ACAMS South Florida Chapter Dec 2024 Event: ACAMS Fentanyl Toolkit

Overview

Join our upcoming webinar where we will share a toolkit designed to make a significant difference in the fight against fentanyl trafficking. Fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid, has been linked to a dramatic increase in overdose deaths across the U.S. and Canada. As this crisis intensifies, financial institutions play a crucial role in identifying and reporting suspicious activities related to fentanyl trafficking. This toolkit aims to:

• Raise awareness of the fentanyl problem,
• Explain the importance of evaluating fentanyl exposure through an enterprise-wide risk assessment (EWRA),
• Recommend conducting transactional searches for both direct and indirect fentanyl exposure.

Speakers include:

• Dr William Scott Grob, CAMS-FCI, CGSS, FRM, CAIA, is the Director of Research and Analysis, responsible for promoting quantitative research methods. In his role, he has built customized programs, such as the Stop Illegal Wildlife Trade certificate being developed jointly with the WWF and, Ending Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking with the FAST Initiative.  Dr Grob has over 25 years of financial and banking expertise working in various compliance and risk management roles at HSBC and Deutsche Bank.
• Homeland Security Investigations Group Supervisor Christopher Rifenberg oversees the agency’s West Palm Beach Border Enforcement Security Taskforce (BEST) focusing on international smuggling of illegal contraband. He oversees a team of agents that investigates illicit products entering the U.S. through airports, seaports and international parcel facilities. Rifenberg was the HSI representative on the DEA West Palm Beach taskforce for nearly ten years. In that role, he collaborated with federal and state partners to build cases against transnational drug trafficking organizations. Rifenberg was the lead investigator of a multi-jurisdictional fentanyl case that targeted traffickers in India and the Dominican Republic and domestic shippers. Since joining HSI in 2005, Rifenberg has worked across a multitude of programmatic areas, including counterterrorism, arms trafficking, antiquities, the dark web, money laundering and more. Specialized trainings with the FBI, Customs and Border Protection, Coast Guard, and intelligence agencies have bolstered his deep understanding of international crimes.