Juan Carlos Zarate is an American attorney and security advisor who served as the deputy national security advisor for combating terrorism during the

George W. Bush administration George W. Bush's tenure as the 43rd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2001, and ended on January 20, 2009. Bush, a Republican from Texas, took office following his narrow electoral college vict ...

. He is the global co-managing partner and chief strategy officer at K2 Integrity, a risk, compliance, investigations and monitoring firm formed from the merger of the Financial Integrity Network, which he co-founded, and K2 Intelligence. He is also a senior adviser at the

Center for Strategic and International Studies The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. From its founding in 1962 until 1987, it was an affiliate of Georgetown University, initially named the Center for Strategic and Inte ...

. In his previous role, Zarate worked on the Bush administration's counterterrorism strategy. Zarate is a winner of the Treasury Medal.

Early life and education

The son of a Mexican father and Cuban mother, Zarate was born and raised in

Santa Ana, California Santa Ana (Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, California, United States. Located in the Greater Los Angeles region of Southern California, the city's population was 310,227 at the 2020 census. As ...

, and graduated from Mater Dei High School. Zarate graduated in 1997 from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

. He studied as a Rotary International Fellow at the

Universidad de Salamanca The University of Salamanca () is a public research university in Salamanca, Spain. Founded in 1218 by King Alfonso IX, it is the oldest university in the Hispanic world and the fourth oldest in the world in continuous operation. It ha ...

, Spain. Zarate wrote his thesis on the effects of U.S. foreign policy on democracy in

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

. In law school, he focused on international law and security issues and wrote his third-year paper on the use of private military contractors in war.

Career

From 1997 Zarate served as a prosecutor in the

Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

’s Terrorism and Violent Crime Section, where he worked on the investigation. In August 2001 shortly after

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

came to office, Zarate was offered a position in the Treasury Department to manage the enforcement of international penalties. With the advent of the

Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior, home, or public security ministries in other countries. Its missions invol ...

in 2003, his duties shifted to economic sanctions and asset forfeiture programs, and thus began Treasury’s

Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence The Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI), formed in 2004, is an agency of the United States Department of the Treasury. TFI works to protect the U.S. financial system from misuse by terrorists, money launderers, drug cartels, and o ...

. Zarate served for a year from 2004 as the

Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing The Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing is an official within the United States Treasury Department, tasked with formulating, coordinating, and executing the U.S. government's counterterrorism financing and Anti–money laundering, anti-mon ...

and Financial Crimes where he led Treasury's domestic and international efforts to disrupt terrorist financing, built comprehensive anti-money laundering systems, and expanded the use of Treasury powers to advance

national security National security, or national defence (national defense in American English), is the security and Defence (military), defence of a sovereign state, including its Citizenship, citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of ...

interests. He led the U.S. government's global efforts to seize

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

's assets, resulting in the return of over $3 billion of

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

i assets from the U.S. and around the world. In 2005 Zarate moved from there to become

Deputy National Security Advisor The United States Deputy National Security Advisor is a member of the Executive Office of the President of the United States and the United States National Security Council, serving under the President's National Security Advisor (United States), N ...

for combating terrorism and deputy assistant to the president, positions he held until the expiry of

's second term in office. His portfolio included "coordinating the government’s counterterrorism strategy and efforts against other transnational threats, such as maritime security, piracy, hostage-takings, organized crime and gangs." After Bush's term expired Zarate worked at the

and for a time as

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio broadcaster CBS. It is headquartered in New York City. CBS News television programs include ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs ''CBS News Sunday Morn ...

' senior national security consultant and analyst. He later co-founded the Financial Integrity Network (FIN), which merged with K2 Intelligence in 2020 to form K2 Integrity. He now serves as the firm's global co-managing partner and chief strategy officer. In June 2014, he accepted an appointment to the Board that oversees the Vatican's

Institute for the Works of Religion An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

, a move announced by

Cardinal Pell George Pell (8 June 1941 – 10 January 2023) was an Australian cardinal of the Catholic Church. From 2002, he faced recurring accusations of sexual abuse, although his subsequent sexual abuse conviction was quashed on appeal to the High Cour ...

of the Vatican Finance Ministry as part of Pope Francis I's efforts to clean up the finances of the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Geography * Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy * Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City * Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome * Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...

. Since January 2024 Zarate has served on the

National Endowment for Democracy The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization in the United States founded in 1983 with the stated aim of advancing democracy worldwide and counter communism, communist influence abroad, by prom ...

's board of directors. He is a co-founder of the

Foundation for Defense of Democracies The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) is a Neoconservatism, neoconservative 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) non-profit think tank based in Washington, D.C., United States. It has also been described as a pro-Israel, anti-Iran lobby gr ...

's Center on Economic and Financial Power. As of November 2015 Zarate sat on the advisory board for nonprofit

America Abroad Media ''America Abroad'' was a monthly documentary radio program produced by America Abroad Media (AAM), a Washington D.C.–based non-profit organization. The program was distributed by Public Radio International (PRI) and broadcast on public radio s ...

, an organization which ceased operations in 2018.

Media

Books

Zarate is the author of two books: * ''Forging Democracy: A Comparative Study of the Effects of U.S. Foreign Policy on Central American Democratization'' (University Press of America, 1994) * ''Treasury's War: The Unleashing Of A New Era Of Financial Warfare'' (2014)

Miscellaneous

* "Confronting Financing of Terrorism in Today’s Middle East" hosted by the

Center for American Progress The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a public policy think tank, research and advocacy organization which presents a Modern liberalism in the United States, liberal viewpoint on Economic policy, economic and social issues. CAP is headquarter ...

on 28 October 2015 * "Are Belgian Attacks The Result Of Intelligence Failures?" an exchange with David Greene of

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

on 23 March 2016 * "Do sanctions still work as a weapon of war?" an exchange with ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

'' on 29 February 2024

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zarate, Juan Living people Harvard Law School alumni American people of Basque descent American politicians of Cuban descent American politicians of Mexican descent University of Salamanca alumni People from Santa Ana, California United States Department of Justice officials George W. Bush administration personnel Terrorism in the United States Year of birth missing (living people) CBS News people Latino conservatism in the United States Mater Dei High School (Santa Ana, California) alumni United States deputy national security advisors