F. B. I. Director Robert S. Mueller III on Friday named a new assistant director to oversee the bureau’s New York office, the largest of its 56 field offices with about 1,100 agents conducting investigations in the five boroughs and eight surrounding counties.
The new assistant director, George Venizelos, an agent since 1991, currently leads the F.B.I. office in Philadelphia. Before that post, he served in New York for seven years, and was the acting head of the New York office for six months during 2010, when he oversaw the investigation into the attempted car bombing of Times Square by Faisal Shahzad.
As an agent and a supervisor, Mr. Venizelos, according to a news release announcing his appointment, has been involved in cases focused on white collar crime, drugs, Russian organized crime and terrorism. He managed the bureau’s drug program in New York during his tenure here and was the assistant special agent in charge of the Counterterrorism Division, overseeing domestic terrorism investigations, including threats to the city and surrounding areas.
Mr. Venizelos said he would take over the New York office sometime in December.
He grew up in Edgewater, N.J., earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Fordham University, and, before joining the F.B.I., was a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration and worked as an accountant at KPMG Peat Marwick.
