Before joining the firm, Sagar served as chief of the Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit at the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), where he led a team of 20 senior prosecutors handling the most sophisticated fraud and cyber cases in the country, many of which were international in scope. He oversaw groundbreaking investigations, including some of the first US criminal investigations involving AI.

As a prosecutor, Sagar led and supervised cases and cross-border investigations involving healthcare fraud, the False Claims Act (FCA), securities and investment fraud, intellectual property and trade secrets theft, consumer fraud, tax offenses, sanctions, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and money laundering and the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). During his time at SDNY, Sagar tried and supervised 23 federal criminal trials to verdict and handled 10 appeals before the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In addition to the DOJ, through his extensive experience with joint and parallel investigations, Sagar has had regular engagement with multiple civil regulators, including the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, among others.

Recognized nationally for his experience handling novel, high-profile criminal cyber and national security matters, Sagar provides strategic counsel to clients facing sensitive cross-border cybersecurity incidents, ransomware attacks, and AI-related risks. He also advises clients on the full spectrum of digital asset issues, including cryptocurrency theft and investment fraud, smart contract manipulation, fraud in non-fungible token (NFT) offerings, and crypto-enabled money laundering.

Earlier in his career, Sagar clerked for the Honorable Kiyo A. Matsumoto of the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York and practiced at an international law firm representing corporate and individual clients in a variety of white-collar matters.

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• Representing a senior employee of publicly traded company in a DOJ joint civil-criminal investigation of compliance with the Buy American Act (BAA) and Trade Agreements Act (TAA) in connection with federal contracts
• Representing a victim of a more than $60 million fraud in an affirmative civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) lawsuit in federal court
• Represented an international publishing company in federal class action litigation alleging unfair and deceptive practices and false advertising
• Represented a nationwide healthcare provider in a federal privacy class action
• Represented a lobbying firm in connection with an FCPA investigation
• Represented a global consulting firm in connection with a sanctions investigation
• Represented the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings of Terraform Labs, the crypto company that issued the Terra stablecoin and associated LUNA token, in connection with the investigation, prosecution, and settlement of potential claims
• Supervised, in partnership with the DOJ Fraud Section, the charging of FTX founder Samuel Bankman-Fried for an FCPA violation involving a $40 million bribe to induce Chinese government officials to unfreeze $1 billion of restrained crypto*
• Obtained groundbreaking racketeering trial conviction of Scott Tucker, the leader of a $3.5 billion illegal payday lending enterprise, and his general counsel, for crimes that victimized 4.5 million Americans*
• Supervised the prosecution of Charlie Javice, the founder and CEO of student loan company Frank, for falsely inflating the number of Frank’s customers in order to fraudulently induce a $175 million acquisition by a leading financial institution*
• Supervised the prosecution of an international conspiracy led by Chinese businessman Ho Wan Kwok (Guo Wengui) for defrauding thousands of victims of more than $1 billion, resulting in racketeering, securities fraud, crypto fraud and money laundering charges*
• Prosecuted the principals of a nonprofit entity for alleged fraud, embezzlement and money laundering in connection with $800 million of New York City contracts for homeless services*
• Supervised the prosecution of the first criminal case involving the hack of a smart contract operated by a decentralized crypto exchange that resulted in a loss of $9 million in crypto*
• Prosecuted, in partnership with the DOJ National Security Division, two members of a Chinese hacking group which conducted global campaigns of cyber intrusions and acted in association with the Chinese government*
• Supervised, in partnership with the DOJ Fraud Section, the resolution of an FCPA case involving the multinational mining company Glencore, resulting in a parent-level corporate guilty plea and more than $1 billion in financial penalties*
• In partnership with the DOJ Tax Division, conducted a multijurisdictional tax investigation that resulted in a $875 million corporate resolution with Israel’s largest bank for assisting US taxpayers to conceal approximately $7.6 billion in assets*
• Supervised the prosecution of the leaders of OneCoin in connection with a multibillion-dollar international pyramid scheme involving the sale of a fraudulent crypto*
• Supervised the prosecution of more than 20 former NBA players and several doctors for a multimillion-dollar healthcare fraud*
• Prosecuted the first criminal case against a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) lender for a fraudulent scheme to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in capital for PPP loans and earn millions of dollars in fees*
• Supervised the first prosecution of individuals for allegedly defrauding purchasers of NFTs through a “rug-pull” scheme*

*Matter handled prior to joining McDermott Will & Schulte.

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Courts / Agencies
US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
US District Court for the Southern District of New York
US District Court for the Eastern District of New York

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