A Decade Inside the SEC
Before Jorge Riera represented a single investor, he spent more than a decade as Senior Enforcement Counsel at the Securities and Exchange Commission's Miami Regional Office, building, investigating, and trying cases against the very broker-dealers, investment advisers, and fraudsters who victimize ordinary Americans.
At the SEC, Jorge did not review paperwork. He built cases. He learned how misconduct is structured to avoid detection, how it hides inside compliant-looking documentation, and how regulators and adjudicators evaluate it when it finally surfaces. That institutional knowledge does not come from a textbook or a CLE seminar. It comes from years inside the enforcement apparatus.
His most significant matter was the Commission's action against Wealth Pools International, an alleged $132 million international scheme and affected more than 70,000 investors across 64 countries. The case was publicly recognized at SEC Speaks 2008 by then-Commissioner Paul S. Atkins, who later became SEC Chair. Jorge also co-authored the agency's "Offering Fraud" guidance document, for which he received the SEC's agency-wide Excellence in Information Technology Award.
Over his SEC career, Jorge received five separate recognitions from the Commission: the agency-wide Excellence in Information Technology Award, as co-author of the "Offering Fraud" guidance document; the Enforcement Division Director's Award; an official SEC Commendation from the Enforcement Division; the Commissioners' Certificate of Appreciation; and the Regional Director's Certificate of Appreciation.
He left the SEC with one conviction: the system works best when investors have someone who understands it completely on their side.
Compliance From the Inside: HSBC
When I left the SEC in 2013, I went inside the industry. For five years I served as Regional Compliance Director at HSBC Bank North America, overseeing compliance for the bank's global banking, markets, and corporate businesses.
I sat in the rooms where supervisory systems are designed. I saw how exception reports are generated, how escalations are handled, and what a compliance department actually knows when misconduct surfaces. In 2018 I founded Riera Law Firm to put all of it, ten years as a regulator and five years inside a global bank, to work for one side only. Investors.
Why I Left the SEC, and Who I Work For Now
At the SEC, I had an enforcement mandate. When I found misconduct, I could pursue it. But my clients were not individuals, they were the investing public in the abstract. The specific retired teacher, the small business owner, the elderly widow who lost her savings to a dishonest broker: they were evidence in a case, not clients I could fight for directly.
When I transitioned to private practice, the choice of which side to represent was not a difficult one. I had spent a decade learning exactly how broker-dealers and investment advisers operate, where they cut corners, and how they defend themselves when caught. That knowledge has one right use: helping the investors who were harmed.
I represent investors exclusively. I have never represented a broker-dealer, a FINRA member firm, or a respondent in a securities arbitration. That is not an accident. It is a commitment I made when I left the SEC and one I have maintained in every matter since.
"I know exactly how the other side thinks, what they look for, and where they are vulnerable. That is not something you can replicate from the claimant side alone."
Jorge L. Riera, Esq., CPA, CGMA
Why Accounting Credentials Change Everything in Securities Cases
Faster, More Accurate Case Evaluation
Jorge reads brokerage statements, trade confirmations, and account activity the way a forensic accountant does, identifying excessive commissions, unsuitable concentration, and hidden fees without waiting for an outside analyst to explain the numbers.
Stronger Forensic Direction
When damages witnesses are needed, Jorge evaluates their methodologies, challenges their assumptions, and directs their work from a position of genuine forensic authority, not deference. Damage models that go through Jorge's review are built to withstand cross-examination.
More Effective Cross-Examination
Jorge cross-examines the respondent's opposing financial witnesses on their own terms, questioning their methodology, exposing selective calculations, and demonstrating to arbitrators where the numbers were manipulated or misrepresented.
Integrated Forensic Analysis
Securities fraud cases are financial cases. The misconduct lives in the numbers. Jorge's dual training as an attorney and CPA/CGMA means the legal theory and the financial evidence are developed together, not handed off between separate professionals.
Among leading FINRA claimant attorneys nationally, a combination of SEC enforcement experience, active arbitration practice, and dual Attorney and CPA/CGMA credentials that few claimant-side attorneys hold. See how this translates to your case.
The Attorney Who Helps Set the Rules of the Forum
FINRA's National Arbitration and Mediation Committee (NAMC) is the body that oversees the rules governing FINRA arbitration and mediation, the forum where virtually every investor claim against a broker-dealer is heard. The NAMC reports directly to the FINRA Board of Governors.
Jorge is one of only seven Public Members of the NAMC, appointed by the FINRA Board of Governors, and serves as Chair of the committee's Expungement Subcommittee. He brings the combination of an active investor-side arbitration practice, a decade of SEC enforcement experience, five years leading bank compliance at HSBC, and CPA and CGMA credentials to the Committee. He brings a claimant-side caseload to the table every time the committee meets.
What this means for his clients: Jorge does not just know the FINRA arbitration rules. He participates in shaping them. He understands the reasoning behind procedural requirements, the history of rule changes, and the interpretive questions that regularly arise in FINRA arbitration, not because he studied them, but because he helps decide them.
He also serves as faculty at the Practising Law Institute's Securities Arbitration program, teaching the next generation of practitioners the mechanics and strategy of FINRA arbitration. Within PIABA, he served as Co-Chair of the Arbitration Committee from 2021 through 2024 and currently serves on its RIA Committee. He is a member of the Business Law Section of The Florida Bar and its Corporations, Securities, and Financial Services Committee, and served on the Section's Chapter 517 Task Force (2023-2024), which proposed amendments to the Florida Securities and Investor Protection Act, including its anti-fraud provisions.
