Peter Hardy

Practice Areas

Peter Hardy is a litigation attorney in Holland & Knight's Philadelphia office. Mr. Hardy, a former federal prosecutor, is a national thought leader on the subject of anti-money laundering (AML), money laundering and criminal tax law.

Mr. Hardy advises corporations and individuals across a range of industries against allegations of financial fraud, including money laundering, tax fraud, mortgage fraud and lending law violations, securities fraud and public corruption. He also counsels financial institutions and businesses on their AML obligations under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and other compliance requirements, including issues involving sanctions law, countering the financing of terrorism, money transmission, digital assets and cryptocurrency, cannabis and anti-corruption.

Mr. Hardy also handles complex civil litigation relating to allegations of fraud, including Ponzi schemes and fraudulent transfers. He conducts internal investigations, defends against grand jury investigations and has litigated complex criminal matters at the trial and appellate levels.

In addition, Mr. Hardy advises on potential disclosures to the IRS and counsels clients through every stage of a tax controversy, from audit through administrative appeal to litigation.

Mr. Hardy is the author of Criminal Tax, Money Laundering, and Bank Secrecy Act Litigation, a well-reviewed and comprehensive legal treatise concerning the investigation, prosecution and defense of criminal tax, money laundering and BSA cases, published by Bloomberg BNA.

Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Hardy was an attorney at a national law firm, where he was the founder of the AML team and the tax controversy team.

Before entering private practice, Mr. Hardy spent more than a decade as a federal prosecutor. He served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Philadelphia, where he focused on fraud and financial crime cases. He also served as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice's Tax Division in Washington, D.C., where he tried criminal cases in a number of federal districts and helped write the department's Criminal Tax Manual.

Mr. Hardy served as a judicial clerk for the Honorable George E. Woods of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, as well as for the Honorable Cornelia G. Kennedy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Career

Bar Admissions:

District of Columbia

Pennsylvania

Court Admissions:

U.S. Tax Court

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

Professional Memberships

ACAMS Greater Philadelphia Chapter

Practising Law Institute (PLI), Anti-Money Laundering Program Co-Chair, 2019-Present

Fellow, American College of Tax Counsel

American Bar Association, Section of Taxation

Federal Bar Association, Eastern District of Pennsylvania Chapter, Federal Criminal Law Committee

Esperanza Immigration Legal Services, Board Member, 2022-Present

Rebuilding Together Philadelphia, Honorary Board Member, 2020-Present; President of the Board, 2015-2019

Personal

University of Michigan Law School (J.D., cum laude, 1994)

Executive Note Editor, University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

University of Michigan (B.A. 1991, with highest distinction)

Phi Beta Kappa