Zia M. Faruqui was appointed as a United States Magistrate Judge on September 14, 2020.  He received a B.A. and J.D. from Georgetown University. Following law school, he was a litigation associate at Willkie Farr in Washington, D.C., where he focused on government investigations and general commercial litigation.  Judge Faruqui then served for twelve years as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Offices in St. Louis and Washington D.C.  While there, he prosecuted cases involving terrorists use of cryptocurrency, North Korean weapons proliferation, darknet sites dedicated to child exploitation, and the theft of antiquities.  He also represented the Department of Justice at numerous conferences across the globe on financial crimes, cryptocurrency, and national security issues.