Over 15 years experience with workouts, turnarounds and insolvencies.  Broad experience in industries including financial services, manufacturing, distribution and transportation.

Mr. Blackwell is the court appointed Liquidator, Trustee and SEC Receiver for the InverWorld group of companies based in San Antonio, Texas. The companies had operations in the US, Mexico, Grand Caymans, London, Argentina, and Venezuela and managed assets in excess of $425 million. Mr. Blackwell led this complex group of companies through court proceedings in the US Bankruptcy Court, the US District Court, the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands, and the London High Court of Justice. During the course of this engagement, innovative mechanisms such as a multi-jurisdictional protocol were developed to expedite recovery of assets and minimization of administrative expenses. Since InverWorld provided services of both a lending institution and a securities broker, creditors had pooled claims as well as proprietary claims. In response, Mr. Blackwell developed a negotiated solution that avoided years of litigation-related delay. Simultaneously, Mr. Blackwell had led the asset recovery actions in Luxembourg, Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, and the US. The broad variety of asset locations has required novel and creative asset recovery solutions adapted to the local laws. Highlighted asset recoveries include two residences of the InverWorld chairman worth $3 million and various pieces of commercial real estate worth $4 million that was protected by offshore bearer-share corporations. To supplement the investors’ recovery, third party litigation has been initiated against the attorneys, accounting firms, and banks that supported InverWorld. Thus far settlements from third party litigation exceed $27 million.

Mr. Blackwell has extensive restructuring and bankruptcy experience from engagements including Otasco, Munford Majik Markets, Elkay Industries, Diamond Lumber, and multiple other clients requiring lease negotiations, cash forecasting, operational restructuring, and asset sales.

John Boaden is the Director of International Operations of IPSA's Miami/Latin America/Caribbean Office, whilst working from the Dallas Office. His prime areas of operation include, but are not necessarily limited to, the Caribbean and Europe.

John joined IPSA, working from the Dallas office in October of 2000, having previously run his own investigative business in South Florida since March 1995. His main areas of expertise focus on asset location and recovery, together with litigation support; complex fraud investigation; business intelligence; intellectual property and trademark protection issues.

John retired from the British Police Service in 1993 having served some 30 years. The majority of his career was as a Detective investigating major international fraud and also working on homicide inquiries. The last 6 years of that service was spent on loan to the Royal Cayman Islands Police (1987 - 1993) from where he retired whilst holding the rank of Detective Chief Inspector. During his tenure in the Cayman Islands he was attached to the Commercial Crime Branch and worked many matters involving high-value fraud etc. John was also fortunate to investigate many multi-jurisdictional matters involving liaison with law enforcement authorities from all over the world. He was primarily responsible for the inquiries in Cayman, which emanated from the worldwide closing of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) in 1991. These particular inquiries involved very close liaison with authorities from the USA and UK and resulted in many prosecutions worldwide.

John has testified on a number of high profile matters both in the USA; the UK and Cayman concerning financial dealings routed through Cayman and elsewhere. He wrote and published a handbook on the management of major crime incident rooms, which was subsequently adopted in Cayman and then was taught to other British Dependent Territory Police Forces throughout the Caribbean. During his tenure in the Cayman Islands he made many contacts worldwide which continue to this day.

John has addressed many associations regarding white collar-crime etc in the Caribbean, including Certified Fraud Examiners; Florida Association of Licensed Investigators; a seminar at the FBI Academy in Quantico; the Cayman Islands Society of Professional Accountants and many other similar associations.

John is a licensed investigator in the States of Florida and also Texas. He holds the designation of Florida Certified Investigator and is also a certified paralegal in the USA.  

Wall Street columnist and commentator, New York Post newspaper. Syndicated radio commentator, 'Wall Street Wakeup With Chris Byron', (MediaAmerica/Jones Radio Network). Author: Martha Inc, The Incredible Story Of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (John Wiley & Sons, 2002), major national and New York Times non-fiction bestseller, made into and aired as an NBC Movie of the Week. Contributing editor: Mens Health magazine. Regular book reviewer, the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post newspapers; regular guest on CNN, Fox Television, MSNBC, and CNBC.
 

Mr. Cowen brings extensive experience and training in security research, application testing, and computer forensic analysis in both computer and telecommunications systems and software to the S3 Partners team. He has conducted Forensic Investigations, given declarations in the courts and developed methodologies for use in Incident Response. He has deep experience with EnCase, The Coroners Toolkit, and other forensic tools. As a recognized expert in the courts Mr. Cowen has served as a testifying expert and other roles in the support of legal motions.

