Vedder Price

Daniel R. Alonso

Shareholder

Daniel R. Alonso is a Shareholder in Vedder Price’s New York office, a member of the firm’s Government Investigations and White Collar Defense group and Co-Chair of Latin America Investigations and Litigation.

Mr. Alonso focuses his practice on white collar defense of corporations and individuals, internal investigations, corporate compliance and ethics, and complex civil litigation. He has represented public and private companies across many industries, as well as corporate executives, in matters involving the United States Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, New York State Department of Financial Services, Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and New York and New Jersey Attorney Generals’ Offices, among other enforcement agencies. He also advises clients on compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the U.S. sanctions regimes administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the False Claims Act, and anti-money laundering under the Bank Secrecy Act, among other matters. He has led numerous investigations and compliance reviews throughout Latin America, as well as in the United Kingdom and Asia.

Mr. Alonso has more than 30 years of criminal, civil, enforcement and compliance experience. He served in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York (EDNY) for nearly a decade, including three years as Chief of the Criminal Division, and was later the Chief Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. In between, he was a litigation partner at an Am Law 100 firm. He also served as Managing Director and General Counsel at global compliance firm Exiger. He is an adjunct professor at Cornell Law School, where he teaches a seminar on transnational corruption.

Legal 500 has recognized Mr. Alonso for his work in Corporate Investigations and White Collar Criminal Defense and SuperLawyers has recognized him for Criminal Defense: White Collar. Additionally, over many years of public service, Mr. Alonso received the New York City Bar Association’s Henry L. Stimson Medal, given to outstanding Assistant U.S. Attorneys; the District Attorneys Association of the State of New York’s Robert M. Morgenthau Award; and the Fund for Modern Courts’ John J. McCloy Award for his contributions to improving the judicial system. He is also a four-time recipient of the Justice Department’s Director’s Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney.

Mr. Alonso currently sits on the New York State Commission on Prosecutorial Conduct, appointed by Governor Kathy Hochul. He also currently serves on the New York State Bar Association's Committee on Standards of Attorney Conduct and is a former member of the Attorney Grievance Committee for New York’s First Judicial Department. Mr. Alonso was also a member of the 2020 and 2021 Integrity & Compliance Taskforces of the B20, the G20’s dialogue with the global business community. Previously, he was a gubernatorial appointee to the New York State Commission on Public Integrity; and in 2009 was appointed Special Counsel to a New York State Senate Select Committee that investigated and recommended the expulsion of a senator convicted of domestic violence. He is also a former co-chair of the New York State White Collar Crime Task Force, and a former chair of the Council on Criminal Justice of the New York City Bar Association. He is the immediate past President of the New York American Inn of Court.

A prolific writer, speaker, and commentator, Mr. Alonso’s articles have been published by Foreign Policy, CNN Opinion, Anti-Corruption Report, Business Crimes Bulletin, the National Law Journal, the New York Law Journal, the New York State Bar Journal, CFO Magazine, FCPA Blog, Bloomberg Law, the New York Daily News and Argentina’s La Nación and he is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Financial Compliance. Formerly a Legal Analyst at NBC News/MSNBC, he has appeared on national and international news networks including CNN, ABC, Fox, Telemundo, Univision, the BBC, MSNBC, and France24, as well as several local New York outlets, and has been quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Financial Times, The New Yorker, The Guardian, Reuters, Vanity Fair, Daily Beast, Newsweek, New York Law Journal, Law360 and Variety. Mr. Alonso has also served as an on-set technical consultant to feature film directors Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg on Hollywood films The Irishman, The Post, Bridge of Spies and The Wolf of Wall Street.

Mr. Alonso is a native speaker of Spanish and a conversational speaker of Portuguese and has been invited to speak in both languages across Latin America and Spain on FCPA enforcement, compliance, independent monitorships and AML, including in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Spain, Chile, Uruguay, Panama, Ecuador and Costa Rica.

From 1995-1996, he served as law clerk to Judge Joseph W. Bellacosa of the New York Court of Appeals.

 

Daniel R. Alonso

Shareholder

Education

  • New York University School of Law, J.D., 1990
  • Cornell University, B.A., 1987

Daniel R. Alonso

Shareholder

Bar Admissions

  • New York, 1991

Affiliations

  • Member, American Bar Association - Section of International Law 
  • Member, Federal Bar Council 
  • Former President, New York American Inn of Court
  • Member, New York State Bar Association - Committee on Standards of Attorney Conduct
  • Member, New York City Bar Association
  • Board Member, The Fund for Modern Courts
  • Member, Argentine Lawyers Association of New York
  • Life Member, Hispanic National Bar Association
  • Past Co-Chair, New York State White Collar Crime Task Force
  • Past Member, New York State Commission on Public Integrity
  • Past Member, Attorney Grievance Committee, First Judicial Department

Daniel R. Alonso

Shareholder

Experience

*Includes, in some cases, Mr. Alonso's previous experience

  • A large international bank in a DOJ investigation relating to financial crime compliance
  • The audit committee of a public reinsurance company in internal and SEC investigations of alleged accounting fraud
  • A large Central American corporation in multi-lateral bank debarment proceedings
  • A major South American fintech company in regulatory matters
  • Multiple public company executives in DOJ FCPA investigations and prosecutions
  • A multinational chemical company in a DOJ investigation of commodities trading
  • Multiple hedge funds in civil securities fraud litigation and SEC and CFTC investigations
  • A large bank in a CFPB investigation
  • Multiple major universities in federal litigation and government investigations
  • A large debt settlement company in a New York Attorney General investigation
  • A major religious institution in a civil RICO action
  • The lead portfolio manager in a $14 billion hedge fund strategy in an SDNY prosecution under the Investment Advisors Act
  • A former member of Congress in an SDNY insider trading prosecution
  • A reality television star in an SDNY prosecution of alleged telemarketing fraud

Additional experience in corporate monitorships and similar independent roles includes:

  • Primary integrity monitor for a $3 billion construction project for New York City (New York City Department of Investigation)
  • Independent monitor of Sanitation Salvage Corp. (appointed by New York City Business Integrity Commission)
  • Court-appointed receiver in CFTC v. Rolando, et al. (appointed by U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut)
  • Independent disciplinary authority for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (appointed by U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona)
  • Special Counsel to a New York State Senate Select Committee charged with investigating a sitting Senator to determine whether he should be expelled from the Legislature following a criminal conviction
  • Adviser to two different Mexican states on public safety and crime reduction