Join ACFCS as we launch our annual Anti-Human Trafficking Webinar Series in recognition of National Human Trafficking Awareness Month. This opening session sets the tone for a month of education, collaboration, and action—uniting financial crime professionals, technology experts, law enforcement, and survivor advocates in the shared fight against human trafficking.

In this keynote address, Megan Lundstrom, CEO of Polaris and a nationally recognized survivor leader, will share insights from Polaris’ groundbreaking work at the intersection of data, systems change, and survivor empowerment. Drawing from lived experience and institutional reform efforts, she will highlight how financial institutions and their partners can move beyond awareness into tangible, measurable impact—helping to dismantle the networks that enable exploitation.

Technology and finance are converging in powerful ways to fight online child sexual abuse material (CSAM). This session highlights how innovative partnerships are transforming detection and disruption efforts across sectors.

Experts from Western Union, Child Rescue Coalition and Tech Coalition will share how their organizations leverage data, technology, and signal-sharing to identify offenders, follow users across platforms, and enable thousands of child rescues.

Financial institutions will learn how these insights can enhance their monitoring, reporting, and collaboration with law enforcement to combat child exploitation networks more effectively.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Understand how technology and data-sharing models can uncover financial links to CSAM activity.
• Recognize opportunities for financial institutions to collaborate with organizations like Child Rescue Coalition and Tech Coalition.
• Apply practical approaches for reporting and escalation that drive real-world outcomes.
• Integrate emerging partnerships and intelligence-sharing models into financial crime compliance strategies.

How do you build a Human Trafficking Response Unit (HTRU) that actually finds victims, supports survivors, and puts traffickers away? In this session, Kevin Metcalf walks through the practical “Metcalf Model”—a repeatable framework that unites law enforcement, prosecutors, social workers, NGOs, financial crime teams, healthcare, transportation (e.g., Truckers Against Trafficking), and hospitality partners into a single, survivor-centered operating system.

You’ll see how to stand up governance, information-sharing, and rapid response workflows; how to integrate financial intelligence and open-source leads with field operations; and how to embed trauma-informed care from first contact through trial. Expect templates, decision trees, and metrics you can adapt to your jurisdiction or enterprise so your HTRU moves from ad hoc coordination to measurable results: detection, care, and convictions.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Map the core components of an HTRU and define roles across law enforcement, prosecution, social services, healthcare, transportation, hospitality, and financial institutions.
• Establish governance and MOUs that enable lawful, timely information-sharing (intel triage, referral pathways, and case coordination).
• Design a survivor-centered, trauma-informed response from first encounter to courtroom, including evidence collection that avoids re-traumatization.
• Implement rapid response playbooks for hotels, clinics/ERs, and transportation hubs, including red flags and escalation steps for each sector.
• Define success metrics (e.g., victim stabilization, disruptions, indictments/convictions) and create a dashboard for continuous improvement and replication.
• Use a deployment checklist to pilot, scale, and export the Metcalf Model to other counties, states, and international partners.

When financial institutions identify potential human trafficking activity, the Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) becomes one of the most powerful tools for disrupting exploitation and enabling justice. But not all SARs are created equal. The quality, clarity, and specificity of trafficking-related SAR narratives can make the difference between a law enforcement lead that goes nowhere and one that sparks an investigation, an arrest, and a rescue.

In this session, experts from financial compliance industry will break down what makes a trafficking-related SAR truly actionable. They will share real-world insights into what law enforcement looks for, how to translate red flags into compelling narratives, and how collaboration and feedback loops can strengthen future filings. Attendees will walk away with practical guidance to enhance the impact of their reporting and strengthen the collective fight against human trafficking.

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

• Identify key indicators and typologies of human trafficking that should trigger SAR consideration.
• Apply best practices for crafting clear, detailed, and structured SAR narratives that support investigative follow-up.
• Understand what elements of SARs law enforcement finds most useful in trafficking-related cases.
• Establish communication and feedback processes between financial institutions and law enforcement to enhance reporting quality and outcomes.
• Strengthen institutional policies and training programs to improve detection and reporting of trafficking activity through financial channels.

Sex traffickers depend on the financial system to survive. Every advertisement, hotel room, escort service, flight, purchase, and payout leaves a trail—and for those who know how to read it, that trail exposes the trafficker’s tactics, movements, and criminal network. This course is designed for financial institutions, compliance professionals, investigators, and multidisciplinary partners who play a critical role in detecting and reporting human trafficking through financial patterns.

