ABEL M. PEÑA
Managing Director
Abel M Peña spent 26 years as a Special Agent in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) before retiring in May 2017. Upon completion of the FBI Academy, Abel reported to the Chicago Division Division of the FBI, where he worked Kidnapping, Transnational Crime and Human trafficking, Missing Persons, Bank Robberies, and a variety of violent crime investigations with members of the Chicago Police Department, Cook County Sheriff’s Department as well as his colleagues with the FBI.
Following Abel’s tenure in Chicago; he was assigned to the Houston Division, Corpus Christi Resident Agency. While in Corpus Christi Abel worked on a myriad of matters to include bank robberies, missing persons, international parental kidnapping matters, extortion, fugitives, and public corruption matters.
Abel was transferred to the San Juan, Puerto Rico Field Office where he was assigned to a money laundering squad. Abel initiated several asset forfeiture/ money laundering and fraud undercover operations targeting money laundering/drug trafficking organizations in Colombia. Abel utilized federal asset forfeiture laws and employed money laundering violations in the investigations. Abel’s cases led to the successful prosecution of several money-laundering investigations with millions of dollars in cash and property seizures. Abel was promoted to a supervisor position, Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) of a public corruption squad. Abel supervised a squad of approximately ten agents responsible for the investigation of judicial and law enforcement corruption.
Abel was then transferred to the San Antonio Division where he was assigned to a public corruption squad. While in San Antonio, Abel conducted complex public corruption investigations involving public officials. Abel investigated bribes, kickbacks, and gratuities of public officials, ranging from local law enforcement officers to high-level politicians.
Abel also provided Safety and Security Briefings for business professionals traveling abroad in support of the FBI’s National Counterintelligence (CI) Strategy and provided in-depth presentations to corporations in the protection of their technology, trade secrets, and intellectual property. Abel also provided corporate espionage travel briefings to business professionals who frequently traveled overseas. Abel routinely met with industry partners to provide presentations concerning economic espionage matters.
Abel has worked overseas in Santiago, Chile; Panama City, Panama; and Sao Paolo, Brazil in a variety of capacities with the FBI. Abel spent time in the Middle East, assigned to the International Contract Corruption Task Force (ICCTF), investigating contract corruption and fraud matters at military and government installations in the Middle East. Abel has traveled throughout the Middle East and has met with government officials and interviewed key witnesses.
Abel has extensive training in Violent Criminal Behavior, Active Shooter Training, De-escalation Training, Workplace Violence, Undercover training, Gang/Drug matters, Foreign Travel issues. Abel has provided presentations to both the government and private sector on a variety of topics.