Mr. Cowen has extensive experience in both Penetration Testing and Web Application Security Auditing and with multiple firewalls on multiple platforms including: Cyberguard, Raptor, Checkpoint, Cisco Pix, TIS. He also has experience with microwave wireless networking and the security. Mr. Cowen has worked with a large variety of operating systems and the security within including: Windows NT (3.51 and 4.0), Dos/Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Novell (3.1 and 4.11) Unix (Irix, SunOs, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Nokia IPSO, Linux, HP/UX, AIX, Solaris, Osf1, Sco, sco mvs+, etc...), MPE/XL, VAX/VMS, Primos, Picos, various older operating systems. He has also worked with the following PBX Systems: AT&T Definity G (All models), Samsung Prostar DCS, Meridian, Rolm-CBX, intertel, comdial, executech various older models. He has deep programming experience with pascal, perl, sh (various shells within), c, c++, tcl/tk, visual c++, visual basic, and x86 assembly and experience with Oracle, MS SQL, MS Access, MySql, Postgres relational database systems. Additionally, Mr. Cowen has experience with most network protocols (TCP/IP, IPX, NETBUI, Localtalk, DecNet, etc.) and various types of network architectures <ATM, Frame Relay, Ethernet, Token Ring, ArcNet, Thinnet, etc)

Prior to joining S3 Partners, Mr. Cowen was Senior Security Specialist for Vigilar where he worked with the Vigilar Red Team providing assessment and forensic services to clients. He also developed and taught two classes on data security for Vigilar: Hacking and Assessment Bootcamp and Fast track to the CISSP. Prior to Vigilar, he was Security Services Manager at Enstar. In this capacity, he worked with security and forensic engineers in a director role, created proposal and report structure for use with a consistent methodology for client work, and lead focused efforts in R&D towards wireless security and ISDN security. Mr. Cowen held the Chief Information Officer role at a small Internet service provider and was a Network Security Engineer at Trident Data Systems prior to joining EnStar.

Mr. Cowen has the following industry certifications: CISSP, CCSA, CCSE, TSSA, Proxim – Rangelan2, Wavespan, Waveaccess. He is also active in the following groups: HTCIA, ISSA, Infraguard.
 

Prior to founding his independent investigative and consulting practice, Mr. Files was a partner in a regional consulting firm specializing in business, financial and securities consulting. Mr. Files has also served as the Director of Corporate Finance for an investment banking company and the Principal of a business and venture capital consulting firm specializing in reorganizations and municipal financing for medium sized power plants.  

Prior to this time, Mr. Files was employed by Oppenheimer/Rouse as a commodities specialist. In this capacity he was responsible for managing and trading customer accounts and 24-hour gold, silver, and foreign currency trading. Mr. Files is active in many civic organizations. He is a past Chairman of the American SouthWest Foundation, a non-profit political and economic think-tank. In the past Mr. Files has served as a member of the Governor's Board on Solid Waste Management, as an advisor to the Governor's Board on Economic Planning and Development and a former Commissioner of the City of Tempe Transportation Commission. Mr. Files has also received a Commission and a Medal of Merit from the President of the United States. He has been selected as a Member of  Who's Who in Arizona for 1989 and Who's Who in the Republican party for 1990, Who's Who in The West for 1994/1995 and Who's Who Worldwide 1994/1995. Mr. Files has earned a B.S. in English. Mr. Files is a licensed Private Investigator, specializing in financial investigations. 

Mr. Files currently serves on the Board of Directors of EuroResources, Ltd., an international financial services company; as a Board Member of Tarsus Trust Company, Ltd., an international trust company; as a Director of FLX Financial Corporation, an agribusiness company; and is a Member of the American Society for Law Enforcement Trainers (ASLET).

Rodney Gallagher joined Coopers & Lybrand in 1974 prior to which he had experience with both a consulting engineering firm and a leading firm of economic consultants in East Africa, Eastern Europe and the Caribbean. In 1984 Mr Gallagher was made a partner with the London firm with particular responsibility for work in the Caribbean, having been involved with financial, industrial and economic development projects in the Eastern Caribbean for ODA, the EEC, USAID and other international agencies, residing in the region from 1979 to 1986.

