New York City

Join a community that stays on top of Fincrime trends and offers unique career development opportunities

New York City

Join a community that stays on top of Fincrime trends and offers unique career development opportunities

The ACFCS New York Chapter is your direct link to the national organization. By joining our Chapter, you not only receive the benefit of both local and national membership, but you gain an entire network of individuals looking to enhance their financial crime careers.
 
Through education, training, certification and networking, the New York Chapter is helping to expand the global reach of ACFCS. Your membership will connect you with financial crime professionals locally and globally who wish to stay abreast of continuously changing financial crime trends and improve results in compliance, investigations and enforcement.

OUR MISSION

To enhance our members understanding of financial crime and to deliver the latest in detection and prevention strategies.

OUR VISION

To promote information sharing and networking among a diverse membership base featuring experts from the private sector, regulators, and law enforcement.
Robert Loh Headshot

Robert Loh

Co-Chair

Frank Finizia Headshot

Frank Finizia

Co-Chair

Lisa Concepcion Headshot

Lisa Concepcion

Board Member

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Lisa Concepcion (Programming Director) is a Director at UBS serving as a PMO for a consent order remediation of Americas clients as well as managing the Enhanced Due Diligence onboarding team for the Financial Crime Prevention Private Bank and Financial Services Market Access Group. Prior to that she worked at JP Morgan as the Global Head of the Financial Crime Risk Review for Wholesale and Retail Banking.

Lisa has 14 years of compliance experience and holds a Bachelor of Arts from Wellesley College. She is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS), Certified Compliance and Regulatory Professional (CCRP) and in US Law and Methodologies.

Beth Berenbaum Headshot

Beth Berenbaum

Board Member

Francisco Ventura Headshot

Francisco Ventura

Board Member

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Francisco Ventura (Event Coordinator) is a Senior Director at FTI Consulting and is based in the New York office. He is a member of the Financial Services practice within the Forensic & Litigation Consulting segment.

Francisco’s expertise is in Financial Crimes, notably assessing Money Laundering risk of products for Financial Services clients and supporting adherence to U.S. statutes and regulations encompassing U.S. PATRIOT ACT, Dodd-Frank, Office of Foreign Assets Control and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Client types served include Capital Markets and Investment Banking, Corporate Banking, Retail Banking, Broker Dealer, Money Service Business and Correspondent Banking, among others.

Prior to FTI Francisco most recently served as Associate Director, in the role of AML Surveillance Manager for a foreign broker-dealer where he oversaw the annual AML Risk Assessment for the enterprise and New York Branch Capital Markets Division. Additionally, Francisco previously worked at a large U.S. financial institution where he was part of the implementation team responsible for conducting a gap analysis against core operations of a foreign affiliate’s Compliance program and integrating these into the parent company where he co-lead efforts in testing and fine-tuning of newly acquired Actimize Anti-Money Laundering solutions across various lines of business, focusing on Client Onboarding, Client Due Diligence, Sanctions, Transactional Monitoring and corresponding rule parameters, Suspicious Activity reporting and systemic on-going monitoring.

Francisco’s expertise is derived from many years of assisting financial institutions and working with regulatory bodies, including the OCC, FDIC, FRBNY, SEC, FINRA, CFTC and FinCEN. He has worked on AML compliance monitorships for domestic and foreign banks under enforcement actions. He has led cross-functional process and procedure implementation projects involving global sanctions operations, and best practices and compliance with U.S. regulations, ongoing audits and protocols in response to consent orders. Francisco has executed multiple annual AML/BSA/OFAC Risk Assessment Initiatives resulting in enhanced surveillance monitoring, identification, and resolution of policy gaps.

He has advised domestic and foreign financial institutions on exposures to high risk scandals, such as Madoff Ponzi scheme, Panama Papers, FIFA corruption, FCPA non-compliance and/or other suspicious activities identified through reviews of books and records. He has evaluated hundreds of high-risk relationships, advising businesses on corrective actions required to strengthen money laundering controls exposed through regulatory examinations. Francisco has conducted over 500 large-dollar investigations of complex high-risk cross border transactions, resulting in hundreds of Suspicious Activity Report filings, offsetting exposure to money laundering, legal, operational, and reputational concerns.

Francisco holds a M.B.A. from Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University. As a Certified AML Specialist and a Certified Financial Crimes Specialist, he brings expertise critical to combating white collar crime. Francisco serves as Event Coordinator to the Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialist New York Chapter.

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Bijesh Krishnan

Board Member

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Bijesh Krishnan (Secretary) is an Internal Audit-Risk Manager for Scotiabank’s Global Banking and Markets business in New York.

With 15 years of experience, Bijesh’s expertise is in leading regulatory and risk-based audits. Prior experience includes positions with Standard Chartered Bank and Citigroup. At Citigroup, Bijesh was a Product Controller in the Institutional Clients Group and has experience in the BSA/AML space of internal audit for the Consumer Bank. Bijesh began his career as an External Auditor with Deloitte, serving banking, private equity and real estate clients.

Bijesh holds an IIA certification from the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors U.K. and has completed Part I and II of Moody’s Analytics Credit Skills Assessment. Bijesh has a Bachelor in Science in Economics and Business from the University at Albany and an Accounting Certification from Siena College.

Arlington Gordon Headshot

Thaedra Frangos

Board Member

Arlington Gordon Headshot

Alexa Schwartz

Board Member – Student

Bijesh Krishnan Headshot

Sebastian Leal

Board Member – Student

Arlington Gordon Headshot

Thomas DeWitt

Board Member

Arlington Gordon Headshot

Arlington Gordon

Chapter Advisor

04/12/2023 6:30 PM ET

How Securities Fraud Threatens the Integrity of Public Companies

UPCOMING EVENTS

PAST EVENTS

Coming Soon

See What Certified Financial Crime Specialists Are Saying

"The CFCS tests the skills necessary to fight financial crime. It's comprehensive. Passing it should be considered a mark of high achievement, distinguishing qualified experts in this growing specialty area."

KENNETH E. BARDEN 

(JD, Washington)

"It's a vigorous exam. Anyone passing it should have a great sense of achievement."

DANIEL DWAIN

(CFCS, Official Superior

de Cumplimiento Cidel

Bank & Trust Inc. Nueva York)

"The exam tests one's ability to apply concepts in practical scenarios. Passing it can be a great asset for professionals in the converging disciplines of financial crime."

MORRIS GUY

(CFCS, Royal Band of

Canada, Montreal)

"The Exam is far-reaching. I love that the questions are scenario based. I recommend it to anyone in the financial crime detection and prevention profession."

BECKI LAPORTE

(CFCS, CAMS Lead Compliance

Trainer, FINRA, Member Regulation

Training, Washington, DC)

"This certification comes at a very ripe time. Professionals can no longer get away with having siloed knowledge. Compliance is all-encompassing and enterprise-driven."

KATYA HIROSE
CFCS, CAMS, CFE, CSAR
Director, Global Risk
& Investigation Practice
FTI Consulting, Los Angeles

READY TO BEGIN YOUR JOURNEY TOWARDS
CFCS CERTIFICATION?