Kevin Bleckley
Section Chief, Illicit Finance Methodologies, FinCEN
Kevin Bleckley is the Section Chief for the Illicit Finance Methodologies Section located in the Research and Analysis Division of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. His section generates intelligence reports addressing Transnational Criminal Organizations (TOC) including – narcotic money laundering, fraud, and human trafficking.
During his time at FinCEN, Mr. Bleckley has supported hundreds of tactical and strategic initiatives including major cases involving money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud, and other types of illicit finance.
Michael Bruno
Program Manager, Criminal Investigations Group, U.S. Postal Inspection Service
Mike Bruno began his federal law enforcement career in 2014 when he became a Postal Inspector in Newark, New Jersey. For the past 3.5 years though, Mr. Bruno has been assigned to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s National Headquarters, where he serves as a Postal Inspector Program Manager in Washington, DC. In that capacity, Mr. Bruno provides guidance, training, and resources nationally for Postal Inspectors engaged in money laundering, fraud, or money order-related investigations. Mr. Bruno also serves as the Inspection Service’s liaison to FinCEN, Homeland Security Investigations’ National Bulk Cash Smuggling Center, and the U.S. Postal Service’s Bank Secrecy Act Compliance Office.
Carol Frakes
Special Agent, IRS CI
Special Agent Frakes graduated from the College of Charleston in 1999 with a Bachelors in Accounting and the University of Charleston in 2001 with a Masters in Accountancy. She is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in South Carolina and Texas as well as a Certified Fraud Examiner.
Prior to beginning her career as a Special Agent with IRS-CI, she was in public accounting for six years. She started her career with IRS-CI in 2005 in Fairview Heights, Illinois. From 2009 – 2013, she worked in the Los Angeles Field Office and 2013 to present she has been in San Antonio. During this time, she has worked a broad range of complex financial investigations including, but not limited to Title 26 tax violations as well as Title 18 money laundering.
From June 2021 through July 2024, she worked for IRS – CI’s Nationally Coordinated Investigations Unit (NCIU), which is a group based out of headquarters that focuses on data analysis to identify individuals committing tax crimes.
Amanda Chaffee
SVP, BSA/OFAC Officer, Woodforest National Bank
Amanda Chaffee, CAMS, serves as SVP BSA/OFAC Officer for Woodforest National Bank. Amanda oversees the daily operations of the BSA Department which includes 65 employees specializing in CIP, EDD, AML, SAR, CTR, and OFAC processes. Amanda has worked for Woodforest National Bank for nearly 17 years and works to ensure Woodforest remains at the forefront of industry standards by effectively managing risks adhering to BSA/AML and OFAC regulations. Amanda is the committee chair for Woodforest National Bank’s BSA Committee, sits on the Fraud Advisory Committee and Management Risk Committee, and is a certified member of ACAMS.
Amy Fardella
SVP, Assistant BSA Officer, First National Bank Texas
Amy Fardella, CAMS, works for First National Bank Texas as SVP/Assistant BSA Officer. Amy oversees teams responsible for the day-to-day operations of the BSA Department. Additionally, she is responsible for OFAC and high risk customer management along with maintaining the Bank’s BSA/AML/OFAC Risk Assessment. Amy has been with FNBT for 27 years and worked in branch operations and reconcilements prior to her role in BSA. She has a Bachelor’s of Business Administration from Indiana Wesleyan University and is working on her Executive MBA in Banking and Finance at Sam Houston State University. Amy is a member of FNBT’s SAR Committee and is a certified member of ACAMS. In her free time, Amy enjoys doing jigsaw puzzles, spending time with her husband, Russell, and handling their three high maintenance dogs.
Jillian R. Arezzi
Financial Crimes Testing and Validation Manager, Crowe, LLP
Profile
Jillian is a Financial Crimes Testing and Validation Manager serving the banking and financial services industries. She specializes in the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)/Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) screening areas, with key competency areas of compliance audits, model validations, and risk technology and analytics. Jillian is the leader of Crowe’s BSA/AML and OFAC Internal Audit offering.
Professional & Industry Experience
Jillian leverages her industry knowledge to help clients improve their compliance programs and align with peers and regulatory expectations. She has executed and managed BSA/AML Compliance Audits and Model Validations for clients ranging from domestic community banks, Money Service Businesses, FinTech’s and global financial institutions. Her audit and validation testing includes assessment of each institution’s policies, processes, and procedures surrounding their BSA/AML compliance programs and systems, as well as evaluation of data management and efficacy. Jillian also has experience with many different BSA/AML and OFAC systems, including NICE Actimize, Prime, BAM, BAM+, FCRM, Verafin, Yellow Hammer, ECS, and GVS Patriot Officer.
