Daniel Merzel

Daniel Merzel defends companies and individuals in U.S. and cross-border government investigations, criminal and civil enforcement actions, and nongovernmental regulatory inquiries. He also conducts internal investigations and advises companies on compliance issues.

Mr. Merzel has acted for clients in matters involving the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Office of the New York Attorney General (NYAG), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and various other U.S. and non-U.S. criminal and regulatory authorities. His experience includes:

• representing a multinational bank and its subsidiaries in reaching a favorable settlement with the SEC in an industry-wide, multijurisdictional investigation concerning suspected securities fraud and tax offenses involving depositary receipts;
• defending a precious-metals trader in parallel criminal and civil actions brought by the DOJ and CFTC for alleged spoofing, attempted price manipulation, fraud, and conspiracy;
• conducting an internal investigation for a multinational bank in response to a whistleblower’s allegations of compliance failures involving the bank’s swap-dealer function;
• advising a luxury retailer in a fraud probe by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York;
• counseling a logistics company and its officers in connection with an SEC enforcement action against a former director;
• representing a multinational bank and its subsidiaries in a cross-border investigation concerning a suspected money laundering scheme involving the bank’s operations in a developing country;
• securing a favorable negotiated resolution for a financial services firm in a CFTC investigation concerning suspected wash trading;
• advising a former senior executive of a multinational financial institution in connection with the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal;
• representing affiliated interdealer brokers in reaching favorable civil settlements and criminal nonprosecution agreements with the CFTC and NYAG in parallel fraud investigations concerning options-broking practices; and
• defending a broker-dealer in an investigation concerning suspected violations of exchange rules arising out of trading in volatility-related products, and successfully advocating for the exchange’s regulatory arm to drop the impending charges.

Before joining Skadden, Mr. Merzel interned at the SEC’s New York and Boston regional offices, where he helped the Enforcement Staff litigate against the perpetrators of a Ponzi scheme and investigate fraudulent conduct including insider trading, cherry-picking, and misappropriation of client assets.