Led by a nationally recognized expert in sex trafficking investigations and undercover operations, this training breaks down how traffickers use banks, money service businesses, payment apps, cryptocurrency, and other financial tools to conceal profits and launder proceeds. Participants will learn how to recognize the subtle patterns in account behavior, transaction histories, and customer interactions that reveal exploitation behind the scenes.

Through practical instruction, red flag indicators, examples of suspicious financial activity, and guidance on writing effective reports, attendees will learn how to transform financial data into actionable intelligence for law enforcement. The course culminates in a walkthrough of an actual sex trafficking case—demonstrating how well-documented SARs, meticulous financial reviews, and vigilant bank personnel were instrumental in dismantling a trafficker’s prostitution enterprise.

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Understand Traffickers’ Financial Tactics

• Identify how sex traffickers utilize banks, payment platforms, credit cards, shell businesses, and alternate financial channels to facilitate and conceal their operations.
• Recognize common money laundering behaviors tied specifically to commercial sex trafficking and illegal prostitution enterprises.

2. Detect Red Flags in Financial Data
Analyze account activity, transaction patterns, deposits/withdrawals, travel expenditures, online marketplace payments, and other financial clues that indicate trafficking-related behavior.

• Distinguish between normal customer behavior and high-risk patterns consistent with exploitation, coercion, and organized criminal activity.

3. Strengthen Reporting and Documentation

• Learn how financial institutions can accurately document suspicious indicators in internal systems.
• Draft clear, detailed, and actionable Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) that reflect trafficking-specific concerns and provide investigative value to law enforcement.

4. Collaborate Effectively With Investigators

• Understand what information law enforcement needs most from financial institutions during trafficking investigations.
• Learn best practices for communication, information sharing, and timely reporting to strengthen multidisciplinary efforts.

5. Apply Skills Through a Real-World Case Study

• Walk step-by-step through an actual trafficking case in which financial analysis played a critical role.

Human trafficking doesn’t just happen in the shadows—it also hides behind the bright lights of global sports. From fraudulent recruitment of young athletes to forced labor in major event supply chains, trafficking networks exploit the passion, profit, and prestige that fuel the sports industry.

In this eye-opening session, investigative journalist Chris Dalby, founder of World of Crime, will uncover how criminal networks infiltrate the global sports ecosystem. He’ll explore how recruitment scams, fake academies, and illicit labor practices intersect with organized crime, money laundering, and corruption—and how financial institutions and compliance professionals can identify the red flags hidden in plain sight.

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

• Examine how human trafficking manifests within professional and amateur sports, from athlete exploitation to event-linked labor abuses.
• Understand the role of transnational organized crime and illicit finance in perpetuating trafficking through sports.
• Identify red flags and transactional indicators that may signal trafficking or exploitation in sports-related accounts and payments.
• Explore opportunities for financial institutions and investigative partners to disrupt trafficking networks through intelligence sharing and targeted due diligence.

Pig butchering scams-also known as “romance-investment scams”- blend social engineering, psychological manipulation, and sophisticated crypto-based fraud. What often appears to be a simple online exploitation scheme is, in reality, part of a sprawling transnational criminal economy that intersects with human trafficking, forced labor, and organized financial crime networks. In this webinar, compliance experts from leading financial institutions and blockchain intelligence firms unravel how these schemes operate, how victims are recruited and exploited, and how illicit proceeds flow through the financial system. Attendees will gain practical insights on identifying high-risk activity, collaborating across sectors, and strengthening institutional response frameworks to protect customers and communities.

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

• Understand the full scheme lifecycle - from the initial grooming phase to the investment “upsell” and eventual disappearance, including how criminal groups structure operations and move illicit funds.
• Recognize red flags and behavioral indicators across traditional banking channels, digital assets, and cross-border transfers, including patterns unique to pig butchering-related trafficking settings.
• Strengthen investigative and reporting practices through improved data collection, blockchain analytics, and SAR narratives tailored to pig butchering typologies.
• Enhance cross-sector collaboration by leveraging partnerships with law enforcement, victim-support organizations, and intelligence providers to disrupt networks at scale.