Attention, Albany: There’s a new sheriff in town.
US Attorney Preet Bharara — who has carved a name for himself by posting an 85-1 financial-crimes conviction record since 2009 — is setting his sights on becoming the gunslinger who cleans up the state Capitol.
Thursday’s bust of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is the pinnacle of a growing series of convictions of shady pols, and is another feather in the cap for the prosecutor who is quickly becoming known as one of the country’s top lawmen.
“He feels the most umbrage for people who cheat the system and those who have the most advantage and abuse it,” Viet Dinh, a former assistant US attorney general, told The Post in 2013.
Bharara’s biggest Wall Street takedown came in 2011, when a two-year investigation of hedge-fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam culminated with the Galleon Group founder being forced to pay $150 million and spend 11 years behind bars.
His other major financial-crime victories include snaring a record $1.2 billion penalty from Steven Cohen’s firm, SAC Capital Advisors, which pleaded guilty to insider-trading violations in November 2013; and nailing technology-research analyst John Kinnucan, who pleaded guilty to securities-fraud charges in July 2012.
More recently, Bharara — who came from India to the United States with his family at age 2 — has been turning his attention to dirty dealings in Albany.
He has already scored convictions against several state lawmakers.
In July 2014, Bharara landed a bribery conviction against Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queeens), who allegedly tried to finagle state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) onto the Republican ballot for mayor in 2013. Smith is still facing trial.
In January 2014, Bharara won the conviction of Bronx Assemblyman Eric Stevenson on bribery and extortion charges. Stevenson was sentenced to three years in prison.
He also helped put former state Sen. Hiram Monserrate behind bars for two years in 2012 for misusing $100,000 meant for community programs.
Bharara also has vowed to continue pursuing investigations started by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Moreland Commission ethics panel probing state government, which was disbanded last year when it started looking into the governor’s office.
Bharara, who grew up in New Jersey, now lives in Westchester with his wife and three children.
While Bharara, a Democrat, insists he isn’t planning a run for office, rumors about his political future have circulated for years.
“You look at the way he’s conducting himself, and he doesn’t look like a guy who plans to join a law firm,” one former employee told The Post in 2013. “He’s clearly thinking about another 20 years of public life.”