From Star Banker to Star Witness: The Rise and Fall of Andrew Pearse

When Andrew Pearse sat down in a packed federal court in downtown Brooklyn on March 6, the former star banker turned fraudster feared he could be facing up to 13 years in a US prison. His sentencing hearing was the culmination of a six-year legal process that had upended Pearse's world. His nerves were shredded.

The crowded public gallery was a reflection of the profile of the affair Pearse was wrapped up in. He was a key actor in a $2 billion fraud — dubbed the Tuna Bond Scandal — which helped cripple the Mozambican economy and marked a major step in the failure of Credit Suisse, the mighty Swiss bank that collapsed in 2023.