Adele Q. Brown
Adele Q. Brown - New York
Head of Business Development
Adele Brown, an investigator, writer and marketing professional, heads our business development and client relations initiatives, including developing professional programs for targeted audiences. Recent programs include "Straight Talk" in London and "Managing & Protecting the Corporation: Managing Cross-Border Criminal Liability" in Milan.
With more than 25 years of experience working in both the private and public sectors, Adele has conducted global due diligence and fraud investigations on behalf of major financial institutions, law firms and corporations. She has investigated allegations of art market fraud, libel and market manipulation and has conducted numerous interviews in connection with several major multi-jurisdictional civil lawsuits.
Prior to joining Nardello & Co., Adele was a Senior Investigator at a New York-based investigative firm conducting pre-transaction due diligence on joint venture partners for several multinational corporations. Previously, Adele worked as a producer at the public television station in New York City, as a legislative assistant in the United States Senate and as a National Account Manager for a Fortune 100 company. In addition, Adele is the author of What A Way To Go, Fabulous Funerals of the Famous and Infamous (Chronicle, 2001), as well as biographies and other works of non-fiction.
Adele Brown received her BA cum laude from Connecticut College and her Masters in Public Administration from The George Washington University.
abrown@nardelloandco.com
Rana Feghali
Rana Feghali - London
Head of Middle East Practice
Rana Feghali heads our Middle East practice and is an expert in conducting investigations throughout the Middle East, the Gulf States and North Africa. Fluent in Arabic, French and English, she has lived, worked and traveled extensively in the Middle East, UK and US.
Rana has managed hundreds of investigations, including a wide range of pre-transactional due diligence, FCPA and internal investigation projects, litigation support matters and asset searches. In a case for a European conglomerate, Rana and her investigative team performed an asset search in Dubai, enabling the client to begin legal action to reclaim several million dollars from a former employee. Through another due diligence investigation for a European investment bank, Rana determined that allegations against a proposed joint venture partner in the Persian Gulf were untrue and had been instigated by a commercial rival.
Prior to joining Nardello & Co., Rana worked for a London-based risk management consultancy firm. She has analyzed various systematic risks in the Gulf, such as terrorism in Saudi Arabia and money laundering in the UAE for clients, including financial services firms, oil and gas producers, corporations and government organizations. She also investigated the potential threat posed by militant Islamist groups to energy installations in North Africa.
Before becoming an investigator, Rana was an investigative journalist at several Arabic newspapers, notably Asharq Alawsat. She undertook research on business and political developments in Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf.
Rana began her career in Washington, DC at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, carrying out research on Arab nationalism in the 19th century and translating original material held in the Library of Congress from Arabic to English.
Rana Feghali is a graduate of the American University of Beirut, Lebanon and the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
Rana is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. The institute focuses on political and military conflict and examines the political, economic and social factors that cause instability worldwide, including in the Middle East.
Liliya Gelemerova
Dr. Liliya Gelemerova - London
Head of Eastern Europe and FSU Practice
Fluent in Russian, Bulgarian, German and English, Lily has a strong background in financial intelligence that includes many years of training in anti-money laundering practices. She has worked on a wide range of pre-joint venture due diligence and investigation projects, specifically in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the Former Soviet Union (FSU).
Lily manages significant, multi-jurisdictional financial fraud and anti-corruption investigations, including those involving money laundering transactions and elaborate embezzlement schemes. She regularly leads investigative teams in the region conducting pre-transaction due diligence and investigations focused on identifying potential "red flags" related to the FCPA and other anti-corruption laws.
Lily has worked in London, Berlin and Sofia. Prior to joining Nardello & Co., she worked as an investigator and senior associate for two risk management consultancy firms in London. She also worked as a research analyst at the global anti-corruption organization, Transparency International at its Secretariat in Berlin, as well as for the Confederation of British Industry in London.
In addition, Lily worked as Head of International Contacts and Legal Coordination for the Bulgarian Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA) in Sofia, where she was responsible for the international cooperation work on cross-border crime and money laundering, including intelligence protocols on the tracing and analysis of business associations and cross-border transactions.
