By all accounts, Peterson was a rising star at Morgan Stanley. In 2004, he led the expansion of the firm's China real estate portfolio and later was appointed to head the Shanghai office's wholly owned global real estate business. Unbeknownst to Morgan Stanley, however, Peterson had a secret—an undisclosed business relationship with the then-chairman of the state-owned real estate development arm of a local district government in Shanghai. Peterson exploited this relationship to obtain lucrative business opportunities for Morgan Stanley, as well as for necessary licenses and approvals in real estate investments. Peterson and the Chinese official were also stealing from Morgan Stanley—acquiring millions of dollars worth of real estate interests through a shell company that they secretly owned, in one instance disguising $1.8 million as a finder's fee.