Zoya Ashirov will be speaking at our upcoming Fraud and Financial Crime Congress

Wolfgang Berner is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) as well as Chief Product Officer (CPO) of Hawk AI. He is responsible for the company’s product strategy and leads product development, data science and solution consulting teams. Prior to founding Hawk AI, he helped build PAY.ON, an eCommerce payments company. His most recent role there was Senior Vice President Product. In this capacity, he led the technical and product development of the PAY.ON product for more than 10 years. After the acquisition of PAY.ON AG by ACI Worldwide in late 2015, Wolfgang managed the product P&L of all eCommerce and fraud products of the group

Andrew founded iProov in 2011. He is an experienced technology entrepreneur and leader, with a career spanning thirty years in mobile.
In 1999 he founded mBlox, which became the world’s largest provider of SMS transmission for enterprise applications. As CEO, Andrew built the firm into a successful high-throughput technology-based service business. Andrew also chairs MEF, the global trade association of the mobile content and commerce industry.
He is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, and was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2020. He was made a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) by the Queen in the 2020 New Year Honours List.

Katherine Cobb managers the Cyber Incident Response team at Zions Bancorporation.  She is responsible for actively improving the bank’s cyber incident response capabilities, developing and maintaining key risk indicators, and driving automation.  Prior to this role, she managed the Enterprise Fraud department and was responsible for the fraud technology strategy and roadmap, fraud reporting and analytics.  Before joining Zions, she managed the Treasury Management Department at Post Oak Bank.

Katherine is a Certified Fraud Examiner and Certified Treasury Professional.  When she isn’t working, she enjoys spending time with her husband three children, playing piano, and strategic board games.

Three-time “The Risk Universe Magazine” Cover-front Author, Mark Elkommos works at SMBC as VP, Compliance Monitoring & Testing, is a seasoned AML professional with more than 15 years of Financial Crime Compliance experience. Mark also is an avid technology & compliance reader, and evidently, a popular author of AML and FinTech topics. He wrote numerous articles on many Risk Management Magazines, also he is a regular LinkedIn blogger. Visit his LinkedIn page and website to know more

Daniel Fortune represents clients in matters involving cybersecurity, white collar defense, government enforcement actions and regulatory compliance. In addition, Daniel has litigated more than 75 jury trials in federal and state courts involving complex matters and computer forensics. His clients value his proactive approach, as well as his commitment to protecting and defending their best interests and reputations.

Prior to joining Bradley, Daniel served as the lead cybersecurity attorney at a litigation boutique, and as a state prosecutor and federal prosecutor litigating matters involving computer forensics, white collar crime and government investigations. As the Deputy Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division, he supervised major cybercrime, white collar fraud, public corruption, asset forfeiture and national security matters. He also served as the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Coordinator with top-secret security clearance, working on matters involving cleared defense contractors. In addition, Daniel supervised national and international investigations related to internet crime, money laundering, and cryptocurrencies.

During his time at the Department of Justice, Daniel was recognized by the FBI Director for his work with the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force for achieving notable success in major crime control efforts and for contributions to complex and sensitive operations.

Daniel serves as an adjunct professor at the Birmingham School of Law and Miles School of Law, where he teaches Torts and Trial Advocacy. He is also a respected mentor and advisor for the Birmingham School of Law Mock Trial Team.

Dr. Catherine Havasi is a technology strategist, AI researcher, and entrepreneur who has been working to apply emerging AI technology to real problems. She previously directed the Digital Intuition group at the MIT Media Lab where she taught natural language processing and entrepreneurship including working with MIT’s Center for Future Banking. She has spoken extensively on how to use AI collaboratively to solve real world problems including at Emtech, TEDx, Poptech, SXSW and Ignite. She is currently Chief of Innovation at Babel Street which provides identity and content intelligence for compliance. 

Gabriel (Gabe) Hidalgo is a Managing Director within FTI’s Financial Services practice with deep regulatory and operational knowledge of banking, virtual assets and fintech. He has over 24 years of legal, BSA/AML and Sanctions compliance experience in creating, implementing, remediating and updating compliance programs to exceed regulatory requirements while advising clients on industry best practices.

Gabe previously created and led the Virtual Assets and Fintech compliance practice at K2 Integrity. Additionally, Gabe has held senior compliance leadership roles with the FRB–NY, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, itBit (Paxos), CFSB, Noble Bank International and Capital One. Within each of these roles, he developed and implemented compliance program platforms that met and exceeded legal and regulatory requirements.

Elvin Hernandez is a Special Agent with the Financial Crimes/El Dorado Task Force. He previously served as the Acting Supervisory Special Agent assigned to the Human Trafficking Unit of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations division. He has more than 22 years of Federal law enforcement experience investigating financial crimes, narcotics, gangs, and human trafficking. During his assignment, Elvin has conducted numerous successful international human trafficking investigations involving transnational organized crime groups.

