The Assembly Europe

Shilpa is the Chief Product Officer at ACAMS. She is responsible for the performance, content and strategy of anti-financial crime training solutions and their implementation across all channels and client segments.

Shilpa represents ACAMS by speaking at select major industry events and conferences, participating in think tanks and engaging proactively with industry leaders across the globe.

Previously, Shilpa was the Head of Financial Crime Prevention for the Retail and Business Bank in Santander UK. She was accountable for all areas of financial crime prevention including KYC/CDD, customer screening, payment screening, transaction monitoring, customer risk assessment and assurance. She led the bank through the implementation of AML/CTF and ABC policies, advisory on high-risk onboarding, training and communication, and risk assessments. She also held leadership roles at Barclays in financial crime prevention, governance, and controls, and led large transformation programs.

Kieran Beer is chief analyst and director of editorial content with responsibility for ACAMS moneylaundering.com, ACAMS Today and content for many ACAMS conferences and other programs. Prior to joining ACAMS in 2006, he was executive editor of Bloomberg Wealth Manager, an award winning investment and financial planning magazine, and he also served as a staff writer for Bloomberg Markets Magazine.

Kieran has been a financial journalist for more than 30 years, beginning his career at Institutional Investor. He subsequently served as editor-in-chief of The Bond Buyer, founding editor of Thomson Municipal Market Monitor, and editor at the American Banker.

Kieran speaks regularly at industry conferences, has appeared on CNBC and Sky News, and has been heard on WBBR and NPR. He writes a column on anti-financial crime issues and is the host of “Financial Crime Matters,” a podcast series, as well ACAMS videocasts on YouTube.

Dan Benisty holds a Franco-American business school degree in financial Management and a Compliance, Ethics and Regulation certification at SciencesPo Paris.

He began his professional career in the market activities of a french bank then specializes in financial and regulatory risk management for an audit and advisory firm. He then served as Director of Compliance and Internal Control at international banks.

In 2008, he joined the Western Union Group as Head of AML-CFT compliance. Since several years, Dan Benisty gives conferences in Europe and teaches AML compliance at different French Universities. In 2016, he co-founded with the Law Versailles University a compliance Officer diploma. In 2013, he co-founded the ACAMS French Chapter and he is the chairman.

Sam Cousins is a Senior Associate at ACAMS, where his work includes supporting public-private partnerships and strengthening ACAMS thought leadership pillar through the development of content on sanctions and risk, particularly the Sanctions Masterclass program and Global Monthly Update. Sam's work also focuses on countering ransomware financing, which includes enhancing industry awareness of the anti-financial crime risks associated with ransomware attacks and supporting the mitigation of those risks through policies, training and public-private dialogue.

Prior to ACAMS, Sam worked on the Sanctions Policy team at UK Finance - the trade association for the UK banking sector.

Koos Couvée has been ACAMS moneylaundering.com’s European reporter since October 2017 and is responsible for covering the development of laws, regulations and compliance procedures designed to clamp down on illicit finance in the United Kingdom and European Union. Prior to joining ACAMS, Koos worked as a news journalist at various regional and national newspapers based in London.

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Nico has a 23-year professional experience in the banking sector gained at both commercial banks and supervisory authorities at national and European level.

He has been dealing with compliance and internal governance matters for most of his careers with assignments spanning from policy drafting to off/on site supervision as well as internal audit. He has gained extensive expertise in KYC methodology development and financial analysis. He masters the crypto-assets subject matter. His experience in both prudential and AML/CFT supervision has been key to find ways for bridging the two supervisory perspectives.

He holds a master’s degree in business administration and has a solid background in accounting and corporate criminal law. He is a certified crypto-asset anti financial crime specialist.

Mike is the Head of Economic Sanctions Monitoring at Rabobank. Mike holds the CAMS-FCI and CFE qualification, along with 37 years’ experience in international law enforcement and the financial services industry. Mike has led anti-financial crime teams in South Africa, UAE, Ireland and the Netherlands.

Becky Holmes is an author, speaker and the creator of popular Twitter/X account @deathtospinach.

In 2020, having been on the receiving end of an annoying number of direct messages from online romance scammers, Becky started to enjoy wasting their time and publicly ‘outing’ their accounts. Five years later she is now a well-known expert on romance fraud, called upon by both professionals and the media. Her first book, Keanu Reeves Is Not in Love with You, received outstanding reviews from critics, journalists, comedians, counter-fraud professionals and everyday readers. Her second book, The Future of Fraud, comes out in April 2026.

Becky uses humorous examples of her conversations with online fraudsters to shine a light on the darkest corners of the world of romance fraud. Examining the similarities between romance fraud and domestic abuse, she talks about coercive control and confirmation bias, gaslighting and shame. She also reveals the even lesser-known sides to this crime: human trafficking, voodoo and scammer pyramid schemes.

Her engaging way of presenting has an audience looking at all aspects of romance fraud, from the heartbreaking to the hilarious, the academic to the anecdotal and discusses where we're going wrong when dealing with those affected and how the effects of these scams are more far-reaching than it would first appear.

She has become a regular guest on radio and podcasts around the world where she talks about all things romance fraud, whether that be with a light-hearted touch such as ITV’s This Morning or Richard Herring’s Book Club podcast or with a more serious tone as on Jeremy Vine’s BBC Radio 2 show or BBC Breakfast.