Dr. Liliya Gelemerova is a graduate of the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria and the British Studies Centre at the Humboldt University in Berlin. She received her doctorate in the area of Anti-Money Laundering at the Law Faculty of the Tilburg University in the Netherlands.
Lily's article, "On the Frontline Against Money-Laundering: The Regulatory Minefield" was published in the journal Crime, Law and Social Change and her article entitled "Fighting Foreign Bribery: the stick or the carrot?" was published in Cross Border Crime Inroads on Integrity in Europe.
Mark Herber
Mark Herber - London
Senior Investigative Consultant
Mark Herber is an investigator, lawyer and a highly skilled interviewer. He has extensive experience in conducting cross border investigations with deep-seated knowledge of local cultures, regulations and procedures. As an integral part of the Nardello & Co. team for almost 10 years, Mark has undertaken investigative work on behalf of clients in many jurisdictions, notably the Middle East, Far East, the United States, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, including the Central Asian Republics.
During his many years as a solicitor with a Big 5 London law firm, Mark specialized in fraud and insolvency investigations and worked on several high-profile cases, including the Maxwell and BCCI cases. Subsequent to that, he was assigned to the British Government's Serious Fraud Office for three years, where he managed investigations into international advance fee frauds and commodity frauds, as well as allegations of fraud within local municipal authorities.
Mark Herber's published work includes a legal and criminal history of London, and Ancestral Trails, an award-winning reference book on genealogical research.
Jeremy Hurewitz
Jeremy Hurewitz - New York
Head of Business Intelligence
Jeremy Hurewitz is Head of the firm's Business Intelligence practice. Jeremy brings expertise from the world of international journalism - where he was based in China and the Czech Republic - as well as his most recent experience in global risk management.
Jeremy has managed hundreds of cases for strategic investors, financial institutions and multi-nationals concerned with corruption issues, fraud, political risk and managing reputational risks. He specializes in helping clients understand the issues surrounding business decisions in emerging markets.
Prior to joining Nardello & Co. Jeremy worked for an international risk management company assisting clients with a variety of matters. Those matters included supporting some of the world's largest financial institutions as they brought companies to the public markets and providing insight into China's opaque political world and rapidly changing business environment. Before that Jeremy worked for one of the largest global accountancy firms in their China-focused group, producing research on mergers and acquisitions, writing reports on broad investment trends and supporting the firm's strategic marketing for China.
Jeremy began his career in Prague with an international newspaper association, Project Syndicate. At Project Syndicate Jeremy was responsible for establishing a growth strategy for the association and ran the head office in Prague for three years. He later edited the monthly Asian Century Series, working with top politicians, academics and writers to provide insight for newspapers around the world.
Jeremy also had a successful career as a freelance journalist both in Prague and Shanghai. He covered business, politics, travel and culture for a variety of international newspapers and magazines.
Jeremy Hurewitz is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has been a member of the Foreign Correspondents Club in both Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Sophie Lamont
Sophie Lamont - London
Head of Africa Practice
Sophie Lamont heads the firm's Africa practice. She is a qualified solicitor with experience in commercial litigation, practiced at Norton Rose LLP in London. Sophie has conducted numerous due diligence and litigation support assignments, asset traces and internal investigations. As a strategist, Sophie has also prepared business intelligence reports to support her clients' commercial transactions.
Prior to joining Nardello & Co., Sophie worked on the Business Intelligence and Corporate Investigations teams for a London-based risk management consultancy where she managed numerous investigative and litigation support matters in Africa and elsewhere. Her investigative work included identifying and locating the assets of a high net worth individual in support of proceedings in multiple jurisdictions. She has also worked with lawyers in preparing a litigation strategy and building a case in advance of an anticipated claim in East Africa.
As a lawyer, Sophie focused on general commercial, insurance and reinsurance disputes and defamation. She worked on a number of cases linked to African jurisdictions including advising clients following the collapse of a copper mine in Zambia and also advised a large petrochemical company in defamation matters.
