Lauren Sparks, CAMS
Co-Chair
Third Party Resources, Inc./3PR Inc.

Lauren Sparks is a Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager (CRCM) with over 26 years in community banking. For 16 years, Ms Sparks practiced community bank risk management in and around the Houston area, administering consumer compliance, internal audit programs and training in the risk management discipline. She is the President of Third Party Resources, Inc., a Houston-based bank consulting firm.

Most recently, she acted as National Director in Risk Management Services for Sheshunoff Consulting + Solutions, a national consulting firm. There she provided risk management services, specializing in special projects and high-risk engagements. She also served as the Southwest Director at that firm.

In addition to her CRCM, Ms Sparks holds the designation of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS). In 2009 and 2010, Ms Sparks spoke and presented at the ABA National Compliance Conference. She has also spoken at the NACHA Payments Conference. Lauren holds an Accredited ACH Professional (AAP) designation, and has written articles for various banking organizations and publications. Most recently she has edited the 2010 and 2011 & 2012 editions of the ABA Regulatory Guide to Regulatory Compliance publication.

Email: lsparks@3princ.com

Armando Linares, III MBA, CAMS
Co-Chair
First State Bank & Trust Company

Armando is the Vice President BSA & Compliance Officer for First State Bank and Trust Company. His responsibility covers regulatory risk areas for the bank which include BSA, OFAC, fraud, consumer and lending compliance. He is implementing a new BSA & Compliance program bank-wide which includes new policies and procedures, training courses, monitoring process, synergy of resources, and a regulatory conscious corporate culture.  

Having exposure to a HIDTA and HIFCA area for over five years at Lone Star National Bank, his expertise has been in the high risk areas of BSA.

Armando holds a Bachelor's in Finance and a Master's in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Brownsville Texas. He also holds a Master's of Science in Criminal Justice from Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona. 

Email: alinares@fsbcarthage.com

Bruce Owdley, CFE, CFS
Programming Director
Houston Police Department 

Bruce Owdley is Police Investigator for the Houston Police Department Financial Crimes Unit.  Officer Owdley has over 15 years of law enforcement experience, with a variety of police experiences, while working in his current position for the past 5 years.  His responsibilities range from investigating forgery, fraud & embezzlement cases, which stem from money laundering and organized crime rings.  Officer Owdley is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and a Certified Fraud Specialist (CFS).   

In addition to his investigative duties, Officer Owdley also is a TCLEOSE (Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education) certified instructor and is responsible for teaching identity theft and fraud in-service classes at the Police Academy and the delivery of the Burglary and Theft and Financial Crimes Investigation module to the cadets at the Houston Police Department Academy. Officer Owdley frequently gives presentations for government, public and private institutions on a regular basis in regard to Financial Crimes, Fraud and Identity theft. 

Officer Owdley has developed a sub-specialty in internet fraud investigations by taking on cases which involve e-commerce transactions and internet communication. Officer Owdley is a published author with the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners in their 2010 edition of Internet Fraud Casebook by writing case number 27 in the book, G.I. Hacker. He has also completed his Identity Theft Prevention e-book, which is available on Amazon Kindle.  His book entitled Cybercrime: How to detect and defend will be coming out later this year. Bruce is the current President for the Lone Star Chapter of the Association of Certified Fraud Specialist in Houston and has big plans for the future of the organization. 

Bruce earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Texas Southern University, with a minor in Business.  He also holds a Master of Science in Strategic Leadership from Mountain State University in Beckley, West Virginia. 

Email: Brucus.Owdley@cityofhouston.net

Christopher Barton-DeJean
Vista Bank Texas
Co-Programming Director

Christopher Barton-DeJean is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist with over 20 years in the banking industry. For 13 years, Mr. Barton-DeJean practiced different facets of retail banking and subsequently transitioned to community banking. He has a demonstrated ability to remediate and resolve regulatory exam findings and alleviate written agreements and orders. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Vista Bank Texas, a Houston-based Community Bank.

