Principal | Scott Armstrong

Scott is an accomplished trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor.  Scott defends individuals in investigations and cases involving fraud in the financial markets, healthcare industry, and private investments.  Scott also draws on his extensive, first-chair trial experience to defend at trial individuals in white-collar cases.     

Prior to joining McGovern Weems, Scott served with distinction for nine years in the Department of Justice’s Fraud Section where he served as lead or co-lead trial counsel in thirteen criminal jury trials involving high-profile fraud schemes. 

At DOJ, Scott served in both the Healthcare Fraud Unit and in the Market Integrity and Major Fraud Unit (“MIMF”), as an Assistant Chief and senior supervisor.  

In the Healthcare Fraud Unit, Scott served as trial counsel in nine jury trials involving multimillion-dollar fraud schemes of healthcare executives, physicians, and registered nurses.  In all, Scott served as lead counsel in healthcare cases totaling over $600 million in false and fraudulent billings to federal programs, like Medicare.

Scott also served as the Director of the Appalachian Regional Prescription Opioid Strike Force (“ARPO”) and led the investigation and prosecution of cases involving the diversion of over 15 million opioid pills.

As an Assistant Chief and a senior supervisor in MIMF, Scott supervised the Fraud Section’s criminal cases involving securities, commodities, and cryptocurrencies and served as lead trial counsel for the Section’s high-profile jury trials involving fraud and manipulation in the financial markets.  Scott has first-chair experience in fraud and manipulation cases across a range of financial products, including U.S. Treasuries, cryptocurrencies, futures, equities, and private investments.  

Scott now defends individuals in white-collar cases in the healthcare industry and the markets for cryptocurrencies, commodities, and securities.  Scott draws on his trial experience as a federal prosecutor to defend individuals facing scrutiny from not only the Department of Justice but also regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”), and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) – Office of the Inspector General (“OIG”).  

In the healthcare industry, Scott defends executives and medical professionals against allegations and charges of healthcare fraud, violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute, and the diversion of prescription opioids and other controlled substances.  Whether an executive, physician, or medical professional, Scott defends his clients by leveraging his substantial trial experience in healthcare cases, familiarity with healthcare rules and regulations, and ease with complex claims data.

In the cryptocurrency markets, Scott defends individuals in investigations and at trial against a range of allegations and charges, including market manipulation, fraud, and money laundering.  As a federal prosecutor, Scott was the lead counsel in the first-ever conviction at trial against a cryptocurrency executive who conspired to manipulate the price and market volume of a cryptocurrency with over $300 million in fraudulent trades and orders. 

Scott relies on his deep experience in “Defi,” blockchains, and wallet tracing to defend and counsel individuals in every corner of the cryptocurrency market.  This work involves defending individuals against allegations of “rug pulls,” “pig butchering,” NFT fraud, price and volume manipulation of tokens, and fraud relating to cryptocurrency investments.   

In the securities and commodities markets, Scott defends individuals against allegations and charges of fraud and market manipulation brought by the DOJ, SEC, CFTC, and other financial regulators. As a prosecutor, Scott was co-lead trial counsel in a groundbreaking trial against senior traders at the world’s largest banks who schemed to manipulate the futures markets for precious metals.  Scott also served as lead trial counsel against two defendants for their respective roles in running a Ponzi scheme through private startups for cattle and marijuana and laundering over $650 million through financial institutions. 

Scott now draws on his extensive trial experience to defend individuals against various allegations of impropriety across the financial markets, including insider trading, “cherry picking” by investment-fund managers, price manipulation of securities and commodities, and private-investment fraud.

Before his time at the Department of Justice, Scott worked at an international law firm in D.C. where he participated in the defense of individuals at trial, including an in-house attorney who was acquitted at trial of obstruction charges, a former Blackwater security guard tried over ten weeks for his role during a shootout in Iraq, and an executive who was acquitted at trial of charges relating to the BP oil spill.