In addition, Sophie has worked in Namibia and Hong Kong and has traveled extensively in South America, the Middle East and Africa. She is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and has just taken part in the Great Ethiopian Run in Addis Ababa.
Sophie Lamont is a graduate of Bristol University, where she earned her BSc in Philosophy and Politics, and BBP Law School.
Andrew Levi
Andrew K. Levi - Miami
Head of Miami Office
Andrew Levi heads the firm's Miami office and is an integral member of Nardello & Co.'s Financial Investigations and Litigation Support practices. A formal federal prosecutor, he is an accomplished trial lawyer and financial investigator who has investigated and prosecuted a number of large-scale securities, banking and tax fraud cases. He has also developed, investigated and tried cases against corporate officers, members of organized crime and public officials for white-collar crime.
Before joining Nardello & Co., Andrew served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Economic Crimes Section of the United States Attorney's Office of the Southern District of Florida. He was a member of that Office's $50 million bank and accounting fraud trial team that successfully prosecuted one of the largest and most sophisticated white-collar cases in the Southern District of Florida's history, United States v. Masferrer. He was also lead counsel in the Mutual Benefits Corp. $1 billion securities fraud case, which involved 28,000 victims worldwide, and prosecuted South Florida's well-known court appointed receiver Lewis B. Freeman for a 10-year Ponzi scheme. In addition, Andrew served as an instructor for the U.S. Department of Justice's Bank and Securities Fraud Seminar.
Earlier, while working for the New York Stock Exchange as Trial Counsel and Senior Special Counsel in the Division of Enforcement, Andrew investigated brokerage firms for violations of NYSE rules and securities law violations. Prior to that, he worked as an Assistant District Attorney in the Labor Racketeering Unit of the New York County District Attorney's Office and served in the Special Investigations Bureau of the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor. He was also an Adjunct Professor of Law at New York Law School, where he received a distinguished service award for contributing to the scholastic excellence of the law school and the profession.
Andrew was a contributing author to the first and second editions of New York Criminal Law and in 2006 was chosen by the Miami Daily Business Review for its list of the "Most Effective Lawyers" in South Florida in Criminal Law. Andrew also serves on the White Collar Committee of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL).
Andrew Levi graduated with a BS from Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He received his JD from Brooklyn Law School, where he received a number of honors including the American Jurisprudence Award for Conflict of Laws.
James Nauwens
James Nauwens - New York
Chief Investigator, US
James Nauwens is a respected and tenacious problem solver. His insight and know-how are a tremendous resource for Nardello & Co. where Jim leads investigative teams on litigation support and security-related matters. As the Supervisory Criminal Investigator at the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, Jim uncovered critical evidence for federal prosecutors in his 20+ years of service. There, he worked on cases involving narcotics conspiracies, official corruption, bank fraud, organized crime conspiracies, RICO matters, SEC violations and the sexual exploitation of children. In 1997 he received the Tendy Award for his outstanding public service.
At Nardello & Co., and throughout his private sector career, Jim has successfully applied his public service expertise to a range of matters including corporate and financial fraud, international investigations, civil and criminal litigation support, internal theft, electronic surveillance/counter measures and security consulting.
He is an expert interviewer, having conducted thousands of witness interviews over the course of his career, and has experience in collecting physical and electronic evidence and presenting trial testimony based on his investigations. He has testified in many important cases, including the trials of John Gotti (racketeering), Edwin Wilson (renegade CIA agent) and the Westies (murder for hire).
Jim has provided security assessments for national corporations and high-net worth individuals resulting in the identification and correction of high-risk behaviors and potential for exposure. Additionally, he has developed a privatized home detention and bail monitorship service for Nardello & Co.
Jim Nauwens began his career with the New York City Police Department before being assigned to the Drug Enforcement Administration's New York Joint Narcotics Task Force.
