Chris Highsmith is an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, U.S. Department of Justice. He currently serves in the office’s Corporate and Securities Fraud Section. Mr. Highsmith has more than 10 years of experience investigating and prosecuting a broad range of criminal cases, including cases involving cryptocurrency fraud, money laundering, cybercrime, corporate and investment fraud, intellectual property crime, counterfeit goods trafficking, money laundering, bribery, violent national gangs and transnational criminal organizations, racketeering, and firearms offenses. In addition to prosecuting criminal cases, from 2021 to 2022, Mr. Highsmith served at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo as the Intermittent Legal Advisor to Egypt, where he advised the Egyptian justice sector on combatting money laundering, cybercrime, intellectual property crime, and antiquities trafficking. Mr. Highsmith has served as an expert presenter on criminal justice issues at conferences in Egypt, Turkey, Bahrain, Taiwan, and Uzbekistan. Prior to his current role, Mr. Highsmith trained and supervised newly hired criminal prosecutors, coordinated the Northern District of California’s response to investigating and prosecuting COVID-related crime, and served on the office’s hiring committee. Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Mr. Highsmith served as a law clerk for a federal district court judge and worked at an international law firm.
