San Diego Baja California Chapter

Melissa Triplett is currently the Senior Vice President, BSA Officer for Pacific Western Bank. She has more than 21 years of experience in the banking and financial services industry. Melissa has significant experience in AML and Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) laws, regulations, and best practices.

Prior to joining Pacific Western Bank, Melissa held the positions of Vice President BSA Officer at California Business Bank and Assistant Vice President BSA Analyst at Seacoast Commerce Bank. Previous to that, Melissa held Operations and Management positions at Union Bank of California and North Island Credit Union.

Melissa is a founder and Co-Chair of the ACAMS San Diego-Baja California Chapter. Prior to the ACAMS San Diego-Baja California Chapter’s inception she served as Programming Director for the ACAMS Southern California Chapter. As Co-Chair for the ACAMS San Diego-Baja California Chapter, she identifies, develops, and promotes educational and networking programs to industry experts and law enforcement professionals in the AML and CTF fields.

Melissa also serves as the President of the Abrigo (formally Bankers Toolbox) West Coast User Group and played a pivotal role in the group’s implementation. She has been a member of ACAMS since 2013 and has been a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) since March 2014. Melissa obtained her CAMS-Audit designation in 2019.

Email: mtriplett@pacwest.com

Natalie is an active member of the InfraGard Program (a FBI-affiliated nonprofit organization dedicated to critical infrastructure protection) at the San Diego Chapter, the Associate of Certified Fraud Examiners’ (ACFE) San Diego Chapter, and the California Financial Crimes Investigators Association (CFCIA) San Diego Division. Natalie is also a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) since 2017 through the globally recognized organization ACFE. She also holds the CFI designation (Certified Fraud Investigator) through CFCIA since 2015.

Prior to joining Pacific Western Bank, she was the Vice President, BSA & OFAC Officer at Seacoast Commerce Bank, a $1B bank headquartered in San Diego,CA. Natalie was previously the AVP, Assistant BSA Officer at Vibra Bank, and also worked at Regents Bank and San Diego Private Bank in BSA/AML compliance and operational roles. She has substantial banking experience in retail banking, community banking, border banking, operational and lending compliance, and in BSA/AML/OFAC, dating back to 2003 when she began her banking career.

Natalie has been a member of ACAMS since 2013 and is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) since 2014. Natalie joined the Board of the ACAMS Southern California Chapter in 2015 and served as the Communications Director for 2.5 years prior to forming the ACAMS San Diego –Baja CA Chapter in 2017. Natalie obtained her Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) designation through the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) in 2017.

She also served as the VP/Treasurer for the Banker’s Toolbox West Coast Regional User Group Conference from 2015 –2019. Natalie attended San Diego State University where she studied English and Comparative Literature and wrote for the school newspaper, The Daily Aztec, from 2000 through 2005.

Anthony Orlando is a career federal law enforcement official with 25 years of experience in the financial crimes space. He was named to the newly formed position of Director of the Nationally Coordinated Investigations Unit for IRS Criminal Investigation on May 1, 2017. Mr. Orlando is responsible for the strategic program planning, development, coordination and the implementation of programs that are national and international in scope. As Director, Mr. Orlando is responsible for identifying and developing high impact tax and money laundering investigations in diverse areas such as international, employment taxes, virtual currency and corporate fraud through the use of data analytics and forensics.

In addition, Mr. Orlando is tasked with identifying new and emerging threats and piloting innovative ideas. Mr. Orlando is also a strong advocate for public private partnerships to promote financial crimes compliance and he currently serves as the Chairman of the Executive Planning Committee of the West Coast AML Forum based in San Francisco, California.

Mr. Orlando has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science with a Minor in Economics and a Master’s of Science Degree in Accountancy. Mr. Orlando is also the recipient of an Honor Award bestowed by the Secretary of the Treasury in 2005 for his overseas work on a Treasury Financial Jump Team while he was based in Baghdad, Iraq. In October 2019, Mr. Orlando and his team received a Commissioner’s Award for their ground breaking work in the use of data forensics to identify and select potential criminal tax and money laundering cases.

Allison Truong has been in the banking industry for over a decade and currently holds the position of FVP, BSA Director at Axos Bank. She has been with Axos Bank since 2018, and prior to Axos she held positions as a risk and underwriting analyst for payment processing and also held multiple roles with Wells Fargo Bank. She is a subject matter expert in multiple areas, including payment process, international banking, EB-5 service offering, securities and investments, and commercial lending. She currently holds the Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) and Certified Know Your Customer Associate (CKYCA) designations and is currently seeking the Certified Global Sanctions Specialist (CGSS) certification as well.

Allison holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of California at Irvine and a master’s of jurisprudence with a concentration in financial services compliance from Seton Hall University School of Law. Outside of banking, Allison is heavily involved in the rugby community in Southern California, and currently serves as a board member for the Southern California Rugby Football Union, coaches the Belmont Shore women’s rugby football club, and is a world rugby level one certified coach.

Email Address: atruong@axosbank.com

Karen Geno is the principal/owner of Geno Management Advisory Services, and has consulted and performed audits in lending and operational compliance areas, including BSA, since 1987. She also handles litigation support work, including expert witness testimony, for bank related matters.

Prior to 1987, Ms. Geno served as Chief Auditor for a multi-bank holding company in San Diego, and was an FDIC Bank Examiner from 1975 to 1984. Ms. Geno earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Virginia (UVA), an MBA in Finance from National University, and graduated from the Graduate School of Bank Management at UVA. She received her CAMS certification in 2012.

Email: kgeno@prodigy.net

Mr. Anthony J. Tricaso has over twenty (20) years of experience in regulatory compliance and risk management within both large and small bank financial institutions.  His experience extends across a range of financial services industries, including retail and commercial banking, international banking, broker / dealer, transfer agent, investment advisory and trust services with an emphasis in Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Counter-Terrorist Financing (CTF), and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).  Mr. Tricaso has obtained the Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) designation, holds FINRA Series 6, 7, and 63 licenses and earned an MBA from Thomas More University in Business Administration.  Additionally, Anthony has served as a Financial Crimes Panelist and Moderator, has been published within ACAMS Today, and has previously served on the Southern California ACAMS Chapter Board.

Daniel C. Silva is a white-collar and internal investigations shareholder at Buchalter APC, where he advises clients on financial crimes and litigation, anti-money laundering compliance, and related regulatory and tax matters. He was previously global risk counsel at a financial technology company. Before that, Danny was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in San Diego. From his Treasury Department-funded role in the forfeiture and financial litigation section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, he led hundreds of criminal, civil, appellate, forfeiture, and restitution matters. 

Danny has been recognized for the impact he and his prosecutions have had on financial institutions, corporate (non)compliance, and individuals for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (Title 31), international fraud and money laundering, and cryptocurrency crimes. Danny appears regularly at professional conferences, has been retained as an expert in the fields of financial investigations and compliance, and for several years has taught a class on financial crimes at the Escuela Libre de Derecho in Mexico City. In addition to his J.D., Danny has an LL.M. in taxation and an MBA in international business.