Alex Echo

Senior Advisor, Miami and South American Operations

During his more than two decades as a Special Agent with the United States Secret Service, Alex Echo has focused much of his career on investigative operations in Central, South America and the Caribbean. His ability to collaborate across jurisdictions, both nationally and internationally, as well as disciplines – diplomatic, corporate, legal, academic and technological – has been demonstrated time and again. In the process, he has developed an unusually broad network of professional and personal contacts throughout Latin America. Underscoring his international experience, Echo is fluent in Spanish and proficient in Portuguese.

Echo’s primary area of expertise lies in international electronic and financial crime investigations. While with the Secret Service, he was instrumental in creating two multi-agency international task forces to conduct complex international investigations. The first such task force involved establishing a Secret Service presence near the Venezuelan and Colombian border and working with law enforcement agencies in those countries. In just six months, this operation was successful in halting what had been a major counterfeiting issue. The other task force operated jointly with Brazilian and Paraguayan authorities, as well as with members of the United States intelligence community, to investigate and prosecute a multi-million dollar fraud that caused a major bank to collapse. The complex investigation revealed the involvement not only of corrupt bank officials in South America but also of criminal elements based in the Middle East. Recognizing the value of multi-agency collaboration, Echo was also instrumental in establishing and supervising the U.S. Secret Service’s Electronic Crimes Task Force in the Miami Field Office.

Echo’s career focus in Latin America has resulted in the development of extensive liaison and information-sharing partnerships regarding protective and intelligence issues with many groups including: federal, state and local law enforcement; U.S. State Department personnel stationed at U.S. Embassies primarily located in Central and South America as well as the Caribbean; and key executives, administrators, regulators and other decision-makers across the public sector and the private sector – including the financial services and information technology industries – as well academia.

Training has been another area of expertise for Echo. He was responsible for the conception and creation of numerous foreign training initiatives for the U.S. Secret Service throughout Central and South America. He has also developed and performed numerous training seminars for law enforcement professionals, American Embassy personnel and members of the American Chamber of Commerce chapters throughout South America. Naturally, Echo’s work entailed a significant focus on the protection of high-profile individuals as well, and he is adept at all aspects of ensuring the safety of numerous current and former U.S. Presidents as well as visiting foreign heads-of-state.

Echo holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Criminology from the University of Florida and is a past president of the Caribbean Chapter of the International Association of Financial Crimes Investigators.