John
Schmarkey
Licensed Legal and Private Investigator (LPI), Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Senior Instructor (Federal Law Enforcement Training Center), Special Agent, U.S. Treasury, (IRS Criminal Investigation retired)
Mr. Schmarkey has over thirty years of experience in complex financial crime investigations and teaching. He served twenty-seven years as a Special Agent, for U.S. Treasury, IRS Criminal Investigation, retiring June 30, 2011. Subsequently, he was a Senior Instructor for the Financial Fraud Institute of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. He taught federal agents and state and local detectives. He and his partner were responsible for off campus intensive courses in money laundering and fraud investigations, plus classes on campus as assigned. He was the lead instructor in advanced money laundering and deputy coordinator for the Money Laundering and Asset Forfeiture Training Program (MLAFTP). He has taught hundreds of law enforcement students, both on campus at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, and in numerous task force locations throughout the continental U.S. and in Puerto Rico. Subsequently, he developed a course and textbook, and taught financial investigation along the border for the Southwest Border Anti-Money Laundering Alliance. He is an occasional guest instructor for professional groups and colleges.
Previously, as a senior case agent he often worked cases related to financial institutions and investor fraud with his partners at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Secret Service, and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). These numerous white collar and organized crimes included: bank fraud, mortgage fraud, securities fraud, tax evasion, transnational organized crime, and international trade-based schemes. He was assigned investor fraud cases and "savings and loan crisis" cases with Secret Service, where he often coordinated investigations at the request of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He was assigned to support the FBI organized crime (OC) and Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) squads. While at JTTF, he was assigned via the U.S. Treasury's Terrorism Finance Office and Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to work in Baghdad, Iraq. He worked closely with American and British intelligence agencies. He also worked "narco-terrorism" matters for the “Green Quest” terrorist finance task force, while collaborating with intelligence and law enforcement in the United Kingdom. Later, he was an original member of Atlanta’s “David Wilhelm Strike Force” of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). He worked cases in Mexico and Colombia, South America. He also served many years supporting state and local law enforcement at the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) task force in Atlanta. Mr. Schmarkey is familiar with federal financial industry regulators and the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance. He worked closely with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). He worked closely with examiners at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS). He developed a special interest in money service businesses (MSB) and initiated investigations in Atlanta to examine the illicit use of MSB, in liaison with the Mexican financial intelligence unit (FIU) in Mexico City.
He is currently honored to be a member of the National Association of Legal Investigators (NALI). He is a proud member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). He is the original founder and a former co-chairman of ACAMS, Atlanta Chapter, and a “Board Member Emeritus” of ACFE, Georgia Chapter. Earlier, he was a voice intercept linguist in intelligence in Berlin for the U.S. Army Security Agency (ASA-INSCOM), during the Cold War. He earned a Bachelor of Science in accounting from the University of Alabama in Birmingham.