Claiborne (Clay) W. Porter

Clay Porter’s practice focuses on representing clients, including financial institutions, non-bank financial institutions, cryptocurrency businesses and corporations, in complex white collar criminal defense, regulatory enforcement defense, internal investigations and compliance counseling matters. Clay has particular expertise handling cases involving economic sanctions, the Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering laws and regulations (BSA/AML), sensitive employee issues, fraud and embezzlement, corruption and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). In addition, Clay is routinely called on to design and evaluate BSA/AML and sanctions compliance programs.

Clay’s extensive government experience includes various leadership and supervisory roles in the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section of the US Department of Justice’s Criminal Division (MLARS), including Acting Principal Deputy Chief of MLARS and Chief of the Bank Integrity Unit. At MLARS, he managed a wide variety of complex domestic and international investigations of financial institutions and non-bank financial institutions and coordinated those efforts with various domestic and foreign regulators, including the Federal Reserve Board, Office of the Comptroller of Currency, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, US Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Trade Commission, New York State Department of Financial Services, and the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority, National Crime Agency and Crown Prosecution Service.

Clay previously served as a managing director at a large consulting firm, leading its investigations group. He also led the asset tracing and recovery practice and worked on anti-money laundering and economic sanctions matters, conducting full-scope reviews and gap analyses of BSA/AML and sanctions compliance programs.

Earlier in his career, Clay worked as an assistant district attorney in the Kings County District Attorney’s Office, as an examining attorney at the Mayor’s Commission to Combat Police Corruption and spent time as an associate at two large global law firms.