WASHINGTON, May 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- FTI Consulting, Inc. (NYSE: FCN), the global business advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations protect and enhance their enterprise value, today announced the appointment of Thomas Brown and Christopher Tarbell in the Company's Global Risk and Investigations Practice ("GRIP"). Mr. Brown and Mr. Tarbell will bring sophisticated and comprehensive assistance with all cyber matters, from computer intrusions, data breaches, economic espionage and theft of trade secrets, to cyber insurance, security audits and consulting services to FTI Consulting. Their cutting edge experience and world-wide investigations with the Government uniquely equip them to deal with the most complex cases, regardless of their global nature. Mr. Brown and Mr. Tarbell will both be based in New York City.
Mr. Brown joins GRIP as a Senior Managing Director specializing in cyber security and investigations. He served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York for 12 years, where he worked on a variety of cases, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA"), money laundering, identity theft, criminal copyright and criminal tax matters, as well as wire, mail, bank and securities frauds. For the last eight years, he focused on prosecuting computer and intellectual property crimes, including computer hacking and data breaches, theft of trade secrets and economic espionage, spamming and Internet-based fraud and cyber national security matters. Most recently, Mr. Brown served as the Deputy Chief for Cyber in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York's Complex Frauds Unit, where he supervised a team of prosecutors focused on complex cyber, financial and intellectual property investigations and prosecutions.
Working with global law enforcement partners, Mr. Brown supervised and led some of the most complicated and sophisticated cyber prosecutions in the world, including cases against the notorious underground drug website "Silk Road" and its operators; the prolific hacker groups Anonymous and LulzSec, which broke into computer systems of businesses and governments around the world; the creators and distributors of the "Gozi Virus", malware which infected and stole online banking credentials from millions of computers worldwide; Liberty Reserve, an online digital currency used by criminals to launder more than $6 billion in suspected criminal proceeds; and Samarth Agrawal, who was convicted of stealing high-frequency trading code from a major European financial institution. Mr. Brown also created an innovative strategy to combat Internet piracy, which formed the basis of a major ongoing national intellectual property rights enforcement operation by the Department of Homeland Security.
Mr. Tarbell, a sixteen-year law enforcement veteran, joins GRIP as a Managing Director focused on cyber security and investigations. Mr. Tarbell honed his investigative talents with two police departments, where he worked on computer-related crimes. This experience led to a nine-year career as a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"). As a computer forensic examiner with the FBI's global forensic team, Mr. Tarbell spent his first four years as a federal agent engaged in computer forensic investigations and data collections all over the world on matters that included international terrorism, botnets and crimes against children. In 2009, he joined the FBI's preeminent cyber crime squad. There, he was the lead investigator on a number of cutting edge cases that spanned multiple countries, including prosecutions of the leadership of the Anonymous and LulzSec hacking crews; the owners and operators of the billion-dollar illicit online marketplace "Silk Road"; and the Eastern European operators of a multi-million computer botnet that distributed malware and facilitated millions of dollars' worth of online advertising fraud. During the course of his FBI career, Mr. Tarbell developed deep working relationships with law enforcement partners in multiple countries, including the United Kingdom, Estonia, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Romania, Netherlands, Japan, Australia and Sweden.
"We are extremely excited and proud that Tom and Chris have joined us at FTI Consulting," said Allen D. Applbaum, Global Practice Leader of FTI Consulting's GRIP practice. "Tom and Chris have together investigated and prosecuted the Department of Justice's most significant cyber cases, and have used pioneering investigative techniques to tackle the complexities inherent in cyber matters. Their proven dynamism, creativity and multidisciplinary approach to problem solving, as well as their extensive international experience, combined with FTI Consulting's global footprint and resources, create an unprecedented team to solve our clients' most complex problems."
Mr. Brown is a cum laude graduate of Carleton College and received his J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School. Mr. Brown is a recipient of the FBI Director's Award for Outstanding Cyber Investigation, and was named Federal Prosecutor of the Year in 2011 by the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation for developing the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York's internationally recognized cyber and intellectual property program, and for the innovative use of online investigative techniques.
Mr. Tarbell holds a bachelor's degree from James Madison University and earned his master's degree in computer science with a concentration in information security from James Madison University. In addition, Mr. Tarbell has extensive technical training. Among other things, he is certified by both the FBI and the International Association of Computer Investigative Specialists as a Forensic Computer Examiner. He was also certified by the FBI as a "subject matter expert" on cellphones, mobile computing devices and the Windows and Unix/Linux operating systems, meaning he is certified to seize, search, examine, and provide expert testimony in court about these categories of evidence. Mr. Tarbell has been qualified and has testified as an expert computer forensic witness at two federal criminal trials. He is also regularly called upon to advise and teach cyber investigative techniques to foreign and domestic law enforcement officers, and lectures to business and government groups, including EUROPOL, on the cyber threat and the means to address it through public and private partnerships.
About FTI Consulting
FTI Consulting, Inc. is a global business advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations protect and enhance enterprise value in an increasingly complex legal, regulatory and economic environment. With more than 4,200 employees located in 26 countries, FTI Consulting professionals work closely with clients to anticipate, illuminate and overcome complex business challenges in areas such as investigations, litigation, mergers and acquisitions, regulatory issues, reputation management, strategic communications and restructuring. The Company generated $1.65 billion in revenues during fiscal year 2013. More information can be found at www.fticonsulting.com.
Investor & Media Contact:
Mollie Hawkes
+1.617.747.1791
mollie.hawkes@fticonsulting.com
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