Andrew Jensen currently serves as VP, Global Head of Sanctions at Scotiabank. In this role, he oversees all aspects of Scotiabank’s global sanctions program, including governance, investigation, oversight, risk management, and technology solutions. Before joining Scotiabank, Andrew led the Sanctions Intelligence & Investigations team at Citigroup; and held various leadership positions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, including Assistant Director of Global Affairs in the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes. Andrew holds a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Utah.

Lester Joseph is the Head of the Global Financial Crimes Intelligence Group at Wells Fargo & Company. The primary mission of this Group is to provide intelligence on money laundering activity and financial crime trends to all parts of the enterprise. He joined Wells Fargo in March 2010. Mr. Joseph worked for the United States Department of Justice from 1984 to February 2010. From 2002-2010, he was the Principal Deputy Chief of the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section (AFMLS). During his tenure in AFMLS, the Section played a major role in several noteworthy money laundering investigations and prosecutions involving major financial institutions.

Nicolas Khouri is currently the Deputy AML/BSA Officer at Ally Bank responsible for leading the execution of key BSA/AML program components such as risk assessments, governance and business line oversight.
Prior to that Nicolas was the Senior Compliance Director at Ally Bank overseeing AML Investigations. As part of his role, Nicolas manages a team that handles all AML investigations, SAR filings and all law enforcement requests and coordination. Prior to that Nicolas was a Senior Audit Director with Ally Bank overseeing all of Compliance and Legal.
Nicolas has over 20 years of financial institutions and investment banking auditing and compliance experience focusing mainly on AML and International Operations. Nicolas holds an MBA in Finance and International Business from the George Washington University and is a certified anti-money laundering specialist (CAMS) since 2006. Nicolas has been an invited speaker and/or panelist at several national conferences on AML and auditing including Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS), American Bankers Association (ABA), Florida International Banking Association (FIBA), The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) and the Financial Markets Association (FMA).

Employed as Special Agent and Supervisory Special Agent since 2003
• Investigated cases involving International Transnational Organized Criminal Enterprises, Money Laundering, International Corruption
• Staffed in multiple FBI divisions, including Detroit, New York, and FBI Headquarters (Washington DC)
• Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting, Master’s degree in Business Administration

Hunter Kreger is the FIU Deputy OFAC Officer at Atlantic Union Bank. In this role he serves as the subject matter expert and escalation point for all Sanctions, OFAC, and Watch List related matters at the Bank including 314a information requests. Prior to working at Atlantic Union Bank, Hunter held positions at Deloitte in their Independence and Conflicts Network.
Hunter graduated from the College of William & Mary in 2008 where he obtained a BA in Economics, and currently lives in Richmond, VA.

Sabeena Ahmed Liconte serves as Chief Compliance Officer, Americas to ICBC Standard Bank Group (“ICBC Standard”), including its SEC-registered broker-dealer, ICBC Standard Securities Inc., and its CFTC-registered introducing broker, ICBC Standard Resources (America) Inc.

Prior to joining ICBC Standard, Sabeena’s previous professional experience included serving as Deputy Chief Operating Officer and Chief Legal Officer to the US investment banking division of Bank of China International. She also served as Futures & Derivatives Counsel to E*TRADE Financial Corp., including E*TRADE Clearing Corp. and E*TRADE Securities Corp.; and worked for the Office of General Counsel at Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith Incorporated, the Division of Enforcement at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the Bank of New York Mellon’s Legal Division and the Securities Fraud Prosecution division of the Attorney General’s Office for the State of New Jersey.

Sabeena is a licensed attorney with a Juris Doctor from the St. John’s University School of Law. She also completed a visiting year at Fordham University School of Law. In addition to her law degree, she holds a Master of Arts in International Relations from Columbia University and, paying homage to her Canadian roots, a Bachelor of Arts in Criminology and Political Science from the University of Toronto.

She also serves as a member of the Executive Committee to the Futures Industry Association’s Law and Compliance Division; advisory board member of the Center for Financial Professionals FinTech Advisory Group; Diversity Chair of the American Bar Association’s Business Law Committee – Futures and Derivatives Law Subcommittee; and member of the New York City Bar Association’s Foreign and Comparative Law Committee, and Derivatives and Futures Committees.

