Alessio Evangelista

Mr. Evangelista draws on the extensive knowledge and experience he gained in various leadership roles at the Department of Justice and the Department of the Treasury to effectively counsel clients in complex civil and criminal enforcement and compliance matters. Mr. Evangelista also has a strong understanding of the new technologies impacting the financial services industry, including blockchain-based digital assets, artificial intelligence, decentralized finance and Web3.

Prior to joining Skadden, Mr. Evangelista was head of the Enforcement and Compliance Division at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the bureau within the Department of the Treasury responsible for implementing and enforcing the Bank Secrecy Act and other anti-money laundering laws. In this role, Mr. Evangelista was the senior executive in charge of FinCEN’s Offices of Enforcement, Compliance and the Whistleblower. He oversaw and approved all civil enforcement actions by the agency, including a $100 million civil penalty against one of the oldest and largest convertible virtual currency derivatives exchanges in the world for failing to implement and maintain effective and reasonably designed anti-money laundering and customer identification programs; and a $390 million civil penalty against one of the largest banks in the United States for failing to implement and maintain an effective and reasonably designed anti-money laundering program and other violations. During his time at FinCEN, Mr. Evangelista led the agency’s efforts to implement several new authorities in the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, including enhanced protections and financial incentives for whistleblowers. He also created a new section within the Office of Enforcement focused on cryptocurrencies and other emerging technologies impacting the financial services industry.

Prior to joining FinCEN, Mr. Evangelista served as principal assistant U.S. attorney — the second in command of the office —in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the largest U.S. attorney’s office in the nation. In that role, he created a new Threat Finance Unit in the Office’s National Security Section to focus on international money laundering and sanctions violations. He also oversaw numerous AML and sanctions investigations, including several groundbreaking cases involving cross-border money laundering, sanctions evasion and cryptocurrency-related crimes.

Prior to serving as the principal assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Mr. Evangelista served as deputy chief of the Bank Integrity Unit in the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section at the Department of Justice. The Bank Integrity Unit handles some of the department’s most significant cases involving the intersection of national security and corporate crime. As deputy chief of the unit, Mr. Evangelista supervised over a dozen prosecutors who investigated and prosecuted financial institutions and their officers for anti-money laundering violations and other financial crimes, including two cases involving global banks that each paid over $1 billion in penalties to resolve international money laundering and sanctions investigations.

Mr. Evangelista also has significant trial experience. He tried more than 50 cases to verdict, including 19 jury trials, while serving as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

Mr. Evangelista frequently speaks about regulatory developments and enforcement trends involving the Bank Secrecy Act and other laws impacting global financial institutions and multinational corporations. He has participated as a keynote speaker or panelist at national conferences such as the ABA/ABA Financial Crimes Enforcement Conference and the ACAMS Annual AML & Anti-Financial Crime Conference, and at conferences sponsored by the Institute of International Bankers, the Federal Bar Council, the Practising Law Institute and blockchain analytics firms. Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2004, Mr. Evangelista advised and represented companies and individuals in complex commercial litigation and white collar criminal matters at two private law firms in Washington, D.C.

In 2022, he was named to Lawdragon’s inaugural list of the 500 Leading Litigators in America.