Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Ashley Madison customers revealed: Nicholas Arciniegas, D.C. attorney with Birmingham roots and interest in national-security work, gets unmasked


Nicholas Arciniegas
(From LinkedIn)
A D.C.-based attorney, with Alabama roots and interests in intelligence, counterterrorism, and national-security work, appears as a paying customer at Ashley Madison. He even used a Mountain Brook address for his activities at the extramarital-affairs Web site. Classy move.

You might think that Nicholas Arciniegas, with his interest in legal work that involves high-level secrecy and discreetness, would be smart enough to stay away from a site like Ashley Madison. But you would be wrong.

Arciniegas appears to be a child of privilege who thinks he can build an impressive resume while getting away with immature and risky actions in his personal life. He certainly appears to come from an accomplished family.

Arciniegas has not responded to our questions, so his roots are a bit uncertain. But a check of public records indicates the following: His father is Joaquin Arciniegas, M.D., a physician with Alabama Cardiovascular Group, an affiliate of Grandview Health. His brother, Daniel Eduardo Arciniegas, is an attorney with Wiggins Childs Pantazis Fisher and Goldfarb, the largest employment-discrimination and civil-rights law firm in Alabama.

Nicholas Arciniegas graduated from Birmingham-Southern College in 2009 and completed a degree at Samford's Cumberland School of Law in 2013. He worked briefly in the clerk's office at Wiggins Childs and served as a law clerk in the Alabama Attorney General's Office, under Luther Strange. While in college, Arciniegas served as an intern in the U.S. House of Representatives for Spencer Bachus.

Arciniegas has earned certificates related to intelligence and homeland security from a number of institutions, including Johns Hopkins, the Naval Postgraduate School, and the London School of Economics.

As a lawyer, Arciniegas has worked for LDiscovery LLC, Tower Legal Solutions, and the D.C. firm of Rodriguez and Sanabria.  before working three months at World Bank Group. He now appears to have his own solo practice, focusing primarily on immigration law.

Arciniegas' account at Ashley Madison has the address of 4924 Old Leeds Road in Mountain Brook, which is the address for Dr. Joaquin Arciniegas. Was Nicholas Arciniegas trying to disguise his identity or was he living at home at the time? It's not clear and, and he has not responded to our queries for this article.

Based on public records available to us, Nicholas Arciniegas' marital status is unclear; he appears to be single.

Perhaps the biggest question is this: How could an ambitious young lawyer, building a career in intelligence and national security, compromise himself by signing up for Ashley Madison? Has that information become known in the D.C. legal community and already had a negative impact on the trajectory of his career.

Building a snazzy resume seems to be Nicholas Arciniegas' primary accomplishment so far, and that probably isn't hard to do when money is no object, and you were born with a silver foot in your mouth.

As for genuine accomplishment, it's hard to find any -- other than making the dubious choice to join Ashley Madison.

Previously:

Article with links to 1-20 in Ashley Madison series

(21) Craig Oliver, attorney, Springfield, MO (1/24/17)

(22) Craig Lowell, attorney, Wiggins Childs, Birmingham (1/26/17)

(23) Thomas Mancuso, tax attorney, Montgomery, AL (2/16/17)

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

From your blog a year ago: "Our series 'Ashley Madison customers revealed' starts next week, shining light on professional elites from Alabama and Missouri who paid to seek extramarital affairs at the now infamous Web site."

Great job unmasking a single guy, barely removed from school, who once lived in Alabama, as a user of this "dating site." I bet he might even have used match.com, eharmony, tinder, or farmersonly.com. {shudder}

You are such a paragon of journalism----I can't imagine why universities aren't knocking your door down. Perhaps they are but your paranoia (ward of the state, yet?) prevents you from answering.

Anonymous said...

Good work, Schnauzer. Nailed another hypocrite.

legalschnauzer said...

Mountain Brook . . . D.C. lawyer . . . daddy's a doctor . . . brother's a lawyer . . . studying intelligence at Johns Hopkins . . . all kinds of certificates and diplomas from national-security programs . . . worked for AG Luther Strange and U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus.

If that's not an elite background, I don't know what is.

