Professional Affiliation

Director, Task Force Kleptocapture

Expert Bio

Andrew Adams joined the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York in 2013, where he worked as a prosecutor in the Office’s Asset Forfeiture and Violent and Organized Crime Units. Andrew has investigated, charged, and tried cases with an emphasis on the integrity of financial institutions; transnational organized crime; sophisticated money laundering operations through both traditional and “crypto” platforms; and cases involving looted antiquities and frauds involving the sale of cultural property. With a view to both money laundering and international organized crime, in 2018 the United States Attorney offered Andrew the opportunity to assist in creating the Unit that he co-led for over three years – the Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises Unit. Among the primary missions of that Unit is the investigation and prosecution of those kleptocrats and money laundering facilitators who exploit U.S. financial systems to their own gain. The Money Laundering Unit spearheaded joint efforts with international partners to investigate and prosecute cases arising from evasion of U.S. and United Nations economic sanction regimes. In March of this year, Andrew was asked to lead the Department of Justice’s sanctions response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Before his work for the Department of Justice, Andrew worked as a litigation associate at the New York offices of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, and clerked for the Hon. John M. Walker, Jr., of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and for the Hon. Mary Kay McLaughlin of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Andrew received his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, and a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin.