Key SEC Cases, Legislation and Regulatory Outlook for Digital Assets and Cryptocurrency

Ms. Quiroz, a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of California, was named Acting Director of NCET on July 20, 2023. She was among NCET’s original deputy directors. Ms. Quiroz's wide-ranging cryptocurrency investigative experience includes cases that led to the landmark seizure of USD 3.36 billion in bitcoin that had been stolen from darknet marketplace (DNM) Silk Road, and the takedown of Russian DNM Hydra Market.

As Acting Director of NCET, Ms. Quiroz oversees a team of more than 20 detailees from U.S. Attorney’s Offices across the country and trial attorneys across DOJ’s criminal division. During the TRM Talks, Ms. Quiroz outlined the main functions of her role which include providing guidance, leading capacity building and training initiatives for the DOJ and law enforcement community, and setting priorities for the Department’s crypto and digital assets strategy.

Robert Letson has more than a decade of experience consulting on litigation and regulatory investigations involving market manipulation claims, market microstructure, financial benchmarks, and trading activity. Mr. Letson has extensive expertise with issues arising in the FinTech and digital asset spaces, including those related to cryptocurrency exchanges, blockchain transactions, valuation, and commercial uses for blockchain technology. He also consults on merger review issues and matters involving antitrust economics.

Mr. Letson’s experience includes substantial expertise in analyzing trade data, consulting on regulatory investigations, and assisting major financial institutions with extracting, analyzing, and producing large transaction-level datasets. He has appeared on behalf of clients before enforcement officials at the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

Mr. Letson works with attorneys in all phases of the litigation process and supports academic and industry experts through discovery and trial.

Michael is a partner in the firm’s securities litigation group. He conducts internal investigations for company boards and audit committees, and represents companies and their officers and directors in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. Department of Justice, and other law enforcement and regulatory investigations and litigation. In addition, Mike represents regulated entities such as investment advisers, hedge funds and private equity firms in investigations and proceedings. Further, he represents entities and individuals in state and federal securities class action and derivative litigation.
In addition, Mike routinely advises clients on corporate governance and disclosure issues. Recently, he has focused on emerging issues in the cybersecurity and cryptocurrency areas, including advising companies and individuals seeking to launch an initial coin offering and entities engaged in cryptocurrency trading. Mike has also advised several Fortune 500 companies on real-time disclosure issues following a data breach incident, and regularly provides guidance on the SEC’s increasing focus on cybersecurity regulation and enforcement.
Prior to joining Fenwick, Mike spent over 15 years with the SEC, most recently serving as the Associate Regional Director for Enforcement in the SEC’s San Francisco regional office, from 2008 to 2014.
As head of enforcement for the region, Mike oversaw a staff of over 40 attorneys and accountants who investigated and litigated federal securities law violations in northern California and five other states. While at the SEC, Mike conducted and supervised hundreds of investigations, as well as litigation, involving financial reporting and accounting fraud, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, insider trading, offering frauds and misconduct by investment advisers, investment companies and broker-dealers. Mike worked closely with the Department of Justice to coordinate parallel criminal investigations, and served on President Obama’s interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force.
Prior to joining the SEC, Mike practiced for five years as a litigation associate at an Am Law 50 law firm. Following law school, Mike also clerked for Donald P. Lay, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

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.