Matthew E. Sloan

In his more than 25 years of experience, both in private practice and as a federal prosecutor, Mr. Sloan has successfully defended and prosecuted individuals and corporations in a variety of complex criminal, civil and regulatory matters, including those involving alleged securities fraud, stock option backdating, health care fraud, defense contractor fraud and whistleblower matters involving the False Claims Act (FCA). He also has conducted internal investigations for large domestic and foreign companies, involving allegations of insider trading, securities fraud, accounting malpractice and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

In recognition of his work, the Daily Journal named him one of California’s Top White Collar Lawyers in 2022, the Los Angeles Business Journal recognized him as a Top Litigator and Trial Lawyer in Los Angeles in 2024 and 2020, and Benchmark Litigation named him a Litigation Star in 2024. Mr. Sloan also has been named among the 500 Leading Litigators in America by Lawdragon and one of the Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers in White Collar & Cyber Crimes Law by the Los Angeles Business Journal. Additionally, he repeatedly has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America for Criminal Defense: White-Collar.

Some of Mr. Sloan’s matters include representing:

• Fujian Jinhua, a China-based manufacturer of DRAM memory devices, in obtaining the acquittal of all charges in a high-profile, eight-week criminal trade secrets trial brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California and the DOJ’s National Security Division
• James Mazzo, the former chairman and chief executive officer of Advanced Medical Optics (AMO), in a criminal insider trading trial arising out of Abbott Laboratories’ $2.8 billion purchase of AMO in January 2009. After a six-week trial in early 2018, the jury announced that it was deadlocked and voted 10-2 in favor of acquittal on 19 of the 20 counts. The U.S. Attorney’s Office later dismissed the indictment with prejudice following Mr. Mazzo’s entry of a neither admit nor deny settlement with the SEC
• William J. Ruehle, the former CFO of Broadcom Corporation, against criminal and civil charges stemming from Broadcom’s $2.2 billion restatement for allegedly backdating employee stock options. At the conclusion of a nearly two-month trial, the court granted Skadden’s motion for judgment of acquittal and motion to dismiss the indictment for prosecutorial misconduct, and also dismissed all of the SEC’s charges against Mr. Ruehle and his co-defendants in the SEC’s civil enforcement action
• a “Big Four” accounting firm in an arbitration in which a former audit client sought over $500 million in damages for alleged breach of contract and malpractice claims. After a two-week arbitration, the court rejected the plaintiff’s main damage claim and granted the plaintiff a small fraction of its requested damages for breach of contract
• Agility Logistics, a Kuwaiti logistics company that was the prime vendor for all food supplied to the U.S. military in Iraq during the Iraq War (2003-10), in one of the largest government contracting fraud prosecutions in U.S. history. The criminal indictment and the False Claims Act case ended in a global settlement that was very favorable for the company
• Greg Reyes, the former CEO of Brocade Communications, in the first-ever federal criminal trial charging a corporate executive with securities fraud for improperly backdating stock options
• MGA Entertainment in the “Bratz v. Barbie doll war” litigation, a bet-the company battle over ownership of the Bratz line of dolls
• Kinetic Concepts, Inc. (KCI, now owned by Solventum), a provider of cutting-edge wound care products, in two False Claims Act cases brought by former employees alleging that KCI submitted false claims to Medicare. Skadden settled one case on very favorable terms after the district court granted a motion to dismiss, and the district court granted summary judgment in the second matter — a case that the Daily Journal named one of the Top Defense Verdicts of 2019. Although the Ninth Circuit subsequently reversed the district court’s grant of summary judgment, Skadden has filed a renewed summary judgment motion on separate grounds

Mr. Sloan also has conducted numerous internal investigations for public companies, including:

• a multinational European supplier of medical devices and operator of medical clinics in an FCPA investigation into its operations in Thailand and Taiwan
• a Silicon Valley technology company in response to a whistleblower letter alleging that the head of the company’s Moscow office was paying bribes to Russian government officials
• a major entertainment network in connection with bribery allegations involving the company’s operations in South America
• a manufacturer of industrial clothing in response to a whistleblower letter alleging that the CEO and CFO were engaged in revenue recognition fraud
• an insurance company that received an anonymous whistleblower letter two weeks before its earnings release alleging errors in the company’s accounting
• a major accounting firm in response to allegations that one of its key audit partners was involved in an insider trading scheme

Prior to joining Skadden, Mr. Sloan served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Major Frauds Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles from 2002 through 2007, and as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia from 1998 through 2002.

During his tenure in the U.S. Department of Justice, Mr. Sloan conducted numerous grand jury investigations and was the lead or co-lead counsel in more than 30 trials, including the successful prosecution of defendants for health care fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and various narcotics and firearms offenses. Mr. Sloan also has briefed and successfully argued numerous appellate cases before the Ninth Circuit, the D.C. Circuit and the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. In recognition of his accomplishments as a federal prosecutor, Mr. Sloan won awards from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the California Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Justice. He also has spoken on and moderated panels sponsored by the Los Angeles County Bar Association, the American Bar Association’s White Collar Crime Committee in Los Angeles and the American Bar Association’s National Institute on White Collar Crime.