DOJ’s Eastern Virginia White Collar Chief Exits to Launch Firm

The Eastern Virginia US attorney’s office white collar chief has resigned to launch a boutique defense practice with another former Justice Department fraud supervisor.

Drew Bradylyons became the latest of numerous Trump-era leadership departures from the Alexandria, Va.-based district, as he reunites with Scott Armstrong, who was an assistant chief in the criminal fraud section at DOJ headquarters. On Wednesday, they’ll form their own firm that’ll focus on complex fraud cases and trials for executives, the two said in an interview.

The partners of Armstrong & Bradylons PLLC plan to defend executives and finance and medical professionals. Andrea Savdie, who until August was a health-care fraud trial attorney at DOJ, will join them as a special counsel.

Bradylyons said he’s leaving DOJ on his own terms from an Eastern Virginia office where “there remain a lot of really outstanding prosecutors.”

He was not involved in the district’s cases against President Donald Trump’s perceived enemies, a pursuit led by loyalist US Attorney Lindsey Halligan that prompted multiple terminations and resignations of senior supervisors. Halligan herself has since resigned.

The new venture provides unique advantages for the group due to its size, Armstrong said.

“Our stock and trade is going to be representing individuals,” Armstrong said. “Rates being what they are at the large firms, individual representation in complex matters is cost-prohibitive for a lot of people.”

Armstrong said the trio will specialize in fraud in the crypto, health-care, securities, and commodities spaces. It’s a continuation of his work for the past year as a principal at McGovern Weems.

Before serving as chief of Eastern Virginia’s financial crimes and public corruption unit the past three years, Bradylyons was a trial attorney at the Justice Department’s fraud section and supervised the health-care fraud unit’s Florida strike force. Last year, he oversaw a team that negotiated a plea deal with Credit Suisse Services AG in which the bank agreed to pay $510 million.