This week, Time Magazine released its list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. Making the cut alongside the likes of New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow and New York Knicks hoopster Jeremy Lin was United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara (pictured). The significance to online poker players: Bharara was the lead prosecutor in the Black Friday indictments last April.

Time called Bharara the “Zeus” of the Southern District, which has pursued the likes of Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, and drug trafficker Christopher Coke in addition to the founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker during his reign.

Time explained why Bharara was among its 100 Most Influential People in 2011: “What sets him above is the patience honed by principle. For years, as others clamored for scalps after the global financial crisis, Preet resisted the temptation of a sloppy kill and instead waited for the facts.” Time added that Bharara carries an undefeated record in insider trading cases.

The longstanding American magazine agreed with a portrayal of Bharara as an enforcer of the law “who tempers zeal with human kindness, who seeks truth and not victims, who serves the law and not factional purposes, and who approaches his task with humility.”

He became a household name for internet poker players on April 15th, 2011. On Tax Day last year in the United States, Bharara unveiled an 11-man indictment that brought the online poker world to a standstill.

Charges levied against the Black Friday defendants included conspiracy to violate the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), violating the UIGEA, operating an illegal gambling business, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracy.

Bharara’s targets on Black Friday were PokerStars‘ Isai Scheinberg and Paul Tate, Full Tilt Poker’s Ray Bitar (pictured) and Nelson Burtnick, Absolute Poker’s Scott Tom and Brent Beckley, and alleged payment processors Ryan Lang, Ira Rubin, Bradley Franzen, John Campos, and Chad Elie. PokerStars, Full Tilt, Absolute Poker, and UB all vacated the U.S. market within days, and only the former has paid back players one year later.

He was quoted in the original Black Friday indictments as saying, “As charged, these defendants concocted an elaborate criminal fraud scheme, alternately tricking some U.S. banks and effectively bribing others to assure the continued flow of billions in illegal gambling profits.”

The U.S. Attorney added, “In their zeal to circumvent the gambling laws, the defendants also engaged in massive money laundering and bank fraud. Foreign firms that choose to operate in the United States are not free to flout the laws they don’t like simply because they can’t bear to be parted from their profits.”

Bharara thanked “the FBI for its outstanding leadership in the investigation [as well as] Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s New York and New Jersey offices and the Washington State Gambling Commission for their assistance in the [Black Friday] investigation.”

In discussing Bharara’s influence on the online poker industry, one poster on TwoPlusTwo observed, “He certainly had a big influence on everybody on this forum.”

Others who made Time’s list included U.S. President Barack Obama (pictured), presumed Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, newscaster Matt Lauer, “Saturday Night Live” funny woman Kristen Wiig, and Grammy Award winner Adele.

Time also recognized several personalities it dubbed “Rogues,” who included North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, Islamic militia leader Sheik Moktar Ali Zubeyr, and Syrian President Bashar Assad. Also making the grade was “Anonymous.”

Bharara became a U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in 2009 after appointment by Obama. Other high-profile cases he’s worked on include prosecution of the Gambino organized crime syndicate and hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam. He attended Harvard University and received a law degree from Columbia.

Read the entire Time Magazine 100 Most Influential People list.