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On his first day in office as acting U.S. attorney, New York District Attorney Robert Morgenthau received a phone call that sums up his legacy as a man of ethics and integrity. Morgenthau recalled a congressman saying that he wanted to get together to discuss a particular case.

"No point in coming to see me," Morgenthau remarked, adding that he was not involved in the case. "But I want to come and see you," the congressman insisted. "It's very important."

When the congressman arrived at Morgenthau's office, he pleaded, "All I'm asking is that you kick the case around for a year."

"I don't know if that's something I can do," Morgenthau replied. Then, the congressman lowered his demands. "Just kick it around for six months. Your predecessor did a whole year. I'm only asking for six months."

Considering his next course of action, Morgenthau thought, "there was only one thing I can do: go to the grand jury and get an indictment immediately." Some 48 hours later, Morgenthau got an indictment, followed by the congressman calling him up and screaming at him: "Couldn't you have kicked it around so I could have collected my fee?"

"If you don't do anybody any favors, then they don't expect any favors," observed Morgenthau, who has managed to remain free of scandals as he closes out his distinguished career.

Morgenthau, the grandson of Henry Morgenthau Sr., the U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during World War I, and the son of Henry Morgenthau Jr., secretary of the Treasury under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, will celebrate his 90th birthday July 31, having served for nine terms (more than three decades) as New York longest-lasting DA.

Following the money trail has always been a complicated but rewarding task for Morgenthau, who obtained some of his biggest wins in recent years. The powerhouse prosecutor's efforts, along with those of the Department of Justice, in the Lloyds investigation shed "sunlight" on U.S. banks that illegally handled accounts from sanctioned countries, such as Iran and Sudan. The resulting prosecution entailed that Lloyds pay a hefty fine of $350 million.

Through the process known as "stripping" or disclosing wire transfer information, Lloyds TSB Group, a British bank, was able to funnel millions of dollars through Western banks, and not be under the microscope of regulators. A whopping $109 million of the settlement money was received by New York state.

Another big success for Morgenthau was in the Limmt indictment. Like the Lloyds matter, the indictment "uncovered a pervasive system of deceitful practices and fraud designed to let Iranian banks skirt U.S. and international sanctions and move money all over the world without detection," according to Morgenthau's testimony on Iran before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs May 6.

For most people, the threat of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon is real but theoretical. For Morgenthau, who exposed a large shopping list of banned weapons material exported to the Iranian Defense Industries Organization (DIO), the threat is real and imminent.

Li Fang Wei, a Chinese businessman who owns the metal supplier company Limmt, was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) back in 2006, according to the testimony. Under no circumstances was Limmt allowed to conduct transactions with U.S. financial institutions. However, Limmt used aliases to evade wire transfer information that detects red-flagged sources so that U.S. banking screening software was unable to identify the real source of the transactions. As a consequence, many Manhattan banks were involved in the illegal transfer of money.

The investigation revealed that for three years Limmt had sent banned missile and nuclear materials to the DIO. Among the high strength metals included were: 24,500 kilograms of maraging steel rods, 19,000 kilograms of tungsten metal power, and 1,400 metric tons of high carbon ferro-manganese.

In a recent interview, Morgenthau was asked how he feels about the possibility of Iran procuring nukes. His response: "I'm very concerned." He went on to say, "What [the DA's office is] trying to do is make sure the law is carried out... by stopping the sale of embargoed materials. The U.S. banks are not permitted to do business with the Iranian government or Iranian banks. So we're trying to make sure they are not doing that."

Morgenthau added, "We're not trying to set policy. We're just trying to make sure the law is enforced. Our federal government is reluctant to use criminal sanctions. They want to take civil action. And the problem is that people are not deterred by civil action."

He said he plans on having two birthday parties: one for strictly family members (which will probably include his very loyal secretary Ms. Ida Van Lindt), and the other one with The Jewish Heritage Holocaust Museum, where he has held the position of chairman since its inception in 1977. And while his biological family includes his seven children -- one of which lives on the same block as him in upper Manhattan -- his kin extends beyond blood. Each of his 500 assistant district attorneys and the many people who've benefited from his precedent-setting cases and civic duties will share in the celebration.

Morgenthau said his Jewish faith was never an obstacle to professional advancement, but he counsels being proud of one's Jewish identity, and makes the point with a story that took place in a German airport with his oldest grandchild.

"I wasn't wearing a Star of David or anything," Morgenthau recalled, "but as we were leaving, and the porter was putting the bags in the back to catch the plane to Frankfurt, he said to me, 'well, I guess you'll be flying with Hillel (a Jewish organization).' "So I said to my grandson, 'you better know who you are, because they know who you are.'"