Alberto Arevalo, Associate Director in the Office of International Affairs, to Retire From SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Alberto Arevalo, an associate director in the Office of International Affairs, will retire later this month after 28 years of public service.

Mr. Arevalo joined the SEC in 2004 and has been an associate director since 2014, with responsibility for international enforcement and supervisory cooperation, and technical assistance programs. 

“Alberto has played a direct and consequential role in key SEC enforcement cases and initiatives,” said Office of International Affairs Director A. Paul Leder.  “He leaves a lasting impact and a reputation as a wonderful colleague, a transformative leader, and a champion of diversity.”

“It has been my great privilege to have worked with my dedicated and talented colleagues in the Office of International Affairs and across the Commission. It also been an honor to engage with the SEC’s foreign counterparts to promote the Commission’s goals and to learn from those overseas partners,” Mr. Arevalo said. 

Mr. Arevalo assisted with numerous SEC enforcement actions including a 2015 settlement with China-based accounting firms that withheld documents sought in investigations of possible fraud; repatriation of $230 million held in an offshore account in a Ponzi scheme case against Francisco Illarramendi and his firm Highview Point Partners LLC; charges in an $8 billion Ponzi scheme involving Robert Allen Stanford and his companies and a settlement with UBS AG for acting as an unregistered broker-dealer and investment adviser, facilitating U.S. clients’ ability to avoid paying taxes on undisclosed accounts in Switzerland and elsewhere outside the U.S.

In addition, Mr. Arevalo oversaw the SEC’s comprehensive supervisory cooperation agreement in 2017 with the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, taught anti-corruption and anti-money laundering courses internationally, and served as an advisor to the Argentine National Securities Commission.  He also served as co-head of the Cross Border Working Group, a proactive intra-agency working group that was formed to address international issues impacting the SEC and its enforcement mission.

Before joining the SEC, Mr. Arevalo spent 14 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of California where he served as Deputy Chief of the General Crimes Section and Deputy Chief of the Border Crimes Section. He also worked on special assignment training prosecutors and police in South America and the Caribbean.  He began his legal career practicing corporate and securities law in Silicon Valley and San Diego.

Mr. Arevalo holds an undergraduate degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, a master’s degree in Latin American Studies from Stanford University, and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.