John C. Richter

John C. Richter is a litigation partner in the King & Spalding special matters and government investigations practice, and works with companies, Boards of Directors, Board committees, and individuals facing a variety of white-collar criminal and regulatory enforcement matters, parallel civil litigation, and internal corporate investigations. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Richter served as Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at WellCare Health Plans, Inc., a $6 billion provider of managed care services targeted to government-sponsored health programs, where he led the successful resolution of enterprise-threatening criminal and civil investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as parallel investigations by other federal and state regulatory agencies, private securities class actions, derivative class actions, and qui tam cases. In addition, he supervised all litigation, internal investigations and payor-provider, ancillary service, and vendor contracting for the company.

From 2005 to 2009, Mr. Richter served as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma, having been nominated by the President and confirmed by unanimous consent by the U.S. Senate. In that capacity, he served as the chief federal law enforcement officer for the district and oversaw the prosecution and defense of a wide-range of matters on behalf of the United States. During his tenure, he spearheaded efforts to combat health care fraud, and oversaw investigations and prosecutions of providers, medical device distributors, and pharmaceutical companies. As a result of those efforts, he received in 2009 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Inspector General’s Award for Combating Medicare and Medicaid Fraud.

As U.S. Attorney, he also served as Chairman of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee on Sentencing, and as a member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee on White Collar Crime. In those capacities, he worked on the revision to the “Principles of Federal Prosecution of Business Organizations” (formerly known as the “Thompson Memo”) and on the creation of the Department’s memorandum regarding the “Selection and Use of Monitors in Deferred Prosecution Agreements and Non-Prosecution Agreements with Corporations."

Before becoming U.S. Attorney, Mr. Richter served in various capacities in the front office of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., including serving as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Chief of Staff and as Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division. During his tenure at the Criminal Division, he led investigations, prosecutions, and policy development in many areas of federal criminal law, including healthcare fraud, securities fraud, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and export violations, bank secrecy and money laundering offenses, public corruption, and organized crime. He served a member of the President’s Corporate Fraud Task Force and oversaw the Enron Task Force. He also served as the Commissioner Ex-Officio to the U.S. Sentencing Commission and represented the Department in matters before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

Mr. Richter began his career as a federal prosecutor as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Atlanta and Oklahoma City, during which time he investigated and prosecuted a wide-range of federal cases, including health care, bank, and securities fraud. He began his career as a prosecutor as an Assistant District Attorney in Cobb County, Georgia.

He served as a law clerk to Judge J. Owen Forrester, U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Georgia from 1992 to 1994. He graduated from Emory University and received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1992.