Treasury Officials

Juan Carlos Zarate, Esq.
Assistant Secretary
Terrorist Financing

Juan Carlos Zarate is the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing. Among other duties, Mr. Zarate is responsible for formulating and coordinating the Department’s counter-terrorist financing and anti-money laundering efforts. In this capacity, he is responsible for policy guidance and oversight of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and policy guidance for the IRS-Criminal Investigation Division. Mr. Zarate is responsible for ensuring that Treasury assets and powers are used to disrupt terrorist financing, money laundering, and financial crimes, as well as to apply U.S. sanctions programs and administer the Bank Secrecy Act effectively.

Mr. Zarate has been a leader in the U.S. government’s efforts to promote international cooperation against terrorist financing. In this effort, he has shaped U.S. policy in the multilateral Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to address the issue of terrorist financing. He has served as a key advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury and other senior leadership on terrorism and terrorist financing, especially on missions to the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, South Asia, and Europe. He has led several efforts, including the Treasury delegation to the G-8 counter-terrorism conference in Florence, the U.S. delegation to the Tri-Border conference in Brasilia, and the U.S. delegation to the United Arab Emirates to deal with the international regulation of hawalas (underground/informal money remittance).

Mr. Zarate has testified before Congress on several occasions to explain the administration’s efforts against terrorism as well as to describe the methods and means used to finance terrorist groups. He has made several public appearances to discuss this issue and to engage in public outreach. He has also appeared on numerous media outlets to discuss the U.S. efforts to combat terrorist financing.

Prior to working at the Department of the Treasury, Mr. Zarate served as a prosecutor in the Department of Justice’s Terrorism and Violent Crime Section. In that role, he helped investigate and prosecute several terrorism-related cases, including the USS Cole investigation. While at the Department of Justice, he also specialized in cases related to weapons of mass destruction and prosecuted firearms-related cases in the District of Maryland, as well as serving a short term as an attorney in the Appellate Section of the Criminal Division. Mr. Zarate previously worked as a federal law clerk for Chief Judge Judith Keep in the Southern District of California.

Mr. Zarate is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University, where he was awarded the John P. Reardon award for the best student-athlete. Mr. Zarate is also a cum laude graduate of the Harvard Law School and studied as a Rotary International Fellow at the Universidad de Salamanca, Spain.

Mr. Zarate has authored a book about U.S. foreign policy in Central America, entitled Forging Democracy, and published a seminal law review article in the Stanford Journal of International Law, entitled “The Emergence of a New Dog of War,” about the growing use of private international military companies by countries. Mr. Zarate also authored the Department of Justice’s guide to federal prosecutors regarding the restoration of civil rights in firearms cases.

Mr. Zarate was born and raised in Santa Ana, California, and he is a member of the California Bar. He is a member of Mater Dei High School’s Ring of Honor, its honorary hall of fame.