His early career included Shearson Lehman/Lehman Brothers, where he established the first trading desk at any Wall Street firm to create liquidity in the defaulted debt of developing countries.
Newman was viewed as "the mastermind" behind Elliott Management's historic 15-year fight to recover billions of dollars in defaulted debt from the government of Argentina.
Newman retired from Elliott Management in 2018 but was lured back into the world of sovereign debt recovery in 2021, when he was hired by a group of shareholders of Devas Multimedia, a satellite and telecommunications company embroiled in a fight with the Indian government.
[5] Founded by a former Goldman Sachs banker, Devas was awarded about $1.3 billion in arbitration rulings after a contract, which it had with an Indian state-owned company called Antrix to develop broadband, was cancelled a decade ago.
[7][8] It has been described by author Nelson DeMille as "a groundbreaking, unconventional, and wildly entertaining peek behind the curtain of American politics, financial skullduggery, and high-stakes global conflict."