Speaker Bios

Victor Cardona
Mechanics Bank

Victor R. Cardona is currently Senior Vice President, BSA Officer at Mechanics Bank in Southern California with oversight responsibility of their Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and the bank's BSA/AML and OFAC compliance program. Victor has over 14 years of banking experience that includes both operations and BSA/AML compliance.

Victor has held positions from BSA Analyst to BSA Risk Officer before becoming a BSA Officer. Victor's experience includes smaller community banks within the $1 - $3.5 billion asset size, such as Plaza Bank and Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach, to larger regional and mid-size banks within the $7 - $40 billion asset size, such as Opus Bank and City National Bank in downtown Los Angeles.

Victor was awarded one of FinCEN's annual Law Enforcement Award for assisting in one of six significant criminal investigation cases. As the BSA Officer, Victor's contributions "played an important role in a joint investigation by the FBI, IRS-CI, and the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, which led to the dismantling of an organized criminal enterprise that participated in bank fraud, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed wholesale distribution of drugs, and money laundering".

Since 2015, Victor has served on the faculty of the BankersOnline BSA/AML Top Gun Conferences, and consistently spoken at the ACAMS Annual AML & Financial Crimes Conference in Las Vegas. Other speaking engagements include the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE): Los Angeles Chapter, and the International Association of Financial Crime Investigators: Southern California Chapter. Victor also recently graduated from the Department of Homeland Security: Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Citizens Academy through their Los Angeles field office.

Victor received his Bachelor's Degree from Cal State Dominguez Hills in Accounting, and his MBA from Utica College in Economic Crime & Fraud Management. Victor also attended the police academy at the Golden West College Criminal Justice Training Center where he received a Certificate of Achievement in Criminal Justice. Victor is CAMS certified and currently sits on the Executive Board of the ACAMS Southern California Chapter as their Co-Chair.



Brian Crow
Thomas Compliance Associates, Inc.

Brian Crow is Executive Vice President at Thomas Compliance Associates, Inc. in Chicago, IL. Brian brings 20 years of prior banking experience to the consulting field. He was most recently Assistant Vice President and BSA Administrator for a suburban Chicago bank, where his responsibilities included preparing the bank's annual BSA risk assessment and audit documentation. Earlier as Operations Officer at the same bank, Brian monitored AML activity, aided in the implementation of the bank's AML software, and designed the bank's authentication blocking program that helped to reduce debit card fraud losses by 95 percent. Brian's responsibilities also included managing the bank's Regulation E claims, managing the bank's courtesy overdraft program, reviewing Reg CC hold notices for accuracy, and processing claims for fraudulent signatures and endorsements.

Mr. Crow has been, and continues to be, an education consultant for BOL Learning Connect, conducting webinars that have covered VISA/MasterCard chargebacks, debit card compliance and fraud prevention for hundreds of banks. It was in this role that Mr. Crow was recognized as a Bankers Online Guru in 2011.

Like many of us, Mr. Crow began his banking career as a teller, working his way up to head teller and then branch management responsibilities. He earned a B.A. degree in Theology from Concordia University, River Forest, Illinois. Because of his education background, Brian has been given the unofficial title of "Security Evangelist" as he strives to help financial institutions protect their bottom line from losses related to fraud.




Mary Beth Guard
BankersOnline.com

Mary Beth Guard is one of the four co-founders of BankersOnline. Since its inception, she has served as the site's Executive Editor. Mary Beth is also the director of BankCompliance.com (formerly BOL Insiders), the premier subscription-based compliance service now being offered online. Also, Mary Beth serves as CEO of Glia Group, Inc. (which produces BOL Learning Connect) and is a partner in BankGuard Resources. For more than three decades, Mary Beth has utilized her background as an attorney to focus on banking industry issues, first as general counsel for the Oklahoma State Banking Department, then as general counsel for the Oklahoma Bankers Association, prior to her work with BankersOnline.

Mary Beth has presented training programs for virtually every major national financial industry association, as well as more than a dozen state bankers associations and a host of other organizations. She is a frequent presenter of webinars and seminars. In addition, Mary Beth has written more than a thousand banking-related articles and is BOL Guru #1.



Terri Luttrell, CAMS-Audit
Abrigo, formerly Banker's Toolbox, Sageworks, and MST

Terri Luttrell is a seasoned AML professional with over 20 years in the banking industry, working both in medium and large community and commercial banks ranging from $18 billion to $330 billion in asset size. She started her banking career in commercial lending, moving to deposit operations and the compliance/fraud arenas where she was Director and AML/OFAC Officer. She has successfully worked with institutions in developing BSA/OFAC programs, optimizing various automated solutions, and streamlining processes while ensuring all regulatory requirements are met. She has also managed a team of AML investigators for a large/cross border institution giving her an enhanced sense of AML risk in our institutions along the Mexican/US border. Terri is currently a Senior Manager of Strategy & Engagement with Abrigo (formerly Banker's Toolbox) and is CAMS-Audit certified.



