Overview
Barbara A. Martinez is an experienced trial attorney in Holland & Knight's Miami office and a member of the firm's White Collar Defense and Investigations Team as well as the Global Compliance and Investigations Team. Ms. Martinez focuses her practice on white collar defense, internal corporate investigations, anti-human trafficking, supply chain management and corporate compliance. She is co-leader of Holland & Knight’s Women in White Collar working group.
Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Ms. Martinez was a distinguished federal prosecutor. She served more than 22 years at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), both at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida and at the Criminal Fraud Section in Washington, D.C. She has prosecuted economic crime cases, including healthcare fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. She also prosecuted cases and led multidisciplinary teams in matters involving human trafficking, immigration violations, extortion, cybercrimes, crimes against children and other transnational crimes.
Ms. Martinez tried numerous complex federal jury trials as lead counsel in the Southern District of Florida and many bench trials in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. She was chief of the Special Prosecutions Section and served in various other leadership roles at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami, including as the human trafficking coordinator for the Southern District of Florida. She regularly led multidisciplinary teams handling complex investigations in the U.S. and overseas.
White Collar Defense and Investigations
Chambers USA 2024 recognized Ms. Martinez for her defense work in white collar crime and government investigations. She represents companies, financial institutions and individuals targeted for criminal prosecution and enforcement actions by federal, state and local governmental entities.
Ms. Martinez draws on her experience as a defense attorney and former DOJ prosecutor to advise and effectively advocate for her clients through criminal enforcement actions, regulatory matters and government investigations involving:
- bank fraud
- embezzlement/theft
- Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)
- healthcare fraud
- immigration violations
- extortion
- human trafficking
- stalking
- money laundering
Internal Investigations
Ms. Martinez regularly represents corporations, financial institutions and their boards to handle internal investigations involving allegations of fraud (including bank fraud, healthcare fraud and false claims), theft, embezzlement, money laundering, FCPA, immigration violations, child pornography, sexual harassment and human trafficking. She advises these clients about reporting requirements and routinely guides clients in reporting criminal conduct to law enforcement.
She also helps clients assess risk and build/revise compliance programs as needed.
Receiverships
A federal court appointed Ms. Martinez to serve in a fiduciary role as a receiver tasked with recovering assets and analyzing any potential claims on behalf of the receivership for the benefit of those defrauded in a large international fraud scheme.
Anti-Human Trafficking: Supply Chain and Risk Management, Compliance and Training
Ms. Martinez has years of experience in identifying, investigating and prosecuting labor and sex trafficking cases. She led a team of prosecutors and investigators in enforcing anti-human trafficking laws for more than a decade. She also led transnational investigation teams and tried complex international human trafficking cases.
Ms. Martinez advises clients on corporate compliance and best practices relating to social governance, human trafficking, transparency in supply chains, supply chain controls, reporting human trafficking, extraterritorial provisions of U.S. federal anti-trafficking laws and federal contract employee risk management under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) anti-trafficking provisions. She also advises on civil anti-trafficking litigation risks.
Ms. Martinez has extensive experience teaching and conducting anti-human training courses for companies, educators, financial institutions, law enforcement, legal and medical professionals in the U.S. and abroad.
Most recently, in 2024, Ms. Martinez was an instructor for the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative and taught judges from Colombia about handling human trafficking criminal cases.
In December 2022, Ms. Martinez served as an instructor at the Federal Judicial Center for U.S. federal courts (FJC) in Washington, D.C., to provide advanced train-the-trainers courses on human trafficking for judges from India.
In November 2021, she taught judges from India about human trafficking issues at the Central and East European Law Initiative (CEELI) Institute in Prague as part of a program sponsored in partnership by the FJC, the National Judicial Academy of India and CEELI. She also taught a Human Trafficking Seminar as an adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Law from 2011-2024.
Reporting Child Pornography and Other Cyber Crimes
Ms. Martinez is highly knowledgeable on victim rights laws and certain cybercrimes, including child pornography and cyberstalking, as well as online human trafficking activity, threats and sextortion. In addition to serving as the human trafficking coordinator and the project safe childhood coordinator for the Southern District of Florida for more than a decade as a former DOJ prosecutor, Ms. Martinez also served as a member of DOJ's Child Exploitation Nationwide Investigation Advisory Committee for about six years until she joined Holland & Knight.
In her current practice, Ms. Martinez advises companies, educational institutions and organizations about risk management relating to safety and threat management policies, online electronic data collection and storage, privacy and victim issues related to business practices, including reporting child pornography and other crimes.
