Digital Assets and Cryptocurrency - Regulation and Enforcement of Exchanges, Lending, NFTS and More

Matthew C. Solomon’s practice focuses on securities enforcement and litigation, white-collar criminal defense, and complex commercial litigation.

Before joining Cleary in 2017, Matt served for 15 years as a white-collar prosecutor and unit chief with the U.S. Department of Justice and as a senior enforcement official with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission—most recently as the SEC’s Chief Litigation Counsel.

Matt represents global financial institutions, public and private companies, private equity firms, asset managers, and individual corporate executives and employees on a broad range of issues and disputes spanning from regulatory compliance and remediation advice to government-facing and high-stakes commercial litigation. Matt leverages his high-level government experience as a federal prosecutor and supervisor and as an SEC enforcement official to vigorously represent his clients’ interests before criminal and regulatory authorities, including the SEC, DOJ, CFTC, FINRA, and State Attorneys General. In recognition of his litigation prowess, Matt was named Litigator of the Week in July 2023 by The American Lawyer’s Litigation Daily following a favorable summary judgment decision in a high-profile crypto case (Matt later secured a full dismissal for his client).

Matt has tried more than 20 cases to verdict, including as lead counsel in complex, white-collar jury trials in federal courts across the United States. He has also briefed and argued cases in the U.S. Courts of Appeals.

Prior to joining Cleary, Matt served as the SEC’s Deputy Chief Litigation Counsel in 2012 before being promoted to Chief Litigation Counsel in 2013. As the agency’s top litigator, Matt led the SEC’s 150-attorney national trial unit and supervised the SEC’s litigated cases in federal court and administrative proceedings. Matt interacted with the SEC enforcement staff nationwide in relation to complex issues arising in investigations and counseled the directors of the SEC’s Enforcement Division as well as its specialized divisions, including the Divisions of Corporation Finance and Trading and Markets, on issues relating to litigation strategy and risk.

Before joining the SEC, Matt served in prominent positions for nearly a decade with the DOJ, including as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, as the Chief of the Fraud Unit for the 350-lawyer U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, and as an Honors Program trial attorney in the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section. He also spent nearly two years (on detail from the DOJ) serving as Counsel to the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee where he worked on criminal law and national security issues.

Christian Schultz, former Assistant Chief Litigation Counsel in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, deploys his trial skills and deep knowledge of SEC rules and processes to represent public and private companies, financial institutions and accounting firms, and individuals in regulatory investigations, complex financial and securities litigation, SEC and PCAOB enforcement actions, and white collar matters.

During his ten years at the SEC, Christian investigated potential violations of the federal securities laws and represented the SEC in enforcement actions in federal court and administrative proceedings. He partnered with attorneys, accountants, and industry experts in the SEC’s special investigative units — including the Complex Financial Instruments Unit, Market Abuse Unit, and Asset Management Unit — to investigate and litigate potential violations of the securities laws in a broad range of areas, including: accounting and issuer disclosure, auditor independence, market manipulation, broker-dealer and investment adviser regulations, compliance failures, insider trading, failure to supervise, complex financial instruments and structured financial products, cryptocurrency and digital asset regulation, and whistleblowing. During his tenure, he was awarded the Enforcement Director’s Awards and the Chair’s Award for Excellence for his work on the SEC v. Tourre trial.

Prior to joining the SEC, Christian was a partner in another prominent law firm, where he represented Fortune 100 companies in state and federal courts around the country, administrative proceedings, and arbitrations. Before that, he clerked for Judge Ann Claire Williams of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Christian received his J.D., summa cum laude, from The Law School at the University of Notre Dame, where he was awarded the 2001 Farabaugh Prize for High Scholarship in Law and served as Executive Notes Editor of the Notre Dame Law Review. He received his MBA, magna cum laude, from the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame, and two B.A.s, both with honors, from Michigan State University's Broad College of Business and its College of Social Science.

Outside of work, Christian plays tennis, golf, has completed eight Ironman races, and has run marathons or ultra-marathons in all 50 states (and is working on the seven continents). He also travels with his wife in their Airstream.

Steven Peikin leads Sullivan & Cromwell’s Securities & Commodities Investigations Practice. Mr. Peikin brings decades of experience at the most senior levels of government and in private practice to his representation of clients in a wide range of regulatory enforcement investigations, white-collar criminal matters, and internal investigations. He has particular expertise in matters involving the federal securities and commodities laws.

From 2017 to 2020, Mr. Peikin served as Co-Director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement, where he oversaw all aspects of the SEC’s national enforcement program, supervising its more than 1400 attorneys, accountants, and staff across its 12 offices. Among other duties, Mr. Peikin was responsible for executing the Commission’s enforcement priorities, overseeing its thousands of investigations and hundreds of litigations, responding to complex cyber threats, developing a comprehensive enforcement approach to initial coin offerings and other digital assets, and protecting the long-term interests of retail investors. He also coordinated SEC enforcement activities with the Department of Justice, the CFTC, and numerous foreign securities regulators around the world.

