgh, Johnstown, and Erie offices with the priorities to uphold the Constitution, apply the law equally and fairly, and protect the citizens of western Pennsylvania.

Ms. Chung named Assistant U.S. Attorney Troy Rivetti as First Assistant U.S. Attorney. Rivetti served as Chief of the Criminal Division since 2019. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from Dickinson College and his Juris Doctor from Georgetown University.

Rivetti has been employed as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Western District of Pennsylvania for over 20 years. His primary areas of concentration have involved the investigation and prosecution of large-scale drug trafficking organizations, firearms offenses, and other violent crime.

Ms. Chung also named Assistant U.S. Attorney Soo C. Song as Chief of the Criminal Division. Song served as the First Assistant U.S. Attorney and Acting U.S. Attorney from October 2010 through March 2018. She also recently served as the Antiterrorism Advisory Coordinator and Senior Litigation Counsel for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

Song is a founding member of the Veterans Treatment Court in Pittsburgh. Prior to joining the Western District of Pennsylvania, Song worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Arizona and served as Deputy Director of the Office of Tribal Justice at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. She is a graduate of Yale University and the George Washington Law School.

Ms. Chung named former Acting U.S. Attorney Stephen R. Kaufman as Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney. Kaufman served as First Assistant U.S. Attorney from 2018 to 2021, and previously served as Chief of the Criminal Division from 2010 to 2018.

Kaufman has handled a wide variety of violent crime, narcotics, child exploitation, and white-collar cases. Notable cases include the successful eight-week trial of the Pittsburgh La Cosa Nostra organized crime family on RICO charges, the prosecution of the distributors of China White, a deadly synthetic form of heroin that caused the overdose deaths of 17 individuals in 1988, the prosecution of Michael Carlow, owner of Pittsburgh Brewing and Clark Candy, for perpetuating a $31 million-dollar check kiting scheme against PNC Bank, and obtaining the conviction of and an 11-year prison sentence for Dr. Oliver Herndon, a physician who was the most prolific illegal distributor of oxycodone in the Pittsburgh area prior to his arrest.

The reorganization aims to focus on reducing violent crime, confronting the growing fentanyl threat and the rise of extremist ideology, prosecuting cyber criminals, and targeting those who exploit children and other vulnerable populations.

Defendant: Troy Rivetti
Criminal Charges: None
City and State: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Exact Date: None
Sentence or Outcome: None
Dollar Amounts: None

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