Government Investigations & Criminal Defense

Chris Cheek is a former Assistant United States Attorney who focuses his practice on litigating complex civil cases, handling government and internal investigations, and advising clients on compliance matters. During his service in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Chris directed numerous complex fraud investigations involving programs administered by federal agencies, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Defense (DOD), and the United States Coast Guard (USCG). Chris developed expertise in violations of the False Claims Act (FCA), the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS), the Stark Law, and other fraud, waste, and abuse protections, by managed care organizations, hospitals, laboratories, pharmacies, and physicians. Chris also pursued violations of the FCA in connection with program fraud committed by non-healthcare entities, such as telecommunications providers, military contractors, research grant recipients, and academic institutions.

Chris represented government agencies and individual employees in federal court, litigating across broad subject matter areas including disaster relief, law enforcement, public lands, and food policy. In government and in private practice, Chris conducted internal investigations, including those concerning allegations of harassment. Before his decade of public service, Chris worked as an associate in the Miami office of a national law firm, where he handled commercial litigation in
state and federal court, including insurance fraud, consumer class actions, and investment fund disputes.

Katja Gilman is a Legal Analyst at Arktouros PLLC. Prior to this role, she was the Senior Public Policy Lead at Polygon Labs, an international software development company that builds blockchain scaling infrastructure, where she worked with regulators, policymakers, and industry in the United States, European Union, and United Kingdom with the overarching mission of advocating for an evergreen policy framework for decentralized technology that allows this innovation to grow while achieving the three primary policy goals of protecting consumers, preserving market integrity, and combating illicit finance.

Katja co-authored a paper entitled “Genuine DeFi as Critical Infrastructure: A Conceptual Framework for Combating Illicit Finance Activity in Decentralized Finance” that put forth a three-part framework for how to detect, deter and prevent illicit financial activity in decentralized finance systems. Link to the paper: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4607332.

Katja graduated cum laude and with Highest Distinction in Public Policy from Duke University and earned her Master of Business Administration from Yale University’s School of Management. She is currently in the Georgetown University Law Center’s Juris Doctor Evening Program.  

Katja is fluent in English and Russian.

Julia Kelley is a Senior Litigation Paralegal at Arktouros PLLC. She previously served as a Senior Paralegal and Paralegal Supervisor supporting the U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division within the White Collar and Corporate Enforcement Section. In these roles, she oversaw complex eDiscovery workflows in Relativity, and managed high-pressure trial logistics. 

With five years of specialized experience in federal case management and courtroom logistics, she has a proven track record of maximizing team productivity and maintaining strict compliance.

Julia graduated cum laude from The George Washington University with a B.A in Psychology and a Minor in Criminal Justice.

Rebecca (Becca) Walton is a Senior Litigation Paralegal at Arktouros PLLC. She has extensive experience supporting complex federal criminal investigations and litigation. She joins Arktouros after serving for several years with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Healthcare Fraud Unit, where she managed all phases of healthcare fraud investigations—from subpoena and discovery management to trial preparation and courtroom support.

Becca earned a Master of Arts in Political Science with a concentration in American Government from American University and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and Anthropology. Her background also includes legislative and campaign experience, providing her with a strong foundation in public policy, government, and the legal system.

Becca is passionate about litigation strategy, complex investigations, and delivering exceptional client service. She is excited to bring her experience and collaborative approach to the Arktouros team.

Jennifer Vander Veer advises organizations on product strategy, compliance, and regulatory risk at the intersection of financial crime and emerging technology, drawing on frontline investigative experience and technical product leadership.

As Head of Product at TRM Labs, Jennifer joined as the founding product hire and built the product function from scratch, including strategy, org design, hiring, and operating systems. She led the platform’s development into a global investigative standard used by financial institutions, crypto businesses, and law enforcement in over 50 countries, driving 10x revenue growth over three years. She represented TRM before congressional staffers, UN representatives, and alongside leaders from Europol and HM Treasury. She also delivered cross-chain tracing across 30+ blockchains, cutting investigative time from hours to minutes.

Jennifer’s product instincts are grounded in 14 years as an FBI Special Agent in cyber and counterintelligence. A pioneering member of the FBI’s Virtual Currency Response Team, she helped establish the FBI’s early blockchain investigative capabilities, developed first-of-kind processes for on-chain asset freezes, and forged partnerships leading to multi-million-dollar digital asset seizures and international arrests. She also served as the FBI’s sole cyber investigator for Vermont, and as a certified Crisis Negotiator, responded to high-stakes incidents including the Dannemora prison escape and the Boston Marathon bombing.

