A New Regime of Transparency: Anti-Money Laundering and Corporate Transparency Acts of 2020 and Expansion of Cryptocurrency Reporting

Evan Davis joined the firm in 2016 after more than 20 years in the public sector as a trial lawyer with extensive civil and criminal trial and appellate experience in both federal and state courts. He and his cases have been profiled by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, People Magazine, and other national publications. Evan represents individuals and closely held entities in criminal tax investigations and prosecutions, civil tax controversy and litigation, sensitive-issue or complex civil tax examinations and administrative tax appeals, and federal and state white collar criminal investigations. He represents numerous cryptocurrency clients worldwide on civil and criminal tax matters, speaks frequently on cryptocurrency and Bank Secrecy Act issues, deals with civil and criminal cannabis- related tax issues, and handles civil and criminal unreported foreign account and foreign entities investigations and disclosures.

In 1998, after spending time as a civil litigator for the Washington State Attorney General’s Office and as a commodities regulator with the CFTC, Mr. Davis joined the Tax Division of the Department of Justice as a trial attorney doing civil litigation. During his time at the DOJ Tax Division, he litigated a variety of civil tax and bankruptcy cases through bench and jury trial, ranging from enjoining tax shelter promoters to TEFRA partnership litigation. He was recognized by the Tax Division’s Assistant Attorney General as an Outstanding Lawyer in 2002, 2003, and 2004.

In 2005, he moved to the Tax Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, handling civil and criminal tax cases and becoming one of a handful of lawyers to have litigated civil and criminal tax cases for the government in both Washington, DC and in the U.S. Attorney’s Office. From 2008 to 2016, Evan served in the Major Frauds Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division and built a reputation as a highly regarded trial attorney who handled some of the most complicated and difficult tax, financial, and health care fraud cases. He has first-chaired dozens of white-collar, tax, bank secrecy, health care, and other fraud cases through investigation, jury trial or plea, and appeal. In addition to his trial work, he served as the Bankruptcy Fraud Coordinator, Financial Institution Fraud Coordinator, and Securities Fraud Coordinator for the Criminal Division. Among other awards throughout his career, in 2015, he received the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service, the Attorney General’s highest litigation award, for his role in obtaining a $16 billion settlement from Bank of America based, in part, on Countrywide’s sale of Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities. He also has been recognized with awards from the IRS, FBI, United States Trustee Program, Council of Inspectors General, and even the judges of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California. He is a frequent lecturer on civil and criminal tax subjects, cryptocurrency, bankruptcy crime, and white-collar crime matters, including having trained both IRS agents and Department of Justice attorneys.

Stephanie L. Brooker, former Director of the Enforcement Division at the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and a former federal prosecutor, is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. She is Co-Chair of the firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations, the Financial Institutions, and the Anti-Money Laundering Practice Groups. As a prosecutor, Ms. Brooker tried 32 criminal trials, investigated a broad range of white collar and other federal criminal matters, briefed and argued criminal appeals, and served as the Chief of the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. Ms. Brooker has been named a National Law Journal White Collar Trailblazer and a Global Investigations Review Top 100 Women in Investigations.

Ms. Brooker’s practice focuses on internal investigations, regulatory enforcement defense, white-collar criminal defense, and compliance counseling. She handles a wide range of white collar matters, including representing financial institutions, multi-national companies, and individuals in connection with criminal, regulatory, and civil enforcement actions involving sanctions; anti-corruption; anti-money laundering (AML)/Bank Secrecy Act (BSA); securities, tax, and wire fraud, foreign influence; “me-too;” cryptocurrency; and other legal issues. She routinely handles complex cross-border investigations. Ms. Brooker’s practice also includes BSA/AML and FCPA compliance counseling and deal due diligence and significant criminal and civil asset forfeiture matters.

Ms. Brooker’s investigations matters involve multiple government agencies, including the Department of Justice (DOJ), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Federal Reserve Board (FRB), Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), state banking agencies and gaming regulators, and foreign regulators.

Ms. Brooker served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, where she served for many years as a trial attorney in Federal and Superior Court. In the latter part of her tenure, she served as the first Chief of the new Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section. This Section was responsible for all asset forfeiture and money laundering issues in Criminal Division cases and for litigation of civil forfeiture cases. In this role, she investigated and prosecuted complex civil and criminal forfeiture cases involving high-priority enforcement areas, such as national security, sanctions violations, and major financial fraud. She established the USAO’s first DC Financial Crimes Task Force and supervised the investigation and prosecution of BSA and money laundering cases. During her tenure, she received the U.S. Attorney’s Award for Creativity and Innovation in Management. She was also awarded three Special Achievement Awards for Superior Performance and the Office’s Criminal Division Award.

Ms. Brooker also served as the first Director of FinCEN’s Enforcement Division, which is the lead federal regulator with responsibility for enforcing the U.S. AML laws and regulations. In this role, she oversaw all of FinCEN’s domestic and foreign enforcement and compliance under the BSA. She also oversaw rulemaking actions under Section 311 of the PATRIOT Act against foreign institutions and jurisdictions, Geographic Targeting Orders, and examination and enforcement actions against cryptocurrency companies following FinCEN’s 2013 cryptocurrency guidance. Prior to serving as Enforcement Director, Ms. Brooker served as Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to the Director of FinCEN.

