Marc P. Berger is Global Co-Head of the Firm’s Government and Internal Investigations Practice. Marc was formerly the Acting Director and Deputy Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement and Director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office, and prior to that the Chief of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. He represents companies, boards and executives, and cryptocurrency market participants in government and internal investigations, regulatory enforcement matters, and high-profile disputes. Marc also advises clients on a range of enforcement and compliance matters, including related to cryptocurrency and other digital assets.
Marc most recently served as Acting Director and Deputy Director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division, where he supervised its more than 1,400 attorneys, accountants and staff across its 12 offices, and oversaw the agency’s thousands of investigations and hundreds of litigations. Under Marc’s leadership, Enforcement staff pursued significant cases across the entire spectrum of the securities industry, with a focus on impactful and timely actions that protected investors and promoted market integrity. Investigations and litigations Marc supervised at the SEC addressed a broad range of securities matters, including issuer disclosure and accounting violations, foreign bribery, investment advisory issues, securities offerings, market manipulation, insider trading, broker-dealer misconduct, cyber threats, initial coin offerings, digital assets and COVID-related fraud.
Marc first joined the SEC in 2017 as Director of the New York Regional Office, where, in addition to supervising the enforcement program in New York, he oversaw all of the compliance examinations of the more than 4,000 investment banks, investment advisers, broker-dealers, mutual funds and hedge funds in the New York region, which has the largest concentration of SEC-registered financial institutions.
Throughout his tenure at the SEC, Marc worked in close partnership with multiple domestic and international law enforcement and regulatory agencies, including the Department of Justice, CFTC, FINRA, New York Attorney General’s Office, local district attorneys’ offices and numerous foreign securities regulators worldwide. Marc focused on making meaningful improvements to enhance diversity and inclusion in the workplace including launching a Diversity Committee in New York and spearheading Division-wide diversity initiatives.
Earlier in his career, Marc served in the Department of Justice as an Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where he was Chief of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force. In that role, he supervised some of the nation’s most significant financial and investment fraud matters, including those related to corporate and accounting fraud, insider trading, market manipulation, and violations of the FCPA. These prosecutions and trials included:
- Precedent-setting insider trading prosecutions, including high-profile cases against hedge funds, hedge fund managers and consultants, and “expert network” cases;
- Derivatives traders and managing directors from global financial institutions in cases arising from mismarking fraud;
- Principal attorney of a commodities firm in a case arising from a massive accounting fraud;
- Senior officers of a semiconductor company in a case arising from accounting fraud and options backdating; and
- Employees of a U.S. broker-dealer and a senior official in Venezuela’s state economic development bank in an FCPA case arising from bribery of a senior Venezuelan banking official.
As a federal prosecutor, Marc tried 13 jury trials in federal district court, including a multi-defendant five-week securities fraud trial for a real estate offering that victimized over 250 investors, and a securities and investment advisor fraud trial against the president of two Manhattan investment firms for running a Ponzi scheme. Marc also argued 21 appeals before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Marc’s SEC and DOJ work involved extensive coordination of cross-border and multi-agency investigations.
Prior to his tenure at the SEC, Marc was the Global Co-Head of the Securities Enforcement Practice Group at an international law firm in New York, where he represented global financial institutions, public companies, investment firms and individuals in numerous high-profile matters. His representations included:
- Global financial institution in an SEC investigation relating to pre-IPO trade allocations;
- Global financial institution in an SEC investigation relating to manipulative pricing of bonds;
- Pharmaceutical company in parallel DOJ and SEC investigations relating to insider trading by a company insider;
- Investment management firm in an SEC investigation and settlement relating to valuation issues;
- Investment management firm in an SEC investigation and settlement relating to improper fee issues;
- Head of trading desk at a global financial institution in parallel DOJ and SEC investigations; and
- Senior compliance executive at a global financial institution in parallel DOJ and SEC investigations.
Marc received his B.S., with distinction, from Cornell University, and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He served as a Law Clerk to the Hon. Richard M. Berman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Marc is admitted to practice in New York.