Currently, he performs duties as the bank's Chief Compliance Officer. His responsibilities include effectively performing as the BSA Officer, OFAC Officer, CRA Officer and managing regulatory risks related to consumer and lending compliance which includes developing and maintaining a training program on all new regulations and changes to existing regulations to ensure compliance.

Prior to his role at Vista Bank Texas, Christopher served as the BSA Officer for Patriot Bank. Prior to his role at Patriot Bank he served as a risk manager and fraud prevention analyst with JP Morgan Chase. Christopher's tenure at JP Morgan Chase also included roles managing Demand Deposit Account Collections, Foreign Currency Services, Small Business Financial Services and Loan Customer Service.

Christopher holds a Bachelor's of Science in Business Management from the University of Phoenix.

Joann Alicea
Co-Communications Director
PreCash, Inc.

Joann Alicea, Senior Risk Analyst at PreCash, Inc., a multi-million dollar PrePaid Company located in Houston, TX was hired in 2005 as a Risk Analyst to monitor bill payments, stored value and prepaid refill transactions for fraud and money laundering activities. PreCash improves lives and business through payments in serving millions of consumers and thousands of retailers, financial services companies, billers, mobile industry players and other businesses with payments solutions, processing services and more. In 2011, Joann was promoted to Senior Risk Analyst and has received commendations for excellent investigative work from the United States Secret Service and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) for assisting in domestic and international fraud/ML cases. Joann has written two ACAMS published articles entitled: $5.00 to ruin the life of children and women: Internet ad sites used to launder money in promoting prostitution/human trafficking and How you can help in the fight against human trafficking. Joann is also a public speaker on fighting the crime of human trafficking at the Visa/MasterCard payment level.

She has over 10 years of experience in monitoring merchant and cardholder Visa/MasterCard transactions as an employee of First Data Merchant Services and PreCash, Inc. Joann is a recipient of the First Data Leader of the Pack Award and the PreCash Dazzle Award for outstanding work. She is a member of the IAFCI as well as ACAMS. 

Joann is the proud sister of an NYPD Officer, New York's Finest.

Joann is a 17 time marathon runner and an advocate of children and women's rights in helping in the fight to end human trafficking.

Email: joann.alicea@precash.com

Shanna C. Ogundiran
Co-Communications Director
JPMorgan Chase

Shanna is a Know Your Customer (KYC) Specialist with J P Morgan Chase (JPMC).  Her responsibilities include performing enhanced due diligence of Business Banking customers identified as requiring further analysis and risk determination based upon KYC /AML standards.   In addition, Shanna specializes in Anti-money laundering regulations contained within The Bank Secrecy Act and USA Patriot Act in general, as well as those regulations specifically pertaining to 314(a), 314(b), the tracking of reportable monetary instruments purchased with cash and the filing of Currency Transaction Reports (CTR). 

Shanna's previous experience with JPMC was as a Risk Operations Analyst. In addition, she has over ten years' experience in the financial industry.  

Email: Shanna.C.Ogundiran@JPMChase.com

Sylvia Gonzalez, CAMS
Co-Treasurer
BBVA Compass Bank 

Sylvia Gonzalez, Vice President of Retail Business Banking at BBVA Compass Bank, an $800 billion total asset bank with 7,400 branches and approximately 111,000 employees , was hired July 2010 in the North District of Houston to capture the High end Foreign National Market (primarily Mexico). As a result of her efforts, the bank has put in place many Pilots within their Consumer and Business segments to help assist the Foreign National Market fulfill their financial needs in the United States. The 'Pilots' Sylvia help implement and oversee in the branches of the North Houston District are Know Your Customer, FX Trade Services, Foreign National Credit Cards, Foreign National Business Loans and Foreign National Personal/Business Auto Loans.  

Sylvia has 17 years of experience in the Finance Industry. Before joining BBVA Compass Bank, Sylvia worked for Kwik Dollar dba Dinex as their Human Resource Director/ Compliance Analyst, where she was responsible for overseeing the Human Resource department and all Compliance Responsibilities for the 11 states the Money Service Company had presence in. Prior to her role at Kwik Dollar dba Dinex, Sylvia served as Vice President of Private Business Banking at Capital One Bank. Prior to her role at Capital One Bank, Sylvia served as the Vice President for Business Banking at JP Morgan Chase Bank. Prior to her role at JP Morgan Chase Bank, Sylvia served as the International Private Relationship Manager at Compass Private Banking, Compass Bank.  

