Daniel A. Weiss is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Chartwell Compliance, the firm he founded in 2011 to provide market entry, testing, and outsourcing services solutions to dozens of financial technology, payments and financial services companies. Prior to Chartwell, Daniel served from 2003 until 2010 as the chief compliance officer, chief strategy officer, and the founder’s first employee of Microfinance International Corporation (MFIC), an international payments and microfinancing business, which was subsequently sold. Daniel secured and managed the company’s multi-state license portfolio; wrote business plans and financial projections; secured the Dutch and American Governments as major investors; built multi-national corporate partnerships; and launched a profitable compliance consultancy. Daniel has been a speaker at industry events such as Money2020; the Money Transmitters Regulators Association; the Harvard Business School; the Federal Reserve System; the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; and the Center for Financial Services Innovation. He was previously a recipient of the U.S. Department of State’s and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation’s Thomas Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship, serving the Special Advisors to the U.S. President and Secretary of State for Kosovo Implementation.
Daniel completed INSEAD’s one-year Challenge of Leadership program at Fontainebleau and Singapore in December 2016 and is currently enrolled in INSEAD’s Executive Master’s program in Coaching for Change. He completed two intensive rounds of Kaizen management training in Japan during 2015 and 2016. He was awarded a graduate fellowship and undergraduate scholarship by the U.S. Department of Defense’s National Security Education Program, during which time he studied American-Israeli-Arab relations and foreign languages at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Daniel is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Pittsburgh with a BA in political science, where he served as an Honors College Undergraduate Teaching Fellow in English writing. He earned his Master’s Degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University.
Outside of work and academia, Daniel is a triathlete, ultra-distance swimmer, Civil War history buff, and a certified advanced scuba diver.
As Chartwell’s Chief Operating Officer, Jonathan Abratt oversees the company’s back office operations, coordinates and monitors key strategic initiatives, and maintains a productive, collaborative, and positive organizational culture.
In the 15 years prior to joining Chartwell, Jonathan held a number of varying roles across the financial technology, alternative payments, and gaming industries. Jonathan was Group CFO for Pariplay Limited (Isle of Man), a leading provider of Internet gaming solutions and bespoke gaming platforms. He was senior vice president and group director of Zapper (Gibraltar), a mobile payments company, where he oversaw operations and was responsible for the day-to-day running of the company, including ensuring compliance with the various local money transmission and anti-money laundering regulations. Jonathan had a number of roles for 888.com (Gibraltar and Israel), one of the world’s largest online gaming operators listed on the London Stock Exchange, including as Group Treasurer, Head of Finance Shared Services and ePayments Team Lead. He was also the first employee and Head of Operations of Wonga.com (UK), the UK’s most successful payday lending business. Jonathan started his career at Ernst & Young and performed various information technology audit, internal audit, business risk consulting, and operational functions across a number of the company’s worldwide practices.
Jonathan holds a Bachelor of Business Science degree from the University of Cape Town in South Africa, receiving Honors in Information Systems and a major in Economics. He loves spending time and vacationing in exotic places with his wife and daughter, he is an avid pug and animal lover, and is interested in anything to do with aviation and space exploration.
As vice president at Chartwell Compliance, Sherry Tomac, PMP, manages a highly skilled group of compliance consultants working on client engagements. Sherry provides coaching and training to the Chartwell staff on project management and manages Kaizen process improvement activities within the organization.
Prior to joining Chartwell, Sherry spent 20 years developing her expertise managing global, cross-functional projects focused on strategic organizational goals such as software rollouts, call center initiatives, and compliance undertakings at Western Union and First Data. Sherry also has seven years of client engagement experience with Ernst & Young as an auditor and business consultant.
Sherry has a passion to drive process improvement through Kaizen and has used lean and six sigma tools in operational areas of Western Union, First Data, and Childrens Hospital Colorado to train staff, standardize processes, eliminate waste, reduce patient harm, and generate cost savings.
