Federal prosecutor Gera Peoples has joined Akerman as a partner in its fraud and recovery practice group.

Peoples served in the U.S. attorney's office in the Southern District of Florida since 2010 and most recently as special counsel to the U.S. attorney was responsible for the criminal, civil, appellate, asset forfeiture and administrative divisions.

He plans to split his time between the firm's Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach offices representing victims of organized fraud and Ponzi schemes.

His practice will focus on investigating and litigating complex fraud schemes for insurance companies. He has represented insurance companies in subrogation actions, consumer fraud plaintiffs and a Fortune 500 company in an antitrust class action.

As a federal prosecutor, Peoples tried more than 20 cases, argued two cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and oversaw task forces on identity theft and government benefit fraud.

He is a community representative in the Southern District of Florida's court-assisted re-entry program for released felons.

Peoples clerked for Judge Peter Fay on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King in Miami. He also worked at Boies Schiller Flexner and at Torys between the clerkships.

Akerman recently added Eduardo Espinosa and Michael Napoli from Dykema Cox Smith in Dallas to the fraud and recovery team that Peoples joined.