William (Widge) Devaney is co-chair of Venable's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and Anti-Corruption Group.

Mr. Devaney's practice includes white-collar criminal defense in federal and state proceedings, SEC enforcement investigations and actions, complex civil litigation, civil RICO, defending individuals and corporations in multi-national investigations, including FCPA and export control, as well as conducting national and international internal investigations on behalf of corporate management, audit committees and special committees of boards of directors.

Mr. Devaney has significant jury trial and appellate experience, as well as significant experience leading investigations.

Mr. Devaney was an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of New Jersey, where he was most recently a member of the Securities Fraud Unit. As a federal prosecutor, Mr. Devaney investigated and prosecuted numerous cases involving securities fraud, bank fraud, mail and wire fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, terrorism, government program fraud, computer trespass, and export violations. Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Mr. Devaney practiced white-collar criminal defense and complex civil litigation, representing clients in federal and state criminal investigations, SEC and CFTC investigations, as well as attorney disciplinary proceedings.

Significant Matters

Mr. Devaney's recent matters have included the defense of corporations and individuals in areas such as the FCPA, export control and economic sanctions, antitrust, tax evasion, insider trading, accounting fraud, Medicare/Medicaid fraud, visa fraud, and mail and wire fraud, civil RICO, securities litigation and consumer fraud actions by state attorneys general. Mr. Devaney has also recently conducted several national and multi-national internal investigations for companies in the insurance, chemical, software, retail, and logistics industries.

Activities

Mr. Devaney is co-chair of the American Bar Association White Collar Crime Section Sub-Committee on Transnational Crimes. He is a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, (where he sits on the Criminal Advocacy Committee and previously sat on the Council for Criminal Justice), the Federal Bar Council and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Mr. Devaney is also a member of the Criminal Justice Act panel for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.