Nicholas Peck
Nicholas Peck - New York
Head of Complex Investigations
Nicholas Peck heads the firm's Complex Investigations practice. Nick's investigative career, spanning more than 25 years, is distinguished by numerous notable matters requiring his expertise in building and executing unique strategies to meet our clients ultimate objectives. With extensive experience in a wide range of matters, he has consistently provided clarity to assignments that involve intricate issues across technical, legal and regulatory boundaries. Examples of this type of work include investigations involving sovereign governments, alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and Internet gaming.
Nick has a particular expertise in international matters, having lived and worked outside the US, notably in South Africa, where as Managing Director for an international investigations firm he opened and headed its Johannesburg office. Both in the US and South Africa, he has handled numerous types of investigations including litigation support, international asset searches, domestic and international due diligence, corporate control contests, and reputation-related issues.
Highlights of Nick's career include significant roles in several major high-profile cases, among them a two-year investigation of Saddam Hussein's financial network, a fraud investigation for a South African state-owned bank that led to the conviction of several individuals and an international investigation of a senior executive of a multinational corporation who had embezzled millions of dollars through the use of fake invoices.
Nick Peck received his BA in International Relations from Bates College in Maine.
Michael J. Ramos
Michael J. Ramos - New York
General Counsel and Head of Litigation Support
Michael Ramos' legal and investigative career, spanning over 20 years, has been defined by his commitment to excellence. A former Assistant US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Michael returned to investigative practice by joining Nardello & Co. as General Counsel and Head of Litigation Support.
For Nardello & Co., Michael has managed large litigation support investigations across multiple jurisdictions involving internal fraud, defense against RICO actions, libel cases and criminal defense matters. In addition, he has successfully directed several international asset tracking and forensic accounting teams.
For a bank hoping to identify assets of an individual who defaulted on more than $500 million in loans, Michael's team searched in the Netherlands, the UK, France, the Caribbean and the US, and identified numerous businesses and substantial assets, including millions of dollars in artwork. In support of an internal investigation involving an internationally known hospitality company, Michael and his team performed forensic audits, document review, employee interviews and the forensic examination of computers at multiple locations across the US. The investigation confirmed that the accounting fraud was not as extensive as had been suspected.
During his time as an Assistant United States Attorney, Michael prosecuted fraud, money laundering and narcotics cases, many with complex international components. He was responsible for some of that Office's most significant multi-agency international investigations focusing on Southeast Asia and South America. While there, Michael brought 18 cases to trial. Listen to Michael's commentary on the Madoff matter here.
Earlier in his career, Michael worked at Zuckerman Spaeder LLP. He also clerked for US Magistrate Judge Joan M. Azrack in the Eastern District of New York. Before beginning his legal career, Michael was an associate director with another international investigative firm, where he conducted pre-transaction due diligence, asset searches and fraud investigations on behalf of Fortune 500 corporations, financial institutions, law firms and foreign governments.
Michael Ramos received his BA from Rutgers University and JD from Brooklyn Law School.
Ben Rowse
Ben Rowse - Hong Kong
Head of Asia Practice
Ben Rowse heads the firmʼs Asia practice. Based in Hong Kong, Ben has lived and worked in Asia since 2000, both in his capacity as a business intelligence specialist and as a senior investigator with international consultancies. He has managed integrity due diligence, litigation support, competitive intelligence, fraud, corruption and asset tracing investigations throughout the region on behalf of financial institutions, law firms and multinationals. Ben specializes in helping clients identify and understand the distinct business, political and cultural risks that they may face when doing business in Asia, particularly with regard to the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the UK Bribery Act.
Prior to joining Nardello & Co., Ben was a director in a ʻBig Fourʼ accountancy firmʼs forensic practice in China, where he founded and led an investigative team divided between Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai. Primarily focused on the Greater China sub-region, Ben managed a wide variety of engagements for US and European clients. Among these were fraud investigations into Chinese companies that had obtained listings on North American exchanges through reverse takeovers. In addition to his client-facing role, Ben implemented and oversaw the firmʼs internal KYC process, which included conducting more than 5,000 separate background investigations over a three-year period.
