RECEIVERSHIPS 101: FIRESIDE CHAT WITH ERIC BUSTILLO

About Our Speakers

Eric Bustillo
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Eric I. Bustillo currently serves as Director of the Miami Regional Office (“MIRO”) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). As Director, he is responsible for leading the functions of the MIRO, including the supervision of the office’s Enforcement and Examination programs, which jurisdiction covers the States of Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana, as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The MIRO employs numerous professionals, including attorneys, accountants, and examiners, as well as support personnel who are assigned to these programs. 

Between March 1995 and February 2010, Mr. Bustillo was employed by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida (“USAO-SDFL”) as an Assistant United States Attorney (“AUSA”) where for the last five years of his tenure with the office he served as Chief of the USAO-SDFL’s Economic & Environmental Crimes Section, in charge of supervising a group of AUSAs and other professionals. Mr. Bustillo supervised and prosecuted criminal matters involving, among other things, securities/corporate fraud, health care fraud, environmental crimes, commodities fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, tax fraud, and money laundering violations. 

Between February 1990 and March 1995, Mr. Bustillo was employed by the MIRO where he last served as Chief of one of the office’s Enforcement branches, in charge of supervising a group of enforcement attorneys and an accountant. He supervised and prosecuted complex matters involving, among other things, financial fraud, insider trading, stock manipulation, fraudulent sale of unregistered securities, broker-dealer/investment adviser fraudulent practices, and corporate accounting controls violations. Prior to joining the SEC, Mr. Bustillo worked, briefly, at a private law firm doing commercial litigation and some corporate/real estate transactional work. 

Mr. Bustillo attained a Bachelor of Business Administration degree with a major in Economics from the University of Miami School of Business and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Miami School of Law. Mr. Bustillo currently serves as an Adjunct Faculty member of the Litigation Skills Program at the University of Miami School of Law where he teaches Trial Advocacy Skills. He also is a frequent speaker at securities and white collar crime seminars around the country.

Jonathan Perlman
Venable LLP

Jonathan chairs the Receivership Practice of the D.C. headquartered Venable LLP law firm. He also serves as president of the National Association of Federal Equity Receivers (NAFER), the only national organization devoted to federal and state receiverships, and the unique issues receivers, judges and regulators face in such matters.

Jonathan has served as court-appointed receiver over numerous businesses that had, until his appointment, been engaged in Ponzi schemes or other unlawful conduct, including in actions brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other regulatory agencies. Jonathan also represents receivers, as well as investors and creditors in such matters. 

Jonathan is a seasoned litigator with over 30 years of experience handling complex individual and class action litigation and arbitration matters, including in the securities, franchise, banking, and employment arenas. Having previously served as a director of a $1 billion community bank where he served on the audit and compliance committees and chaired the compensation committee, Jonathan brings to each engagement unique experience to effectively create and manage diverse teams with the skills best suited to each assignment’s needs. 

Jonathan regularly lectures and writes articles regarding receiverships, class actions, and franchise litigation. At the April 2024 Public Investors Advocate Bar Association Mid-Year Meeting in Las Vegas, Jonathan spoke to an audience of state securities regulators on how to protect more investors with less resources by “Leveraging the Power of an Equity Receiver.”   At the 2023 NAFER Annual Conference in Nashville, TN, Jonathan held a Fireside Chat with CFTC Commissioner Summer Mersinger and was a panelist on “Avoiding Tears in Your Beer in Cross-Border Receiverships.”  At the 2022 NAFER Annual Conference in Washington, DC, Jonathan produced and moderated NAFER’s first-ever Regulators Panel consisting of regulators from the SEC, the Commodity Future Trading Commission (CFTC), and the FTC. At the 2021 NAFER Annual Conference in Los Angeles, Jonathan presented a fireside chat with the FTC’s chief litigation counsel. At the 2020 NAFER Offshore Conference, Jonathan was a panelist and moderator on “What’s New for Receivers Around the World”; at the 2019 International Franchise Association Legal Symposium, he spoke on Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility class and damages actions; and at the 2018 NAFER Annual Conference, he spoke on protection of receivership assets. Jonathan also spoke as a panelist in recent webinars, including a ThoughtLeaders4 international insolvency webinar on “Assembling the A Team” with an international panel (2021), “Has the Bell Tolled for FTC Receiverships?” (NAFER 2021), and “Takedowns and Takeaways in Federal Receiverships” (NAFER 2020).

Jonathan attended the University of Florida College of Law, and obtained his undergraduate degree from Duke University, cum laude with special distinction honors in psychology.  He resides in Miami, Florida with his wife, Dr. Molly Perlman, a nationally recognized psychiatrist and leader in the mental health field.

Jeffrey Schneider
Levine Kellogg Lehman Schneider + Grossman LLP

Jeff is an accomplished trial lawyer whose practice focuses on high-stakes business litigation, receiverships, and class action litigation, particularly in connection with receiverships. Jeff is one of the Firm’s founding partners, and has been the Firm’s Managing Partner since its inception fifteen years ago. Jeff also Chairs the Firm’s Receivership Practice Group.

Jeff has been trying complex, high-risk, eight-and-nine-figure cases in federal and state trial courts, and in arbitration proceedings, for over thirty years. Jeff has worked on some of the largest fraud cases in history, either as lead trial counsel, as receiver, or as counsel to the receiver.

Jeff has also served as receiver in actions brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the Office of the Attorney General. Jeff has been appointed by District Court judges in the Northern District of Alabama, the Northern District of Illinois and the Southern District of Florida, and by state court judges in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.

Throughout the course of his career, Jeff has helped to recover well over $400 million for defrauded victims, including a $104 million recovery in the Mutual Benefits fraud, a $150 million recovery and a $32 million recovery in the Jay Peak fraud, a $54 million recovery in the Woodbridge fraud, a $32 million dollar recovery in the DLI fraud, and multiple other eight-figure recoveries. Jeff is known for his creative and passionate approach to litigation, and is considered an expert on Ponzi schemes and fraud cases.

Jeff has been recognized by virtually every publication and peer-review organization that exists, including Chambers USA and The Best Lawyers in America, and has twice received the Daily Business Review’s “Most Effective Lawyer” award (having been nominated four times). As noted in Chambers USA, Jeff’s peers call him “a shrewd tactician” and praise him for his “creativity,” his “organization,” and his ability “to analyze, distill, and set forth complex issues in a simple, understandable way.” In 2024, Jeff was one of three lawyers in Miami-Dade County nominated for “Attorney of the Year” by the Daily Business Review.

Jeff is a frequent lecturer in the areas of receivership litigation and commercial litigation and arbitration.