John D. Buretta is Chair of the Investigations and Regulatory Enforcement Practice and a former U.S. Department of Justice official. Named Global Investigations Review’s “Investigations Professional of the Year,” Buretta represents corporate and individual clients in their most high‑stakes and sensitive internal investigations, regulatory enforcement and compliance matters, shareholder demands and civil litigation.
Buretta represents global companies, boards of directors, audit committees, individual board members, company owners, senior management, in‑house counsels, law firms, and former U.S. and foreign government officials. His work spans industries, including the banking, private investment, energy, publishing, communications, technology, food, consumer, mining, aircraft, automotive, shipping, healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors.
He has represented clients before the Criminal, Antitrust, National Security and Tax Divisions of the Department of Justice (DOJ); U.S. Attorneys’ Offices around the country; the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; the Federal Reserve Board of Governors; the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control; the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security; the Department of State; state Attorneys General and state banking regulators; and non‑U.S. enforcement agencies.
Lawdragon Honors
Buretta has handled a variety of sensitive investigative matters concerning antitrust laws; securities fraud and disclosure regulations; accounting standards; money laundering and anti-money laundering controls; trade sanctions and export controls; manufacturing integrity and product recalls; the False Claims Act; cyber intrusion; tax compliance; and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
Lawdragon has named Buretta a nationwide “Legend” and selected him as one of the “500 Leading Lawyers in America,” “500 Leading Global Litigators,” and “500 Global Leaders in Crisis Management,” among others.
Buretta completed his time at the DOJ as the number‑two ranking official in the Criminal Division as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Chief of Staff. In this role, he oversaw nearly 600 prosecutors on complex matters involving corporate fraud, FCPA, insider trading, healthcare fraud, money laundering, the Bank Secrecy Act, trade sanctions, asset forfeiture, cybercrime, intellectual property theft, public corruption and other criminal investigations, and interacted with the Department’s Antitrust, Civil, Environmental, National Security and Tax Divisions on matters of mutual interest.
Buretta also served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General (DAAG) for the DOJ Criminal Division, where he oversaw the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, among others, including the DOJ’s FCPA Unit, and supervised the preparation of the DOJ and SEC’s Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, issued in November 2012. Buretta also represented the DOJ before Congress and the Sentencing Commission with regard to white collar crime enforcement efforts. In 2011, he was appointed Director of the Deepwater Horizon Task Force, a position he continued to fill while serving as DAAG.
Prior to joining the Criminal Division, Buretta served for eight years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, and was Chief of the Office’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Section from 2008 to 2011. He also served in the Office’s National Security Section, where he handled investigations under the Anti‑Terrorism Act and Espionage Act, among others. He served as the prosecutor in 10 trials during this time.
Buretta has served as an expert witness in foreign proceedings on the subject of U.S. law, policies and practices in enforcement of the FCPA and as to U.S. anti-money laundering laws.