Matthew Queler is a Partner in the Litigation & Dispute Resolution Department, working with the Corporate Defense & Investigations Group. Prior to joining Proskauer, he served from 1998 to 2003 as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of New Jersey, where he successfully prosecuted numerous cases involving a wide array of federal criminal violations. As a federal prosecutor, Matthew also was an inaugural member of New Jersey’s Anti-Terrorism Task Force.
Matthew’s current practice focuses primarily on white collar criminal defense (including cases involving the Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney’s Offices in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the District of New Jersey, the New York and New Jersey Attorney General’s Offices, and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office), SEC enforcement actions, and corporate internal investigations. Matthew’s practice also involves securities class actions and complex commercial litigation.
While at Proskauer, Matthew has represented individuals and corporations in white collar criminal prosecutions and investigations involving allegations of violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), securities fraud, accounting fraud, mail and wire fraud, bank fraud, tax fraud, mortgage fraud, money laundering, public corruption, and misappropriation, as well as foreign extradition proceedings. In addition, he has represented health care clients in False Claims Act, Anti-Kickback, and Buy American Act investigations, and in disciplinary proceedings.
Matthew has represented clients in a number of high profile cases, including: the Tyco criminal investigation and SEC enforcement action; the Adelphia Communications accounting irregularities SEC enforcement action; the Kmart accounting irregularities SEC enforcement action; the Suprema criminal investigation and SEC enforcement action; and an individual defendant pretrial in the SDNY case U.S. v. Kozeny et al, the largest FCPA prosecution ever brought ($500 million in alleged bribes). As co-lead counsel, Matthew recently obtained a rare mid-trial Judgment of Acquittal in the SDNY trial of U.S. v. William H. Shirk III, representing FBI Special Agent Shirk, who was wrongly accused of tipping a confidential source that he was under investigation.
Matthew has extensive experience in FCPA matters, having conducted global FCPA internal investigations and defended clients in FCPA investigations by the DOJ and the SEC. He also regularly advises clients on a wide-array of FCPA issues, and has conducted FCPA policy and procedure reviews, FCPA compliance audits, and pre-M&A FCPA due diligence for clients. Matthew also has given FCPA training sessions to clients’ employees and reviewed clients’ training programs.