Profile
Richard Schwartz has been a practicing attorney for 35 years. He is both an experienced commercial litigator and legal advisor and a financial services regulatory compliance specialist. Richard returns to ABV after 12 years in his most recent compliance role.
Richard has successfully represented corporate, government and individual clients in complex commercial litigation and arbitrations involving banking, securities, regulatory, trusts and estates and employment matters. He has also represented and advised individuals and small businesses in negotiating and resolving contract and general commercial matters, employment and severance matters, real estate transactions, trusts and estates matters (including estate administration), cohabitation dispute and property rights matters, and entertainment, fashion law and modeling management matters.
Richard has served as a compliance officer in the legal and compliance departments at major financial services firms. Richard spent 12 years as a compliance officer at the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC); previously, he worked in Goldman Sachs’s Private Wealth Management and Global Compliance Departments, and, before that, in Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s Legal and Compliance Division.
In each compliance role, Richard was responsible for managing all firmwide employee compliance matters. Such matters included drafting and managing firmwide compliance policies and procedures and supervisory manuals, codes of ethics, and compliance training. Richard was also responsible for managing employee personal investments and trading, gifts and entertainment and conflict of interest reporting, and all client-facing marketing materials, client communications and legal disclosures. He is also experienced in managing FINRA sales practice exams, including representing branch personnel in regulatory interviews and responding to regulatory requests.
At DTCC, Richard managed DTCC’s firmwide Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Financial Crime Compliance and Know-Your-Customer (KYC) programs, including the customer identification program (CIP), customer due diligence (CDD) and enhanced due diligence (EDD). In this role, Richard oversaw compliance with all Bank Secrecy Act and USA PATRIOT Act requirements, including the annual statutorily required BSA/AML regulatory exams.
Also at DTCC, Richard directed the derivatives compliance function for DTCC Data Repository (U.S.) LLC (DDR), DTCC’s North American trade repository. In this role, Richard worked closely with the CFTC, SEC and DDR’s thirteen Canadian securities regulators, and was responsible for all regulatory filings and communications, and was also responsible for coordinating with DTCC’s four global derivatives trade repositories in England, Ireland, Japan and Singapore.
A frequent panelist at numerous industry-wide financial services conferences, Richard has addressed AML and financial crime issues, notably techniques for detecting microcap or penny stock fraud. He also has provided training on microcap securities to the SEC’s Enforcement Division, FINRA’s Examination Team, and to state and federal prosecutors and law enforcement personnel.