James J. Benjamin Jr., the head of Akin Gump’s firmwide Securities Enforcement and Litigation practice group, represents clients in a wide variety of government and regulatory investigations and litigation. He has extensive experience with matters arising under the federal securities and commodities laws, including allegations of insider trading, improper accounting and disclosure, market manipulation and other trading violations, and foreign corrupt practices. He also has broad experience with other alleged violations, including health care fraud and many provisions of federal and state criminal law. He has led a number of independent investigations on behalf of audit committees of public companies and regularly advises private investment funds on trading compliance matters. Many of his clients are based outside the United States. Mr. Benjamin has conducted numerous jury trials and has briefed and argued many cases before federal and state appellate courts.

In the past several years, Mr. Benjamin has handled the following representative government enforcement matters—

• defended a multibillion-dollar investment fund in a significant Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) market manipulation enforcement proceeding
• defended a prominent hedge fund portfolio manager in parallel criminal and SEC insider trading cases, and in related class action litigation, arising from the use of an expert network
• defended numerous individuals and investment funds in more than a dozen separate insider trading investigations conducted by various prosecutors and regulators in the United States and the United Kingdom
• defended numerous clients in a number of CFTC investigations relating to alleged market manipulation, prearranged trading, position limit violations, and trade allocations
• defended senior traders at major Wall Street firms in separate investigations by self-regulatory organizations (SROs) alleging, respectively, excessive markups, improper trading alongside customer orders and market manipulation
• represented individuals and institutional clients in SEC investigations relating to collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and other mortgage-related securities
• defended senior executives of a number of major public companies in separate Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) investigations arising out of conduct in Europe, Asia and Latin America
• represented current and former executives of three global financial institutions in investigations of alleged violations of U.S. sanctions regulations applicable to banks
• defended senior executives of a Fortune 50 company in accounting investigations conducted by the Department of Justice, the SEC and an audit committee, as well as in parallel shareholder litigation
• represented a publicly traded reinsurance company in audit committee and SEC investigations of potential improper accounting
• defended a hedge fund portfolio manager in an Eastern District of New York criminal securities fraud case alleging insider trading, market manipulation and racketeering
• represented a major accounting firm in government investigations and private litigation following problems at audit clients
• defended a senior partner of a private equity firm in an SEC investigation regarding disclosures relating to a portfolio company
• represented the general counsel of a well-known public company in audit committee, SEC and DOJ investigations of alleged vendor fraud and accounting problems.

Before joining Akin Gump in early 2001, Mr. Benjamin served for more than five years as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. During his tenure there, he served as deputy chief appellate attorney and as a member of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force. As an assistant U.S. attorney, he received an award for superior performance from Attorney General Janet Reno in 2000. Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Mr. Benjamin served as a law clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court for Justices Lewis F. Powell Jr. and John Paul Stevens. Before that, he worked for several years as an associate at a major Washington, D.C.-based law firm and served as a law clerk for the Honorable J. Frederick Motz, a federal district judge in the District of Maryland.

Mr. Benjamin received his A.B. magna cum laude in 1987 from Dartmouth College, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and was awarded the Colby Government Prize. He earned his J.D. in 1990 from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was the research and projects editor of the Virginia Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. He is a member of the New York, Maryland and District of Columbia bars and is admitted to practice before numerous federal courts.

Mr. Benjamin is the chair of the New York City Bar Association’s Task Force on National Security and the Rule of Law and is a member of the New York Council of Defense Lawyers, the New York American Inn of Court, and the Federal Bar Council. He is a recognized expert on terrorism prosecutions and has spoken extensively on developments in white collar enforcement, especially regarding SEC enforcement and the FCPA.

Mr. Benjamin was recognized in 2010 and 2011 as a leading lawyer by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business in the areas of white collar crime and government investigations. He has also been recognized multiple times in New York Superlawyers.