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Daniel R. Alonso

Daniel R. Alonso

Partner

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Contact Details

(212) 600-2340 New York
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Biography

Daniel R. Alonso is a Partner in Buckley’s New York office, focusing his practice on white collar defense of corporations and individuals, internal investigations, and complex civil litigation. Mr. Alonso has represented public and private companies across many industries, as well as corporate executives, before the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS), 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 (FCPA), the U.S. sanctions regimes administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and anti-money laundering under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), among other matters. Mr. Alonso has led numerous investigations and compliance reviews in 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 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, Mr. Alonso was a litigation partner at an Am Law 100 firm, and just prior to joining Buckley he served as Managing Director and General Counsel at global compliance firm Exiger. He is currently 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 serves on the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Standards of Attorney Conduct and was formerly a member of the Attorney Grievance Committee for New York’s First Judicial Department. He 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, Mr. Alonso 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 currently the 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, 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, Mr. Alonso 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. He is a native speaker of Spanish and a conversational Portuguese speaker, 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, Panama, and Costa Rica.

Representative matters include:

  • 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
     
  • 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 Central American corporation in multi-lateral bank debarment proceedings
     
  • The Archdiocese of New York in a civil RICO action
     
  • A large debt settlement company in a New York Attorney General investigation
     
  • Multiple public company executives in DOJ FCPA investigations and prosecutions
     
  • A reality television star in a DOJ prosecution of alleged fraud
     
  • A major South American fintech company in regulatory matters

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

Mr. Alonso received his J.D. from New York University School of Law in 1990, and his B.A. from Cornell University (with distinction) in 1987. From 1995-1996, he served as law clerk to Judge Joseph W. Bellacosa of the New York Court of Appeals.

Webcasts & Speaking Engagements

In The News

Publications

Awards and Recognitions

Awards & Recognitions

  • Legal 500 2022: Corporate Investigations and White Collar Criminal Defense
  • Super Lawyers Criminal Defense: White Collar
  • Thomson Reuters’ Stand-out Lawyer - 2022
  • AV Preeminent Peer Review Rating, Martindale-Hubbell
  • Henry L. Stimson Medal, New York City Bar Association
  • Director's Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice (Four-time recipient)
  • John J. McCloy Award, Fund for Modern Courts
  • Robert M. Morgenthau Award, District Attorneys Association of the State of New York

Practice Areas

Education

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

Admissions

  • New York
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
  • U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York
  • U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
  • U.S. Tax Court

Government Service

    • Assistant U.S. Attorney and Chief of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York
    • Chief Assistant District Attorney, New York County District Attorney’s Office
    • Law Clerk, Hon. Joseph W. Bellacosa, New York Court of Appeals

Memberships & Involvements

    • Member, American Bar Association - Section of International Law
    • Member, Argentine Lawyers Association of New York
    • Member, Federal Bar Council
    • Member, Hispanic National Bar Association
    • Member, New York American Inn of Court
    • Member, New York State Bar Association
    • Member, New York City Bar Association
    • Board Member, The Fund for Modern Courts
    • Member, Argentina Lawyers Association of New York
    • Member, Committee on Standards of Attorney Conduct

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