Bharara Holds Court (Late Night) at Sparks

Sparks Steakhouse was recently the scene of a sit down -- but not the kind that leads to Mob hits.

The FOX Business Network has learned that Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, several deputies from his office and former prosecutors who now work in private practice held a long meeting two weeks ago at the famed Manhattan Steakhouse, best known for its great cuts of meat, and the 1985 assassination of former Gambino crime boss Paul Castellano.

During the get together, Bharara and his crew partied for several hours, eating dinner and downing drinks before calling it a night, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.

A manager of Sparks told FOX Business that he “doesn’t remember” whether Bharara even had patronized the restaurant. “I have many customers,” he said and declined to comment further. One patron told FOX Business that Bharara and his entourage left sometime after midnight. “They were having a great time,” this person said.

A spokesman for Bharara described the meeting as a “social dinner” of current and former colleagues “who are all friends." The spokesman said the group left the restaurant well before it closed. “People got there around 7 p.m. and while I didn’t check my watch, we left no later than 11 p.m.,” said the spokesman, who says he was part of the group.

He didn’t say who attended, or what was discussed.

Bharara, of course, has much to celebrate. He has emerged as possibly the nation’s top law enforcement official thanks to his crackdown on white collar crime, including a successful string of prosecutions involving insider trading.

His office recently indicted the massive hedge fund SAC Capital, and Bharara himself is widely regarded as a possible replacement for Attorney General Eric Holder.

Last week, Bharara hit former SAC money manager Mathew Martoma with a superseding indictment adding details to possibly the largest insider-trading case in history. The indictment alleges Martoma helped SAC either make or avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in losses through insider trading of drug stocks back in 2008.

Both Martoma  SAC deny wrongdoing.