During his prior tenure at the Firm, Mr. Peikin led S&C’s Criminal Defense & Investigations Group, advising clients in nearly every major enforcement initiative brought over the course of more than a decade. He represented institutions and individuals in numerous high-profile matters, including those involving alleged violations of federal securities and commodities laws, the FCPA, price-fixing, and compliance with economic sanctions and anti-money laundering regimes.

Before joining S&C, Mr. Peikin served for eight years as a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, including as Chief of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force. He oversaw 40 prosecutors, investigators, and staff responsible for some of the nation’s highest-profile financial statement fraud, insider trading, and obstruction of justice cases. As a prosecutor, Mr. Peikin also investigated and prosecuted a wide variety of securities, commodities, and other investment fraud schemes; an insider trading and money laundering case that resulted in the seizure and repatriation of $200 million; and cases involving racketeering, murder, and other violent crimes.

Mr. Peikin has tried more than 20 criminal jury cases in federal court and argued numerous appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Nicole Moran specializes in commodity futures and options markets and matters related to FinTech. Dr. Moran coheads Cornerstone Research’s FinTech, blockchain, and cryptocurrency practice. She leads teams on government investigations and civil disputes. She has extensive expertise in derivative markets, for both exchange-traded and over-the-counter (OTC) products that involve allegations of market manipulation and antitrust. Dr. Moran has more than ten years of experience supporting experts in preparation for testimony. She frequently presents to regulators at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Federal Reserve on the economic and financial factors that underpin disputes.

Dr. Moran has published extensively on virtual currency and digital tokens. Her work in this area includes the report series Trends in CFTC Virtual Currency Enforcement Actions, as well as articles such as “CME Ether Futures How is the Contract Designed?” and “Bitcoin Futures: A Closer Look as CME’s Contract Design.”

Dr. Moran is a leader of Cornerstone Research’s work related to analysis of U.S. natural gas transactions from FERC Form 552 submissions. Her research has been published in leading journals, including the Journal of Futures and the Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics. Her articles on commodities topics include “From Zero to 100: Crude Oil Price Changes in 2020–2022,” “‘Contango with Me’: COVID-19 and the U.S. Crude Oil Market,” and “Battle of the Benchmarks: Brent Crude Oil and Est Texas Intermediate.”

Dr. Moran has contributed chapters to various books, including “Agriculture” in Commodities: Markets, Performance, and Strategies (Oxford University Press) and “Bubbles, Food Prices, and Speculation: Evidence from the CFTC’s Daily Large Trader Data Files” in The Economics of Food Price Volatility (University of Chicago Press).

Prior to joining Cornerstone Research, Dr. Moran was a research economist at the CFTC, where she conducted statistical and econometric analyses on derivative markets and agricultural futures.

A. Kristina Littman is a partner in the Litigation Department, Co-Chair of the Willkie Digital Works practice and a member of the Securities Litigation & Enforcement Practice Group. Kristy represents corporations, registrants and individuals in complex disputes, including regulatory enforcement and white collar defense. She also counsels clients on cryptocurrency and digital assets regulation and cybersecurity matters, including investigations and enforcement actions by financial regulators.

Kristy previously served as the Chief of the Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit in the Division of Enforcement of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In that role, she led a group of attorneys and specialists across the nation responsible for investigating and litigating violations of the federal securities laws relating to digital assets, cybersecurity, and cyber-related trading violations. Kristy spearheaded novel enforcement actions relating to crypto exchanges, crypto lending platforms, multibillion-dollar token issuances, crypto trading funds, touting, and unregistered broker-dealers. During her 12 years at the SEC, Kristy held various senior attorney and leadership positions, including serving as Senior Advisor to then SEC Chairman Jay Clayton on enforcement matters and regulatory and policy matters pertaining to digital assets, cybersecurity, and Trading and Markets.

In the Trial Unit and the Market Abuse Unit, Kristy led investigations relating to fraudulent compensation schemes at broker-dealers, policy and procedures failures at investment advisers, and litigated insider trading actions. Prior to joining the SEC in 2010, Kristy practiced at an international law firm.

Dave Hirsch J.D., CFE, is Chief of the Crypto Asset and Cyber Unit within the SEC Division of Enforcement.

Prior to that he served as Counsel to SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw, primarily responsible for matters relating to enforcement along with digital assets and cyber. He began his career with the SEC as Counsel in the Division of Enforcement, and in that role was a member of the SEC Digital Ledger Technology Working Group and the Dark Web Working Group. Dave is a graduate of the UCLA School of Law and clerked for Judge Edward J. Schwartz in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California.

Before joining the SEC, he was a litigator, and later co-founded and ran a private investigation firm focused on securities fraud investigations. Throughout his SEC career he has provided trainings on issues relating to digital assets and cybersecurity, including for fellow regulators and law enforcement. Dave authored the chapter on Blockchain and Information Security in the Handbook of Blockchain Law.