Steve Liu will be speaking at CeFPro’s Fraud and Financial Crime Congress

Edward is a highly-skilled and accomplished executive with over 20 years’ experience in the anti-money laundering and financial crimes field. He has a distinguished background in banks, broker-dealers, and consulting firms both in the US and Europe providing a global experience in the AML and Financial Crimes field. Edward held senior management positions in various firms including: Bates Group Practice Head of AML and Financial Crimes Practice; Chief AML and Sanctions Officer at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., where he redesigned and implemented the BSA/AML and Sanctions program after the SEC and FinCEN low-priced security and AML enforcement action in January 2015; Regional Lead of Citigroup’s OneKYC program for the Mexico and Latin America regions; Deutsche Bank Head of AML Compliance (Americas Region) for the Private Bank and Private Client broker-dealer (D.B. Alex. Brown) in New York; Head of the Client Onboarding team at Morgan Stanley in London.

David Lynch is the Global Head of Analytical Solutions at Sayari Labs, where he works with banks, multinationals, and US Government to fight financial crime and sanctions compliance. Prior to Sayari, he was the Chief of Analysis at C4ADS, a non-profit that harnesses public data to defeat illicit networks that threaten national security. 

Keenan Mahoney has expertise conducting large-scale financial crime investigations involving advanced due diligence of both foreign and domestic subjects and synthesizing large data sets to identify suspicious activity. He has experience remediating deficiencies at financial institution BSA/AML departments, including building and managing investigative teams, reviewing and filing Suspicious Activity Reports, and evaluating the suitability of AML monitoring software, including the scope and coverage of transaction monitoring rules.

Mr. Mahoney was responsible for leading a team of analysts at a medium-sized financial institution following the removal of the institution’s BSA Officer, which occurred after revelations that the CEO of the institution embezzled funds through numerous transactions not reported by the internal compliance and fraud teams.

Adam McLaughlin is the Global Head of AML Strategy and Marketing and the AML Subject Matter Expert at NICE Actimize. Adam possesses several years of operational experience in identifying and mitigating financial crime risks. Prior to joining the company, he spent many years managing financial crime teams and mitigating financial crime risk in financial institutions. Adam was also a Police Detective in the U.K. for 10 years, managing a Financial Crime investigation team in the City of London Police, the U.K.’s national lead force for Economic Crime for three of those years.

Tom Messina has over 25 years’ experience working for financial institutions in Risk and Compliance. Tom played an important role in the launch of BNY Mellon’s digital custody product and most recently served as the BSA/AML Officer for Anchorage Digital Bank, the first federally chartered crypto bank in the US that offers institutions with digital asset financial services and infrastructure solutions.

B.J. brings over 35 years of experience in banking, regulatory compliance, and financial crimes investigation. He is a federally designated expert in the BSA and a Certified Global Sanctions Specialist. He served as a Senior Bank Examiner with the OCC specializing in BSA/AML and Sanctions compliance. B.J. served as a Senior Special Agent within the Office of Enforcement at FinCEN and completed a 20-year career with the Secret Service. He served as a Senior Advisor to Senator Alfonse D’Amato, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. He has served as a BSA/AML/Sanctions Compliance Officer for several large complex multi-national financial institutions during his career.

Bobbie is responsible for the Fraud and Identity Risk division. She and her teams work with a diverse customer base across the MVB CoRE and Fintech business. The team delivers oversight that defines the policies, processes, and strategies that mitigate fraud losses, promote portfolio growth and maintain regulatory compliance.
Bobbie has experience across Retail Banking, Bankcard (issuer/acquirer), Fintech, Private Label, Consumer Lending, Auto, Hospitality, and Communications verticals. Her expertise includes risk management, loss mitigation, policy, operations, analytics, compliance, vendor management and product integration.
Prior to joining MVB, Bobbie held various leadership roles at Experian, Citi and Dell Financial Services. She had global strategic and leadership responsibility for Consulting, Financial Services, Asset Protection, Risk Operations, and Program Management divisions. Key accomplishments included: building a fraud and identity consulting practice, expanding into global operations, championing enterprise solutions for global and digital servicing, facilitating implementations of multi-vertical onboarding and account management platforms, and mentoring and developing future leaders.
Bobbie has hosted industry forums and webinars, been a member of multiple advisory boards, shares her expertise and insight at conferences, and has contributed to multiple industry resources and whitepapers.

Patricia Pajuelo Gaviro is Director at Management Solutions USA, where she has 10+ years of experience in consulting for financial institutions leading the practices of Credit Risk and Capital, Risk Modeling and Model Risk Management, Financial Crime and new topics in ESG and Climate Risk.
She is economist with specialization in mathematical models and economic theory.

