Claudius B. Modesti > Akin > Washington DC, United States > Lawyer Profile

Claudius B. Modesti

+1 202.887.4040 cmodesti@akingump.com

Work Department

Partner; Disputes & Investigations

Position

Claudius Modesti offers extensive enforcement experience across a broad range of capital market regulatory and corporate governance matters, including representing corporations, accounting and other professional firms, investment firms and other financial institutions in front of the Department of Justice (DOJ), SEC, PCAOB and other regulatory bodies. Claudius also conducts internal investigations on behalf of senior management, audit committees and boards of directors.

As an SEC enforcement attorney and a federal prosecutor for over a decade, Claudius investigated and prosecuted insider trading, offering fraud, accounting fraud, government contract fraud and bribery matters. Claudius then became the PCAOB’s first enforcement director, leading the team that built the enforcement group from its inception. He oversaw the development of the PCAOB’s policies and procedures for identifying matters for investigation, and he led investigations of U.S.-and foreign-based accounting firms, with many of them also requiring coordinating parallel investigations with the SEC. Claudius’ role also included overseeing the PCAOB’s litigation process. He also played a key role in the PCAOB’s collaboration with its foreign audit regulator counterparts.

Prior to a 14-year tenure at the PCAOB, Claudius served with the Fraud Section of the DOJ’s Criminal Division as a trial attorney, the SEC as an enforcement attorney and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA) as a federal prosecutor in the Financial Crimes and Public Corruption Unit.

To learn more about Claudius, please visit his full profile here: https://www.akingump.com/en/lawyers-advisors/claudius-b-modesti.html

Career

• Co-Chair, ABA Accountants’ Liability Subcommittee, Professional Services Liability Litigation Committee.
• Parents’ Council, Wake Forest University.
• SEC Historical Society, Board of Advisors.

Memberships

District of Columbia Bar, New York Bar, New Jersey Bar

Education

J.D., Georgetown University Law Center, magna cum laude, 1991; B.S., Georgetown University, 1986