Matt Hiller

During the more than 10 years he spent as an Assistant US Attorney in Kansas City, Missouri, and Chicago, Matt focused on national security and cybercrimes, including export control and trade sanctions, state sponsored intrusions, counterintelligence, theft of trade secrets, cyberfraud and international terrorism. In addition, Matt investigated and prosecuted a wide variety of federal crimes, among them, mail and wire fraud, embezzlement, obstruction of justice, identify theft, tax fraud, narcotics conspiracies and crimes against children. He also gained extensive federal trial and appellate experience.

Several examples of Matt's diverse federal prosecution experience include:

• The investigation and prosecution of Operation Shopstyle, which included 38 defendants who operated black-market travel agencies that caused more than US$20 million in losses to the airline industry. The conspirators used corporate insiders and overseas hackers to amass stolen credit card information to fund the scheme. The conspiracies operated out of Chicago, Atlanta, California, New York and Florida.
• His work with FBI's Art-Theft Team in connection with the investigation and recovery of looted cultural artifacts from Romania and letters of 18th and 19th Century political leaders stolen from a museum. 
• The prosecution of a novel environmental and maritime criminal case involving extensive expert witness litigation, complex evidence and overcoming an adverse civil trial outcome from a parallel proceeding.
• His leadership of a team investigating overseas ISIS militants. Matt coordinated the international investigations with prosecutors, law enforcement and security services in the Balkans and Western Europe. These investigations led to the disruption of numerous ISIS supporters, including multiple prosecutions in the United States and abroad.
  
   

Through his counterterrorism experience, Matt and a colleague recognized an opportunity to harness and analyze critical electronic evidence more effectively. They developed training for US and international law enforcement to increase core competencies in cyber investigative techniques for any criminal violation, including the collection and analysis of electronic evidence, managing the obstacles presented by encryption and working within the Electronic Communication Privacy Act (ECPA). Matt has trained thousands of investigators and prosecutors across the United States for the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Securities & Exchange Commission.

He also has provided training internationally to prosecutors, investigators, judges and/or intelligence services in Bosnia, Kosovo, Romania, Oman and the United Arab Emirates on a variety of issues, including cyber investigative techniques, money laundering and executing cross-border investigations.

In 2017 and 2018, Matt was honored to lecture at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch, Germany on cyber investigative techniques and the role of the rule of law in counterterrorism investigations.

Through Matt's national security and cybercrimes practice, he worked extensively with the Department of Justice's National Security Division (NSD) and Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS).

Chambers USA

• Band 4, Illinois Government Investigations (2024)

The Legal 500 United States

• Recommended, Corporate Investigations and White-Collar Criminal Defense (2019)

Additional Awards

• Department of Justice's Director's Award for assisting the prosecution of Tahawwur Rana, who facilitated the planning of the 2008 siege of Mumbai, India, and the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, and a planned attack against the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten
• Chief Postal Inspector Award for the investigation and prosecution of Operation Shopstyle
• Cook County Crime Stoppers, Excellence in Law Enforcement Award

Media Mentions

• "Romanian Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar met with prosecutors from the United States Department of Justice," Ziare.com, December 5, 2017
• "Chinese Businessman Sentenced to Ten Years in US Prison for Attempting to Provide Military Equipment to Peruvian Terrorist Organization," United States Department of Justice, June 6, 2017
• "The Children of ISIS," Rolling Stone, March 25, 2015
• "Three American teens, recruited online, are caught trying to join the Islamic State," Washington Post, December 8, 2014
• "Black Market Travel Agents: 38 Defendants Indicted in Multi-Million Dollar Fraud," United States Department of Justice, July 9, 2010
• "Travel scheme results in 38 indictments," The Kansas City Star, July 10, 2010