A Career Built Around Investor Protection
Florida Bar
Licensed attorney, State of Florida, Bar No. 10773. AV Preeminent rating by Martindale-Hubbell, the highest peer-review rating available, reflecting both legal ability and professional ethics. Avvo 10.0 Superb.
CPA • CGMA • MAcc
Certified Public Accountant, Chartered Global Management Accountant, and Master of Accountancy. The accounting credentials underlying Jorge's forensic case analysis and forensic financial analysis.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Senior Enforcement Counsel, Miami Regional Office. More than 10 years prosecuting securities fraud, broker misconduct, and investment adviser violations. Recipient of the SEC's agency-wide Excellence in Information Technology Award and Enforcement Division Director's Award.
FINRA NAMC Public Member & Expungement Subcommittee Chair
Board-appointed Public Member of FINRA's National Arbitration and Mediation Committee, and Chair of its Expungement Subcommittee. One of seven Public Members nationally. The only member combining an active investor-side arbitration practice with SEC enforcement experience and forensic accounting credentials.
Practising Law Institute
Faculty, Securities Arbitration 2026. Guest practitioner, St. John's University School of Law. Teaching FINRA arbitration procedure, strategy, and investor advocacy to practicing attorneys and law students.
PIABA & Florida Bar
Co-Chair, PIABA Arbitration Committee (2021-2024); member, PIABA RIA Committee. Member, the Business Law Section of The Florida Bar and its Corporations, Securities & Financial Services Committee. Served on the Chapter 517 Task Force of the Business Law Section (2023-2024). Active in the organizations that advocate for investor rights at the regulatory and legislative level.
“Jorge was a spectacular partner when we worked together. His years of experience with securities regulation coupled with his commercial thinking made him a crucial partner for success. He always goes above and beyond and his genuine desire to help people shines through. For securities law he is an essential partner.”
Michael L. · LinkedIn Recommendation
One Client at a Time
Riera Law Firm is a boutique practice by design. Jorge does not manage a volume caseload. He takes cases selectively, because he is the attorney doing the work. The evaluation, the strategy, the drafting, the hearing preparation, the cross-examination: that is Jorge, not a team of associates or paralegals operating under his name.
This matters for several reasons. A contingency practice only works when the attorney believes in the claim. Jorge evaluates cases rigorously before taking them, and when he takes a case, he is committed to seeing it through. His clients know from the first consultation that they are dealing with the attorney who will try their case, not a case manager who will hand them off.
Case costs and expenses are payable from any recovery as provided in the written engagement agreement.
It also means that Jorge's NAMC position, his SEC background, and his CPA/CGMA credentials are not marketing language. They are applied to every matter. When he evaluates a damage model, he does it as a CPA. When he challenges a respondent's damages witness, he does it with the institutional knowledge of someone who has sat on the other side of the table. When he navigates a FINRA procedural dispute, he does it with the perspective of someone who helps shape those procedures.
He is bilingual in English and Spanish and represents clients from across the country. FINRA rules require hearings to be held near the investor's home, so geography is not a barrier to representation.
Insider Knowledge
Jorge spent a decade prosecuting broker-dealers at the SEC. He knows the compliance manuals they hide behind, the supervisory failures they deny, and the defenses their lawyers will raise, because he has seen them from the other side of the table.
Forensic Precision
As a CPA and CGMA, Jorge reads brokerage records the way a forensic accountant does. He identifies excessive commissions, unsuitable concentration, and hidden fees in the first review, before any outside analyst is retained.
Rules Authority
As a Board-appointed NAMC Public Member, Jorge helps write the FINRA arbitration rules your case will be decided under. When a procedural dispute arises, he is not researching the answer. He already knows it.
One Client at a Time
Jorge evaluates every case himself and takes only the ones he believes in. When he does, he is the attorney who prepares it, argues it, and sees it through. Not a supervising name on a paralegal-driven file.
Selected Matters
Wealth Pools International
$132 million enforcement action. 70,000+ investors. 64 countries. Recognized at SEC Speaks 2008 by then-Commissioner (now SEC Chair) Paul S. Atkins. One of the largest offering fraud cases prosecuted by the Miami Regional Office.
Unsuitable Illiquid Alternatives
Award for retired investor sold unsuitable illiquid alternative investments inconsistent with a conservative risk profile and retirement income needs. FINRA No. 22-01620 (Feb. 2025).
Unsuitable REITs, Vulnerable Investor
Award including damages, rescission, punitive damages, and sanctions for elderly investor sold unsuitable non-traded REITs. FINRA No. 18-00218 (Dec. 2018).
Eligibility Defense, Rule 12206
Successfully defeated motion to dismiss on FINRA Rule 12206 eligibility grounds, preserving client's right to hearing. Matter subsequently resolved.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each matter depends on its own facts and circumstances. Learn how FINRA arbitration works.
Ready to Work With an Attorney Who Has Been on Both Sides of This Fight?
A free consultation costs you nothing. If your claim is viable, you pay nothing unless Jorge recovers for you. He responds personally, not a paralegal, not a case manager.
Riera Law Firm • 340 Sevilla Avenue, Coral Gables, FL 33134 • jlr@rieralaw.com
Representing Investors Nationwide • Contingency Fee • No Recovery, No Fee
Case costs and expenses are payable from any recovery as provided in the written engagement agreement.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Florida Bar No. 10773.