Oleh Vretsona is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  He currently practices in the firm’s Litigation Department, where he focuses on white collar criminal defense, internal investigations, regulatory inquiries, antitrust, and corporate compliance.  Mr. Vretsona has represented clients in a wide variety of matters, including matters arising under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and antitrust matters, and he has advised clients on structure and implementation of corporate compliance programs.

Mr. Vretsona has significant experience in conducting internal investigations and advising clients on the effectiveness of their internal compliance controls.  Mr. Vretsona has participated in and managed numerous internal investigations for publicly held corporations involving operations in Russia, Eastern Europe, and various other countries and regions, and conducted extensive fieldwork in those countries, including numerous witness interviews.  In the area of corporate compliance, Mr. Vretsona’s work often includes reviewing reporting mechanisms, internal payment controls, third-party controls, and compliance training and messaging, as well as drafting new compliance policies.  Mr. Vretsona also has participated in the FCPA compliance monitorships of Siemens AG and Statoil ASA, and has held leadership roles in the Siemens AG monitorship.  In the area of antitrust, Mr. Vretsona’s practice includes representing clients before the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice in connection with mergers and acquisitions, and investigations.

Mr. Vretsona received his law degree, magna cum laude, in 2006 from the University of Minnesota Law School, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif, and served as an editor of the University of Minnesota Law School Journal of Law and Inequality.  Mr. Vretsona also earned a Specialist Degree in Law, with High Distinction, in 1997 from L’viv National University, L’viv, Ukraine, where he was a recipient of the I. Franko Scholarship.  In Ukraine, where he practiced law for two years, Mr. Vretsona substantially contributed toward receiving a Constitutional Court of Ukraine interpretation of labor law favoring recognition of the role of independent trade unions in protecting the labor rights of their members.

Mr. Vretsona’s recent significant engagements:

• Currently representing a U.S. multinational in a major government and internal investigation regarding allegedly improper business practices in Europe, including Russia;
• Currently representing a life sciences company in an internal investigation relating to distributor operations in Belarus;
• Currently representing a foreign mining company an government investigation relating to Eastern Europe.
• Currently representing a U.S. pharmaceutical company in a government investigation involving operations in Eastern and Central Europe and the Middle East;
• Currently representing a multinational pharmaceutical company in several internal investigations into business practices and distributor operations in Central and Eastern Europe and the Caucasus;
• Represent a major U.S. public research and technology manufacturing company in an internal investigation relating to a distributor in Eastern Europe;
• Represented a leading food and beverage company in connection with internal investigations in Azerbaijan, Russia, and Ukraine;
• Represented a European telecommunications company in connection with an anti-corruption risk assessment project relating to construction projects in Russia and the CIS;
• Represented a U.S. multinational in connection with a compliance governance and evaluation project;
• Represented a multinational hospitality company connection with a compliance risk assessment and evaluation project;
• Represented a U.S. multinational in connection with a government investigation involving business activities in Russia;
• Represented a U.S. consumer products company in an internal investigation relating customs clearance and logistics processes in Eastern Europe;
• Represented a U.S. multinational in connection with several internal investigations in Eurasia and Africa;
• Represented a Japanese multinational in connection with an antitrust investigation; and
• Represented a European multinational in an internal investigation regarding allegedly improper business practices in Russia.
• Conducted compliance risk assessment and evaluation reviews in connection with monitorships imposed by the U.S. government at Statoil ASA and Siemens AG.

Mr. Vretsona’s publications:

• “Making Way For International Business Integrity And Compliance Due Diligence In Cross-Border Acquisitions,” The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, (with Daniel Plaine and Judith Lee), May 2007;
• “The Federal Trade Commission Reauthorization Act of 2008: Bill Would Add Authority, Procedures, Civil Penalties,” Federal Civil Enforcement Committee Newsletter, September-October 2008;
• Contribution to ABA’s Proving Antitrust Damages: Legal and Economic Issues (2d Ed. 2010);
• “How to Use Company Data Efficiently to Detect Fraud and Corruption,” Financier Worldwide (with F. Joseph Warin and Michael Diamant), August 2013;
• Joseph Warin, Oleh Vretsona & Lora E. MacDonald, A Practical Guide to the Use of the Commissioned Public Report as an Effective Crisis-Management Tool, 29 Notre Dame J.L. Ethics & Pub. Pol’y 87 (2015);
• 2012, 2013, 2014 Mid-Year and Year-End FCPA Updates (contributor); and
• Delivered a presentation on FCPA developments to the Ukrainian Lawyers’ Association in April 2017.

Mr. Vretsona is fluent in Ukrainian and Russian.  He is admitted to practice in New York and the District of Columbia.