With a background in economics and financial analysis, Mr Gallagher has carried out a number of financial sector assignments including a series of projects for the UK Government. In 1989/90 this work culminated in a personal appointment to undertake a review of the financial services sector in Anguilla, Cayman, BVI, TCI and Montserrat for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The report was published by HMSO and laid before Parliament in January 1990. In October of that year Mr Gallagher was appointed as the Financial Services Adviser to the Secretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, based at the British High Commission, Bridgetown, Barbados. Mr Gallagher resigned from the London partnership of Coopers & Lybrand, now Price Waterhouse Coopers, in 1995.

Over the last ten years a number of major initiatives have been completed, including the clean-up of the offshore sector in both Montserrat and Anguilla, the supervision of the reform of the offshore insurance sector in BVI, and the development of anti-money laundering and anti-fraud initiatives in a number of Caribbean states, including Antigua, Grenada, St Lucia and Belize. Between 1992-4 Mr Gallagher played a key role in the formation of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), whose Secretariat is now based in Trinidad, being responsible for the initial feasibility study and drafting the Kingston Declaration. Mr Gallagher has been closely involved with a number of important, international law enforcement operations in the region, addressing the threat from both Colombian and Russian organized crime and helped establish the joint US-UK White Collar Crime Investigation Team (WCCIT), serving as a member of the WCCIT Oversight Committee from its inception. In June 1998 Mr Gallagher was awarded an OBE for services to HMG in the Caribbean and retired from service to the UK government in December.
 

Michael Hill has over ten years experience in the securities industry with over three years in a compliance role. Mr. Hill is the Chief Compliance Officer for TradeStation and has served in that capacity since February 2001. Mr. Hill also serves as the Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Officer, Compliance Registered Operations Principal, and Municipal Bond Principal. Mr. Hill is responsible for CRD registration, the Firm Element Continuing Education program, anti-money laundering compliance, annual internal review, employee trading review, account approval oversight, maintenance of written supervisory procedures, customer complaints and reporting, promotional material review, option account oversight, and best execution review.

Prior to his current position, Mr. Hill had served as the Director of Compliance from March 2000 to January 2001, and as a trade desk principal and institutional trade desk representative from April 1999 to February 2000. Prior to joining TradeStation, Mr. Hill served in different registered sales capacities and as a proprietary trader. Mr. Hill received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point and is currently pursuing a juris doctorate from Nova Southeastern University. Mr. Hill is a Certified Financial Planner, a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist, an NASD & NFA appointed arbitrator and holds Series 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 14, 24, 53, 55, & 63 registrations. Mr. Hill is also a Major in the United States Army Reserves.

David Marchant is an investigative journalist who has exposed numerous international, white-collar crimes during his career, leading to four libel lawsuits against him – all of which were unsuccessful.

One of the lawsuits was filed by Panama-based asset protection businessman Marc Harris, who was exposed as a money launderer and fraudster in OffshoreAlert in March, 1998. More than five years later, Harris was criminally indicted on 13 counts of money laundering at federal court in Miami and is currently in custody awaiting trial.

Mr. Marchant is regularly quoted about financial crime in the world's media, including The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Miami Herald, Vancouver Sun, Offshore Finance USA, CBS News, BBC Radio, and many more. OffshoreAlert was also referenced several times in the U.S. Senate Report on 'Correspondent Banking: A Gateway to Money Laundering' that was published on February 5, 2001.

As well as wholly-owning KYC News Inc., which publishes OffshoreAlert, Mr. Marchant is one of three founding shareholders of World Compliance Inc., a due diligence information provider that allows financial institutions to comply with compliance legislation such as the USA PATRIOT Act.

Richard D. Parton, Ph.d, co-founder and CEO of V, has over 20 years of business experience and has served as President/CEO of three corporations including BMI, ADR and Cherokee International Sales. He has worked in industries spanning nuclear power, millwork, security, aerospace, defense, automotive, healthcare and food processing.

For more than seven years, Parton also had his own counseling practice and regularly works with patients with depression, bipolar disorders, eating disorders substance abuse, and sexual addictions. His clinical experience also includes psychiatric assessments, working with families of suicide victims, emergency psychiatric interventions, sexual assaults, domestic violence, grief counseling and critical incident debriefing. He holds a doctorate and advanced Seminary degrees in Counseling. He also has a bachelor’s degree in Business from Elmhurst College.

