Paul Coggins, Esq.
Paul Coggins is Co-Chair of Locke Lord's White Collar Criminal Defense and Internal Investigations Practice Group. Paul was the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas from 1993-2001.
He focuses his practice on white collar criminal defense, and has represented numerous Fortune 500 clients in high-stakes litigation before federal courts and the SEC. Paul also has conducted internal investigations involving alleged tax, fraud and securities violations. In addition, he develops compliance and ethics programs for corporations and other business entities.
During Paul's time at the U.S. Attorney's office, he twice served on the U.S. Attorney General's Advisory Council and, in 1998, became its Vice Chair.
He is credited with the following accomplishments:
- Prosecuting the first "three strikes and you're out" case in the United States
- Prosecuting the most complex case ever brought under the federal Economic Espionage Act
- Stamping out one of the nation's largest immigrant smuggling rings
- Prosecuting some of the earliest "cybercrime" cases
- Building one of the nation's first health care fraud task forces
- Prosecuting the first anthrax-hoax case in the nation
- Representing the State of Texas in an investigation involving a redistricting scandal
- Representing the State of Texas in a massive 20-year-old class action lawsuit that he helped bring to settlement
- Hired by Dallas County Commissioners to improve bid and procurement provisions for Dallas County
Paul's experience includes:
- Provide regulatory counseling on compliance matters involving anti-money laundering and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issues
- Represented an officer of a public company in DOJ investigation into alleged anti-money laundering (AML) violations
- Conducted internal investigation for a global chemical company to address allegations by a business competition that the company's distributor in Mexico committed acts of bribery
- Conducted internal investigation for major international financial services firm regarding bond trading activities and potential misconduct by a financial adviser
- Conducted internal investigation for market intelligence and analysis firm regarding potential insider trading
- Represented international company in international investigation concerning payments of gifts to public officials in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
- Conducted internal investigation for regional bank into potential bank fraud and securities violations on behalf of the special committee of the board of directors
- Assisted international capital funding company with internal investigation into allegations of false statements to government in connection with a government grant program
- Assisted private venture capital company with allegations into bribery of public officials
- Conducted a very sensitive investigation for a public pension plan regarding allegations of trustee misconduct and fiduciary duty violations
- Represented a U.S. Senator in connection with allegations that he violated federal criminal ethical laws
- Represented large school district in connection with investigations into allegations of procurement fraud, identity theft, violations of procurement rules and racial discrimination