Sherry has a current certification as a Project Management Professional and a Six Sigma Black Belt and has completed two trainings with Toyota Production System Lean Kaizen experts in two trips to Japan. Sherry was born and raised in St. Louis, MO where she graduated from the University of Missouri with a BS in Business Administration. She relocated to Highlands Ranch, CO twenty years ago. Sherry and her husband have five grown children, and three darling grandchildren. In her free time, Sherry enjoys hiking, skiing, fly-fishing and spending time with her family.
Omar Magana, CAMS serves as the Vice President of the Federal Compliance team at Chartwell Compliance and is a subject matter expert in anti-money laundering, OFAC, money transmission, and prepaid access as well as other regulatory requirements specific to financial services. Omar offers clients the benefit of a veteran compliance officer with over 15 years of experience in domestic and foreign regulatory environments. Additionally, Omar has worked in the Money Services Business industry for over 10 years.
Omar has experience building and executing international as well as domestic AML and due diligence programs as well as leading anti-bribery and corruption programs. Prior to joining Chartwell, Omar worked for one of the largest money transmitters in the country, Sigue Corp, where he held various positions in its compliance department. He played a key role in enhancing and building the backend process of the AML systems designed to assist in the monitoring and reporting functions; and in the development of the government sanctions program. Prior to Sigue, he worked seven years at Citigroup in private banking handling KYC and risk assessments of products and business lines for foreign account relationships. Omar also has participated in various task forces geared toward the development of policies and procedures, operational improvements, and assessing compliance implications for new products and services.
Omar has a BA in Marketing from California State University of Northridge. He is fluent in Spanish and is CAMS certified. Omar grew up in Mexico City until the age of 15 when he moved to California. He resides in Los Angeles with his wife, daughter, and son. He enjoys learning about pre-Columbian history and traveling to archeological sites. Omar likes ‘adrenaline-driven’ outdoor activities such as scuba-diving, sky-diving, and mountain biking.
As a Compliance Director at Chartwell Compliance, Trish Lagodzinski assists with regulatory compliance matters dealing with state money services business licenses and associated state and federal compliance regulations for non-bank financial services companies. Trish has completed licensing and administration in all 50 states and territories. In addition, she has completed licensing projects for companies in Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the European Union. Trish Lagodzinski has more than 20 years of experience in regulatory compliance and state and federal government contracting.
Prior to joining Chartwell, Trish served as a liaison to federal agencies, a project manager, and a business development specialist at Aspen Systems and then at Lockheed Martin. She represented the General Services Administration at national meetings and managed projects for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). For 8(a) contracting companies, Trish analyzed intelligence data from criminal justice-related agencies for the Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration’s Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Information System (NADDIS).
Trish has an MBA from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, a BA in international relations from American University, and a Project Management Certificate from Penn State University. In addition, Trish has written articles for Chartwell Compass on timely compliance issues. She has been a speaker at the Money Transmitter Regulators Association and the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry.
She enjoys spending time with her family, participating in scouting activities, choral singing, and mentoring the St. Mary’s robotics team in the Maryland First Lego League.
Petra Hrachova, CRCM, CAMS, brings her distinguished career and credentials to Chartwell Compliance as its compliance director. Petra has over 14 years of experience as a compliance, CRA, and Bank Secrecy Act officer at community banks and as a regulator. Prior to joining the Chartwell Compliance team as a senior compliance professional and training manager, Petra worked as a senior assistant bank examiner at the Federal Reserve Bank, routinely helping with supervisory activities for community and regional state member banks. Petra’s experience also includes starting a de novo bank, where she successfully created and managed compliance, BSA, and credit administration programs. In her compliance roles and as a member of the management teams, Petra developed an in depth knowledge of all functional areas of banking.
Petra moved to the U.S. in 1999 after receiving a BA and MA in economics and administration from the University of Pardubice in the Czech Republic. She is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) and a Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager (CRCM). Petra is a mother of twins, and an avid skier, hiker and musician.
