About the IAPP

Ian C. Richardson is a partner in the Litigation Department and a member of the National Security Practice Group, the Investigations Practice Group and the Cybersecurity & Data Protection Practice Group. An experienced trial and appellate advocate, Ian served for over a decade as a federal prosecutor in New York and Washington, DC, where he was recognized for leading and successfully resolving complex investigations of corporate crime implicating U.S. national security interests.

As Chief Counsel for National Security Corporate Enforcement, and later Chief Counsel of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, at the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Security Division, Ian supervised and led investigations and prosecutions involving export controls, sanctions, terror financing, espionage and the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). At the National Security Division, Ian also contributed to the development and implementation of key DOJ policies to incentivize corporate self-disclosure and enhance compliance with national security laws and regulations in the business community.

At DOJ’s National Security Division, Ian directed and supervised National Security Division prosecutors on some of the nation’s most consequential national security corporate enforcement matters, including in:

Obtaining a guilty plea from a semiconductor design technology company for export control violations arising out of unlicensed exports of semiconductor design technology to a restricted PRC military university;Obtaining a guilty plea from the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange for Iran sanctions violations; andEntering into a deferred prosecution agreement with a major defense contractor for violations of the FCPA and ITAR arising out of payments to foreign military officers.

Ian played a central role in shaping the DOJ National Security Division’s voluntary self-disclosure program by authoring revisions to key enforcement policies, overseeing a significant increase in disclosures, and guiding the National Security Division’s first discretionary declinations of prosecution for self-disclosing businesses. Ian also oversaw DOJ’s decision to issue the first declination under the DOJ’s new Mergers and Acquisitions Policy to a private equity firm that self-disclosed misconduct it discovered after acquiring a portfolio company.

Previously, Ian served for over eight years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York, where he conducted five jury trials and two bench trials in federal district court, and argued eight appeals in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. 

Ian was a senior member of EDNY’s National Security & Cybercrime Section and served as the Office’s National Security Cyber Specialist. He led investigations and prosecutions involving terrorism, export controls, economic sanctions, cybercrime, and related fraud and money laundering offenses, and handled all aspects of classified litigation and discovery. Among other notable matters at EDNY:

Ian opened and led a pioneering corporate terrorism investigation, resulting in DOJ obtaining its first-ever guilty plea from a multinational building materials company for providing material support to foreign terrorist organizations;Ian was part of a team that resolved a computer intrusion investigation by entering into a deferred prosecution agreement with a ticketing company that obtained unauthorized access to a competitor’s computers; andIan partnered with the FBI and U.S. Intelligence Community to obtain court authorization for an FBI-led cyber operation codenamed Operation Medusa that dismantled the most sophisticated malware implant for long-term cyberespionage in use by Russia’s Federal Security Service.

Ian is an accomplished national security law practitioner whose contributions to national security while in government service have been recognized with numerous honors, including the Attorney General’s Award for Excellence in Furthering the Interests of U.S. National Security, the FBI Director’s Award for Excellence in International Operations, and the ODNI National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director’s Award for Excellence. Ian speaks regularly to business, practitioner, academic, and law enforcement audiences in the United States and overseas on topics relating to government investigations, national security compliance and enforcement, and cybercrime.

Before his service as a federal prosecutor, Ian worked at prominent law firms in New York and Washington, DC, and he served as a law clerk for the Honorable Reena Raggi of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and for the Honorable Nicholas G. Garaufis of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.