David Johnson

UPDATE: Johnson left the DOJ in May 2019 to become an assistant inspector general for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

David Johnson joined the DOJ as an assistant chief in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act unit in 2017.

He was previously an assistant chief litigation counsel at the US Securities and Exchange Commission from 2014 to 2017.

At the SEC, Johnson worked on the foreign bribery case against Brazilian petrochemical manufacturer Braskem, which paid US$957 million in 2016 to settle FCPA charges brought by US authorities that the company concealed bribes paid to Brazilian officials. The SEC's complaint alleges that Braskem paid officials at Brazilian state-controlled oil company Petrobras, as well as Brazilian legislators and politicians, from 2006 to 2014 to secure business in the country.

Braskem, however, wasn't Johnson's first FCPA case at the SEC. He also worked on the regulator's 2015 US$19 million foreign bribery settlement with Hitachi, a Japanese conglomerate, concerning allegations of improper payments in South Africa.

Before joining the SEC, Johnson was an assistant US attorney for the District of Columbia from 2004 to 2014, as a healthcare fraud coordinator in the fraud and public corruption section.

As assistant US attorney, Johnson prosecuted an investment consultant, Kenneth Baker, for allegedly scheming to defraud SunTrust Bank for US$96,0000, as well as money laundering.

Johnson is also listed as a former prosecutor on a non-FCPA case from 2013, which involved securities fraud charges against two Chinese citizens, alongside Daniel Kahn, the current FCPA unit chief.

Johnson was a law clerk to Judge Rosemary Collyer in 2003. He joined Covington & Burling as an associate after graduating with a law degree from The College of William and Mary's Marshall Wythe Law School in 2001.

Since joining the FCPA unit, Johnson has already assisted with the trial of a South Korean government official, who was convicted in July 2017 of money laundering.