Profile
Kyle R. Freeny, a skilled trial attorney and former federal prosecutor for the Special Counsel’s Office and the Department of Justice’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section (MLARS), draws on more than a dozen years of high-profile experience in the federal government to help clients navigate sensitive government and internal investigations, criminal and civil enforcement matters, and related complex litigation. She has particular experience in matters involving complex financial crime, cross-border investigations, anti-money laundering, anti-corruption, economic sanctions, asset forfeiture, and affirmative challenges to federal agency action.
Kyle was one of 19 prosecutors selected by Robert S. Mueller III to conduct the high-profile investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. As Assistant Special Counsel, Kyle played a lead role in federal tax and bank fraud investigations and financial tracing matters. She spearheaded a money laundering investigation into Russia’s funding of cyber intrusions using cryptocurrency.
While at the Department of Justice, Kyle also played a key role in major international money laundering and corruption matters, including important matters involving the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Kyle also has considerable experience handling sensitive and complex cross-border issues in transnational financial cases, and she was responsible for the largest civil asset forfeiture recovery in DOJ history.
Kyle uses this deep experience in federal law enforcement to counsel clients facing scrutiny from DOJ, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and other law enforcement and financial regulatory agencies. Kyle conducts internal investigations on a range of issues and advises clients on a wide array of anti-money laundering, anti-corruption, and other compliance issues.
Kyle also helps clients develop and litigate challenges to federal regulations, policies, and agency decisions across a range of industries, drawing on her years of prior experience at DOJ representing a cross-section of federal agencies —from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to the Department of Energy to the Department of State and various intelligence agencies—in high-profile litigation. She has appeared before federal trial courts across the country.
Concentrations
- Anti-money laundering issues and the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)
- Anti-corruption and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)
- Asset forfeiture
- Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)
- Government and internal investigations
- Compliance counseling
- Administrative Procedure Act (APA) litigation
- Foreign affairs and constitutional litigation
Capabilities
Experience
- Represented individual subject to multi-year international bribery and tax fraud investigation, culminating in declination of prosecution.
- Represented investment management fund in DOJ and SEC investigation into a $75 million fraud by counterparty, securing DOJ’s release of its forfeiture claim against the client’s assets.
- Represented former compliance officer of major multi-national company in connection with FCPA investigation.
- Secured voluntary dismissal of civil forfeiture against multi-million dollar real property arising out of alleged foreign embezzlement scheme.
- Represented health company in connection with U.S. Secret Service seizure of funds in connection with alleged fraudulent sale of personal protective equipment (PPE), resulting on return of funds to client as “innocent owner.”
- Representation of a non-U.S. national charged with operating as an unregistered agent of a foreign government.
- Conducted internal investigation for health diagnostics company into allegations of product mislabeling in cross-border transactions.
- Brought emergency litigation on behalf of a Chinese technology company challenging Department of Defense (DoD) sanctions, culminating in the removal of sanctions.
- Prosecuted case involving the embezzlement and money laundering of several billion dollars stolen from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, resulting in the largest civil forfeiture in DOJ history.°
- Led money laundering and financial tracing investigation into conduct by a presidential campaign manager resulting in a guilty plea. Coordinated asset recovery strategy.°
- Led money laundering investigation into the funding of Russian intelligence efforts to infiltrate the computers of the DNC, DCCC, and Clinton campaign staff, resulting in the indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers, for, among other things, laundering cryptocurrency in furtherance of a hacking conspiracy.°
- Assisted in one of the first successful prosecutions under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) in recent years.°
- Represented the FBI at trial on a First Amendment claim brought by a convicted terrorist challenging restrictions on his prison communications.°
- Defended veteran benefits scheme against a program-wide constitutional challenge in a two-week bench trial.°
- Served as lead counsel in a range of novel and complex matters, including challenges to the Department of Treasury’s economic sanctions regulation, Medicare payment regulations, and Department of Energy siting and grant decisions.°
°The above representations were handled by Kyle Freeny during her time at the Department of Justice.
- U.S. Department of Justice
- Trial Attorney, Criminal Division, Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, International Unit
- Assistant Special Counsel (Detailee), Special Counsel’s Office
- Trial Attorney, Civil Division, Federal Programs Branch
- Program Manager (Detailee), Office of Management and Budget, Working Group on Streamlining Paperwork for Executive Nominations
- Clearance Advisor (Detailee), The White House, Office of Counsel to the President
Recognition & Leadership
- Listed, The Legal 500 United States
- Dispute Resolution - Corporate Investigations and White-Collar Criminal Defense, 2022-2023
- Dispute Resolution - Corporate Investigations and White-Collar Criminal Defense: Advice to Corporates, 2020-2021
- Dispute Resolution - Corporate Investigations and White-Collar Criminal Defense: Advice to Individuals, 2020-2021
- Team Member, National Law Journal, “Washington, D.C. Litigation Department of the Year - White Collar Defense & Special Investigations,” 2022
- Selected, National Law Review, "Go-To Thought Leader: Finance Law - Anti-Money Laundering Legislation," 2021
Credentials
- J.D., magna cum laude, Harvard Law School
- A.B., cum laude, Harvard University
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, 2006-2007
- District of Columbia
- California
News, Insights & Events
Kyle is a contributor to the Overheard on the Block(chain) Blog 
and the Financial Services Observer Blog