As Executive Vice President, Ms. Tongring leads Guidepost’s DEA Regulatory Compliance Practice, in addition to playing a lead role in overseeing a variety of compliance engagements, monitorships, and investigatory matters. She brings a vast background of investigative, governmental, regulatory, and compliance experience to Guidepost. Her experience allows her to provide clients with customized solutions that consider the client’s organization and culture, among other factors, to ensure these solutions are sustainable.
Before joining Guidepost, Ms. Tongring spent more than 20 years in government service. Her most recent position was with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) where she served as the Acting Section Chief in the Office of Compliance. Ms. Tongring’s focus in this role was the establishment of clear and consistent policy which can be implemented throughout the agency. This effort required engagement with stakeholders at all levels of the agency to gather critical “on-the-ground” insight, and gain consensus among those most affected by many of the policies. Ms. Tongring successfully managed the effort to update DEA’s Standards of Conduct, which included policies prohibiting sexual and gender misconduct. She developed strategies to implement the new and revised policies and led the effort to establish a more efficient policy review process through the use of an electric workflow and centralized policy website.
Prior to her role as Acting Section Chief, Ms. Tongring served as a senior attorney for the DEA Diversion and Regulatory Litigation Section. In addition to litigating administrative actions, she supervised investigations to ensure compliance with the Controlled Substances Act, and coordinated with DEA investigators, gathered evidence, conducted witness interviews, and prepared litigation recommendations.
Ms. Tongring started her career as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). As a prosecutor she investigated and prosecuted complex white-collar criminal and violent crime matters, including racketeering, money laundering, abusive trust and other tax matters, international organized crime, criminal asset forfeiture, and violations of the Bank Secrecy Act. While at DOJ, Ms. Tongring also served as Associate Counsel to DOJ’s International Organized Crime Intelligence and Operations Center (IOC-2) where she represented the agency in high-level meetings with members of law enforcement, intelligence agencies, and global law enforcement agencies. Ms. Tongring has considerable experience communicating with and supporting survivors, witnesses, and their family members, and guiding them through the criminal justice process in a thoughtful, trauma-informed manner.
During her lengthy career, Ms. Tongring has received numerous awards for her work, including the Assistant Attorney General’s Award for Outstanding Trial Advocacy, the Tax Division Outstanding Attorney Award, a Special Achievement Award, and numerous Performance Awards.
Did you know?
Krista spent a semester abroad in Australia during college. Though classroom learning did occur, exciting outdoor activities – rappelling down cliffs, snorkeling around the Great Barrier Reef, bungee jumping in Cairns – reigned supreme.
