Crowell & Moring has expanded its regulatory enforcement and international trade practices with the hiring of a former chief counsel of the US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
Carlton Greene joins Crowell & Moring as a partner in Washington. Greene advises clients on compliance with banking regulations, anti-money laundering laws, sanctions and export controls, and the US Bank Secrecy Act. He has extensive expertise in the area of corporate compliance programs. While serving as FinCEN’s chief counsel, Greene oversaw investigations under numerous economic sanction programs, including sanctions against North Korea and Iran.
In a discussion with IFLR1000, Greene described FinCEN as having a high-profile regulatory practice than in the past.
“I think you’ve seen more actions, and some larger actions, and there was a very large penalty related to the Bernard Madoff case, with JPMorgan Chase,” Greene said.
“People are often either a sanctions expert or an anti-money laundering expert, but it’s unusual to have both of those capabilities in one house,” he added.
Angela Styles, chairwoman of Crowell & Moring, called Greene “a highly accomplished and credentialed government official whose experience will both complement and expand the tremendous foundation of talent we have in the international trade and white-collar space.”
The firm's move to build its white-collar enforcement capabilities is a positive development after the negative PR it received after a former attorney's (Douglas Arntsen) conviction for a serious financial crime and his disbarment from practicing law.
Indeed, Styles’s statement contains no mention of the Arntsen case, which saw the then associate allegedly steal more than $10 million from clients in 2011. Arntsen then disappeared to Hong Kong before he could be arrested, and Crowell settled three separate lawsuits in the fallout from the case.