Rio Miner (Co-Chair) is the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)/OFAC Training Manager for Bank of Hope, Rio ensures all Bank staff understand FinCrime regulatory requirements and risk management for the full customer lifecycle. In 2008, as an early member of the newly-formed Wells Fargo financial crimes program, Rio was a driving force for investigative standardization through innovative FinCrime staff training. Over the next 12+ years, Rio managed investigations, logistics & hiring, special projects, and ultimately served as the head of FinCrime training for the department. As liaison to all enterprise lines of business, he was instrumental in product launches of ‘new’ peer to peer payments such as Android Pay and Zelle. A Veteran’s hiring advocate, he has been instrumental in bringing Military, law enforcement, and Other Government and Intelligence professionals to the FinCrime field to embed the ‘intel’ mindset and enhance operational efficiency in FinCrime departments. A penchant for uncovering hidden facts and helping bust bad guys may have developed during his nine years of service as an Army officer, especially after studying and staffing the Intelligence training center at luscious Fort Huachuca, AZ. Using military intelligence principles to fight financial crime is more than a duty, it is a passion. Rio holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oregon and is CFCS and CAMS certified.

Keith Kennedy (Co-Chair) is the Chief Compliance Officer at Kraken Bank, which was the first entity to receive approval to form the world’s first Special Purpose Depository Institution. He has over 15 years of experience in the financial services industry, where he has served in roles such as Global Compliance Operations Director, BSA Officer, and other roles focusing on financial crime compliance.

Keith has a Bachelors degree in Sociology from Coastal Carolina University. He holds the following financial crime certifications: Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Certified Anti-money Laundering Specialist (CAMS, Certified Global Sanctions Specialist (CGSS), Certified Financial Crimes Investigation (CFCI), Certified Cyber Crimes Investigation (CCCI).

Andrea Vetterli (Communications Director) is a Financial Crimes Associate Manager at Wells Fargo. In her role, Ms. Vetterli manages a team of Anti-Money Laundering Investigators who conduct AML investigations across nearly every line of business within the bank. Ms. Vetterli participates in various projects including testing system upgrades and helping to pilot new programs within the investigations group. Prior to that, she worked as an Investigator and Senior Investigator conducting AML investigations for Wells Fargo. Ms. Vetterli has over 12 years of experience in financial crimes/AML investigations.

Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Ms. Vetterli managed a team of fund accountants in the Derivatives team for State Street.

Ms. Vetterli holds an MBA with an emphasis in General and Strategic Management, a B.S. in Managerial Economics, and a B.A. in Political Science from University of California, Davis. She is also a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist.

Michael J. O’Flynn (Programming Director) is a Financial Crimes Associate Manager within Wells Fargo’s Financial Crimes Risk Management group, having spent the majority of his 11 years focused on Anti-Money Laundering Investigations. Within his role he has had extensive exposure to drug and human trafficking funnel account activity, the explosion of the use of digital payment platforms to layer funds, and, more recently, fraud related to Covid-19 government relief payments.

Prior to Wells Fargo, Michael spent 10 years as a manager in the credit card fraud department of Providian/WaMu/Chase where he focused on a variety of duties including investigations of fraud claims, detection, and recoveries of fraud losses.

Michael has a bachelor’s degree in business economics from UC Santa Barbara (Go Gauchos!), a master’s in business administration from Santa Clara University (Go Broncos, too!), and is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist.

Addison Thompson (Programming Director) has counseled clients regarding a range of issues, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money laundering laws, and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.

Addison has developed a deep understanding of government investigations and federal prosecutions while serving as a trial attorney in the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice and as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Middle District of Tennessee. Addison also successfully prosecuted a number of jury trials. He uses this experience to help clients anticipate likely government actions and to develop strategies to quickly and cost effectively manage investigations.

In addition to assisting clients with complex investigations, Addison routinely advises clients on a range of compliance issues related to the FCPA and other anti-bribery laws. As part of this work, he has led risk assessments across a range of businesses, including the life sciences, manufacturing, food and beverage, natural resources, and technology sectors.

Jaco Sadie (Event Manager) is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting and is based San Francisco.