Betsy Maesen
Liaison to industry, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network

Betsy serves as FinCEN's Liaison to Industry providing BSA/AML subject matter expertise on a variety of financial services covered by the BSA. She specializes in money services businesses (MSBs), the virtual currency industry, and the gaming (casino) industry. Betsy manages activities of the executive-level Bank Secrecy Act Advisory Group (BSAAG) and related committees and provides mentoring and training for junior staff and speak at local and national industry events.

Prior to serving as Liaison to Industry, Betsy led the implementation of a multi-year plan to consolidate call centers and other operational functions across two government agencies. She coordinated with senior management to implement internal and external business process changes and led the creation and implementation of the Money Services Businesses (MSB) registration Web site--helping to transition industry away from paper and to the more timely electronic notification of registration status.

For several years, she managed activities of the Regulatory Helpline, now called the FinCEN Resource Center (FRC). She interpreted and reviewed regulations pertaining to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and the USA PATRIOT Act and trained Helpline staff on the proper analysis and interpretation of BSA regulations. Betsy led BSA presentations at national and state association conferences and other outreach events and I traveled with senior officials and provided regulatory support during external outreach meetings.

Prior to joining FinCEN, Betsy worked in the government relations field, serving as a liaison between clients and Congress members. She contributed to the development of client request initiatives that resulted in the designation over $1 million in appropriated funds annually. She also analyzed key Social Security, education, and civil service reform legislation and routinely communicated with congressional staff and members of Congress.



Chuck Taylor
AML RightSource
Mr. Taylor serves as Executive VP, Head of Financial Crimes Advisory at AML RightSource. He has over 20 years of regulatory compliance experience with multiple financial institutions. Mr. Taylor is an expert in Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)/Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Sanctions compliance. He regularly speaks at local and national conferences, is a founding member and former Co-Chair of the ACAMS SoCal Chapter, and serves as Board Chair of the West Coast Anti-Money Laundering Forum. Mr. Taylor obtained his bachelor's degree in communication from University of California, Santa Barbara, earned his juris doctorate at Santa Barbara College of Law and attended Pacific Coast Banking School. Mr. Taylor is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) and a Certified AML and Fraud Professional (CAFP). In 2014 Mr. Taylor was recognized as the ACAMS AML Professional of the Year.



Thomas J. Welch
Supervisory Special Agent
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Phoenix Office

Mr. Thomas J. Welch is a Supervisory Special Agent for the HSI Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Phoenix Office where he has oversight over HSI financial investigations in the Federal District of Arizona. This Financial Group is responsible for conducting investigations into Transnational Criminal Organizations TCO's that involve the crimes of money laundering as they relate to narcotics and human smuggling as well as conduct investigations in reference to violations of wire fraud and bank fraud. He and his group are members of two significant task forces: (1.) the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Financial Task Force with the Phoenix Police Department and Arizona Department of Public Safety and (2.) the Suspicious Activity and Border Related Task Force with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigation Division. Mr. Welch also serves as an instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center for basic and advanced courses. Mr. Welch began his law enforcement career in 1991 as a Special Agent with the Arizona Attorney General's Office in Phoenix, Arizona, where he worked in the Organized Crime, Major Fraud and Environmental Crimes Units. Mr. Welch is a graduate of Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona with a bachelor's degree in Justice Studies.



Tim White
AML RightSource
Mr. White is Vice President, Business Development and Sanctions at AML RightSource. He has over 35 years of sales experience within the banking and financial services sector; 25 years specifically focused on OFAC, international sanctions, and BSA compliance. Mr. White is an OFAC/Sanctions specialist and has consulted and trained on the topics for several government and private initiatives. He has spoken at many notable conferences, including ACAMS and ABA events, and has published articles in the ABA Bank Compliance Magazine, ACAMS Today, and Western Banking Magazine. Mr. White earned his Bachelor of Business Administration Degree from the University of Iowa.

BOL Conferences, 2541 Flint Ridge Rd, Edmond, OK 73003
PH: 888-229-8872 ext. 87      FAX: 405-348-7641     Email: conferences@bolconferences.com

All materials (print, electronic, and streamed) are Copyright © 2013-2019, BOL Conferences, Inc.
The material and presentations are intended to be used by a single institution, or charter,
and are not to be reproduced or distributed, in any form, outside the attending organization.