Anonymous said...

Arciniegas? Sounds like the name of an immigrant. With his ties to Bachus and Strange, I'm sure this guy supports Trump.

Makes sense, right?

Anonymous said...

You're a dumbshit, 12:36. Try reading the guy's resume. He's riding daddy's credit card.

Anonymous said...

Wha, how can this guy be a hypocrite? On what basis was that statement made?

Is there something wrong with his father being a doctor, help me out here I don't understand?

Is it wrong that he has a good resume?

The truth here is that we have a very sad individual dredging the barrel in an attempt to garner some attention to himself. You seem an extremely embittered individual bent on hurting as many people as possible, possibly to try to make yourself feel better about your own failures.

As far as anyone can tell this Arcienegas guy as done nothing wrong.

I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding about modern dating culture here. People check out loads of different websites, flirt around with them for a while and move on. I agree its probably too much more a washed up hack living in a motel to understand.

Anonymous said...

This guy wants to work in national security, but he can't keep from being outed on Ashley Madison? Maybe he needs to try another line of work.

Anonymous said...

@1:09 what a pleasant person you seem to be.

Is it this guys fault he had wealthy parents? What is your problem?

Seems like you have a massive chip on your shoulder to me.

legalschnauzer said...

@1:21 --

I didn't address Mr. Arciniegas as a hypocrite, although given his ties to GOP politicians, he might very well be one. Someone questioned his "elite" status, and I pointed out that he very clearly does come from an elite background, which is in keeping with my reporting on this subject.

You seem to have your own issues with hypocrisy. You stand up for Mr. Arciniegas, claiming "he's done nothing wrong," which is fine with me. But you then make light of our struggles when we have done nothing wrong either.

Smells like a double standard. Also, Ashley Madison is not a "dating" site. It's a site for extramarital affairs, involving one married person or another (or both). Mr. Arciniegas signed up for it, which I would say was both stupid and wrong. I doubt you can point to anything we've done wrong, but you make sport of our suffering.

Let me guess, you're a conservative "Christian."

Anonymous said...

Arciniegas sounds like a spoiled little punk to me. He uses his father's address to sign up for a sleazy Web site. Classy. Sounds like something Beavis and Butt-head would do. He's the perpetual student, which daddy probably is funding, but can't seem to hang onto any real job for more than a few months.

legalschnauzer said...

Interesting comment, @1:48, but I have to stick up for Beavis and Butt-head. They tickle the crap out of me. Arciniegas is funny, too, in his own way. Studying to protect us from terrorists but falls for one of the biggest con games of all time. Funny, in a dark sort of way.

Anonymous said...

Hey, @1:21 --

What if Arciniegas was trying to pork your wife? I guess everything still would be OK?

By definition, he was looking for someone's wife. You're fine with that?

Anonymous said...


You've done nothing wrong except harass innocent young people online. You've not had children I see but ALL young people do silly things as they grow up, its NORMAL human behavior. 99% of boys watch porn. This is true whatever their education. No doubt you would describe this as depraved activity that needs to be exposed when in fact its normal.

You have no idea what the complex reasons are that people accessed this site and your outing of a single young man shows it.

Anonymous said...


The people on here who purport to know anyone else's motivations for checking out this website are full of bullshit, you know nothing about their personal circumstances.

I prefer to say that "other peoples business is their own". Why is it any of your business what this kid does with himself online? At least he isn't harassing other people.

legalschnauzer said...

1:57 --

You have a tendency to put incorrect labels on things. You act as if Arciniegas is a boy watching porn. Crap, his LinkedIn page indicates he's pushing 30. He's a grownup, working at grownup jobs, studying grownup topics. There is a big difference between a kid watching porn, and a grownup seeking to screw around with someone's marriage. I've reported on more than 20 AM customers, and if you don't know that, you aren't very familiar with my work.

Anonymous said...

How is it harassment to accurately report on the activities of a Washington, D.C., lawyer, who relies on publicly funded facilities for much of his work -- and the information about him was publicly available? You think this guy is treated like a boy when he walks into court? Jeepers!

Anonymous said...


