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The US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) recently announced the appointment of Raj Parekh as its first-ever Chief of Corporate Enforcement. He will serve as the primary interface between BIS’s special agents, the Department of Commerce’s Office of Chief Counsel for Industry and Security, and the Department of Justice to advance significant corporate investigations.
Parekh joins BIS from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA), where he served as Acting United States Attorney and for four years as First Assistant United States Attorney. Parekh was the highest-ranking career (non-political) official in EDVA and led a staff of more than 300 federal prosecutors, civil litigators, and support personnel in a district that serves more than six million residents.
This is the first time BIS has appointed a Chief of Corporate Enforcement, further reflecting BIS’s commitment to this effort.
“Today’s appointment of Raj Parekh as Chief of Corporate Enforcement is an important step in institutionalizing the progress we’ve made over the past three years to strengthen our administrative enforcement program,” said Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement Matthew S. Axelrod.
Parekh is an experienced litigator, having tried more than 40 cases to verdict throughout his career and having previously worked at EDVA, the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, a major technology company, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the Central Intelligence Agency, and an international law firm.
