David Last

David Last is the head of the Justice Department's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act unit. He was promoted to the top assistant chief position in the summer of 2019 to support the acting chief Chris Cestaro, who later became the permanent head. Last took over from Cestaro on an acting basis in April 2021, and took the position on permanently in August.

Last originally joined Main Justice from the US Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia in April 2016, where he was serving as an assistant US attorney in the fraud and public corruption section.

He became an assistant chief and permanent member of the FCPA unit some time after the corruption trial of Macao billionaire Ng Lap Seng, who was convicted by a Manhattan jury in July 2017 of bribing UN officials in exchange for support for a building a conference centre.

Last was one of a number of trial attorneys to work on the FCPA settlements with Brazilian companies Odebrecht and Braskem towards the end of 2016.

Before joining the FCPA unit, Last was part of the National City Mortgage Fraud Task Force, which was recognised in 2015 by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency for its work prosecuting ten participants in a fraud scheme that caused Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and other financial institutions to suffer US$10 million in losses.

Earlier in his career, Last worked for more than four years as an associate at Sutherland Asbill & Brennan. He was on a team of lawyers who brought a lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act on behalf of seven deaf individuals who were denied sign language interpretive services at a regional hospital in Maryland. The Sutherland Asbill lawyers were recognised by the Washington Lawyers' Committee in 2006 for their work on the case.

Last studied political science at Brandeis University, and received his law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in 2000.

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