Eugene Illovsky

Eugene Illovsky is a nationally-recognized former prosecutor with decades of broad experience.  He has tried many criminal and civil cases before juries and judges and has argued more than a dozen cases before the U. S. Court of Appeals.  He provides crisis management advice to emerging, established public, and private companies.  He conducts internal investigations for companies and boards in matters involving securities violations, accounting irregularities, regulatory compliance, intellectual property theft, employee misconduct, export controls, and antitrust issues.

Eugene has represented senior executives in corporate internal investigations, as well as in grand jury, SEC and FINRA investigations, and complex civil litigation.  He provides advice to company counsel, financial and operating executives, founders, and board members at large and emerging businesses in many areas of compliance, including antitrust, anti-money laundering, supply chain and diversion controls, logistics, and export controls.  He has represented companies and individuals in securities, antitrust, ERISA, and many other kinds of civil litigation, including federal and state class actions.

Eugene serves as a Settlement Conference Officer on the San Francisco Superior Court’s Mandatory Settlement Conference Panel.  He is a Fellow of the International Academy of Financial Crime Litigators.  He was co-chair of the Business Crimes, Investigations and Corporate Compliance Committee of the ABA Business Law Section in 2021-22.  He has served on the Oakland and San Jose Trial Panels and the Appellate Panel under the federal Criminal Justice Act.  Eugene served a three-year term (2013-2015) as a Commissioner of the State Bar of California’s Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation (JNE).  He is a former Visiting Lecturer at the UC Berkeley School of Law.

Before forming Illovsky & Calia LLP, Eugene had previously almost twenty years as a partner in the major international law firm of Morrison & Foerster LLP.  Eugene served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of California (Sacramento) from 1992-1998, where he investigated and prosecuted a wide array of white-collar crimes, including investment frauds, money laundering, political corruption, intellectual property crimes, immigration fraud and tax evasion.  For his work as an AUSA, he received a number of distinctions.  Among them:

  • Director’s Award for Superior Performance from the Attorney General for a series of complex insurance fraud prosecutions
  • Commendations from the FBI Director and the Attorney General
  • Special Commendation from the Office of the Inspector General for his work on citizenship testing program fraud
  • Commendation from Office of the Inspector General, Department of Agriculture, for prosecuting federal program fraud
  • Appointment to the Department of Justice’s Campaign Finance Task Force to investigate allegations of illegal fundraising during the 1996 presidential election
  • Appointment as Computer and Telecommunications Coordinator, the computer crime liaison to Main Justice for the Eastern District of California

Eugene has been named to the Northern California Super Lawyers list as one of the top attorneys in Northern California for 2012 – 2024.  He has been named in Best Lawyers® since 2012 as one of the best white collar criminal defense practitioners and, for 2024, also recognized for Commercial Litigation.  Eugene was named by Best Lawyers® as the 2021, 2019 and 2017 Criminal Defense: White Collar “Lawyer of the Year” in Oakland.  He was selected by Global Investigations Review’s independent research as one of the world’s leading investigations lawyers and is named in its International Who’s Who of Investigations Lawyers & Forensic Experts 2014.  He has been recommended as a leading lawyer by Legal 500 US 2009 and 2014 for white-collar criminal defense. 

Education

Yale Law School, J.D., 1983

Editor, Yale Law Journal
Articles Editor, Yale Journal of World Public Order (Yale Journal of International Law)

University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Philosophy, 1979-1980

Andrew Mellon Fellowship

Amherst College, 1979, A.B.

Phi Beta Kappa
Magna Cum Laude
John Woodruff Simpson Fellowship
Obed Finch Slingerland Memorial Prize

Clerkship

Law Clerk to the Honorable J. Clifford Wallace
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 1983-1984

Representative Client Matters

White Collar Defense and Civil Enforcement    

  • Represent executive in SEC municipal finance investigation
  • Represent financial executive in DOJ and SEC investigations of complex loan transactions
  • Represent executive in civil enforcement actions brought by Attorneys General of several states, including New York, California, Hawaii, Colorado, North Carolina, and New Mexico
  • Represented durable medical equipment company and physicians group in DOJ false claims investigations and litigation
  • Represented venture capital firm in investigations by DOJ and SEC
  • Represented former investment manager charged with securities and mail fraud
  • Represented real estate investor charged with price-fixing in federal foreclosure auction bid-rigging probe
  • Represented Fortune 100 company in connection with negotiation of non-prosecution agreement with DOJ and implementation of compliance program
  • Obtained dismissal of federal indictment against individual charged with Medicare fraud
  • Obtained misdemeanor resolution for individual who had been charged with multiple counts of felony tax fraud
  • Represented taxpayers in criminal tax investigation involving foreign bank assets
  • Retained as witnesses’ or pool counsel in internal and government investigations in diverse areas including telehealth, price fixing, financial fraud, environmental crimes, managed healthcare, aviation and customs fraud

   Corporate and Commercial Litigation

  • Represent technology executive in thousands of cases in multidistrict (MDL) litigation in San Francisco federal court and in consolidated (JCCP) proceedings in Los Angeles County Superior Court
  • Represent healthcare diagnostics company in lawsuit alleging unfair competition and antitrust claims
  • Represent companies in investigations and litigation involving the Federal Trade Commission
  • Represented major telecommunications company in dispute under Delaware’s limited partnership law
  • Obtained bench trial verdict for public semiconductor manufacturer in litigation over termination for cause of chief executive officer and other senior executives and co-founders
  • Represented shareholders of large closely-held insurance business in ownership dispute

   Internal Investigations

  • Assist audit committee of major non-profit in investigation of external fraud
  • Represented emerging technology company in internal investigation of allegations against CEO
  • Represented biotechnology company in internal investigation of revenue accounting issues
  • Represented large logistics company in managing fallout from federal investigation
  • Represented audit committee of energy company in investigation of securities law allegations
  • Engaged by audit committee of health care company to conduct internal investigation of sales practices and accounting impact
  • Assisted global engineering company in investigation of complex embezzlement scheme
  • Engaged by independent board committee of public online retailer investigating claims of fiduciary breach against directors
  • Represent regional transmission organization in energy-related investigation

    Global Cartel Investigations

  • Represented global Japanese chemical company in connection with criminal charges, and follow-on federal and state civil litigation arising from price-fixing investigation
  • Representation of Japanese technology company in global cartel investigation
  • Represented sales executive in global cartel investigation of a chemical company
  • Represented Italian national sales executive in price-fixing investigation
  • Represented European technology company in global cartel investigation