Jennifer has worked complex digital asset cases as an investigator,  built the products compliance teams rely on, and developed deep technical fluency in blockchain technology. That cross-functional range, spanning engineering, legal, compliance, and go-to-market, is what she brings to client engagements, delivering compliance-by-design solutions across AML, sanctions, and financial crime risk. 

Jennifer holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Swarthmore College. She has spoken at the AMLP Forum European AML & Financial Crime Conference and City & Financial Global Digital Assets Symposium, participated in a U.S. House of Representatives staff briefing on crypto, and has been featured on podcasts including Decrypt Media’s Crime 3 and Niki Christoff’s Tech’ed Up.

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Alejandra C. Ruttimann is an Associate Attorney at Arktouros PLLC.  She joins Arktouros after working in the Litigation and Enforcement group at Ropes & Gray LLP in New York, where she focused on internal investigations, anti-corruption, and international risk matters, including multi-jurisdictional AML and anti-bribery due diligence.

Alejandra earned a Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law and graduated cum laude from Georgetown University with a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Sociology.  Her background includes a mix of public and private sector experience.

Alejandra is licensed to practice law in New York and Florida.  She is natively bilingual in Spanish and English and also speaks French and Portuguese.

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Rebecca Rettig is Of Counsel in the New York office of Arktouros PLLC. She is currently general counsel of a large international software development company that builds blockchain scaling infrastructure, including aggregated network scaling. Prior to her current role, Rebecca was general counsel at a software development company building DeFi and other blockchain-based applications. The majority of her preceding career was outside counsel — at Cravath, Swaine and Moore LLP she represented clients in litigation and enforcement matters, including on both the financial services side and in early peer-to-peer technology litigation. After Cravath, Rebecca dedicated her legal career to representing software development companies in the blockchain space, advising clients on legal and regulatory matters relating to novel technologies and litigating some of the earliest crypto lawsuits and regulatory enforcement matters and investigations.

Claiborne (Clay) W. Porter is the co-founder of Arktouros pllc.  Clay’s practice focuses advising and representing clients, including individuals and organizations, in complex international white collar criminal and regulatory matters, internal investigations, extradition proceedings, asset recovery, gaming and gambling, and compliance counseling focusing on financial integrity matters, including U.S. economic sanctions, the Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering laws and regulations (BSA/AML), fraud, international money laundering and corruption, embezzlement, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and cryptocurrency.  Clay has extensive trial and contested hearings experience from serving as the co-lead counsel in a 12 week, six defendant international money laundering trial to numerous state court trials.

Clay’s government experience includes various leadership and supervisory roles in the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division (MLARS), including Acting Principal Deputy Chief of MLARS and Chief of the Bank Integrity Unit. At MLARS, he managed a wide variety of complex domestic and international investigations focused on BSA/AML, money laundering, fraud, and U.S. economic sanctions, and coordinated those efforts with various domestic (state and federal) and foreign law enforcement and regulators, including U.S. Attorneys Offices across the country, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Federal Reserve Board, Office of the Comptroller of Currency, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, US Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Trade Commission, New York State Department of Financial Services, the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority, National Crime Agency, and the Crown Prosecution Service.  As part of Clay’s duties at MLARS, he supported the Section’s responsibilities relating to reviewing and authorizing any criminal enforcement action against a financial services firm, including banks, for violations of the BSA.  

Previously, Clay was the Chief Legal Officer of a DeFi risk management company.  Clay was also a partner in an international law firm’s financial crimes defense and compliance practice, focusing on international white collar matters, asset recovery, U.S. economic sanctions, and AML-related enforcement matters. Prior to that, Clay served as a managing director at a large consulting firm, leading its investigations group. Clay regularly advised on anti-money laundering and economic sanctions matters, including conducting full-scope reviews and gap analyses of BSA/AML and sanctions compliance programs of banks, money services businesses, and cryptocurrency exchanges.  Earlier in his career, Clay worked as an associate in two international law firms and as an Assistant District Attorney in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office handling violent crime cases.

Michael (Mike) Parker is a Partner at Arktouros PLLC.  Prior to this role, he served as the head of the anti-money laundering and sanctions practice at a prominent Washington, D.C. law firm specializing in U.S. economic sanctions administration and compliance.  In private practice, Mr. Parker was the principal attorney responsible for the very first successful lifting of U.S. economic sanctions of a Russian national following the invasion of Ukraine from the Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN List) administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).  His current and previous clients include prominent industrialists, top financial institutions, and private equity funds, in addition to international expert witness engagements.  Additionally, Mr. Parker is an Adjunct Professor of National Security Law in the Georgetown University Security Studies Program.

