ABA co-hosting financial crimes enforcement conference

New fraud and cybercrime threats, the ongoing implications of COVID-19 and analysis of the Anti-Money Laundering and the Bank Secrecy Act are just a few of the topics that will be discussed during the Financial Crimes Enforcement Conference that begins Tuesday, Jan. 11, and runs through Jan. 13. The conference, in its 33^rd year, is co-sponsored by the Criminal Justice Section and the American Bankers Association. It is being held online due to the pandemic.

Throughout the pandemic, the nation’s crime enforcement officials and banking industry’s anti-money laundering, fraud management and cybersecurity divisions have had to respond to the speed and sophistication of today’s criminals. According to a Dow Jones report, financial crime is a multi-trillion-dollar business for criminal organizations across the globe. Citing data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, it is estimated that up to $2 trillion of illicit funds are laundered through global financial networks every year.

The meeting will focus on enforcement trends, strengthening control frameworks, sanctioning requirements and the strategic benefits of collaboration of the banking industry across departments and their technology platforms.

In addition to daily sessions on such topics as Department of Justice and regulatory enforcement trends, and detecting and disrupting fraud in elder and vulnerable populations, there will be three keynote speakers:

• Juan Zarate, global co-managing partner and chief strategy officer at K2Integrity and chairman of the Center on Economic and Financial Power, will speak on Wednesday from 10-11:15 a.m. EST on “Untangling the Web of Ransomware, Crypto and the application of Sanctions and Financial Crime Regulation.”
• Himamauli Das, acting director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), will present on the “General Session Regulatory Roundtable: Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020” on Thursday from 10-11 a.m. EST
• Jo Ann Barefoot, CEO and co-founder of the Alliance for Innovative Regulation, will give the closing keynote on Thursday at 3 p.m. EST on “AML Act 2020 and the Regulatory Shifts in Innovation and Technology.”

Related links:

• Criminal Justice Section
• 2022 National Institute on White Collar Crime
• White Collar Crime Division Task Force
• ABA Senior Lawyers Division Fraud Resources
• ABA Journal
  • Federal white-collar prosecutions continue a long-term decline