W.S. Wilson Leung

Profile

Based in San Francisco, Wilson Leung is a former federal prosecutor, veteran trial attorney, and compliance leader in MPBF’s White Collar Defense & Investigations and Litigation groups. He represents clients in high-stakes investigations, complex litigation, and asset forfeiture recovery cases, particularly in matters involving stolen cryptocurrency, hacked digital wallets, NFT fraud, and cross-border enforcement.

For fifteen years, Wilson served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of California and the Southern District of New York. He led investigations into a broad range of federal offenses, including wire fraud, money laundering, bribery, tax evasion, and violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and IEEPA. He also served as Deputy Chief of the Organized Crime Strike Force in the Northern District of California, supervising investigations targeting transnational criminal enterprises and identifying and seizing criminal proceeds. As a federal prosecutor in San Francisco, Wilson launched the one of the first cryptocurrency investigations in the country, and, in a novel application of federal racketeering laws, charged more than three dozen individuals involved in the unlawful diversion of hundreds of millions of dollars of pharmaceuticals under RICO. Wilson has tried 19 federal cases to verdict and argued appeals before the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second and Ninth Circuits. For his exemplary service, Wilson received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award, the Executive Office for United States Attorneys’ Director’s Award for Superior Performance, and was named one of the “Attorneys of the Year” by the San Francisco Recorder in 2011.

In addition to his trial and investigations expertise, Wilson also brings deep in-house experience, having served in senior compliance and litigation roles at major technology companies, including a tech unicorn on the critical cusp of its IPO. He led internal investigations and responses to inquiries relating to bribery, data privacy, and theft of trade secrets from governmental actors such as the U.S. Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the U.S. Senate, as well as developed enterprise-wide compliance programs, codes of conduct, and risk assessments to promote corporate integrity and mitigate legal risks.

Earlier in his legal career, Wilson was a litigator at a top-tier international law firm in New York and served as an Honor Program Trial Attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. He also clerked for the Honorable Chester J. Straub of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

In addition to his practice at MPBF, Wilson also serves as a mayoral appointee to the seven-member San Francisco Police Commission. As a Police Commissioner, Wilson is responsible for setting policies and procedures for the San Francisco Police Department, supervising the San Francisco Department of Police Accountability, and conducting evidentiary hearings and adjudicating allegations of misconduct against police officers.