Richard Davis has over 14 years of experience in the global remittance industry. As corporate services director, Richard oversees Chartwell Corporate Services, a division that provides clients non-regulatory compliance professional services. Richard’s day-to-day responsibilities in Operations include managing various internal applications, reporting, internal audits and providing support, when needed, to both internal and external customers. In addition, he serves as portfolio/project manager on a number of client projects and is a key member on the Compass editorial staff.
Prior to joining Chartwell, Richard worked at Travelex, Coinstar and Sigue, where he gained experience working cross functionally throughout the organizations with all levels of the team from department managers to the executive office. His primary responsibilities included providing support to the field sales team, developing and executing promotional and marketing strategies, brand management, managing special projects for the Global Operations Team, and co-chairing the company’s Risk Committee. Among the various projects Richard managed while at Sigue, Richard coordinated and led the team in successfully implementing operational, policy, and document changes across the organization ahead of schedule as a result of the imposed changes mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protections Act.
Richard has also worked as the marketing and brand manager for a fragrance company based in Florida where he was responsible for managing portfolios for nine fragrance brands, supported the field sales team and worked closely with large accounts like Wal-Mart, CVS, and Rite Aid to develop individual programs for their stores across the US.
Richard likes to spend his free time with his dogs, family, watching reality shows, cooking and traveling outside of the U.S. Richard has traveled to 24 different countries amongst which include his favorites: Estonia, Poland, Italy and Egypt.
As a Compliance Director with Chartwell Compliance, Malessa Arias-Babineaux brings over 18 years of experience in building and maintaining effective BSA/AML compliance programs at several companies in the MSB industry. Prior to joining Chartwell, Malessa headed up compliance programs at several MSBs including Noventis, Inc. (f/k/a PreCash), TransNetwork Corporation, and FTGlobalPay LLC (a Sigue Corporation affiliate).
Over her career, Malessa has gained extensive knowledge and experience in developing regulatory compliance programs both domestically and internationally. Her expertise includes developing programs for OFAC, Consumer Privacy, CFPB Remittance Transfer Rule, Fraud, Anti-Bribery, Elder Abuse, sanctions screening, and transaction monitoring. She also has gained extensive knowledge in building training programs, customer due diligence processes, risk assessments and writing policies and procedures. In addition, she has also created and established Money Transmitter AML programs in both Mexico and El Salvador.
Malessa has a BBA in Business Management from the University of Houston and is fluent in Spanish. She also has her CAMS certification. Malessa is originally from Los Angeles but lives in Houston, TX with her husband, 3 kids and parents. She enjoys spending time with her family playing cards, watching old movies, having family game nights and anything to do with superheroes and Star Wars. She also loves traveling, listening to music, dancing, and football. Last, but certainly not least, she is also a passionate and devoted Jazzercise instructor.
KC Gingras is a compliance professional with Chartwell Compliance. KC brings over 20 years of experience in accounting, compliance, and company operations to Chartwell. Throughout her career, KC has gained extensive knowledge in state and federal financial services compliance, risk management, and fraud detection, prevention, and remediation strategies.
As consumer compliance manager with one of the nation’s leading cash advance lenders and check cashers, Advance America, KC monitored state and federal regulations to ensure company compliance with its product offerings, such as payday, installment, and title lending for several states. She reviewed state examination results and provided guidance for the response courses of action. KC also managed the written complaint response process and developed a complaint reporting database to help the company identify customer concerns in keeping with best practices.
KC’s prior experience includes director of operations for a third-party accounts receivable financing company, director of finance and administration for a not-for-profit arts organization, and controller for a national importer and distributor of energy efficient hot water heaters.
KC culminated her MS in economic crime management from Utica College with her dissertation focused on the financial exploitation of the elderly. KC and her husband, Joe, enjoy hiking, fishing and camping. Their short-term goal is to white-water raft down the Colorado River.