No other woman has had so many online romances – from Keanu Reeves to Brad Pitt to Prince William and she is a firm favourite with brave US peacekeeping soldiers and oil rig workers who desperately need iTunes vouchers or Amazon gift cards.

Rich May is the Head of Financial Crime & Global HSBC Head for Wholesale Banking

Prior to joining HSBC, Rich served in a variety of roles at the US Department of the Treasury. In his last position, Rich was the Deputy Associate Director for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN) Enforcement Division. During his time at FinCEN, Rich supervised investigations involving Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Colombia, Panama, Honduras, several European countries, and many other countries.

Before his time at FinCEN, Rich served as the Chief for the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Section.  In this role, Rich supervised the investigation, development, and implementation of sanctions under a variety of authorities—primarily focused on Iran, Syria, and North Korea.  Before OFAC, Rich was an intelligence analyst at the US Department of the Treasury, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the National Counterterrorism Center.

Prior to joining the US Department of the Treasury, Rich served for almost nine years in the US Army, leading soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division.

Bruna Szego serves as the Chair of the Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA), where she is tasked with developing the agency's operations and ensuring the successful implementation of its critical goals. Her priorities include establishing direct and indirect supervision mechanisms, coordinating the Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), and setting standards across the EU to ensure efficient action against money laundering and terrorism financing.

Ms. Szego began her career at the Bank of Italy in 1990. Throughout her time there, she consistently advanced through roles of increasing responsibility. Prior to leading AMLA, she was at the helm of the AML Supervision and Regulation (SNA). Established in June 2022, the SNA plays a crucial role in fortifying the Bank’s efforts to combat money laundering and terrorism financing. Ms. Szego was instrumental in guiding its inception, overseeing logistics, recruitment, IT development, risk assessment methodologies, and strategic communication across multiple stakeholders.

In her previous role, Ms. Szego headed the Regulations and Macroprudential Analysis Directorate within the Directorate General for Financial Supervision and Regulation. There, she directed the rulemaking process concerning financial intermediaries and the financial system. Her tenure involved leading the Bank’s efforts on many key issues, including the post-crisis Basel reforms, the Banking Union, the resolution framework, and AML regulations.

Throughout her career, she participated in high-level European bodies such as the SRB, the EBA BoS, the EBA Resolution Committee, the EBA AML Standing Committee, ECB and ESRB Committees. Ms. Szego's academic foundation in law, coupled with extensive research experience in law and economics, laid the groundwork for her career in financial supervision and regulation. Her commitment to financial integrity continues to drive her AML efforts on a European scale.

She is honored as a Knight of the Italian Republic.

Craig Timm is the Senior Director of AML at ACAMS.

Prior to joining ACAMS, Craig had more than 15 years of anti-financial crime experience across the public and private sectors. At the Department of Justice, Craig served as a Deputy Chief in the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section (now Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section) at headquarters in Washington, DC. In that role, he led a team of prosecutors responsible for enforcing criminal violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, U.S. economic sanctions, and money laundering laws committed by financial institutions and their employees. He led the prosecution of some of the largest financial institutions in the world including HSBC and BNP Paribas. Craig began his career with the Department of Justice as an Assistant United States Attorney in Arizona. At the Department of Justice, he was the recipient of numerous awards including the Attorney General’s Crime Victim’s Restoration Award, the Assistant Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director’s Meritorious Service Award.

At Bank of America, Craig was a Financial Crimes Executive responsible for Strategic Initiatives. These initiatives included participation in the Bank Secrecy Act Advisory Group, 314(b) information sharing initiatives, and the Wolfsberg Group as well as managing the day-to-day liaison with FinCEN, the U.S. Treasury, senior financial crimes policy officials at the OCC and Federal Reserve, key law enforcement agencies, and the U.S. Department of Justice. He also spent several years as the Financial Crimes Executive for the Global Wealth and Investment Management business lines where he served as the designated Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Officer for Merrill Lynch and U.S. Trust.

Craig has an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and a law degree from the Northwestern University School of Law.

George is a global expert anti-financial crime at ACAMS and member of ACAMS' global SMEs team. He previously headed the Paris branch of a leading corporate intelligence consultancy and has strong credentials in corporate investigations and political risk analysis.

An ACAMS-certified global sanctions specialist (CGSS) and certified anti-money laundering specialist (CAMS), he has expertise in the geopolitics, security and economics of wider Europe and the former Soviet Union. George has written extensively on international affairs and has published to date two books and hundreds of articles.

Lora von Ploetz is Head of AML Supervision and Payment Institutions at the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). Lora has over 20 years of experience in the financial crime prevention industry, a proven track record of leading complex and large-scale initiatives to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the financial crime and compliance functions at global financial institutions. Her financial crime experience focuses on the mitigation of significant financial crime risks related to high-risk and sensitive customers, proactive investigations, technology and compliance transformation for best in class delivery. Before joining the supervisory authority  she was  Head of Global Financial Crime Unit at Commerzbank AG, where she was overseeing the cross-border evaluation of significant financial crime events. Before joining Commerzbank AG she has held various senior compliance and legal roles in Geneva, Moscow, and Sofia. She holds an LL.M Law and Finance from the Goethe University in Frankfurt and a Master of Law degree.