She is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS). In 2003 Sylvia obtained FINRA (NASD) Series 6, 7 & 63 and the Group I Life, Accident and Health Insurance Licenses. Sylvia is fluent in English and Spanish. Sylvia has earned many recognitions and awards throughout her career along with recommendations. Most recently Sylvia was recognized as a 'Top Leader and Performer' for BBVA Compass Bank and awarded the Pinnacle Award for 2011. 

Email: Sylvia.Gonzalez2@bbvacompass.com

Linda Ly, CAMS, CRCM
Membership Director
Third Party Resources, Inc. (3PR)

Linda is an Engagement Manager at Third Party Resources, Inc. (3PR) where she is responsible for conducting BSA/AML and regulatory compliance audits for financial institutions. In addition, Linda has spent time developing audit work programs and implementing a cloud based file sharing site. Prior to 3PR, Linda was a Compliance Engagement Manager with Sheshunoff Consulting + Solutions and worked as an Operations Supervisor with Washington Mutual.

Linda earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Houston, majoring in Accounting and Finance. Linda is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) as well as a Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager (CRCM).

Email: lly@3princ.com

Sergio Donis, CAMS
Co- Membership Director
JP Morgan Chase and Co.

Sergio is an Assistant Vice President/Senior Compliance Officer at JP Morgan Chase, Legal and Compliance.  In this capacity, he works closely with different lines of business to ensure adherence to regulatory BSA/AML/OFAC compliance and internal corporate policy.

Prior to joining JP Morgan Chase & Co., Sergio spent 2 years the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) where he worked on regulatory investigations and served as a BSA/AML Examiner.  In this capacity, he conducted and evaluated bank BSA/AML/OFAC compliance programs, assessed the adequacy of bank controls through testing.  He also completed special regulatory investigations to determine enforcement actions.  Prior to joining the FDIC, he spent 11 years JP Morgan Chase, where he contributed on several projects, including the establishment of a Houston based Consumer Banking KYC AML due diligence team.  In this capacity he reviewed policies and procedures, assisted in the implementation of the program, tested the integrity of the transaction monitoring software, initiated the enhanced due diligence of high risk consumer and business customers using investigative techniques, and demonstrated processes to the Office of Comptroller of Currency (OCC) during BSA examinations.  Further, he also served in several positions and projects in Consumer Risk Management division of the bank, where he contributed to bank conversion projects and held positions as a Fraud Team Lead, Fraud Prevention Analyst, and in the Treasury and Securities Services.

Sergio earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Houston, majoring in Economics.  Sergio is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) and is currently in the Executive Masters of Business Administration in Banking and Financial Institution program(EMBA) at Sam Houston State University.

Email: serdonis@gmail.com

David Kehr
Treasurer
ACAMS

David is a Senior Account Executive at the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS). He has worked for the association since 2005, developing relationships with government agencies and private financial institutions to help them meet their anti-money laundering (AML) and financial crime training needs using various ACAMS products. David is currently based in Houston, Texas. He holds a degree in communications from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.

Email: dkehr@acams.org

Nidhi Patel, CAMS
Secretary

Nidhi is the BSA/AML Officer for Santander Consumer USA Inc. She has developed and implemented policies, procedures, and controls, creating AML governance structures, established Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) protocols, developed transaction monitoring capabilities and AML training for all associates. She is responsible for conducting risk assessments, updating AML policies and procedures, ensuring employees receive periodic AML training, managing investigations, as appropriate, ensuring Suspicious Activity Reports are prepared and filed timely, performing compliance testing, participating in the new business / product approval process and maintaining strong levels of compliance in BSA/AML/CIP/USA Patriot Act compliance.Nidhi has over 10 years experience in the financial services and compliance.

Nidhi earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Houston, majoring in Finance and was recently accepted into the Strategic Masters of Business Administration at the University of Houston. She is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS).

Email: nidhipatel04@gmail.com