Andres Betancourt (Programming Director) has over 10 years of experience in Compliance and AML working within the financial services industry with major financial institutions and consulting firms. He worked on internal audit reviews, anti-money laundering and fraud investigations, oversight and testing, quality assurance audits, compliance effectiveness reviews, policy interpretation and regulatory reporting during several years. Andres is a Certified AML Specialist, Certified Financial Crime Specialist, Certified Blockchain Expert, Certified Cryptocurrency Investigator, member of the International Association of Financial Crimes Investigators and holds a Bachelor of Arts from York University, Liberal Arts Program from Seneca College and holds an Oxford Executive Leadership Programme from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford and Project Management certification from Cornell University.

Andres works in the Global AML Audit Centre of Excellence for Scotiabank, which assess the design and operational effectiveness of internal controls. This also includes adherence to bank policies and regulatory requirements, particularly those related to AML, anti-terrorist financing (ATF) and sanctions risk management.

Throughout his career, Andres worked with different financial institutions and advisory firms on regulatory compliance effectiveness reviews of reporting entities with operation hubs in multiple jurisdictions including Canada, the United Kingdom, U.S. and Australia. He also worked on AML and fraud investigations, FINTRAC reporting, regulatory AML remediations, quality assurance program design and testing, compliance training and strategy, Centre of Excellence processes and AML internal control audits. Recently, Andres led and participated in centralized audits for AML Program governance, regulatory reporting (LCTR/EFTR), sanctions screening for 2nd Line functions, Trade Finance Canada & Mexico, Global AML Transformation initiative and international banking regulatory audit reports (Colombia, Chile, Peru, Mexico, Caribbean, Cayman, TCI, Uruguay and Central America).

Robert Osbourne (Programming Director) is a certified AML specialist supporting the National AML Services team at Grant Thornton.  

With over 20 years in the financial services industry, he brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to his role within Grant Thornton and to his many FINTRAC-regulated clients. Robert has a strong focus on money service businesses, and has worked with MSBs in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia; from developing Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financial policies and procedures, to performing effectiveness reviews, to building training programs.

As an AML subject matter expert, he has participated in many AML conferences, seminars and webinars as a speaker or panelist.

Fnan Desta (Event Coordinator) oversees the operational effectiveness of the Transaction Monitoring Team (Investigations Team) servicing the Personal, Commercial, Wealth Management and Global Asset Management lines of business in Canada. He leads a team responsible for adjudicating, investigating and reporting on Strategic Transaction Monitoring Alerts, Unusual Activity Reports, Production Orders, Cross-Border Investigations & Correspondent Banking Investigations.

He is the Co-Chair of BMO’s Enterprise Transaction Monitoring Working Group with oversight on Canada, Europe & Asia and across all operating groups (Personal, Commercial, Capital Markets & Wealth Management). He is a member of and AML Liaison to BMO’s Financial Crime Unit Fusion Centre.

Fnan led “Project Shine”, an initiative at BMO in 2013 aimed at professionalizing the FIU in transforming to one of the best in class AML shops on Bay Street.

Prior to joining the FIU, Fnan held various roles in the personal and commercial banking division at BMO.

Aliya Khan (Co-Secretary) has over 15 years of experience in Financial Crimes, including Fraud and AML. She started her career in Financial Crimes at the RBC National Fraud Detection Group. In this role, she was responsible for investigating Online Banking fraud and adjudicating debit card fraud claims pertaining to Account Take-Overs, Friendly Fraud and Elder Abuse. Her strong interest in Financial Crimes led her to RBC’s AML department where she held various roles within investigations. In addition, Aliya presented one of her investigations as a Case Study at the April 2011 ACAMS Conference in Toronto. Aliya also worked in the RBC Global AML Program Governance department where she was responsible for conducting risk-based compliance testing.

Her testing and AML experience led her to a role in the AML and Compliance department at the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions “OSFI” of Canada where she gained Canadian regulatory experience. For over three years, Aliya participated in concurrent AML/ATF assessments with FINTRAC at various Federally Regulated Financial Institutions in Canada to ensure their compliance with the PCMLTFA, PCMLTFR and OSFI Guideline B-8.

Aliya currently is employed at BMO Financial Group in AML Compliance where she is responsible for leading and managing various QA reviews and regulatory and non-regulatory Issue Validations.

Aliya is committed to learning about Financial Crimes. She has her CAMS (Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist), CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner) and CBP (Certified Bitcoin Professional). In addition, Aliya also completed the Certified Financial Crime Analysis course at Seneca College. She volunteers as a mentor through the TRIEC Mentoring Partnership where she has been mentoring newcomers to Canada on gaining AML experience in Canada and providing them with coaching, when needed.

Kaylan Olsen (Co-Treasurer) works as a SR AML Project Specialist within the Meridian Group. She is responsible for both Meridian Credit Union and motusbank’s AML regulatory projects and enterprise wide initiatives.

Kaylan was first introduced to the AML field as an Intern for the Italian Ministry of Finance and Economics as part of their Financial Action Task Force (FATF) delegation. The Italian delegation held the Presidency of the FATF at the time and were responsible for finalizing the 2012 FATF Recommendations.

She has experience working with Compliance, EDD, Audit and Quality Assurance teams through 8 years of progressive roles. While at Scotiabank she specialized in the assessment of AML risk controls, KYC procedural methodology, Best Practices training and developing KPI metrics for AML QA. She has also worked as an AML Investigator with the Bank of Montreal’s High Risk Team. She was responsible for ensuring MSB compliance, Enhanced Due Diligence investigations and transactional reporting.

In addition, Kaylan participated in the Transcrime Bownet Project under the guidance of the European Commission DG Home affairs. The project researched and identified barriers to Beneficial Ownership of legal entities across Europe with the end goal of developing an intelligent system for tracking ownership.

Kaylan is a certified Anti Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) and holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto and Master of Laws from the Università di Teramo, Italy.