Mr. Parker is a former federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section (MLARS), where he served as a subject matter expert on economic sanctions for MLARS and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices across the country.  During his six-plus years at MLARS, Mr. Parker was responsible for money laundering and forfeiture investigations of transnational criminal organizations and foreign threat actors, including serving as the lead MLARS prosecutor for the “Panama Papers” case.  Among his matters, Mr. Parker prosecuted cases involving major international financial institutions, foreign ransomware actors, hostile adversarial nations, criminals who launder funds through cryptocurrency, and complex trade-based money laundering networks.  In 2017, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) awarded Mr. Parker with the FBI Director’s Award for Outstanding Counterintelligence Investigation for his work on a North Korea-related sanctions evasion and money laundering case that was perpetrated through the U.S. banking system.

Prior to his time at DOJ, Mr. Parker spent nearly eight years at OFAC where he served as a Sanctions Investigator, and later a Section Chief in OFAC’s Enforcement Division.  During his tenure at OFAC, Mr. Parker was responsible for sanctions investigations of transnational criminal organizations, cartel-related targets under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, and high-profile Middle Eastern sanctions targets under various legal authorities. He also held supervisory authority over one of three OFAC Enforcement divisions and was the supervisory enforcement officer for violations of U.S. sanctions programs.

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

Frank Murray is a former federal prosecutor and heads Arktouros’s civil practice. He is both a criminal defense attorney and complex civil litigator whose practice encompasses white-collar criminal defense, government investigations, complex commercial litigation, partnership and shareholder disputes, real estate litigation, and business torts—representing corporations, executives, professionals, and individuals from the earliest stages of complex disputes through trial. 

Frank’s approach is direct and client-centered. He brings the tenacity of a federal prosecutor and the judgment of a seasoned litigator to every engagement, moving between the courthouse and the negotiating table with equal fluency. Clients rely on Frank because he understands, from both sides of the courtroom, how litigants build cases—and how to dismantle them.

Although Frank is based in Miami, he routinely represents clients in New York, Washington D.C., California, Europe, Central America and South America. 

Government Service

Before entering private practice, Frank served for nearly seven years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Middle District of Florida. Assigned to the Criminal Division’s Economic Crimes Section and Special Victims Section, he led investigations, prosecutions, and trials across virtually every category of complex federal crime: money laundering and illegal monetary transactions; wire, mail, access-device, bank, and healthcare fraud; RICO; environmental crimes; aggravated identity theft; human trafficking; civil rights offenses; terrorism hoaxes; and child exploitation offenses.

Among his most significant matters, Frank led the prosecution and dismantling of the “Newstar Enterprise,” an international child exploitation and money-laundering organization operating in over 10 countries that had sexually exploited vulnerable children in Eastern Europe for 15 years under the guise of child modeling. He also prosecuted and tried to guilty verdict the chief executive officer of Oasis International Group Ltd., convicted of orchestrating an $80 million FOREX trading Ponzi-style scheme. Frank prosecuted a multi-state RICO conspiracy involving the trafficking and forced labor of Mexican agricultural workers, and secured sentences of life and 35 years, respectively, for two Florida school administrators convicted of sexually abusing children. He also assisted state law enforcement to investigate a 14-year-old, unsolved kidnapping and murder of a minor in Hardee County, Florida, resulting in multiple second-degree murder convictions and life sentences.

Before the Criminal Division, Frank served in the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Appellate Division, where he authored appellate briefs in direct appeals, argued before Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and coordinated the Office’s district-wide response to post-conviction litigation.

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Earlier Career

Before his tenure as a federal prosecutor, Frank served as a federal judicial law clerk. He worked on the federal Engle Tobacco docket before the Honorable William G. Young of the District of Massachusetts (sitting by designation in the Middle District of Florida), and subsequently for the Honorable Anthony E. Porcelli of the Middle District of Florida. He later participated in the Engle Tobacco federal mediation effort, which produced a $100 million settlement in February 2015. Frank assisted Judge Porcelli in his capacity as court-appointed Rule 53 Special Master overseeing the settlement, helping design and administer a plan for distributing settlement funds to qualifying plaintiffs.

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Recognition

Frank’s federal service was recognized with the Attorney General’s Award for Fraud Prevention (2021), the FinCEN Director’s Law Enforcement Award (2022), the Homeland Security Investigations Prosecutor of the Year award for the Tampa region (2020), and the Financial Crimes and Inspectors General Council Case of the Year Award (2023). He also received recognition from United States Attorney’s Office (MDFL) for Excellence in Victim Cases (2019), and Superior Achievement (2017). While in school, he was honored with the Boston College Law School Pro Bono Award and The George Washington University Silent Leader Award.

