Rico Falsone advises U.S. and foreign companies on federal regulatory matters involving national security, international trade, and government enforcement. He represents clients before the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), and the U.S. Department of War.
His practice covers OFAC designation challenges, delisting petitions, specific license applications, blocked-property matters, voluntary self-disclosures, and enforcement actions; CFIUS reviews, investigations, and enforcement actions; transaction restructuring and mitigation of foreign ownership, control, and influence (FOCI); counseling on actual or potential designation as a Chinese military company operating in the United States under Section 1260H of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021; and compliance with economic sanctions administered by OFAC and the U.S. Department of State, export controls under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), and defense trade controls under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
Rico also leads cross-border investigations into potential sanctions and export-control violations, guiding companies from initial fact finding through voluntary self-disclosure, remediation, agency engagement, and enforcement. He advises general counsel and senior management on regulatory exposure, compliance enhancements, cybersecurity, privacy, data protection, and supply-chain security.
His clients span the defense, technology, aerospace, telecommunications, critical infrastructure, energy, mining, finance, and agriculture sectors.
Before entering private practice, Rico spent more than 22 years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as an attorney and supervisory special agent. He led complex investigations and was embedded with the Italian National Police in Rome, Italy, working on national security threats and transnational organized crime, and served as deputy chief counsel to the director of the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center. As assistant legal attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, he oversaw the FBI's cyber and counterintelligence programs in France and Monaco. He concluded his FBI career on detail to the National Counterintelligence and Security Center's Cyber and Supply Chain Directorate, advising on supply-chain security, cybersecurity policy, legislation, and executive orders related to cybersecurity and supply-chain security.
Rico is an adjunct professor in Georgetown University's Applied Intelligence and Cybersecurity Risk Management graduate programs, teaching Domestic Intelligence and Homeland Security and Securing the Digital Supply Chain.