Renato Mariotti

Renato Mariotti is an accomplished trial attorney who focuses on many types of complex high-stakes litigation, including private equity and hedge fund litigation, derivative-related claims and cyber theft. Renato’s work includes defending firms and individuals in enforcement actions and conducting internal investigations, advising and advocating for clients in the digital asset and crypto space, and helping trading firms develop internal compliance programs to ensure that traders do not engage in disruptive trading practices.

Renato’s national securities litigation practice extends beyond the commodity futures industry to cover a diverse group of clients facing many types of financial-related governmental inquiries, including accounting irregularities, directors and officer liability, whistleblower allegations, board governance and oversight, and internal controls. Renato helps clients conduct internal investigations into allegations leveled by government agencies and whistleblowers, and helps firms develop and establish internal compliance programs.

Renato is a former federal prosecutor in the Securities and Commodities Fraud Section of the United States Attorney’s Office. In that role, Renato was best known as the lead prosecutor in United States v. Michael Coscia, the nation’s first federal prosecution of a high-frequency trader for order entry and the first prosecution nationwide under the anti-spoofing provision of the Dodd-Frank Act. This landmark case captured national headlines and signaled a new era of enforcement in computer-aided trading. After securing a first-of-its-kind indictment, Renato successfully defended the constitutionality of the spoofing and commodity fraud statutes. At the end of a lengthy trial, the jury returned a guilty verdict on all 12 counts after less than one hour of deliberation.

Prior to becoming a federal prosecutor, Renato practiced antitrust and securities litigation at a large law firm. He was part of the trial team in the then-largest civil antitrust class action in U.S. history involving antitrust tying claims brought by a nationwide class of merchants seeking a purported $100 billion. That case settled for $3 billion in an agreement that was negotiated on the morning the litigation was to go to trial. He also represented a Fortune 500 company in a Ninth Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court proceeding that extended the objective Brooke Group predatory pricing standard to “buy-side” cases.

Renato is an in-demand media source, legal analyst and commentator on major national news events. He was a CNN legal analyst and appears regularly on MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, ABC News, and PBS. He has been quoted in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time magazine and The Washington Post. He is the Legal Affairs Columnist for POLITICO Magazine and has written for publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and Time magazine.