Community Involvement

Frank is an active participant in the Florida legal community and has long directed that engagement toward service. He serves on the Board of the Federal Bar Association’s South Florida Chapter. During his years as a federal prosecutor, he volunteered with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida’s Intensive Reentry Program, working directly with inmates at high risk of recidivism to support their successful return to society. He was also a participant in Guys with Ties, a community outreach initiative through which federal prosecutors visited and mentored students at underserved schools. 

Judicial Clerkships

• Law Clerk, Honorable William G. Young, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts (2014)
• Law Clerk, Honorable Anthony E. Porcelli, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida (2015)

Education

• M.P.A., Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs, 2014  — Merit Scholarship; Capstone Project: U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Counterterrorism Review of Legal Challenges to Terrorist Sanctions and Prosecutions
• J.D., with honors, Boston College Law School, 2013 — International & Comparative Law Review, Staff Writer; Public Interest Fellow
• B.A., with honors, The George Washington University, Elliott School of International Affairs, 2010

Admissions

• Florida
• U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida
• U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

Thought Leadership

• Inspectors General Council Law-Enforcement Training, St. Petersburg, Florida, February 2023 
• Boston College’s Defense of the Belfast Project: A Renewed Call for a Researcher’s Privilege to Protect Academia, 39 J. C. & U. L. 659 | Notre Dame Law School (Spring 2013)
• Transnational Organized Crime: Draining Development? Controlling Flows of Illicit Funds from Developing Countries, 66 COLUM. J. INT’L AFF., No. 1, 237 Fall/Winter 2012 (Book Review)

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Michael Mosier is a co-founder of Arktouros pllc.  He has twice been the first in-house counsel at emergent technology companies:  Chainalysis (blockchain analytics/investigations) and Espresso Systems (cross-chain composability & configurable privacy).  

In addition to legal, his work in the governance and risk/resilience space includes: board member and interim Chief Risk Officer for the first de novo OCC-chartered stablecoin-integrated national bank; board member of the Security Alliance (SEAL), a nonprofit coordination center for cyber/crypto threat intelligence sharing and industry security standards development; and security council member for the first decentralized derivatives exchange to earn a regulatory (BMA) license.  He previously was an independent board director and chair of the Government Security Committee for an artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicle systems public company operating under a Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) National Security Agreement.

In public service, Michael was Acting Director, Deputy Director, and the first Digital Innovation Officer of the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), where he worked closely with federal, state, and international counterparts on the development and implementation of policy and regulation, as well as launching digital identity and privacy-enhancing technology initiatives to advance personal sovereignty and opportunity.  He also was Counselor (Cybersecurity & Emerging Technology) to the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury.

Previously, Michael served as Associate Director and Acting Deputy Director of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), leading the Office of Compliance & Enforcement and Office of Sanctions Policy & Implementation.    

Before Treasury, Michael was a Deputy Chief in the Department of Justice’s Money Laundering Section, where he created and led the Special Financial Investigations Unit.  He also served at the White House National Security Council as Director for Transnational Organized Crime.  

Michael has been an adjunct professor (Advanced Evidence for Trial) at Georgetown University Law Center and began his public service as a prosecutor with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

Michael also works with ex/ante, an early-stage venture fund investing in technology that advances human agency and democratic resilience.

Kenneth A. Blanco (Ken) is a recognized industry leader and speaker in the areas of law, financial integrity and compliance, international governmental relations, and leadership/management dynamics. As an experienced trial attorney, regulator, and compliance officer, Ken has held senior leadership and managerial roles in both the private and public sectors while leading and managing large and diverse global organizations. Ken has served, worked with, and advised numerous U.S. Attorneys General and other Cabinet and Sub-Cabinet members of the United States government, including White House Officials, the National Security Council, the Secretary of the Treasury, as well as boards of directors and senior executives of various public and privately held companies. Ken has worked with, advised, and collaborated with Presidents, Vice Presidents, Supreme Court Justices, Ministers of Finance, and other high-ranking government officials and business leaders from around the world.  He has testified before Congress numerous times and has briefed congressional staffers on many occasions regarding important legal, regulatory, and financial issues and topics. He has held the highest security clearances in the U.S. government, and although no longer a government official Ken still holds a Top Secret SCI.  He has led teams, worked in, and served as a civilian in war zones and terrorist occupied areas on behalf of the United States government.

