Alessio D. Evangelista

Prior to joining Skadden, Mr. Evangelista was head of the Enforcement and Compliance Division at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). In this role, he oversaw all of FinCEN’s civil enforcement investigations and compliance matters involving banks, broker-dealers, futures commission merchants, casinos, digital asset service providers and money services businesses.

Prior to joining FinCEN, Mr. Evangelista served as a top official in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the nation’s largest U.S. attorney’s office. As principal assistant U.S. attorney, he supervised the office’s entire leadership team and all high-profile criminal and civil enforcement cases, including those involving fraud, money laundering, bribery and corruption, espionage, export controls and sanctions evasion. Mr. Evangelista also has significant trial experience and tried more than 50 cases to verdict while serving as an assistant U.S. attorney.

Mr. Evangelista also served as deputy chief of the Bank Integrity Unit in the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section at the Department of Justice (DOJ). The Bank Integrity Unit handles some of the DOJ’s most significant cases involving financial institutions and financial crimes, including money laundering, fraud, bribery and corruption, and Bank Secrecy Act violations.

While at Skadden, Mr. Evangelista has advised and represented financial institutions, technology companies, investors and senior executives in a wide range of complex and highly sensitive criminal investigations and civil enforcement matters, including:

• a global technology company in parallel criminal and civil enforcement investigations by the DOJ, FinCEN and several state regulators
• a licensed broker-dealer in parallel civil enforcement investigations by FinCEN, the SEC and FINRA
• the chief executive officer of a payment service provider in parallel criminal and civil enforcement investigations by the DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission
• several global digital asset service providers in connection with DOJ, IRS and FinCEN investigations and anti-money laundering (AML) compliance matters
• Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) as amicus curiae in litigation challenging OFAC’s designation of the Tornado Cash decentralized cryptocurrency mixing protocol
• senior executives of multinational corporations in money laundering and environmental crimes investigations by the DOJ and federal regulators
• the part-owner of an online gaming platform in connection with a money laundering and illegal gambling investigation

In recognition of his work, Mr. Evangelista has been honored as one of Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Global Litigators, 500 Leading Litigators in America and 500 Global Leaders in Crisis Management.

Mr. Evangelista has published numerous articles and speaks regularly on AML compliance and enforcement trends at industry-specific, national and international conferences focusing on AML and financial crimes. He is also a guest lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management.