Antonio Pereira

Antonio Pereira has 30 years of experience in Financial Institutions, Retail & Distribution, Industrial & Consumer, Hospitality & Entertainment and Real Estate & Construction Industries. He has a wealth of experience leading complex, high profile local and cross-border engagements.

He specializes in providing forensic accounting, litigation support, restructuring and turnaround management (he has held positions as Chief Restructuring Officer and Chief Wind Down Officer), mergers and acquisition due diligence & related post-acquisition integration, accounting irregularities, damage calculations, breach of contracts and international arbitration, financial crime investigations and AML / ATF and FCPA compliance and investigations, corporate compliance assessments and deterrence programs, fraud risk management, internal audit projects and assessment of business operational matters, for domestic & international corporations and their legal counsel throughout the United States, Latin America, The Caribbean, Europe and Asia.

He has extensive hands-on experience in assisting corporations in government matters involving Deferred Prosecution Agreements, Cease and desist orders and Memorandum of understanding. He has led numerous investigations and due diligence and/ or provided reports to various governmental agencies such as the DOJ, SEC, DCC, FDIC, FINRA, FRB, Inter-American Development Bank, The World Bank and Government agencies in Argentina, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Venezuela and Uruguay.

Antonio has worked on numerous financial and compliance investigations assisting clients with AML Compliance taking into account the rules and requirements of the USA Patriot Act, Bank Secrecy Act, Office of Foreign Assets Control, and Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, as well as other local and international regulatory requirements and/or standards. He has provided expert testimony in litigation, arbitration, and regulatory proceedings on more than 50 occasions.

Representative engagements on which Antonio has worked include:

• Conducted investigations into earnings management schemes involving complex accounting issues related to revenue recognition, expense capitalization, restructuring and purchase accounting reserves, and other accounting devices used to manipulate earnings
• Conducted post-acquisition dispute investigations involving US GAAP, IAS, management representations, consistency, and reasonableness of the financial statements
• Conducted complex fraud investigations related to improper conversion of corporate assets, improper bank loans to related parties, kickback schemes, inappropriate expense capitalization, and other employee malfeasance
• Provided expert testimony before an arbitration panel in Bogota on behalf of a large North American-based telecommunications company. The dispute arose from a complex series of contracts with a Colombian telecommunications company.
• Investigated allegations on behalf of three premier international financial institutions that certain shareholders of a bank in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay had convertedS250 million in securities to cover losses arising from non­performing loans.
• Performed a review, on behalf of the International Monetary Fund and the Ecuadorian Government, of the quality of the assets of seven financial institutions in Ecuador [accounting for approximately 70% of the local banking system), particularly, related party loans and transactions.
• Assisted debtors’ counsel, debtors, and creditors’ committees in their vulnerability assessment of loan portfolio recovery.
• Managed an enterprise-wide AML compliance review and program assessment for a bank under government order. The order mandated the engagement of an Independent Consultant to perform extensive testing, developing enhancements, and the implementation/validation of new industry leading risk based program.
• Retained to assist a premier global financial institution in defending itself against allegations that it had issued certain funds transfers totaling $600 million from its operations in Mexico, Puerto Rico and Colombia to offshore havens in Panama, Grand Cayman, Zurich, and Jersey, allegedly to legitimize the proceeds of narcotics and weapons trafficking.

Prior to joining GlassRatner, Antonio was the Partner-in-charge of the Forensic practice for the Florida, Puerto Rico and Latin America markets of KPMG LLP. More recently, Antonio held senior positions with ISM, Inc., a boutique financial advisory and forensic accounting firm.

Antonio is a Chartered Accountant, graduated from the Andres Bello Catholic University with a Bachelor In Business Administration. He is fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese.