Edward A. Imperatore

Edward A. Imperatore is a partner in Morrison & Foerster’s Investigations + White Collar Defense practice group and is a former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY). He represents companies, financial institutions, boards, and executives in internal and government investigations and parallel regulatory and civil litigation. He is experienced in all aspects of white-collar crime, including securities and commodities fraud, accounting fraud, insider trading, market manipulation, corporate fraud, digital currency crime, cybercrime, and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

During his tenure at SDNY, Edward was a senior member of the Securities & Commodities Fraud Unit and also handled FCPA matters, including three of the largest-ever FCPA criminal resolutions. He is an accomplished trial attorney who tried more than a dozen jury trials to verdict as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. Among his trials were 10 complex, multi-week white-collar trials, including six trials in the SDNY’s Securities Fraud Unit, all of which resulted in convictions. He also argued 11 appeals in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Edward is a recipient of the Assistant Attorney General’s Exceptional Service Award.

Prior to joining Morrison & Foerster and SDNY, Edward served as a law clerk to the Honorable Robert A. Katzmann on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Honorable Lewis A. Kaplan on the U.S. District Court for the SDNY and was a litigation associate at two prominent New York law firms.

Edward graduated magna cum laude in the top one percent of his class from Georgetown University Law Center, where he was a senior editor of the Georgetown Law Journal and elected to the Order of the Coif. Edward earned his B.A. magna cum laude with distinction in History from Amherst College, where he pitched for four years on the varsity baseball team.

Representative Experience

Representative corporate and FCPA investigations include:

• Secured three of the 10 largest FCPA criminal resolutions, resulting in nearly $3 billion in penalties, including the then-largest FCPA criminal penalty.
• FCPA prosecution of an Uzbekistan official for receiving bribes of $865 million, the largest bribe ever charged against an individual FCPA defendant.
• Secured a $900 million criminal resolution with a major automotive manufacturer to resolve charges relating to an ignition switch defect.

Representative white-collar investigations and trials include:

• One-month accounting fraud trial during the COVID-19 pandemic against the CEO and COO of a public biomedical company for fraudulently inflating revenue.
• Three-week accounting fraud trial against the CFO of a prominent public real estate investment trust for manipulating non-GAAP earnings metrics.
• One-month securities and investment advisor fraud trial against a film producer for a complex scheme involving a New York hedge fund.
• Two-week insider trading and securities offering fraud trial against an investment fund owner.
• Two-week insider trading trial against a Wall Street analyst.
• Six-week securities fraud trial against a law partner for a $2 billion accounting fraud scheme at Refco, a former New York broker of commodities and futures contracts.
• Three-week Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organizations Act trial against a payday lender for a $220 million fraud.
• Investigation of a prominent antivirus software founder for securities and commodities fraud offenses arising from false and misleading cryptocurrency promotions.
• Securities fraud prosecution of a former director and portfolio manager of one of the nation’s largest public pension funds for steering $2 billion in bond transactions in exchange for bribes.