He has been a frequent guest speaker for AT&T, IBM, the State of Wisconsin, World Trade Organizations, as well as foreign governments, and many other public and private organizations.
 

Working from IPSA International’s Miami/Latin America Office, Alberto de la Portilla joined IPSA in January 2001. His responsibilities consist of overseeing all risk mitigation projects for the region, including, but not limited to, due diligence, litigation support, and competitive intelligence matters.

Prior to joining IPSA, Alberto spent seven years with Kroll Associates, where he headed the Latin American and Caribbean investigative research department, managing the collection and analysis of strategic business information throughout the region for many Fortune 500 companies. Additionally, Alberto assisted on several high-level projects providing critical background information for a variety of clients, from venture capital firms seeking investments in Mexico City to Indian gaming operations requesting internal fraud detection analysis.
 

Alright, his eyes may be a little too close together for comfort, some might even describe them as beady, but sharp-dressing, swaggering Clyde Allen Smythe-Howlett is the epitome of charm, particularly when in front of an audience of prospective 'marks', a.k.a. OffshoreAlert Symposium attendees.

Have your check books ready and allow yourself to be swept away by Clyde's silver tongue and boundless confidence as he runs his latest high-yield investment scheme by you. Forget Warren Buffett, he's a lightweight compared with Clyde, whose scheme promises massive returns, carries no-risk, and is secured by his own personal guarantee.

Martin Kenney is the Managing Director of Interclaim (Ireland) and Managing Partner of Martin Kenney & Co. Solicitors, also of Ireland. Prior to founding Interclaim, Mr. Kenney was a partner at Bermans, the English firm of Solicitors, and, more recently, a co-founding partner of the New York law firm Kenney, Becker, Solicitors LLP.

He is a specialist lawyer in multi-jurisdictional asset recovery and international serious fraud. He has acted for a large number of substantial clients who have been victimised by serious fraud and sharp dealing, such as international banks, insurance companies and other private and governmental institutions. He is a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales, a non-practising Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of the Canadian Province of British Columbia, and is licensed in the State of New York as a foreign legal consultant. Mr. Kenney is a member of numerous professional societies, and has published and lectured extensively on money laundering, the legal and ethical restraints on the conduct of private investigations, and international asset recovery.

On November 7, 1999, CBS' highly-rated television show 60 Minutes aired an interview with Mr. Kenney that was conducted by Mike Wallace as part of a program segment called "Con Man" that focused on Interclaim's attempts to recover funds defrauded from them in a telemarketing scam operated by Canadian national Blair Down and others.

James McGunn came to Interclaim in 1997, following a thirty-year career in intelligence, security and criminal investigations. He has served with various Government agencies, including ten years with the Secret Service, four years with the Department of Defense, and 12 years as a Foreign Service Officer and criminal investigator with the US Agency for International Development. Before becoming the Managing Director of Investigations for Interclaim (Ireland), Mr. McGunn held senior management positions in Washington, D.C., Singapore and Germany. He has undertaken and directed investigations of major economic crimes throughout the world. As the Regional Inspector General for Asia/Near East and the Regional Agent in Charge for Europe, Russia and the New Independent States, he managed the investigative oversight of the American foreign assistance portfolios that spanned several continents. Mr. McGunn has received numerous commendations for his handling of high profile financial fraud and money laundering cases. Mr. McGunn has a BA in philosophy and psychology, an MS in Administration of Justice, and is an alumni of the Defense Intelligence Agency’s post graduate School of Strategic Intelligence.

Elizabeth O’Brien, LL.B., B.L., Barrister-at-Law (Ireland, England & Wales), Attorney-at-Law (New York), is a practising Barrister.

Miss O’Brien was educated at Trinity College Dublin from where she graduated with an LL.B. (Hons.), and at the Honourable Society of the King’s Inns, Dublin, Ireland. Miss O’Brien has also qualified as a New York Attorney-at-Law, holds a number of certificates and Diplomas in Communications, Drama, Public Speaking and Marketing and is a member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners and International Bar Association.

Miss O’Brien worked full time as in-house as counsel to Interclaim Recovery Limited, an international claim enforcement and asset location and recovery concern from 1997 to 2000. During this time Miss O’Brien has had the opportunity to work with leading legal and investigative professionals from across the globe on a number of high profile fraud cases. Miss O’Brien has authored and co-authored a number of papers for legal reviews and presentations for fraud related conferences.