FROM THE EDITOR
Engulfed by a masterpiece
Last year I had the opportunity to visit the Musée de l’ Orangerie in Paris. I have visited this city on numerous occasions, but I have never made it to l’ Orangerie, despite the fact that this museum houses several important works by impressionist artists, which is my favorite genre of art. Among these works is Claude Monet’ s masterpiece, the Water Lilies. Monet helped design the museum with the intention of providing the best viewing conditions for the Water Lilies. There is a series of interconnected ovalshaped rooms with Monet’ s compositions hung wall to wall against the long axis at either side of each room. As I walked into the Water Lilies exhibit, I truly felt what Monet said about his painting, it creates the“ illusion of an endless whole, of a wave with no horizon and no shore.” As I turned slowly around to take in every inch of the room, I was suddenly engulfed in his masterpiece.
As financial crime prevention professionals, we too, can sometimes be suddenly engulfed by the demands of work or by the new challenges that this wonderful, exciting yet challenging field has to offer. As such, our masterpiece becomes solving the financial crime. The headline article Artfully done sheds light on an area where criminals are polluting something beautiful, such as art, and using it to launder their ill-gotten gains. Is more regulation needed in the art world? Discover what can be done and what the community as a whole can do to fight this emerging challenge.
Our next headline article takes a deeper dive into the financial crime prevention masterpiece. Deconstructing a fraudster helps us understand the mindset of a fraudster through developing detective and preventive measures.
Continuing with the dissecting of our masterpiece, the article Attracting compliance talent shows you how to attract, retain and develop the best AML professionals to help grow and improve your organization.
This issue is filled with many more articles to help any financial crime prevention professional in their daily job, but I am excited to share with all of you two interviews contained in this edition. I had the great honor of visiting Homeland Security Investigations( HSI) El Dorado Task Force( EDTF) and spending the day with several team members who shared their war stories and I even interviewed an undercover agent. HSI EDTF is celebrating 25 years of fighting crime. In addition, we have an in-depth interview with two of our Advanced Certification graduates, Lauren Kohr and Jack Sonnenschein, who share their experi ences and knowledge about obtaining their Advanced Certifications.
Also, ACAMS Today is now on Twitter, so be sure to follow us @ acamstoday for the latest updates, articles, happenings and much more.
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank John J. Byrne for his many years of service and commitment as ACAMS’ executive vice president. His leadership, mentorship and numerous contributions not only to ACAMS, but also to the entire financial crime prevention community cannot be overstated. John, we know that as you continue to transition more into teaching, writing and speaking we will still continue to benefit from your knowledge and expertise in the financial crime prevention field.
Thank you, John, for your leadership.
Karla Monterrosa-Yancey, CAMS editor-in-chief
Produced by: ComplianceComm
8 ACAMS TODAY | SEPTEMBER – NOVEMBER 2017 | ACAMS. ORG | ACAMSTODAY. ORG