Ms. Brooker clerked for Judge Diana Gribbon Motz of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and for Judge James Robertson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She also worked in private practice as an appellate litigation associate at an international law firm.

She graduated magna cum laude in 2001 from Georgetown University Law Center, where she served as Managing Editor of Georgetown Law Journal and was elected to the Order of the Coif. She graduated with highest distinction from Northwestern University with a B.S. in Journalism in 1996. She was also selected as a Harry S. Truman Scholar.

Ms. Brooker serves as Treasurer of the Board of Directors of the Robert A. Shuker Scholarship Fund. Ms. Brooker is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.

Andrew Winerman is the Acting Deputy Associate Director of the Strategic Operations Divisoin at FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network).

Mr. Winerman holds a JD and an MA in Economics from the University of Virginia and an AB in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University.

Deborah Connor is Chief of the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section in the Criminal Division for the Department of Justice where she has served for more than three years. MLARS leads the Department’s asset forfeiture and anti-money laundering enforcement efforts, providing leadership in the prosecution and coordination of complex, sensitive, multi-district asset forfeiture investigations. In her role as chief, Deb supervises a section of over 80 prosecutors and 150 professionals responsible for civil and criminal enforcement of the money laundering statutes, forfeiture, and the Bank Secrecy Act.

Deb has been a criminal prosecutor with the Department of Justice for over 22 years. She served for more than 16 years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. While at the United States Attorney’s office Deb supervised and tried more than 100 criminal cases. In her last five years with the office Deborah served as the Chief of the Fraud and Public Corruption Section. During her time at the U.S. Attorney’s Office Deborah also served as the Chief of the Asset Forfeiture Unit, and a Deputy Chief in the Office’s Federal Major Crimes Section.

Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Deb was a Trial Attorney in the Antitrust Division and an Associate at a large D.C. law firm. Before attending law school, Deborah was an Assistant Vice President at a larger commercial bank in Chicago. Deborah is a cum laude graduate of Georgetown University Law Center where she is also an Adjunct Professor teaching trial advocacy.

Steven Toscher is a principal of Hochman, Salkin, Rettig, Toscher & Perez, P.C., specializing in civil and criminal tax litigation.

Mr. Toscher is a Certified Tax Specialist in Taxation, the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization. He maintains an active practice before the United States Tax Court, the Federal District Courts in California and Nevada, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the California State Courts. He frequently appears before the Internal Revenue Service, the California Franchise Tax Board and the California State Board of Equalization.

Mr. Toscher’s tax practice includes a wide array of substantive areas including income taxes, estate taxes, employment taxes, excise taxes, sales taxes and property taxes. In 1993, California Law Business Management named Mr. Toscher one of the “Up and Coming Tax Litigators under 40” in the State of California. In 2004 Mr. Toscher was named one of Southern California’s Top Lawyers by SuperLawyers.com. Mr. Toscher was selected by his peers to be included in the 2006 edition of “The Best Lawyers in America.” He has received an “A-V” rating from Martindale-Hubbell.

Mr. Toscher has been actively involved in California unitary tax controversies and Federal and State employment tax controversies involving garment workers; health care workers; insurance salesmen; financial services representatives; real estate personnel and production employees. He has handled extensive tax litigation involving government securities; wind and solar energy; horse racing and breeding; equipment leasing; motion picture transactions; oil and gas and other natural resource ventures. In addition to his civil tax practice,

Mr. Toscher has an active practice in the criminal tax field, representing clients in the Federal and State courts, grand jury proceedings and before the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division and Department of Justice Tax Division.

Bryan C. Skarlatos represents clients in civil and criminal tax controversies, corporate internal investigations, IRS whistle-blower cases and white-collar criminal matters. He is an adjunct professor at the New York University School of Law where he teaches a course on tax penalties and prosecutions and he has taught several courses to the IRS office of chief counsel and the IRS criminal investigation division.

Mr. Skarlatos regularly speaks and publishes articles on the xv topics of civil tax litigation and criminal tax prosecutions. Mr. Skarlatos is a regent in the American College of Tax Counsel and he has been recognized in Chambers USA, The Best Lawyers of America and New York Super Lawyers where he was listed as one of the Top 100 Attorneys in the New York metro area.

an has more than 35 years of experience representing corporations and individuals in civil and criminal tax litigation, white-collar criminal defense, and complex corporate and commercial disputes.

Prior to joining Fox, Ian was co-chair of the white-collar practice at Blank Rome for more than three decades. Before that, he was an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia County, a special assistant U.S. attorney and an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Florida.

Ian serves as special projects chair of the American Bar Association Tax Section. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Florida Bar, where he serves as chair of the Investment Committee. Ian also serves on the boards of directors of the Citizens Crime Commission of the Delaware Valley, Historic Philadelphia, Inc. and the Madlyn and Leonard Abramson Center for Jewish Life. He is also the secretary and a member of the board of directors of the Mann Center for the Performing Arts. Additionally, Ian is a member of the Brandeis Society, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Franklin Institute, among other local organizations.

Ian is the co-author of the two-volume treatise Tax Fraud and Evasion, has appeared on CNBC's Money Talk and CNN and is called upon frequently to comment on tax issues. He was elected in 1995 to the American College of Tax Counsel and is an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.