Ken is managing partner, based out of the Florida office of Arktouros PLLC, an American law and advisory boutique specializing in risk management, emergent technology, and civil society. Prior to joining Arktouros, Ken served as the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) for Citigroup’s Global Financial Crimes Program, and as a member of Citi’s Independent Compliance Risk Management (ICRM) Executive Management Team, where Ken led and managed a global organization of several thousand compliance professionals in 97 countries around the world.  In this role, Ken helped support and protect Citi, and the U.S. financial system, against financial crimes risks by overseeing the firm’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Global Financial Crimes Investigations and Intelligence, Sanctions, and Anti-Bribery & Corruption programs, across all lines of business, subsidiaries, and jurisdictions in which Citi operates. 

Prior to joining Citi in April 2021, Ken served as the Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a Bureau within the U. S. Department of the Treasury, where he worked to combat domestic and international financial crime and enforce and promulgate regulations to protect the United States’ financial system and national security against money laundering and its related crimes, including terrorism financing.

Prior to his appointment as FinCEN Director by the Secretary of the Treasury in 2017, Ken served as the Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division at the United States Department of Justice, and for 11 years as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Division.  In these roles, Ken led and was responsible for national and international criminal matters relating to U.S. law, including Bank Integrity, Fraud, FCPA, Money Laundering, Asset Forfeiture, Kleptocracy, and Public Corruption.

After graduating from Georgetown University Law Center in 1989, Ken returned to his native Miami and began his career at the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, where he served as a trial lawyer in various sections including the Organized Crime Section, Public Corruption Section, and the Major Narcotics Section.  In 1998, Ken joined the United States Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida (Miami) as an Assistant United States Attorney, where he served in numerous leadership positions including Deputy Chief of Narcotics/Chief of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, Acting Chief of Narcotics, and Deputy Chief of the Major Crimes Section.

During his time at the United States Attorney’s Office, Ken was detailed to Washington, D.C. in 2002 for two years where he served as General Counsel to the 94 United States Attorney’s Offices and the Executive Office of United States Attorneys. In 2006, Ken returned to Washington, D.C. to serve as the Chief of the Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section at the Department of Justice. He was later promoted to the position of Deputy Assistant Attorney General, where he supervised the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section, Organized Crime and Gang Section, Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section, and matters relating to Afghanistan, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, and Panama.

Brad Brooks-Rubin focuses on the intersection of different types of risks – sanctions, corruption, money laundering, political, human rights – across a range of sectors and geographies and then identifies tangible, practical, and creative solutions. For more than 20 years, in roles across the private sector, government, and civil society, Brad has proved uniquely skilled at developing and implementing comprehensive and proactive strategies to address complex issues.

Brad has a track record of concrete action, from spearheading the innovative G7 initiative to restrict Russian diamonds through supply chain traceability, issuance of numerous sanctions actions and multiple business risk advisories by the U.S. government, unique termination and transition of the Zimbabwe Sanctions Program, and the creation of the Public Private Alliance for Responsible Minerals Trade and innovative “banking roundtables” where compliance analysts could receive critical risk-related information from civil society. Through his unique breadth of experience, Brad understands how companies and other actors can take action to address risks on multiple levels and to respond to varying stakeholder interests and expectations when issues arise.

Most recently, Brad was a Senior Advisor in the Office of Sanctions Coordination at the U.S. Department of State, where he was responsible for sanctions policy coordination related to sub-Saharan Africa, Burma, the West Bank, and natural resources, principally diamonds, gold, and timber. Brad re-joined State from 6.5 years as Policy Director and then Managing Director at The Sentry, an innovative civil society organization focused on the investigating and disrupting the intersection of conflict and corruption. Brad also served as the Strategic Advisor & North America Engagement Lead at the Responsible Jewellery Council in 2021-2022.

Prior to The Sentry and RJC, Brad held roles at the Gemological Institute of America (where he focused on a range of projects related to sustainable development, human rights, and compliance), the U.S. Department of State (where he focused on the Kimberley Process and conflict minerals in eastern DRC, as well as a range of sanctions issues), the Department of the Treasury (where he served as an Attorney-Advisor for the Office of Chief Counsel, Foreign Assets Control, and concentrated on sanctions issues, principally related to a range of sub-Saharan African conflicts), as well as two law firms (where he advised clients on economic sanctions, export controls, and a range of business/human rights issues).

Brad speaks frequently at events on sanctions and natural resources-related policy and compliance conferences and has published extensively in a range of outlets around the world. Brad is an active member of the community in Washington, DC and beyond, serving as an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, Board Member of both the Wildlife Justice Commission and We Are Family DC, DJ on WOWD-LP, co-creator of the 3albums6oldguys substack, and a youth basketball coach.