Representative Experience
- Representation of a corporate board in an internal investigation involving allegations of fraud and ethics violations by corporate executives
- Representation of a multinational company in a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)
- Conducted a global FCPA compliance review for an international company
- Representation of a corporation under investigation by DOJ relating to government contracts
- Internal investigation of a company investigating misconduct by employees
- Representation of an international communications company in conducting a global compliance review related to the FCPA
- Defended an executive officer in an internal investigation stemming from a DOJ False Claims Act (FCA) investigation
- Representation of a business owner in defending against allegations of international money laundering
- Representation of a global outsourcing service company victimized by a cyber-phishing scam in reporting and compliance relating to the fraudulent scheme
- Multiple representations of company employees involving grand jury subpoenas, witness testimony and/or enforcement actions
- Representation of an executive officer for an international company in defending against a state criminal investigation involving allegations of theft of product samples and related offenses
- Representation of multiple business owners defending against allegations of violating the FCPA by DOJ
- Appointment as a receiver by a federal court to identify, locate, liquidate and receive assets for victims of a more than $300 million fraud and to assess potential claims
- Representation of a financial institution in advising regarding due diligence and a pending DOJ civil investigation
- Representation of a global service company in advising regarding compliance with the United Kingdom (U.K.) Modern Slavery Act
- Representation of an international consulting firm in reporting and compliance relating to the discovery of child pornography
- Counsel to a company doing business online needing risk assessment, compliance advice and policies
- Counsel advising an organization on risk assessment and reporting to law enforcement
- Tried numerous federal jury trials and bench trials in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, including the following federal trials:
- multimillion-dollar healthcare fraud case against the owner of a medical clinic
- three-week, multimillion-dollar healthcare fraud case against two physicians international sex trafficking case involving the victimization of minors in Honduras
- month-long sex trafficking case involving 50 adult victims from across the U.S.
- international sex tourism case involving the sexual exploitation of more than 100 minors in Cuba and Ecuador for the production, importation and sale of child pornography
- multimillion-dollar U.S. Department of Education fraud case against the owners of a vocational school
- Supervised and led federal assistant U.S. attorneys in the Special Prosecutions Section handling cases involving international and domestic human trafficking, money laundering, child exploitation, cybercrimes, including internet crimes against children, sextortion, extortion and cyberstalking, violent crimes involving death or serious bodily injury, international kidnappings and other transnational crimes
- Supervised and trained assistant U.S. attorneys in the Majors Crimes Section handling identity theft, fraud, violent crime, alien smuggling and immigration cases
- Led and coordinated efforts to combat human trafficking and child exploitation as the human trafficking coordinator and the project childhood coordinator for the Southern District of Florida for more than a decade, spearheaded coordination efforts among law enforcement, prosecutors, foreign governments, regulatory entities, nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, and community members nationally and globally to combat human trafficking and child exploitation
- Served as a member of the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Child Exploitation Nationwide Investigation Advisory Committee from July 2014 to February 2020
- Served a two-year term as a member of the DOJ's Capital Review Committee from April 2012 to April 2014
- Prosecuted cases involving healthcare fraud, mail and wire fraud, computer intrusion, identity theft and credit card fraud as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Economic Crimes Section in Miami
- Served as a DOJ trial attorney for the Fraud Section of the Criminal Division in Washington, D.C., through the Attorney General's Honors Program, prosecuting complex white collar cases involving bank fraud, mail and wire fraud, government program fraud, telemarketing fraud, false statements and obstruction of justice
- Created and conducted anti-trafficking and anti-money laundering training sessions for law enforcement, prosecutors, victim advocates and members of the financial industry throughout the U.S. and in foreign countries, including Mexico, The Bahamas, Saint Lucia, Barbados, Portugal, Latvia, Poland, Bulgaria and Iceland; taught trial advocacy sessions to law enforcement and prosecutors in Chile and computer crimes session to representatives of financial institutions in Peru
Credentials
- The University of Texas School of Law, J.D.
- The University of Texas at San Antonio, B.A., Criminal Justice
- Arizona
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- YWCA South Florida, Board of Directors, August 2023-Present
- Women's White Collar Defense Association (WWCDA), Chapters Committee (London, Spain and Mexico), August 2023-Present, Chief Member, August 2023-Present
- Federal Bar Association
- Hispanic National Bar Association, South Florida Chapter
- Chambers USA - America's Leading Business Lawyers guide, Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations, 2023, 2024
- Leadership and Advocacy Resilience Award, Ark of Freedom Alliance, 2020
- Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), 2018
- Women of Distinction Award, Dade County Bar Association Government Committee, 2018
- Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow, Harvard Law School, 2016-2017
- Director's Award for Superior Performance, DOJ, 2005 and 2015
- Top Prosecutor Award, Women in Federal Law Enforcement, 2013
- Prosecutor Hero Award, Shared Hope International, 2013
- Outstanding Partnership Coalition Group Award, DOJ, 2011
- 40 Under 40 Outstanding Lawyers, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, 2011
- Director's Honor Award, U.S. Secret Service, 2010
- Meritorious Public Service Award, U.S. Coast Guard, 2007
- Group Achievement Award, Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, 2004
- English
- Spanish