---
born: 1944-05-28
category: Law Enforcement & Legal
location: Brooklyn, New York
summary: U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York involved in the Hashemi
  sting operation targeting Israeli intelligence arms sales to Iran.
tags:
- Person
- Lawyer
- LawEnforcement
---

[Rudolph Giuliani](/people/rudolph-giuliani/) was the [U.S.](/places/united-states/) Attorney for the Southern District of [New York City](/places/new-york-city/). He was involved in the [Hashemi sting](/events/hashemi-sting/) operation, which was designed to entrap individuals connected with [Israeli](/places/israel/) intelligence arms sales to [Iran](/places/iran/).[^1]

[Giuliani](/people/rudolph-giuliani/), along with [William von Raab](/people/william-von-raab/), the [Customs](/organizations/us-customs/) Commissioner, gave joint TV interviews on April 22, 1986, announcing the arrest of a "huge ring of terrorists" and "Merchants of Death" who were supposedly about to sell arms worth a billion dollars to [Iran](/places/iran/). [Ari Ben-Menashe](/people/ari-ben-menashe/) claims that [Giuliani](/people/rudolph-giuliani/) and his associates had created the crime themselves.[^1]

[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992.