Duties

Summary

This vacancy is for the Chief, Money Laundering and Forfeiture Unit. The Unit investigates and prosecutes complex, large-scale money laundering schemes, including professional money launderers and gatekeepers to the financial system. The Unit also litigates civil and criminal forfeiture cases for the Division and, in partnership with United States Attorneys' Offices (USAO). The Unit provides support to DOJ prosecutors in cases involving significant or complex criminal forfeiture allegations.

Learn more about this agency

Responsibilities

The Chief of the Money Laundering and Forfeiture Unit:

• Supervises and manages the work of the Unit's attorneys on cases involving civil and criminal forfeiture actions including seizures, restraints and ancillary proceedings;
• Actively supervises line attorneys on criminal investigations, including and advises on strategic approaches to civil and criminal matters;
• Ensures that unit trial attorneys are properly prepared and trained to litigate complex matters, including understanding and executing on discovery obligations, court appearances, and ethical considerations;
• Oversees the negotiation of plea and settlement agreements and other resolutions;
• Reviews search and seizure warrants, search warrants, indictments and informations, civil and criminal complaints, plea agreements, lis pendens, restraining orders, criminal forfeiture allegations, dispositive pretrial motions, and other pleadings;
• Ensures that the Unit is well positioned to provides litigation advice to other Criminal Division litigating components, U.S. Attorneys' Offices, federal investigative agencies, and state and local prosecutors and agencies on litigation matters involving money laundering and asset forfeiture issues;
• Develops and maintains working relationships with partners at the U.S. Attorneys' Office, other litigating components and offices, and federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies; and
• Represents MLARS in inter-departmental and inter-agency meetings and communicates on matters concerning asset forfeiture issues.

Travel Required

Occasional travel - Occasional travel may be required.

Supervisory status
Yes

Promotion Potential
15

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to qualify for this position.
• You must undergo a pre-employment security investigation.
• All male applicants born after 12/31/1959 must have registered for the selective service. If selected, the applicant must sign a statement certifying his registration, or the applicant must demonstrate exempt status under the Selective Service Law.
• DIRECT DEPOSIT: All Federal employees are required to have Federal salary payments made by direct deposit to a financial institution of their choosing.
• You must meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement.
• This position has supervisory/managerial responsibilities. A one-year supervisory/managerial probationary period is required upon selection. This may be waived if you have successfully completed the supervisory/managerial probationary period.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications : Interested applicants must possess a J.D. degree, be duly licensed and authorized to practice as an attorney under the laws of any State, territory of the United States, or the District of Columbia, and be an active member of the bar in good standing. To qualify at the GS-15 grade level, applicants must have at least four (4) years post J.D. legal experience, one of which was specialized experience at, or equivalent to, the GS-14 grade level. Examples of specialized experience include: independently performing legal analysis; composing pleadings, briefs and other court documents involving unique and/or difficult legal issues in civil or criminal litigation; conducting highly complex civil or criminal litigation; and leading paralegals and support staff.

Preferred Qualifications : Applicants' qualifications will be further evaluated, based upon the following competencies:

• Demonstrates litigation experience at a high level including litigation involving classified information.
• Demonstrates sound legal judgment.
• Ability to supervise and direct attorneys, investigators and legal support employees.

Education

A J.D. Degree.

Additional information

Additional selections may be made from this vacancy announcement to fill vacancies that occur subsequent to this announcement.

An in-person interview in Washington, D.C. may be required for this position prior to final selection. The cost of travel to the interview site will be the responsibility of the applicant unless otherwise stated. Reasonable accommodation requests will be considered on an individual basis as requested by a person with a disability. Declining an invitation to interview may remove you from further consideration.

The Criminal Division participates in the Electronic Employment Eligibility Verification Program ( E-Verify ). E-Verify helps employers to confirm the employment eligibility of all newly hired employees.

The U.S. Department of Justice is an Equal Opportunity/Reasonable Accommodation Employer. Except where otherwise provided by law, there will be no discrimination because of color, race, religion, national origin, political affiliation, marital status, disability (physical or mental), age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, genetic information, status as a parent, membership or non-membership in an employee organization, on the basis of personal favoritism, or any non merit factor. The Department of Justice welcomes and encourages applications from persons with physical and mental disabilities. The Department is firmly committed to satisfying its affirmative obligations under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, to ensure that persons with disabilities have every opportunity to be hired and advanced on the basis of merit within the Department of Justice. This agency provides reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities where appropriate. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process, please notify the agency. Determinations on requests for reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis.

It is the policy of the Department to achieve a drug-free workplace and persons selected for employment will be required to pass a drug test which screens for illegal drug use prior to final appointment. Employment is also contingent upon the completion and satisfactory adjudication of a background investigation. Only U.S. citizens are eligible for employment with the Executive Office for Immigration Review and the United States Attorneys' Offices. Unless otherwise indicated in a particular job advertisement, non-U.S. Citizens may apply for employment with other organizations, but should be advised that appointments of non-U.S. Citizens are extremely rare; such appointments would be possible only if necessary to accomplish the Department's mission and would be subject to strict security requirements. Applicants who hold dual citizenship in the U.S. and another country will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

The Department of Justice cannot control further dissemination and/or posting of information contained in this vacancy announcement. Such posting and/or dissemination is not an endorsement by the Department of the organization or group disseminating and/or posting the information.

If you are unable to apply online or need to fax a document you do not have in electronic form, view the following link for information regarding an Alternate Application .

How You Will Be Evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

BASIS OF RATING: Once the announcement closes, your application will be automatically evaluated and rated by the system and a Human Resources Specialist. To determine if you are qualified for this job, a review of your application and supporting documentation will be made and compared against your responses to the assessment questionnaire. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating.

There is no formal rating system for applying veterans' preference to attorney appointments in the excepted service; however, the Department of Justice considers veterans' preference eligibility as a positive factor in attorney hiring. Applicants eligible for veterans' preference must include that information in their cover letter or resume and attach supporting documentation (e.g., the DD 214, Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty and other supporting documentation) to their submissions. Although the "point" system is not used, per se, applicants eligible to claim 10-point preference must submit Standard Form (SF) 15, Application for 10-Point Veteran Preference, and submit the supporting documentation required for the specific type of preference claimed (visit the OPM website, www.opm.gov/forms/pdf_fill/SF15.pdf for a copy of SF 15, which lists the types of 10-point preferences and the required supporting document(s)). Applicants should note that SF 15 requires supporting documentation associated with service-connected disabilities or receipt of nonservice-connected disability pensions to be dated 1991 or later except in the case of service members submitting official statements or retirement orders from a branch of the Armed Forces showing that his or her retirement was due to a permanent service-connected disability or that he/she was transferred to the permanent disability retired list (the statement or retirement orders must indicate that the disability is 10% or more).

Background checks and security clearance

Security clearance
Top Secret

Drug test required
Yes

Required Documents

See "How to Apply"

If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:

Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education .

Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.