A brief scan of the people you've harassed over this reveals a good percentage of the men who are either clearly single, or who were exiting a relationship through a divorce. And yet you think women on the site (yes there are demonstrably some of them) were a different demographic?

If someone slept with a married women, then thats morally questionable. If someone slept with a married women who was in the process of separating from their partner - thats normal human behavior. Most people don't wait for their divorce papers to be filed to start up their next relationships.

As for people in their 20's - yes they do stupid things to. Is it for some old guy in some far flung part of the country to stand in judgement of them, I don't think so. Get of your high horse, stop dredging the gutter, and do something more worthwhile with yourself.

Anonymous said...

The demonstrable loathing of this guy on this forum just because he had well off parents (not super-rich mind you, just normal professionals) is staggering. There are a lot on embittered people out there.

legalschnauzer said...

@2:03 --

(1) The guy is pushing 30. He's not a kid.

(2) He's a lawyer, using taxpayer-funded facilities at the federal level. How he conducts his affairs is my business and your business.

(3) By definition, an AM customer is seeking an extramarital affair, trying to mess up someone's marriage, maybe his own.

(4) This guy purports to be, or is trying to be, an expert on national security. And yet, he seeks to get involved in a situation that could leave him vulnerable to blackmail.

That suggests he's not too smart, or his sense of entitlement makes him think he's bullet-proof. Either way, it's a story, and it will continue to be a story here at Legal Schnauzer. if you don't like it, go somewhere else. Many more stories of this type are coming.

Anonymous said...


Unless he somehow abused public funds then how is this anyone's business? It seems like its up to his employer to decide on his suitability for his work. If they were bothered by AM they would do a search themselves.

legalschnauzer said...

@2:21, @2:23, @2:28 --

(1) You're scan must have been brief because almost all the people I've reported on are married, and I've given their wives' names.

(2) I've stated my position on reporting this story many times. I'm not going to repeat it here, but you can find it by doing a blog search, via the box at top of page.

(3) If you can't handle this kind of reporting, which is accurate and timely, you are more than welcome to go elsewhere. We have many more such reports coming.

Anonymous said...

What is wrong with these deadbolts? They don't know the general subject matter here? It's like picking up a copy of Field & Stream and whining about the fishing stories.

Anonymous said...

What's wrong with these deadbolts? They are paid humans/bots, assigned by Ashley Madison to harass the one reporter who has the stones to unmask the company's customers. It's all very Trumpian, blame the press for the company's own screw-ups and sleaziness.

Anonymous said...

LS, do you get a lot of traffic from Canada? That's home to Ashley Madison, you know.

legalschnauzer said...

Oh, yes, I get a lot of traffic from Canada. Some of my favorite readers are from Canada.

But in the case of Ashley Madison, I can tell many of the comments come from a server tied to "Bank of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario."

Maybe that's a fake, maybe AM somehow routes stuff through that server. Not sure, but it's clear many of these comments come from Canada, and many in the past have been from automated bots.

legalschnauzer said...

Memo to "My Wife":

You won't be "informing" my readers. You have zero credibility here. Why don't you tell us how Ashley Madison screwed around with my Scribd account, even though I never violated terms of service. Your "fine company" might be answering for that soon. Have a nice day, slime merchant.

e.a.f. said...

it all comes down to bad judgement. People with good judgement skills don't sign on with an organization like A.M. If they want to "fool around" they are much more discrete about it. People who have bad judgement aren't going to have your best interests in mind if they handle important issues for you. Its why many employers when looking to hire some one first look them up on Facebook, etc. before they even look at their resumes. No point in hiring some one with bad judgement or who can be blackmailed.

Have to love it comes through the Bank of Canada. I'm Canadian and the Bank of Canada is an extension of the federal government. It sets monetary policy for the country.

Canada is having problems with the Federal Government's computer system. during the Stephen Harper administration, previous Prime Minister, some wonderkid thought it might be good to put all government computers on one system. That hasn't worked out too well much to the dismay of the R.C.M.P. Perhaps that is why they are able to route things through the Bank of Canada. Wonder if the bank of Canada even knows this is happening????