Melissa Madrigal is a career criminal defense lawyer. She advises and defends clients throughout the country in complex, high-stakes government and internal investigations, indicted cases, and other crisis situations. Clients rely on her counsel in matters involving a broad array of criminal statutes including securities fraud, healthcare fraud, wire and mail fraud, conspiracy, tax fraud, money laundering, sanctions violations, racketeering, government contracting fraud, aggravated identity theft, fish and wildlife offenses, obstruction of justice and narcotics trafficking. She routinely represents individuals and companies across various industries in federal courts.

A Cuban-American and native Spanish speaker, Melissa maintains an active practice advising and representing Latin American clients in U.S. matters that implicate regulatory and criminal concerns. She is known for her creative approach to problem solving and has served as a strategic adviser to her business clients, including overseeing and implementing strategy in multi-jurisdiction investigations and litigation. She also has criminal appellate experience and has represented clients before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Melissa started her legal career as a litigator at a boutique criminal defense firm in her hometown of Miami. For over a decade, Melissa resided in New York City where she continued to focus her practice on white collar matters. 

Experience

*Prior to joining M|M

• Represented CEO of reputation management company who was target of grand jury investigation in the Southern District of New York for fraudulently filing defamation lawsuits and procuring judgments ordering removal of online consumer complaints. Successfully persuaded the government to close the investigation after several presentations were made.
• Represented Chinese national in a criminal prosecution in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on charges of violating the U.S. Iran sanctions program. Obtained a six-month sentence of time served – one of the most lenient sentences ever imposed in such a prosecution.
• Negotiated a deferred prosecution agreement for a client charged with operating an unlawful money transmitting business by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. 
• Successfully represented a Big Tech executive in an internal investigation related to insider trading.
• Represented a client under investigation for orchestrating a money laundering scheme related to an indicted case in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, which resulted in charges not being filed against the client.
• Successfully represented client in tax evasion investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida related to client’s operation and sale of multiple professional employer organizations. The case was favorably resolved with the matter being transferred to the IRS’s civil tax division for resolution. 
• Successfully negotiated settlement of government restitution and forfeiture judgment in the amount of $59 million down to $7 million in a Lacey Act case prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.  
• Represented one of the largest real estate brokerage companies in connection with a parallel internal investigation and quasi-regulatory inquiry conducted by Freddie Mac relating to the alleged manipulation of loan applications submitted for underwriting by the brokerage house. 
• Represented a hedge fund portfolio manager in a two-week criminal trial in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on securities fraud charges, alleging that client mismarked the securities of a multibillion-dollar hedge fund.
• Represented an information technology employee in a bitcoin-exchange fraud and bank bribery trial in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
• Represented a cryptocurrency company and its c-suite executives in a federal grand jury investigation conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York regarding manipulative trading of cryptocurrency on the exchange and the use of unlawful incentives to boost trading volume in anticipation of an ETF application with the SEC.
• Represented former New York City mayor in connection with an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
• Represented lead defendant in seven-week trial in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida involving a $205 million Medicare scheme related to the operation of partial hospitalization programs throughout South Florida.
• Represented a Miami-based online invention marketing company and its CEO in an investigation by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. 
• Represented Chief Financial Officer of public company in corporate internal investigation and parallel SEC and DOJ investigations relating to accounting fraud.
• Represented the lead defendant on appeal in one of the largest health care/no-fault automobile insurance fraud schemes prosecuted in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
• Represented a client charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey in a $99 million healthcare fraud and tax evasion scheme related to his ownership of a specialty pharmacy.
• Represented the former Defense Minister of a Central American country in dispute with political magazine over defamatory article. Succeeded in persuading the publication to edit the article to remove the defamatory material.
• Represented physician at trial charged in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York with unlawful distribution of oxycodone and fentanyl.
• Represented an executive of a public company at sentencing and on appeal in connection with the prosecution of a scheme to defraud the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Secured a below-Guidelines sentence after being retained to represent client after a guilty verdict at trial.
• Represented a lead defendant at sentencing and on appeal in the largest Ponzi scheme prosecuted on Long Island.
• Represented individual at sentencing charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York in connection with a nationwide scheme to divert and resell specialty pharmaceuticals.
• Represented a high-level bank executive charged in multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
• Represented a victim of sex trafficking in a case prosecuted by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office. Succeeded in preventing prostitution charges and secured a T-visa residency status for the client as a non-immigrant victim of human trafficking.