Mr. Sadie provides financial crime related compliance and investigative services to financial institutions, FinTechs and regulators, specializing in fraud investigations, anti-money laundering (AML/BSA) compliance and reviews and sanctions related projects. He has led numerous engagements that involve “look-back” transaction reviews to identify suspicious activity, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions programs reviews, compliance testing of AML/BSA programs, and AML training. He has served as a monitor or independent consultant for financial institutions relating to consent orders issued by regulatory bodies and as a result have had significant interaction with regulatory bodies. He has led investigations in fraud allegations at financial institutions and other industries, directing the efforts of data collection, interviews, analysis of data and documents and the presentation of results. He has spoken at venues about anti-money laundering best practices and has been designated as a testifying expert in matters that involve anti-money laundering and sanctions issues. Mr. Sadie has lived and practiced in the United States, Luxembourg and South Africa.

Prior to joining FTI Consulting Mr. Sadie was a Principal at LECG and was a Senior Manager at Deloitte.

Mr. Sadie earned a B.A. in accounting (honors) at the Stellenbosch University in South Africa. He is Certified in Fraud and Forensics, and is a Certified Public Accountant (California), a Chartered Accountant (South Africa), and a Certified Fraud Examiner.

Jesie Duran Fierros (Secretary) is the Program Manager at Meta, working on the WhatsApp side of the business.

His career focus has been on financial crimes investigations, including anti-money laundering, Know Your Client (KYC), Sanctions, fraud, and privacy compliance.

He’s worked at several Silicon Valley tech giants, FinTechs, and unicorn start-ups to help create and/or modify policies, procedures, and workflows to scale the business.

Christian Townsend (Treasurer) currently manages the BSA/AML Program at Mercari, a licensed non face to face Marketplace. Christian has over 18 years’ experience in BSA/AML, FIU management and compliance across multiple financial services sectors. Prior to Mercari, Christian was with Western Union Financial Services where he was senior manager of AML compliance, global product compliance and head of digital product compliance. Helping the company extend its digital footprint to 40+ countries. Prior to that, Christian was with JPMorgan Chase as part of their Financial Intelligence Unit (“FIU”), which drove AML risk mitigation through firm-wide investigations and projects with strategic impacts. His work included enhancements of human trafficking typologies in addition to spearheading multiple initiatives to identify Drug Trafficking Organization (“DTOs”) financial flows.

Jim Richards (Chapter Advisor) is the Principal and Founder of RegTech Consulting, a private consultancy aimed at developing the next generation of BSA/AML and financial crimes professionals, technologies, and programs. Prior to founding RegTech Consulting, James worked for over 10 years as the BSA Officer, Global Head of Financial Crimes Risk Management at Wells Fargo & Co where he was responsible for governance and program oversight of Bank Secrecy Act and AML for Wells Fargo’s global operations. He was also a Member of the Wells Fargo Management Committee and Enterprise Risk Management Committee and represented Wells Fargo with the Bank Secrecy Act Advisory Group (BSAAG), US Department of the Treasury. From 2004-2005, James also served as the Global Anti-Money Laundering Operations Executive for Bank of America where he was responsible for the operational aspects of Bank of America’s global anti-money laundering and terrorist financing prevention monitoring, surveillance, investigations and related SAR reporting. James also represented Bank of America with the BSAAG. Other experience of note includes: BSA Officer and Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) at FleetBoston Financial Group where James was responsible for all terrorist financing and money laundering investigations and related SAR filings for domestic and international bank and non-bank subsidiaries of FleetBoston Financial. The FIU included the Credit Due Diligence Review Group, responsible for conducting all front-end due diligence reviews, back-end work-out assistance, and ongoing transactional monitoring for all non-scored credit relationships. James represented FleetBoston with the BSAAG. James was a founding member of the Association of Certified Anti—Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) Advisory Board. In May 2004, he provided written and oral testimony on behalf of Bank of America before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations: “Improving Financial Oversight: A Private Sector View of Anti-Money Laundering Efforts” (May 18, 2004). He is also the Author of: “Transnational Criminal Organizations, Cybercrime, and Money Laundering” (CRC Press, New York, London, Boca Raton, ISBN 0-8493-2806-3), published in October, 1998. James also spent 5 years serving as Assistant District Attorney, Special Investigations Unit at the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office in Cambridge, MA.The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) was responsible for the investigation and prosecution of narcotics, organized crime, white-collar crime, and economic crime in Middlesex County, the largest county in Massachusetts. Investigations and prosecutions included felony embezzlement, attorney fraud, public corruption, computer-based larceny, gambling, money laundering, and organized gambling cases. Supervisor of the SIU’s Narcotics Forfeiture Group, with carriage of and supervision over the Group’s civil and criminal forfeiture caseload.