KNOW YOUR CHAPTER
Northern California ACAMS Chapter
We’ve grown by leaps and bounds!
M
embership has increased to
120 chapter members since our
launch on June 23, 2010 at the
Marine Memorial in San Francisco. The executive board’s goal is to increase membership
to 150 during our 2011 membership drive by
delivering relevant learning programs and
exciting networking events in the Northern
California AML community to help members
deepen and expand their knowledge.
Changes to the board
The Northern California ACAMS Chapter
welcomes the latest additions and says goodbye to other members of the executive board.
In June 2010, chapter secretary, Eileen
Monsurate and co-programming director,
Natalie Ware sadly submitted their resignations to the board. We miss them and wish
them success with their new ventures.
July 2010, we welcomed our new co-membership director, Bob Kenny of FinCEN.
November 2010, we welcomed our new
chapter secretary, Erin Balbanian of Google,
co-secretary, Elaine Laye, Legal Counsel
for the FDIC and co-programming director
Shawndra Rutledge, of Bank of the West.
January 2011, when he relocated to the Bay
Area, we welcomed as our new co-communications director, Brian Stoeckert, former
co-communications director for the Southern
California Chapter’s executive board.
Learning events and program highlights
10/6/10 Virtual worlds and e-currencies
On October 6, 2010, ACAMS Northern California presented its first learning event of
its inaugural year with The Technology of
Laundering: virtual worlds, cell phones,
e-currencies — the world’s new banks &
AML’s new frontiers, presented by Mikhail
Reider-Gordon, managing director of Litigation and Forensics of Capstone Advisory
Group, LLC. More than 30 people attended
this exciting event sponsored and hosted by
Silicon Valley Bank in San Jose. Not only did
attendees receive 2 CAMS credits, they also
received a wealth of knowledge that directly
related to the recent FinCEN proposal to
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change the definition, under the BSA, of
stored value programs.
One of the newest and least regulated trends
is the use of virtual currency being used to
commit crimes, including murder for hire.
Virtual currency has become big business.
In Hong Kong, the Octopus card is an anonymous rechargeable stored value smart card