John W. Sellers

Lead Attorney: Financial Investigations & Compliance

John W. Sellers has spent his entire career investigating and litigating financial crimes with a particular focus on asset forfeiture, money laundering, wire fraud, tax fraud, OFAC, FINRA, OCC, and SEC violations.

DOJ & Government Background. Mr. Sellers served as national lead DOJ prosecutor on some of the largest financial crime investigations in U.S. history. During his tenure with the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington D.C., Mr. Sellers assisted U.S. Attorney’s Offices and federal prosecutors nationwide—including New York, Brooklyn, Boston, Miami, Orlando, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Puerto Rico—in complex financial investigation with a particular focus on money laundering, wire fraud, OCC, OFAC, and securities cases. As one of the Justice Department’s top prosecutors on asset forfeiture, Mr. Sellers was the key strategist on the prosecution of banks, bankers and professional money launderers for AML and BSA violations, including Black Market Peso Exchange litigation, and OCDETF cases.

Acting Chief, Bank Prosecutor. To further Mr. Sellers’s exceptional experience in financial and global asset litigation, Mr. Sellers served as the Acting Chief and Deputy Chief Investigative Counsel to the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP). He was in charge for all related bank prosecutions for SOX and SEC violations, including financial statement frauds, commercial and residential lending portfolio fraud, underwriting and securitization fraud, insider abuse, self-dealing, conflicts of interests, false statements, management control breakdowns, and misapplications of bank funds.

CEO Defense. CEOs, board of directors, businesses, and executives who can’t afford to gamble on their legal representation have hired John Sellers to obtain reliable, strategic, and forceful legal advice. Indeed, John has defended business conglomerates, executives, and high-net individuals—if necessary all the way up the DOJ chain of command—in national security cases, OFAC, ITAR, FINRA and OCC investigations, insider trading cases, blackout period trading, Ponzi schemes, tax fraud, and money laundering cases. And John has offered his 30-year experience of prosecuting companies to help current board members and CEOs implement effective compliance policies and protocols, often as part of a comprehensive internal investigation.

Accolades & Education

Mr. Sellers is the recipient of the Assistant Attorney General Special Achievement Award in 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2005; the Meritorious Service Award in 2004, and the Special Commendation Award in 2006. He obtained his Juris Doctor from Seton Hall University of Law in New Jersey and his B.S. in Political Science and Speech Communication from Eastern New Mexico University. From 1984 to 1992, Mr. Sellers served as a Systems Analyst in the U.S. Air Force, where he was awarded the United States Air Force Commendation Medal and the United States Air Force Achievement Medal. Mr. Sellers is admitted to practice law in Maryland as well as before various federal courts.

Mr. Sellers is the principal of Maryland-based John Sellers Law, PLLC.