Michael B. Nadler is a Partner at Arktouros PLLC, resident in the firm’s Florida office. Michael is a federal criminal defense attorney whose practice spans the full waterfront of complex, high-stakes white-collar and federal criminal matters. He represents corporations, executives, professionals, and individuals at every stage — from pre-indictment investigations and grand jury proceedings through trial, sentencing, and appeal — in matters involving healthcare fraud and False Claims Act litigation, securities fraud, tax fraud, bank and wire fraud, money laundering, Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money-laundering enforcement, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), economic sanctions and export-control investigations before Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Commerce Dept’s Bureau of Industry & Security (BIS), and the U.S. Department of State, public corruption, large-scale narcotics and racketeering conspiracies, and the sophisticated commercial and civil litigation that often runs in parallel with federal investigations.
Michael’s approach is unapologetically personal. Every matter receives his direct, partner-level attention. Every representation is handled with the discretion and care he would extend to his own family. And every strategic decision is made with the client’s long-term interests at its center. Clients — and the lawyers who refer them — rely on Michael because he is candid about risk, disciplined about strategy, relentless on execution, and present when his clients most need him.
Although resident in Miami, Michael’s practice is national in scope. He represents clients in federal district courts, grand jury investigations, and regulatory proceedings across the United States, alongside cross border matters that span multiple jurisdictions. Michael is admitted to the Florida, Illinois, New York, and District of Columbia bars, and before the U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Northern, and Middle Districts of Florida; the Northern District of Illinois; the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York; the District of Columbia; and the Southern District of Texas; as well as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He regularly appears pro hac vice in federal districts throughout the country.
Government Service
Before joining Arktouros, Michael served for nearly ten years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of Florida, one of the most active U.S. Attorney’s Offices in the country. He tried more than twenty-five federal jury trials to verdict — across virtually every category of complex federal crime — and argued before the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He was later selected as a charter member of the Office’s specialized money laundering and foreign corruption unit, where he served as lead prosecutor on some of the largest and most complex international financial-crime cases in South Florida’s history.
Michael’s investigations spanned the globe — corrupt officials and intermediaries in Venezuela, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe; European banks and foreign nationals in large-scale financial inquiries; and sustained working partnerships with prosecutors and law-enforcement counterparts across South America and Europe. He represented the United States at multilateral summits with officials from Liechtenstein, Italy, Bulgaria, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Colombia, Panama, Mexico, Honduras, Ecuador, and Guatemala on cooperation against transnational money laundering, foreign corruption, and narcotics trafficking. He has lectured federal law-enforcement agencies on complex financial investigations and on weapons-of-mass-destruction proliferation.
Among his most significant matters, Michael was lead trial counsel in the prosecution of Alejandro Andrade, the former National Treasurer of Venezuela, which resulted in a $1 billion forfeiture — among the largest forfeiture orders ever obtained by the United States and the largest in South Florida history under any kleptocracy-related prosecution. He charged Colombian businessman Alex Saab, alleged to be a principal financial frontman for the Maduro regime, in a money-laundering case that drew sustained international attention. He led indictments of multiple Venezuelan cabinet officials, businessmen, and Swiss bankers as part of a sustained effort to recover assets from two decades of state corruption.
Beyond his international-corruption portfolio, Michael’s prosecutorial docket included healthcare-fraud and unlawful-kickback prosecutions, large-scale narcotics and trafficking conspiracies, securities-fraud and accountant-liability cases, firearms offenses, murder-for-hire, tax fraud, aggravated identity theft, and elder financial exploitation. Few federal defense attorneys come to private practice having tried jury cases across that full range of complex federal crime — and that breadth informs every defense engagement he now undertakes.
Earlier Career
Before the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Michael served as an Assistant Miami-Dade County Attorney, where he tried civil cases in state and federal court — including tort, medical-malpractice, Section 1983 civil-rights, and employment matters — and represented numerous County departments, including the Miami-Dade Fire Department, the Building Department, and the Port of Miami. He drafted appellate briefs and argued before the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal.
Michael began his legal career as an associate in the financial and securities litigation group at Sidley Austin LLP in Chicago, where he represented public companies, executives, and accounting firms in white collar investigations involving securities-law violations and accountant liability.
Recognition
Michael is ranked by Chambers USA in Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations (Florida). Clients and peers interviewed by Chambers have described him as an “excellent and experienced trial attorney” who is “reliable, diligent and hardworking,” with “a very good grasp on legal issues” and “a very thorough and persuasive writer.”
Michael’s federal service was recognized with the Department of Homeland Security Director’s Award (2020), the Drug Enforcement Administrator’s Award (2020), and the Department of Homeland Security Outstanding Financial Investigation Award (2019). His pro bono service has been recognized with the Northern District of Illinois Pro Bono Award and the Sidley Austin Pro Bono Award (both 2008).
Thought Leadership & Speaking
Michael speaks and writes on federal criminal enforcement, white-collar defense, cross-border investigations, sanctions, FCPA, and kleptocracy. He has moderated and presented at the European Compliance & Ethics Practitioners (ECP) Switzerland conference, including the 2024 International Agencies Update panel with senior officials from the U.K. Serious Fraud Office and the Bank of England. He is a contributor to the Federalist Society and has appeared on its national programming, including a panel discussion on the Alex Saab indictment and the broader Venezuela investigations. He is affiliated with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars as a commentator on Latin American rule-of law issues. His observations have been featured in Global Investigations Review, the Daily Business Review, the Associated Press, and other legal and financial publications.
Education
• University of Miami School of Law, J.D., Magna Cum Laude, Order of the Coif
• Columbia University, B.A., English and Economics
Admissions
• Florida; Illinois; New York; District of Columbia
• U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida
• U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
• U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
• U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
• U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
• U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