Lily Sayers serves as a compliance professional at Chartwell Compliance. Lily brings to Chartwell over eight years of experience in the field of banking from managing a team of tellers, customer service representatives, and personal bankers to handling daily operational reports, monitoring transactions, leading the teller-line and new account department, and resolving numerous challenging transactions. As the operations supervisor for the corporate branch of a local community bank, Lily developed and enhanced operational procedures as well as created a company-wide training program for new tellers and bankers. From her many years in the banking industry, Lily greatly expanded her expertise with regards to online banking, sales, BSA, and treasury management.
Prior to entering the field of banking, Lily was a case manager for the International Rescue Committee (IRC), an organization that assists with the resettlement of refugees in the United States. With IRC, Lily helped refugees and asylees from over 30 different countries resettle into various communities throughout Southern California. In addition to assisting with immigration paperwork, securing legal status, and acquiring legal and proper documentation, Lily also educated her clients about law observance, employment, financial practices, and cultural assimilation. Through this refugee work, Lily provided the FBI with advisory services regarding procedural improvements at US embassies throughout Eastern Europe.
Lily was born in Uzbekistan, but grew up in Crimea, Ukraine. In her free time, she enjoys reading, spending time with her family, and traveling.
Melody Loudin serves as a compliance professional for Chartwell Compliance. She brings over 17 years of experience in regulatory compliance beginning her career in federal grant acquisition, program compliance and exam management.
As an analyst for the National White Collar Crime Center she identified various types of mortgage fraud, investigated complaints, compiled evidence and provided complex case information to law enforcement agencies and legal counsel. More recently, as a Sr. Compliance Specialist with two of the largest non-bank mortgage servicers in the U.S., she has helped to enhance and maintain compliance programs as well as manage entity, branch, and individual licensing for Mortgage Services, Consumer Lending, Consumer Debt Collection, Auction and Property Preservation. Melody has extensive experience working with regulators to resolve outstanding issues on license applications and acquisitions as well as license maintenance in addition to multi-state reporting for numerous license types in all 50 states and U.S. territories.
For Chartwell Compliance, Melody utilizes her subject matter expertise to manage the Money Transmission license applications and subsequent acquisitions in addition to maintaining the licenses and providing exam support pursuant to regulatory requirements.
She lives in Fort Worth, Texas with her husband and their 15 year old son who plays the trumpet in his high school marching band. Her 27 year old son is a professional backpacker, having been to 33 countries in 4 years, and is a professional online gamer. In her spare time she enjoys gourmet cooking, reading John Grisham novels, traveling and is an avid animal lover.
Dennis Lormel is a recognized subject matter expert on anti-money laundering, terrorist financing, and fraud. Denis has 38 years of experience in the field and is considered a specialist in financial crimes, enhanced due diligence, FCPA, corporate and mortgage fraud, forensic accounting, AML, BSA, terrorist financing, asset recovery, and Sarbanes Oxley.
After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, Mr. Lormel realized that the terrorists needed a financial infrastructure to accomplish the attacks. He immediately established an investigative organization within the Federal Bureau of Investigation that, within days, identified the funding stream that supported these attacks. These efforts evolved into the Terrorist Financing Operations Section of the FBI. This multi-agency entity has attained international recognition as one of the world’s elite operations for tracking, investigating, and disrupting terrorist-related financial activity. Dennis’s lead and establishment of a world renown investigative unit is but one example of his expertise in assessing and establishing viable and effective recommendations that produce results.
In addition to Dennis’s distinguished 28 year career at the FBI, including as chief of its Financial Crimes Section and as a special agent, he has consistently delivered high quality consulting services to clients since 2004. Dennis’s combination of law enforcement and financial services experience provides a comprehensive perspective on the issues that face individuals and corporate entities in today’s complex world. Understanding the nexus between fraud and money laundering, especially on the heels of the financial crisis, allows Dennis to provide more comprehensive guidance to clients.
Dennis has received numerous commendations and awards, including the Department of Justice, Criminal Division’s Award for Investigative Initiative and the CIA’s George H. W. Bush Award for Excellence in Counterterrorism. He was also an advisor to the Congressional Anti-Terrorist Financing Task Force and served as a contributing expert to The Counterterrorism Blog.
