Thomas Brown

As a federal prosecutor, Mr. Brown supervised and led a range of complex, cross-border cyber and cryptocurrency investigations and prosecutions, including cases against the owner of Silk Road, a $1.2 billion underground drug website, which resulted in the seizure of 173,000 bitcoin; a US exchanger for WebMoney, the Russian-based digital currency; and the operators of Liberty Reserve, a Latin American-based convertible virtual currency.

Mr. Brown also led investigations and prosecutions of a variety of white-collar offenses, including economic espionage and theft of trade secrets, money laundering, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations, securities fraud, bankruptcy fraud, identity theft, criminal copyright theft, and tax fraud. He also developed an innovative strategy to combat online copyright piracy, pioneering an international intellectual property rights enforcement program still employed by the US Departments of Justice and Homeland Security.

Besides conducting multiple jury trials and arguing appeals before the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Mr. Brown also won favorable judicial opinions with national impact on cyber-related issues, including an electronic surveillance matter and a case of first impression concerning the compelled production of data stored overseas by Internet service providers that led to passage of the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act.

Mr. Brown is a recipient of the FBI Director’s Award for Outstanding Cyber Investigation and was named “Prosecutor of the Year” by the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation.

Mr. Brown frequently lectures on cybersecurity, crypto, and data privacy issues to legal, business, and law enforcement groups.