Education, Certifications & Professional Affiliations
Jillian received her Bachelor of Science, Information Management & Technology, and a Minor in Retail Management from Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY and is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS).
Alberto Laureano
CEO, Dolfintech,Inc.
Alberto Laureano is CEO of DolFinTech, a financial services organization formed from the merger of DolEx Dollar Express Inc. and Barri Money Services, LLC in December 2022. Laureano was previously CEO of Barri Money Services, LLC and has held senior positions at Western Union with management and marketing responsibilities for the company’s US-to-Latin America businesses, based out of Florida and California. Prior to Western Union, Alberto worked at Procter & Gamble with brand management responsibilities in Mexico, Argentina, and Venezuela. Alberto holds a BA in Business Administration from Universidad Panamericana and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Laureano has also served as a board member and chairman of the board for the MSBA (Money Services Business Association) and was also member of the Money Transmitter Regulators Association (MTRA) Industry Advisory Council from 2019 to 2021 in addition to holding a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) Certification.
David Rosenau
Special Agent, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)
David Rosenau began his law enforcement career in 2010 as Police Officer for the City of Marshall, Texas where he conducted community-oriented policing, proactive criminal suppression patrol, and preliminary criminal investigations. In 2012, David accepted a position as a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officer in Brownsville, Texas and was assigned as a Tactical Enforcement Officer (TEO) to the Land Border Enforcement Team (LBET). There, he provided Port Operational Security as well as processed/screened international travelers for contraband and criminality, including the smuggling and trafficking of humans, narcotics, currency, weapons, and illegal commercial and agriculture goods. In 2020, David accepted a position as a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent (SA) in Brownsville where he was assigned to the HSI Rio Grande Valley Border Enforcement Security Task Force (HSI RGV B.E.S.T.), Maritime & Aviation Smuggling Group. There, he conducted numerous simple and complex criminal/civil investigations involving immigration violations, human smuggling, bulk cash smuggling, firearms smuggling, financial crimes, and child exploitation crimes that have occurred in or near the RGV area, especially within the maritime and air domain. In October of 2024, David transferred to the HSI Houston office where he remains currently assigned to the Human Smuggling / Human Trafficking Group.
David holds a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice with a Minor in Psychology from Sam Houston Sate University.
Enrique Marrero
Special Agent, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)
Enrique Marrero began his law enforcement career in 2017 as a United States Secret Service (USSS) Special Agent in Miami, FL where he conducted complex financial investigations and worked on several high-level protection details. In 2021, Enrique transferred to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Miami, FL where he conducted Human Smuggling Investigations specifically in the Martime environment. Enrique has led and assisted in several searches, arrests, seizures, and convictions of Human Smugglers. In September of 2024, Enrique transferred to the HSI Office in Houston, TX where he continues his work in Human Smuggling and additionally Human Trafficking.
Enrique holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and minor in psychology from the University of Central Florida. Enrique is also fluent in Spanish and is a firearms instructor for HSI.
Sarah Beth Felix
President, Palmera Consulting
Co-Founder & Chief AML Officer, Acceleron Bank
Sarah Beth Felix has over 20 years of experience in AML and sanctions with operational, audit and consulting roles, working with banks, payment firms, and global Fintechs. Operationalizing AML/sanctions threats is one of her most well-known attributes, providing actionable solutions. Beyond traditional banking, she has specialized years of work in Fintechs, Lendtechs, cannabis banking, crypto, correspondent banking, and trade finance.
While managing a thriving AML/sanctions advisory firm for 13 years, Palmera Consulting, she is also co-founder and Chief AML Officer for a de novo digital correspondent bank – Acceleron Bank, in formation – based in Vermont, U.S. She has a 360-degree view of banking and how money flows throughout the world. Sarah Beth and her team are building a highly compliant digital bank focused on providing cost-effective solutions to US banks.
With global speaking engagements and her years spent on the operational AML front, she focuses on impactful takeaways that move listeners to ‘take action’ in improving their AML/sanctions programs. Sarah Beth is also a guest lecturer at the National War College in Washington, D.C. and frequently trains various US federal law enforcement agencies on payment ecosystems and banking funds flows.
