ACAMS Connecticut Chapter Feb 2026 Event: Back to Basics - Setting the Foundation for Compliance

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.

Brienne Bryson, SVP Chief Compliance Officer, is a Bank Secrecy Act professional with over 25 years’ experience, specializing in areas of BSA/AML and Sanctions Compliance, Operations, Fraud, and Risk Management with financial institutions and organizations spanning the banking, insurance, and money service business industries. She has extensive experience in creating and strengthening BSA/AML Compliance programs, risk, and staffing assessments, and creating customized procedures and training. She has worked for an AML software provider performing model validations, system set-ups, product development, UAT testing, and training for all levels of the end user experience.

Email: Brienna@arc-serv.com

David Caruso is Vice President of Financial Crime Compliance at WorkFusion, where he is helping redefine how financial institutions fight financial crime using AI. With more than 25 years of experience, David has built and led AML and sanctions programs at banks including JP Morgan, HSBC, Wachovia, and Riggs Bank. He has also led major corruption investigations and founded and scaled RegTech companies. David is a former U.S. Secret Service Special Agent and a graduate of The George Washington University.

Captain Keith Cregan began serving the Town of Morristown as a patrol officer in 2004 and is currently the Service Division Commander overseeing the Bureau’s Investigative Unit, Internal Affairs Unit, Accreditation, Records Unit, and Property and Evidence functions.

In 2010, Keith was deputized as a full-time federal task force officer (TFO) with the IRS Criminal Investigation.  As a TFO and member of the New Jersey Financial Crimes Task Force, hosted by the United States Attorney’s Office District of New Jersey, Keith conducts complex money laundering investigations involving Bank Secrecy Act violations by both domestic subjects and international syndicates.  In 2020, Keith was deputized as a case specific TFO with the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Today, Keith works with IRS-CI and DEA and continues to develop investigations into Professional Money Laundering Networks (PMLNs).  In 2022, Keith and his team received the FinCEN Director’s Law Enforcement Award, Transnational Criminal Organization Activity category.

Prior to law enforcement, Keith worked as an auditor with PricewaterhouseCoopers and finance manager with Major League Soccer.

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Richard Graham leads the evolution of Moody’s value proposition in financial crime and third-party risk. With over two decades of experience, he brings deep expertise in technologies addressing fraud, money laundering, and sanctions. Rich has advised some of the world’s largest financial institutions, government agencies, and fintechs on complex financial crime technology challenges. He is a sought-after speaker in the financial crimes space, having presented at numerous high-profile conferences and webinars.

Since joining Verafin in 2014, Corey Lynch (CAMS) has worked closely with financial institutions to understand their unique product needs and identify areas for product development. As a Product Expert, he is an integral member of the Sales, Product and Marketing teams. Corey is happy to share his wealth of product knowledge to help financial institutions transform anti-financial crime programs and meet the challenges of a constantly shifting landscape. Corey is passionate about empowering Verafin customers to achieve their goals and stop financial crime.

Special Agent Carlo Nastasi began his career with the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) in 2008.  Prior to joining IRS-CI, Agent Nastasi was an Audit Senior at Deloitte and Touché and graduated from Pace University with a bachelor’s degree in Finance and Accounting.   He is currently the lead agent on the SAR review team and is the liaison to the private banking industry.  His role includes leading high-level money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act investigations and providing training to the BSA compliance industry.

During his time with IRS-CI, Agent Nastasi worked on various tax evasion, money laundering, and Bank Secrecy Act investigations relating to financial institutions, OCDETF, international tax, Securities Fraud, Ponzi Schemes, Political Corruption, and Mortgage Fraud.  Many of these investigations involved tracing funds globally, including fiat currency, crypto, foreign currency, TBML, and informal money transfer systems.  Agent Nastasi also served as a Task Force Officer with the Federal Bureau of Investigations, assisting the white-collar and political corruption divisions from 2011 to 2016.

With over 17 years of experience in the compliance sector of the financial banking industry, Kristen has firmly established herself as a risk management professional. Recognized as a Verafin model expert, she maintains a wealth of knowledge and expertise in customer risk rating, BSA/AML risk assessments, model validations, system tunings and calibrations, and system implementations. In addition to her professional achievements, Kristen has been actively involved in the ACAMS community, previously serving as a board member with the Connecticut chapter group.