Ben also worked for a global risk consultancy, where he managed numerous engagements across Asia. These included investigating whistleblower allegations that a US multinational had paid kickbacks to government officials in India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives; a litigation-driven investigation into claimants to disputed assets of former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos; and discreet field inquiries to identify the Latin American and Middle Eastern distribution networks of a Chinese manufacturer of counterfeit medical products.
Ben honed his skills as an investigator during more than six years as an Asia-Pacific correspondent for Agence France-Presse, a role that included several years as deputy bureau chief in Hanoi covering Vietnam and Laos. His reporting assignments included the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, the Gulf War, and the Asian tsunami disaster. Ben began his career as a press officer for an international human rights organization.
Ben Rowse is a graduate of the University of Exeter (UK) with a BA in Politics.
Davide Sattin
Davide Sattin- London and Milan
Head of Western Europe Practice
Davide Sattin is Head of our Western Europe Practice and divides his time between our London and Milan offices. He is a lawyer and an experienced investigator, managing complex and multijurisdictional investigative tasks including pre-transactional due diligence, business intelligence, asset tracing, internal investigations, litigation support and international fraud matters. Working with the team from our Milan office, Davide also manages our clientsʼ needs in relation to compliance with Italian Legislative Decree 231/2001. Davide is a native Italian speaker and is fluent in English.
Prior to joining Nardello & Co., Davide worked at a London-based risk management consultancy firm where he led numerous investigative assignments, managing and developing client accounts for companies and institutions interested in mitigating operational, security, political and reputational risks worldwide.
Before moving to London, Davide worked as a lawyer for Heller Ehrman LLP in New York, where he was part of the team that served as lead counsel for Deloitte & Touche SpA in the Parmalat Securities Litigation, a consolidated class action for US securities fraud and audit malpractice arising out of Europeʼs largest financial fraud at the time.
Prior to working at Heller Ehrman, in 2003 and 2004, Davide was Security Council and Humanitarian Affairs Adviser at the Delegation of the European Commission to the United Nations in New York. While there he participated in the negotiation and drafting of various international legal instruments, attending and reporting on multilateral and bilateral meetings with Member States, Intergovernmental and Nongovernmental organizations and UN agencies, mostly focusing on Iraq. As a graduate student, Davide interned at the Policy Planning Unit of the Department of Political Affairs of the United Nations.
Davide Sattin graduated from the State University of Milan with a degree in Law and was admitted to practice law in Italy. He holds a Masters of Law (LLM) from Columbia University School of Law and a Master of International Affairs (MIA) from Columbia Universityʼs School of International and Public Affairs.
Shelley Shao
Shelley Shao - Hong Kong
Director of Research, Asia
Shelley Shao, 邵春玲, is the firm’s Director of Research for Asia. A native of the region, Shelley is fluent in Mandarin and English. An investigator and compliance professional, she has extensive experience conducting pre-transaction due diligence, anti-corruption and anti-money laundering investigations, Know-Your-Customer (KYC) research and asset tracing throughout Asia.
Prior to joining Nardello & Co., Shelley was an Anti-Money Laundering Compliance (AML) specialist at Citibank in Hong Kong. Her primary responsibility was conducting targeted investigations of the bank’s high-risk institutional clients, including correspondent banks, embassies and senior public officials. Shelley performed due diligence and KYC reviews, checks on compliance with AML policy and risk reviews on fraud investigations. At the bank, she also managed and coordinated local investigations with the firm’s US team. Previously, Shelley worked for the forensic and dispute services practice of a Big Four firm, where she conducted due diligence investigations on individuals and companies. Investigations included FCPA–related matters, misappropriation of corporate assets, fraud and forgery.
Earlier in her career, Shelley established a research hub in the Southern Chinese city of Shenzhen for a business intelligence company where she managed the retrieval and analysis of information for due diligence assignments and background investigations. She also developed a pre-employment screening service to enable clients to verify the backgrounds of potential employees.
Shelley is a graduate of Macquarie University in Australia, where she earned a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree.