Ronald Wilhelm |

Whitehead & Burnett

Ronald Wilhelm | Whitehead & Burnett

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Firm Summary

Ronald E. Wilhelm is a highly regarded legal consultant and Subject Matter Expert in international financial crime and counter-terrorism financing.  With over 35 years of international legal expertise and leadership roles in private and public companies, including bulge bracket banks and hedge funds, he is a recognized global influencer in Anti-Money Laundering/Counter-Terrorism Financing, AML/CTF risk management and analysis, anti-bribery, sanctions and corruption.  Mr. Wilhelm wrote the first (and only) compliance manual to be reviewed by the SEC.  He has enjoyed symbiotic relationships with regulators such as SEC, CFTC, OFAC, FRB, OCC, SFC (Hong Kong), MAS (Singapore), SEC Thailand, ASIC (Australia), SESC (Japan) and SEBI (India), helping each to either establish, review, revise, implement or improve robust compliance programs now impacting most global financial institutions and transactions.

After spending earlier years practicing international business law in Europe where he became a member of the Paris Bar, Mr. Wilhelm recently spent most of the past decade in Hong Kong where he has been instrumental in the development and evolution of APAC financial regulatory, risk, legal and legislative processes.  APAC regulators relied on him as a seasoned and innovative adviser with demonstrated achievements in developing, implementing and communicating highly effective regulatory oversight, compliance and sanctions schemes across multiple business and product lines. More recently, Mr. Wilhelm turned his expertise to training and mentoring global banking officials in an ever-changing, complex AML/CTF environment now involving cyber security and cryptocurrency issues that he closely follows. In addition to his international experience, Mr. Wilhelm, a native Californian, has always maintained a strong connection with local businesses and individuals.  Throughout his career, he has advised, and now advises, domestic clients in all business matters, from initial formation and incorporation through future mergers, acquisitions or dispositions to bankruptcies, terminations or successions.  For individuals, Mr. Wilhelm has designed and supervised estate planning with families and individuals and their financial planners to retain the greatest amount of wealth for family, friends and charities as well as limit the assets transferred to the government or unintended beneficiaries.  He is prepared to provide clients with information about basic estate planning documents and tax planning concepts to help them understand why they need to plan their estates for a smooth transition of their assets from one generation to the next.

Areas Of Practice

• International and U.S. Corporate and Business Law
• International and U.S. Mergers and Acquisitions
• Board Representation and Advisory
• International and U.S. Tax Law
  • Tax Advisory
  • Tax Preparation
• Financial Crimes (Global Subject Matter Expert)
  • Compliance
  • Anti-Money Laundering (AML)
  • Know Your Client (KYC)
  • Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) economic and trade sanctions
  • Regulatory Compliance
  • Anti-Bribery
  • Anti-Corruption
  • Governance
  • Multiple Governments Direct Advisor
  • Financial Products Review
  • Enterprise-Wide Financial Crimes Review (Citi, Hong Kong)
  • Training
• Risk and Change Management
• Bankruptcy Law
• Wills and Estates
  • Wills Preparation and Updates
  • Trusts Preparation and Updates
  • Estates Planning
  • Probate and Estate Administration

Bar Admissions

• Ohio 1986
• Paris, France 1991
• Utah 2021 (admission by motion pending)

Education

• Brigham Young University, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Provo, Utah
  • J.D. cum laude 1986
• Brigham Young University, Kennedy School for International Studies, Provo, Utah
  • M.A. International Relations, 1983
  • Graduate Fellow, Central Intelligence Agency Operations Directorate
• Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah

B.A. summa cum laude French and International Relations 1982

Professional Associations And Memberships

• State Bar of Ohio (active since 1986)
• Legal Bar of Paris, France (inducted as Advocat in 1991)
• Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists (since 2017)
• Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), Hong Kong (since 2011)
• State Bar of Utah (admission by motion pending in 2021)

Languages

• French