Robert Pasley, CAMS, J.D. is an expert in anti-money laundering as well as financial regulatory and enforcement matters. Robert has over 35 years of experience and is a specialist in bank regulatory and enforcement issues, BSA, AML, and counter-terrorism financing. From 1975 to 2005, Robert served first as an attorney and then as an assistant director of the Enforcement and Compliance Division at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). At the OCC, Robert was responsible for investigating as well as taking and/or supervising administrative actions against national banks and their officers and directors. Additionally, he served as the point person on anti-money laundering cases.
Robert helped to draft BSA regulations, including those implementing §312 of the USA PATRIOT Act addressing foreign correspondent banking and foreign private banking. He also handled the investigation of and administrative action against foreign branches. Robert has been a consultant for the International Monetary Fund, American Express, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the law firm of Bryan Cave, and the American Bankers Association (ABA). Previously, he was a senior vice president at Bank of America. He also served as the acting general counsel for the District of Columbia’s Office of Banking and Financial Institutions and as a special assistant U.S. Attorney for Washington D.C.’s U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Robert received his BA from Hamilton College and his JD from Cornell Law School. He also graduated from the Stonier Graduate School of Banking with an Honors Thesis on the “Consolidation of the Federal Banking Regulatory Agencies”.
Grainne Sen, SHRM-SCP, serves an important function at Chartwell Compliance as its manager of human resources. Grainne brings to Chartwell over 10 years of administrative and operational management experience. Chartwell benefited from Grainne’s extensive experience in her previous position as the company’s operations and marketing manager in which she assisted the team with administration, project management, and putting in place many of Chartwell’s operational systems. Prior to Chartwell, Grainne worked with Ascella Compliance, a compliance consulting firm that was a division of an international licensed money transmitter and where Grainne began working with many of her current colleagues.
Grainne graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a Bachelor Degree in Business Studies. During her leisure time Grainne enjoys keeping fit, sewing, music, and spending time with her family. She also maintains strong ties with her extended family and friends in Ireland.
As Chartwell’s Corporate Finance Manager, Jamie Steed is responsible for all aspects of financial management which includes creating and managing the annual budget, monthly profitability analysis of all projects by client, processing accounts payable and receivables, and managing 3rd party vendor invoicing for numerous clients. In additional to Finance, Jamie also supports Chartwell’s operations team by providing support to internal customers, serves as the administrator for all company subscriptions, and reconciles consultant entries to ensure proper client billing.
For 10 years prior to joining Chartwell, Jamie has worked as the fiscal coordinator for Spartanburg County. She was responsible for all levels of accounting and reporting for the grant funds received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and other Federal agencies. In addition to financial management for these grants, Jaime developed the annual departmental strategic planning & performance measurement documents for the last four years.
Jamie attended the University of South Carolina Upstate where she received a BS with a concentration in accounting. In her spare time, she enjoys training in Muay Thai, participating in obstacle course races with her husband Bobby, and playing baseball with her two boys, Camden and Avery.
Kym Rambelle serves as Chartwell Compliance’s Project Management Director. Kyme has 18 years in managing multifaceted projects involving financial systems as well as designing and re-engineering existing business processes into automated solutions.
Prior to joining Chartwell, Kym worked for First Data as well as pursued entrepreneurial endeavors. During her 12 years at First Data, Kym managed the corporation’s Oracle Financials conversion/upgrade, spanning fifteen states and nine international sites. She has also managed IT resources in creating customized software applications. Kym’s entrepreneurial experience includes owning and operating Long Island Prints, a local printing and graphic design business, where her efforts ranged from accounting and sales to operations and graphic design.
Kym has an MBA from Hofstra University with an emphasis in business information technology and holds a BA in accounting. Her dual skill set in areas that require both business acumen and knowledge of financial systems has enabled Kym to fill a niche that is often left void in many businesses.
Kym enjoys spending her free time on the white sand beaches of Long Island with her family, playing nine ball with her husband, gardening, and serving as graphic designer for the Shirley Assembly of God.