Catherine Yepes

Catherine Yepes focuses her practice on financial services, representing financial institutions, including domestic and foreign banks and money services businesses (such as money transmitters). Catherine has represented clients before regulatory agencies such as the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Florida Office of Financial Regulation (OFR), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

Catherine advises clients on Bank Secrecy Act compliance, with an emphasis on anti-money laundering issues. She handles business, licensing, regulatory, and compliance matters for financial institutions. Her work includes performing independent risk assessments, developing anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance programs, preparing voluntary self-disclosures and specific license applications for submission to OFAC, and assisting with enforcement actions and subpoenas. Catherine also drafts, negotiates, and reviews commercial agreements and terms and conditions.

Catherine previously served as a Staff Attorney at the Third District Court of Appeal in Miami, where she analyzed trial records, researched legal principles, attended oral arguments and assisted in drafting opinions. She also gained experience in appellate litigation during her time as an academic intern with the Supreme Court of Florida in Tallahassee.

Concentrations

•Banking and financial services
•Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering
•Sanctions compliance
•Corporate governance

Judicial Clerkships

•Hon. Alexander S. Bokor, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, 2020-2021