First Light Financial

Robert G. Goldstein and John J. Cernuschi, the co-founding managing partners, are the named decision-makers. Both came out of the structured finance division of WestLB, where they worked on Latin American credit prior to launching the firm in 2005. The partnership has remained small, with no publicly identified investment committee beyond the two founders.

The firm originates and holds private, dollar-denominated mezzanine and structured credit for middle-market companies in Latin America. Sectors historically include agro-processing, logistics, and real estate development. The strategy favors covenant-heavy, direct-originated paper and avoids widely syndicated leveraged loans or local-currency exposure.

Primary geographies are Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and the Andean economies. The firm is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, with no disclosed regional offices, sourcing transactions through local relationships rather than an on-the-ground placement network.

There is no evidence of an active blind-pool commingled fund in the market. Following litigation-adjacent fund wind-downs in the late 2010s, the partnership appears to structure capital on a deal-by-deal and relationship-based syndicate basis rather than marketing a traditional closed-end private credit fund.

The SEC filed a civil suit in 2012 alleging the firm misrepresented portfolio valuation and fund concentration to limited partners in its First Light Funding vehicle. The principals denied the allegations and secured summary judgment in early 2018; the judgment was affirmed on appeal later that year, resolving the matter without a finding of fraud or penalty.