U.S. Attorney Damian Williams Collapses the Distance Between Crime and Consequence
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When FTX went bankrupt in November 2022, it took less than a month for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) to charge the cryptocurrency exchange’s CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, with fraud. The speed that SDNY moved with to investigate and arrest Bankman-Fried at his home in the Bahamas isn’t typical of most fraud investigations, which often take years to complete. But enacting swift justice has been a priority for SDNY’s leader, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams. Williams successfully prosecuted Bankman-Fried, who was convicted of seven counts of fraud just slightly over a year later in November 2023. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison this year.
“I’ve always believed that we have to collapse that distance between crime and consequence,” Williams told attendees of the 35th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. “Otherwise, the message that gets sent to the broader world, and, in particular, people who may be thinking about breaking the law, is diluted. For me, it was making sure that we showed the world just how quickly the Southern District of New York could move.”
Williams’ discussion with John Warren, CEO of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), kicked off the conference on Monday. During his opening general session, Williams described to the rapt audience of fraud fighters from across the globe all the ways that he’s innovating in the battle against crime as the leader of the most powerful attorney’s office in the U.S.
The ACFE honored Williams at this year’s ACFE Global Fraud Conference, where he was given the Cressey Award. The award is the ACFE’s highest honor, bestowed annually to individuals for a lifetime of achievement in the detection and deterrence of fraud. As a U.S. attorney, Williams has made fighting fraud and corruption a priority.
“Mr. Williams is an innovative leader who's reimagining how a U.S. attorney’s office should operate in the modern age,” Warren said. “His office pursues cases involving political corruption, organized crime and financial misconduct with a focus on speed and precision, leading on the latest technology and the brightest minds.”
It wasn’t always apparent that Williams would rise to the level that he’s at now. As a young child, he had a bad stutter, and he scored poorly on an IQ test to gain admission into a prestigious private school. He described the grief he faced over the death of his sister just after he started law school. But Williams has transcended those early setbacks. He has degrees from Harvard, Cambridge and Yale Law School. He was a law clerk for the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. He also clerked for U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland when he was a federal judge and worked for the prestigious New York law firm Paul Weiss. In 2021, Williams became the first Black U.S. attorney, when he was appointed to position by President Joe Biden in 2021.
Speaking of becoming the first Black person to lead SDNY, Williams talked about the importance — and pressure — of being someone who breaks barriers.
“I took on that pressure. It was a lot, and I decided that I was going to try my absolute best to break through that barrier. I appreciate the fact that I was able to make it through,” Williams said. “My hope and dream is that when I'm done and I hand over the keys to someone else, that they say that I was able to take an institution that was already incredible and then make it even better.”
SDNY, with its proximity to Wall Street, has handled some of the largest, most high-profile financial fraud cases in the U.S. Williams discussed the challenges of handling such massive cases and moving them through the justice system as swiftly as possible.
“If you ask anyone in this district what they know about how I lead, I think they would say that I’m constantly pushing people to do what we do and do it more quickly,” Williams said. “I thought that was the best way to ensure that justice was served in the U.S. courtroom.”
As U.S. attorney, Williams has taken on several other crypto cases beyond FTX. He told attendees about how he expects the crypto market and the frauds associated with it will evolve. “The message is that, just like any new version, folks will learn to start playing by the rules and the bad actors will get weeded out and the folks who are really in it for the right reasons will rise to the top.”
As fraud examiners know, analyzing data is a central part of investigations. Going through all the data involved in a fraud case can be overwhelming, but Williams decided to use his position to innovate on that front by adding a stable of analysts to SDNY to more efficiently extract data. “So, we have people that sit in this space, they've got these super computers, they've got the software to break into the iPhones or other devices and then once the phone is open, they can extract the data. And once the data is extracted, they hand it over to a complex analytics team that sits right next to them, and they can look at the data, they can pull it together and package it in the way we understand it and bring it to light.”
Williams described how data is the linchpin to all of SDNY’s cases. “Data is where we're going to make or break our success. If we cannot stay on top of it, we will fall on it and the bad guys will win.”
In closing out the interview, Williams described his new whistleblower program and how he hopes that extending non-prosecution agreements to people who might have knowledge or involvement in a case unknown to the government will better help SDNY catch and quickly prosecute frauds.
“This program really illuminates the path for folks to come forward proactively,” Williams said. “This is not something that we wanted to just have for ourselves, but it was a tool that we wanted that other people could, you know, cut paste.”
As the session wrapped, Williams discussed how he and his cadre of U.S. attorneys prioritize their cases and balance the different types of crimes they prosecute.
“I've consistently said that safety is a civil right and like any civil right, in order to keep it, You have to enforce it. So, we are very strategic in how we go about doing that work.”