William (Bill) Sparks
Third Party Resources, Inc.
William (Bill) Sparks is a retired the Operations Sergeant for 2nd Bn, 20th Special Forces Group of the Mississippi National Guard where he served three combat tours to Afghanistan between 2002 and early 2010. His last three years in uniform were spent in Counter Threat Finance. His last training assignment was teaching a two-day virtual currency course for the Transnational Threat Section of the U.S. Special Operations Command, Tampa Florida. His last operational task in uniform was mapping the city of Paris France for virtual currency capabilities during the terror attacks of November 13-14, 2015.
Upon retirement from the Special Forces, Bill got immediate traction with Law Enforcement financial training. Since 2016, Bill has trained thousands of Local, State, and Federal officers, analysts, agents, investigators and prosecutors in cybercrime and cryptocurrency. He has assisted law enforcement with large and small cases from thousands of dollars to tens of millions.
In a notable 2024 case, Bill was recommended by the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office to aid a scam victim that had lost over $150,000. The victim was in contact with a U.S. Federal Agency and also asked Bill to dive deeper on the case. Bill was able to glean information from the scammer/victim correspondence. In addition, a scammer username appeared to also have a Telegram channel where the pictures posted closely resembled those sent to the victim. In addition, Bill was able to link at least eight email addresses to at least one member of the scam ring. That information was turned over to federal authorities. The scam did touch the U.S. financial system and recovery of some funds from money mules appears possible.
Also in 2024, Bill was asked by local California Law Enforcement to opine on fake passport cards being used to steal funds from financial institutions. Bill was able to connect them with the SAC of a Document Fraud Task Force operating in the SF Bay Area where TF members had previously attended Bill’s cryptocurrency course.
Numerous financial institutions have received cryptocurrency training from Bill. He is currently presenting cryptocurrency and cybercrime courses for the Central Valley and Northern California HIDTAs, the Washington- Baltimore HIDTA, Rocky Mountain HIDTA, Houston HIDTA, D.C. Metro Police, the Regional Counterdrug Training Academy (RCTA.org) and Regional Dialogue (Slovenia). Bill has taught in Indonesia, Malaysia and is currently engaged in Uzbekistan. Bill holds the title of Certified Cryptocurrency Investigator (CCI) from the Blockchain Intelligence Group. He is a graduate of the Joint Special Operations University, Counter Threat Finance Course and attended courses in Financial Intelligence offered by Analysis International, a group of former New Scotland Yard intelligence and undercover agents.
Bill holds numerous certificates in AI, Databases and Computer Science from the Stanford Center for Professional Development, Stanford University.
Partial Military Awards: Ranger Tab, Pathfinder Badge, Master Parachutists Badge, Combat Infantryman’s Badge, Bronze Star Medal (3) and Meritorious Service Medal (2).
Holly Shipley
Speaker & Strategic Advisor, Holly Shipley Consulting
After 20 years of earning bonafides at the intersection of strategic planning & emerging technology at corporate tech giants like Google and Texas Instruments, Holly Shipley is now using that expertise as a speaker and strategic advisor for her own business, Holly Shipley Consulting.
Holly works with companies & organizations of all sizes to aid in the understanding & utilization of emerging tech. That tech has included everything from introducing the C-suites of F500 companies to search while at Google and later the benefit of mobile and enhanced user experience and engagement at Texas Instruments when these technologies first arrived.
In the fall of 2022, Holly immediately recognized generative AI as the huge shift it could be & introduced the C-suite of TI to the technology. She then went on to lead the comprehensive, global response effort both strategically & tactically. Holly created a scalable, customizable framework to evaluate the risk & opportunity of generative AI with the goal of providing a comprehensive strategy that accounts for shared objectives, protects against tech debt, and reduces redundancies long term & at scale.
Since leaving TI, Holly’s work has centered on generative AI. She advises companies on how best to integrate new technologies into existing strategies and identify specific risks & opportunities. As a speaker, Holly delivers actionable information tailored to the audience that provides an understanding of how to use generative AI now and the skillset that will allow the audience to continue to use this technology as it develops.
Holly prioritizes working with women-owned businesses and women-focused organizations as well as businesses & organizations lead by members of other groups often left out of emerging technology conversations. She also donates her time & expertise to groups that would not normally have access to this information or these technologies.