John D.
Buretta

He has represented clients before the Criminal, Antitrust, National Security and Tax Divisions of the Department of Justice (DOJ); U.S. Attorneys’ Offices around the country; the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; the Federal Reserve Board of Governors; the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control; the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security; the Department of State; state Attorneys General and state banking regulators; and non‑U.S. enforcement agencies.

Mr. Buretta has handled a variety of sensitive investigative matters concerning the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA); antitrust laws; securities fraud and disclosure regulations; accounting standards; money laundering and anti-money laundering controls; trade sanctions and export controls; manufacturing integrity and product recalls; the False Claims Act; cyber intrusion; and tax compliance.

Chambers USA states that Mr. Buretta is “calmness personified,” “has a great strategic mind” and is “sought out by corporate clients and their high‑level employees in need of representation in complex government investigations, frequently advising across a range of industry sectors,” ranking him as a leading lawyer in FCPA and White‑Collar Crime & Government Investigations. Chambers Global also recognizes him as a leading global FCPA lawyer. He is recognized as a “National Star” and “Litigation Star” for New York by Benchmark Litigation. The Legal 500 US describes him as “creative, engaged, and incredibly well‑respected by government prosecutors,” and recommended him for his work in white collar criminal defense, antitrust, financial services litigation and securities litigation.

Lawdragon has named Mr. Buretta a nationwide “Legend” and selected him as one of the “500 Leading Lawyers in America,” “500 Leading Litigators in America,” “500 Leading Global Litigators,” and “500 Leading Global Cyber Lawyers.” He is listed as one of the Best Lawyers in America for white collar criminal defense and was named to The Ethisphere Institute’s list of “Attorneys Who Matter,” including as a “Top Gun.” Mr. Buretta is additionally recognized among the leading attorneys in the United States in Euromoney Legal Media Group’s Guide to the World’s Leading White Collar Crime Lawyers and its Best of the Best USA Expert Guide – White Collar Crime.

Mr. Buretta speaks and writes frequently on the topic of regulatory enforcement and compliance. He recently co‑edited Global Investigation Review’s (“GIR”) 2021 “Guide to International Enforcement of the Securities Laws” and the tenth edition of The Cartels and Leniency Review (Law Business Research, 2022), as well as co‑authored chapters in both publications. He edited the eighth edition of Lexology Getting the Deal Through’s “Government Investigations” and authored the Global Overview and the U.S. chapter. Mr. Buretta also authored the U.S. chapter for The Legal 500’s “Bribery & Corruption Comparative Guide,” the “U.S. Sanctions” chapter in GIR’s “The Guide to Sanctions” and the North American Overview and a chapter in GIR’s “The Practitioner’s Guide to Global Investigations.”

Mr. Buretta completed his time at the DOJ as the number‑two ranking official in the Criminal Division as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Chief of Staff. In this role, he oversaw nearly 600 prosecutors on complex matters involving corporate fraud, FCPA, insider trading, healthcare fraud, money laundering, the Bank Secrecy Act, trade sanctions, asset forfeiture, cybercrime, intellectual property theft, public corruption and other criminal investigations, and interacted with the Department’s Antitrust, Civil, Environmental, National Security and Tax Divisions on matters of mutual interest.

Mr. Buretta also served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General (DAAG) for the DOJ Criminal Division, where he oversaw the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, among others, including the DOJ’s FCPA Unit, and supervised the preparation of the DOJ and SEC’s Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, issued in November 2012. Mr. Buretta also represented the DOJ before Congress and the Sentencing Commission with regard to white collar crime enforcement efforts. In 2011, Mr. Buretta was appointed Director of the Deepwater Horizon Task Force, a position he continued to fill while serving as DAAG.

Prior to joining the Criminal Division, Mr. Buretta served for eight years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, and was Chief of the Office’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Section from 2008 to 2011. Mr. Buretta also served in the Office’s National Security Section, where he handled investigations under the Anti‑Terrorism Act and Espionage Act, among others. He served as the prosecutor in 10 trials during this time.

During his tenure at the DOJ, Mr. Buretta earned the Department’s highest commendations, including the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service, the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director’s Award for Excellence.

Mr. Buretta has served as an expert witness in foreign proceedings on the subject of U.S. law, policies and practices in enforcement of the FCPA and as to U.S. anti-money laundering laws.

Mr. Buretta has also served as a monitor in separate appointments by the DOJ and by the Department of Transportation (DOT). Mr. Buretta was selected by the DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to serve as the compliance monitor for TK Holdings, Inc. (“Takata”) and numerous affected auto manufacturers as part of a settlement agreement and consolidated remedy order concerning the recall of certain of Takata’s ammonium nitrate airbag inflators. NHTSA has described the recall as the largest and most complex in U.S. history. In January 2021, Mr. Buretta and the NHTSA issued the final annual report on the state of the Takata airbag recalls, marking the conclusion of the monitorship. Mr. Buretta was also appointed by the DOJ to serve as compliance monitor regarding the worldwide operations of Takata Corporation, headquartered in Japan.

Mr. Buretta was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up in Fresno, California. He received a B.A. in 1993 from the University of California at Berkeley. In 1996, he received a J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center, where he earned the Edward Allen Tamm Award and was Editor‑in‑Chief of the Georgetown Law Journal’s Annual Review of Criminal Procedure.

Mr. Buretta first joined Cravath in 1996 where he was trained as a litigation associate working on private disputes involving securities fraud and complex commercial litigation. Following a one-year clerkship with Hon. Peter K. Leisure of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Mr. Buretta returned to the Firm in 1999. He left the Firm in 2002 and served for over 10 years in the Department of Justice. He rejoined Cravath as a partner in November 2013.