Rich Plansky is North America Regional Managing Director for the Investigations, Diligence and Compliance practice of Kroll, based in New York. Rich has over 25 years of experience planning, executing and leading complex investigations for law firms, Fortune 500 corporations, financial institutions, government agencies, non-governmental organizations and high-net-worth individuals. He specializes in investigations involving fraud, corruption, sanctions and anti-money laundering violations, theft of intellectual property (IP) and employee misconduct, and has extensive experience providing customized fact-finding in support of litigation.
His personal casework has included multi-jurisdictional investigations into alleged FCPA violations; numerous investigations into allegations of employee misconduct, including sexual misconduct and harassment; a series of complex undercover investigations on behalf of Everytown for Gun Safety into the illegal sale of guns at gun shows across the country and on the internet; a groundbreaking investigation into media transparency in the U.S. advertising industry for the Association of National Advertisers (the investigation resulted in findings of widespread kickbacks to media-buying companies and led to industry-wide calls for systemic change); and large-scale investigations into the theft of IP, including software, medical devices, consumer goods and patented chemical processes, for a wide array of corporate clients.
Rich has additionally provided critical intelligence to financial institutions, hedge funds, PE funds and the lawyers who represent them in support of transactions and corporate contests.
Rich returned to Kroll in 2019 after spending four years at K2 Intelligence as Executive Managing Director, Americas Regional Head, and three years at Exiger as Global Head of Investigations. His previous experience includes serving as an assistant district attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s office, as well as deputy criminal justice coordinator for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
Rich’s work as a prosecutor has been featured on TruTV’s “Murder by the Book,” A&E’s “Cold Case Files” and Discovery Channel’s “The New Detectives.” He has also appeared as a commentator on CNBC, CNN, FOX News and TruTV and presented on IP enforcement strategies at conferences sponsored by the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition, U.S. State Department and Association of Corporate Patent Attorneys.
He holds a J.D. (magna cum laude) from Harvard Law School and a B.A. (summa cum laude) from Duke University.