Rob Rendell is Global Head of Fraud Market Strategy & Fraud Prevention, Subject Matter Expert. He brings 13 years of banking experience as a Fraud Practitioner. Before joining Actimize, Rob was a VP of Payment Solutions & Product SME at Feedzai. His career has been focused on payments, financial crimes, fraud, cyber vulnerabilities, and platform transformation. He’s held management roles at IBM, Citi, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and legacy Wachovia. Rob brings his industry knowledge to further advance Actimize’s positioning as market leader in the space of Fraud and Financial Crime to combat ever-changing trends and threats.

With over 30 years of financial services industry experience, Chris has an in-depth knowledge of model risk management, model governance, model validation, financial model development, Asset Liability Management, and team development. Chris is currently the Director of Model Risk Management at Arvest Bank and was previously Vice President, Director of Model Risk Management at TIAA Bank for five years. His experience includes leadership roles at Diebold and Fiserv, where he consulted with financial institutions nationally and internationally to design and implement financial strategies to maximize productivity and growth, as well as Asset/Liability Management and quantitative analysis at HSBC and First Niagara Banks.

Rick is the Managing Director and Head of Fraud Strategy and Governance at TIAA where he and his team manage fraud prevention and detection controls related to all of our customer interactions with TIAA. He has 30+ years of experience working in the financial services industry for multiple fortune 100 firms. He also co-chairs TIAA’s Fraud Governance Committee.

As an Executive, he has sponsored and led dozens of complex multi-year fraud prevention, detection and investigation strategies and solutions including supporting the industry’s first retail mobile check deposit capability, credit card EMV Conversion, the use of biometrics and Omni-channel customer authentication.

Gaurav Tiwari is an accomplished global compliance leader with 16+ years broad experience and expertise in capital markets, securities law, financial crimes (AML/KYC), risk management and regulatory compliance strategy across banking, regulatory policy and digital assets.

Gaurav is a passionate builder of a governance and controls-focused organization, supported by best in class strategic compliance, AML/KYC and operational risk frameworks, enabling organizations and clients to succeed in a competitive and evolving marketplace.

Currently based at State Street Corporation, Gaurav leads a diverse and high performing team overseeing the Governance and Controls Monitoring function at the bank’s Global AML Center.

Gaurav is passionate about mentoring and coaching the next generation of diverse leaders in the financial services industry – he is an industry mentor to the Association for Latina Professionals on America’s Mentoring program, guiding mentees to develop the necessary knowledge and skills needed to make an impact in the industry and to attain professional and personal success.  

Michael leads Sia Partner’s Financial Crimes Advisory Practice working with financial institutions on Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”)/Anti-Money Laundering(“AML”), Know Your Customer (“KYC”), and Sanctions issues. A lawyer with over a decade of experience advising and working inside banks, broker-dealers, and other financial institutions regarding compliance programs, regulatory response, regulatory remediation, and other matters. Professionally, he started his career at Deutsche Bank, and then while at PwC Advisory advised a broad range of clients in a variety of different capacities, and levels including within the front office and trading floor, operations, compliance, board reporting, as well as audit.

Xiaoling (Sean) Yu is a SVP and Director of Model Validation at KeyBank. He has over 15 years of experience in the financial services industry in different quantitative roles.  His areas of functional expertise include Consumer and Commercial Credit Risk, Stress Testing and Capital Modeling, Allowance/Reserve, Comliance Modeling, Business Analytics, and Model Governance.  Prior to Key, Sean was Sr. Group Manager of Quantitative Analytics and Model Development in PNC Financial Service Group.  He started his financial services career in National City Bank as a Sr. Capital Allocation Analyst after worked as a Research Consultant at the Center for Regional Economic Issues of Case Western Reserve University.  Sean has a Ph.D. in Economics from Case Western Reserve University, and a Master in Management Science and a Bachelor in Industrial Economics from Tianjin University.

With over 25 years of professional experience, Oz specializes in data science and blockchain technology in the context of fraud risk management and financial crime compliance. Oz has led a number of engagements that involve enhancing financial crime monitoring and digital asset tracing. Oz’s portfolio of blockchain technology clients includes crypto currency exchanges, financial technologies specializes in blockchain technology, a digital asset bank, traditional banks, VASPs and investor groups.  He has given talks on financial technologies, Blockchain technology as well as emerging financial crime compliance analytics solutions and best practices.

Biography coming soon.

SSA Patrick Wyman entered on duty with the FBI in January 2009 and currently serves as an embedded liaison to the FBI’s newly formed Virtual Assets Unit (VAU) on behalf of the Transnational Organized Crime Global Section. In this role, SSA Wyman provides guidance and support to investigative matters encountering the use and exploitation of virtual assets. Prior to his promotion to the VAU, SSA Wyman served as the Financial Crime and Intellectual Property Rights program coordinator and field supervisor of the Corporate Fraud/Frauds and Swindles/Intellectual Property Rights squad for the FBI’s Washington Field Office.