Shareholder

Before founding Stern Bank, Peter managed a number of successful, international firms over the course of his 30-year career. In the 1980s, Peter created American Customs Service Inc., which focused on freight forwarding and customs brokerage. He sold the business in 1993 and founded another freight-forwarding and customs brokerage firm, Express Service Forwarding Inc., which represented foreign airlines and steamship lines, among other industries. Today, he is President of Express Trade Capital, Inc, a New York based trade finance firm that provides factoring, purchase order funding, and special project programs to domestic and international corporate clients. Peter has significant experience evaluating investment grade, high‑yield and convertible debt offerings, leveraged acquisition finance and syndicated loan transactions as President of Garantia LLC, a New York investment firm. In 2016, for instance, Peter concluded a transaction with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (ERBD) to purchase distressed loans the bank had made to an Eastern European supermarket chain. Peter purchased EBRD’s $56,000,000 loan for approximately $9,000,000 and converted it to an approximate 25% equity stake, making him a major shareholder. That same year he negotiated a transaction with the Bank of Cyprus (represented by Alfa Bank) to purchase a $25,000,000 distressed loan, secured by the borrower’s corporate real estate, for $8,000,000. Peter also maintains an active role in a New York property investment firm that actively invests in distressed, non-performing or poorly performing mortgages originated in the U.S. market. That venture currently has hundreds of notes outstanding with a face value of tens of millions of dollars. He is a graduate of the Transportation College in Odessa and holds a U.S. Custom Brokerage License.