ACFCS Names Three Top Global Financial Crime Experts to its Advisory Board

Nov. 28, 2012 - PRLog -- Miami, FL -- The Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists, the international member organization that provides training, news and analysis to professionals who work across a range of financial crime disciplines, including money laundering, corruption, fraud and compliance, today announced that three top financial crime experts will join its Advisory Board.

The newest members of the ACFCS Advisory Board are Paul E. Pelletier, Member, Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo, in Washington, DC, Alberto Lozano Vila, founder, Lozano Vila Consultants Ltd., in Bogota, Colombia, and Karen Van Ness, Senior Director and Global AML Head, Lexis Nexis in Austin, Texas.

The three new Advisory Board members join 18 global experts and pioneers in various financial crime disciplines. Lozano is the first person from Latin American, other than ACFCS founder and Ecuador native Charles Intriago, to join the Board.

In recent years, Pelletier led the US Justice Department's enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act as deputy chief of the Fraud Section. He is a world expert on corruption and fraud matters and, among his many achievements, led the successful prosecution of mega-fraudster Allen Stanford.

Karen Van Ness is an experienced money laundering and financial crime expert who has served in the technology field for many years, developing innovative compliance and risk management tools for financial institutions and other businesses.

ACFCS was founded in January 2012 by Charles Intriago, a former federal prosecutor, and Joy Meason Intriago, a Certified Public Accountant. ACFCS is developing the first professional certification for private and public sector financial crime specialists. The certification is scheduled for release in February 2013.

Intriago said, “ACFCS has gathered an unrivaled array of thought leaders and experts from various fields to guide ACFCS as it grows its presence and impact worldwide, particularly in the ongoing development of its landmark certification, the Certified Financial Crime Specialist credential."

Intriago also co-founded the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) in 2001, and, in effect, gave birth to the money laundering control industry with his launch of Money Laundering Alert in 1989.

"ACFCS is very fortunate to be able to count on such top financial crime professionals to guide its certification, training and other activities," said Mathew Baum, ACFCS Executive Vice President. "ACFCS exists to serve the global community that confronts the broad spectrum of all financial crimes across national borders, industries, professions, occupations and sectors."

"ACFCS brings a new approach to attacking financial crime to all continents and welcomes members from all countries. The diverse Advisory Board on which ACFCS counts for advice and guidance helps mold effective services we strive to provide our members," Baum added.

A brief description of the three new ACFCS Advisory Board members follows. Full biographical information and photographs are available at ACFCS.org/advisory-board.

Alberto Lozano (Vila)

Senior Consultant and founder of Lozano Vila Consultants in Bogota, he is a widely renowned expert in money laundering and financial crime controls throughout Latin America. He provides expert advice and training on the prevention of money laundering and terrorism financing to companies, financial institutions and other public and private sector organizations. Previously, he was Director General of the Special Administrative Unit of the Ministry of Finance of Colombia, where he led the design and strengthening of government policies to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. He also served as senior advisor to the president of the Bank of Bogotá. He began his career in the legal department at the Central Bank of Colombia, where he served as Compliance Officer and Director of the Operations Analysis Unit, responsible for identifying and examining suspicious transactions.

Paul E. Pelletier

As deputy chief of the Fraud Section of the US Department of Justice, he directed and supervised some of the Justice Department's most important financial crime cases of the past decade, including Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, fraud and other white collar crime cases. He led the prosecution leading to the conviction of mega-fraudster Allen Stanford for his $7 billion Ponzi scheme, and the fraud prosecutions involving PNC, AIG, General Reinsurance and BP. Under his leadership, the Justice Department's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act offensive increased the number of corporate and individual prosecutions and logged a ten-fold increase in fines and penalties. He is now a member of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo, in Washington, DC, specializing in FCPA and white collar crime matters. Before joining the Justice Department, Paul was Chief of the Economic Crimes Section of the US Attorney's Office in Miami, the Southern District of Florida.

Karen Van Ness

An expert in financial crime and compliance management, she is a published author on financial crime, money laundering, fraud prevention and risk management and compliance issues. A frequent speaker at conferences, she is Senior Director of Financial Services Planning and Global Anti-Money Laundering Head at LexisNexis, with a record of building innovative technology solutions and businesses. She has substantial experience in working within major organizations and building innovative technology solutions for anti-money laundering compliance, fraud prevention and risk management. Her business management experience, including strategic and market analysis and planning, often results in her being called to lead major complex projects in financial services, software solutions and compliance and risk. A graduate of Dartmouth, with a masters from Johns Hopkins, she has more than 20 years’ experience in the financial services and software industries.

Advisory Board guides ACFCS programs, assists in building CFCS certification

Members of the Advisory Board also assist ACFCS in the construction of the Certified Financial Specialist (CFCS) examination and certification, and guide ACFCS on its content, training and certification programs.

Several of the Advisory Board members will be speakers at the ACFCS International Financial Crime Conference & Exhibition on May 16-18, 2013, at the Westin Diplomat, Hollywood, FL. For full information about the conference or to register Click Here.

(Accredited members of the media may obtain press credentials to cover the conference by contacting Brian Kindle at 786-517-2720 or bkindle@ACFCS.org.)