Alessio D. Evangelista

Prior to joining Skadden, Mr. Evangelista was head of the Enforcement and Compliance Division at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the primary anti-money laundering (AML) regulator in the U.S. In this role, he supervised all of FinCEN’s civil enforcement investigations and compliance initiatives involving financial institutions including banks, broker-dealers, futures commission merchants, casinos, digital asset service providers and money services businesses.

Prior to his role at FinCEN, Mr. Evangelista was 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 the principal assistant U.S. attorney, he supervised the office’s entire leadership team and oversaw all of its high-profile criminal and civil enforcement matters, including cases and investigations involving fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, bribery and corruption, espionage, export controls, Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and sanctions evasion. Mr. Evangelista also has significant trial experience. He 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, sanctions evasion, bribery and corruption, unlicensed money transmission and BSA violations.

While at Skadden, Mr. Evangelista has advised and represented clients facing a wide array 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 state regulators
• a registered broker-dealer in parallel civil enforcement investigations by FinCEN, the SEC and FINRA
• a payment service provider and its chief executive officer in parallel criminal and civil enforcement investigations by the DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission
• digital asset service providers in connection with DOJ, IRS and FinCEN investigations and BSA/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 a multinational corporation in a criminal investigation by the DOJ and the Environmental Protection Agency
• 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 enforcement and compliance trends at national and international conferences and industry-specific events. He is also a guest lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management.