Terry Pesce is a recognized expert in financial crime regulation and enforcement, specializing in Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)/anti-money laundering (AML) compliance, sanctions, and fraud. Ms. Pesce’s experience includes assisting financial institutions with designing and implementing financial crimes compliance programs, performing gap analyses, designing and executing AML/BSA/Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) risk assessments, and conducting large-scale transaction lookbacks and Know Your Customer (KYC) remediations. She also provides advisory services to boards of directors and senior corporate leadership on regulatory responses and remedial actions.
As an expert witness, Ms. Pesce has authored expert reports and provided expert testimony. She has addressed civil litigation and enforcement matters alleging money laundering and fraud, as well as cases involving sanctions enforcement, compliance, and financial industry practices.
Ms. Pesce has held senior leadership roles in the financial crimes sector across consulting, industry, and government. Before starting her own independent firm, she served as a principal and global head of AML for KPMG’s Forensic Advisory Services, leading numerous engagements for financial institutions on AML, BSA, and sanctions issues. Previously, Ms. Pesce was executive vice president and managing director for AML at HSBC North America. In that position, she oversaw the creation and maintenance of investigative and financial intelligence programs and transaction monitoring, as well as AML, OFAC, and sanctions compliance.
For over a decade, Ms. Pesce served as the assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY). As chief of the Major Crimes Unit, she supervised the prosecution of primarily white-collar matters, including alleged bank fraud, money laundering, wire fraud, tax fraud, investment fraud, and computer crimes. During the last five years of her tenure, Ms. Pesce was the supervisory attorney on all money laundering and criminal tax matters.
Ms. Pesce is a sought-after speaker on financial crimes and regulatory compliance issues and presents regularly to professional and legal organizations. Her thought leadership includes chapters in books such as The New Era of Regulatory Enforcement and Managing the Risk of Fraud and Misconduct. In addition, she has been quoted in American Banker, Reuters, Risk Intelligence, and the Wall Street Journal on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) and technology in addressing financial crime, de-risking, and sanctions.
Ms. Pesce served as an adjunct professor at Case Western School of Law, where she taught in a global program focused on financial crimes, financial crime prevention, and criminal law–related subjects.