Speakers | Elder Fraud Prevention Summit

2025 Speakers

Andrea Higgens, Inspector, Elder Protection Unit, San Mateo County District Attorney's Office

Andrea Higgens is a criminal elder and dependent adult abuse investigator with the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office in Northern California. Andrea works with a multi-disciplinary network to protect older and dependent adults, and she investigates crimes against these vulnerable populations. Andrea provides training to social workers, law enforcement officers and detectives, EMTs/paramedics, dispatchers, deputy coroners, and financial service providers both locally and around the country in recognizing and responding to elder abuse. 

Ari Redbord, Global Head of Policy, TRM Labs

Ari Redbord is the Global Head of Policy at TRM Labs, the blockchain intelligence company. In addition to his role at TRM, Ari is Vice-Chair of the CFTC Technology Advisory Committee (TAC). Prior to joining TRM, Ari was the Senior Advisor to the Deputy Secretary and the Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the United States Treasury. In that position, Ari worked with teams from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and other Treasury components to use sanctions and other regulatory tools effectively to safeguard the financial system from illicit use by terrorist financiers, weapons of mass destruction proliferators, drug kingpins, and other rogue actors, including Iran, Syria, North Korea and Venezuela. In addition, Ari worked closely with regulators, the Hill and the interagency on issues related to the Bank Secrecy Act, cryptocurrency, and anti-money laundering strategies. Prior to Treasury, Ari was an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia for eleven years where he investigated and prosecuted terrorism, espionage, threat finance, cryptocurrency, export control, child exploitation and human trafficking cases.

Chantelle Smith, Consultant, Elder Justice Initiative, U.S. Department of Justice

Chantelle Smith is a consultant for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Elder Justice Initiative, where she develops training and resources for prosecutors, law enforcement, financial institutions, and other professionals. Her work focuses on prevention, practical solutions, and cross-sector teamwork to address abuse and exploitation and improve how cases are identified and handled.

Chris Ainsley, Head of Fraud Risk Management, Santander Bank

Chris Ainsley has worked in the fraud and economic crime industry for over 20 years, and is currently Head of Fraud Risk Management at Santander. He has extensive experience of fraud prevention and detection solutions across retail and transactional banking. He oversees the bank’s strategy to detect, prevent, and respond to financial crime. With more than two decades of experience in the financial services sector, he has developed deep expertise in tackling complex threats, including authorized push payment fraud, impersonation scams, and the emerging risks posed by generative AI and deepfake technology.

Darius Kingsley, Head of Consumer Banking Practices, JPMorgan Chase

Darius Kingsley is a Managing Director in Chase Consumer Banking, part of JPMorgan’s Consumer and Community Banking (CCB) line of business. He is responsible for protecting Chase’s branch customers from scams and fraud; is the firmwide segment owner for Chase’s elder (60+) customers; and is the CCB strategy lead for sustainability and environmental initiatives.

David C. Aumiller, VP Fraud Risk Manager, HSBC Bank

David C. Aumiller joined HSBC Bank USA N.A in 2017 and is a second line of defense, VP Fraud Risk Manager within the Financial Crime team. In this role, David is responsible for setting and cascading US external and internal Fraud Risk policies, as well as, providing guidance and oversight to HSBC Bank US business and functions in the mitigation of Fraud Risk. David’s oversight responsibilities span across Retail and Commercial Banking for the region.

Howard Tischler, CEO, EverSafe

Howard Tischler is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of EverSafe, a technology platform that monitors the financial health of seniors and families for fraud, identity theft and age-related issues. Howard co-founded EverSafe after his mother was financially exploited and his research revealed no viable solutions to protect older adults from this devastating experience. Howard spearheaded the development of EverSafe after founding three technology businesses in health care and financial services. He previously held executive positions at SunGard Data, First American Financial and First Advantage Corporation and served as Lead Director of DealerTrack Technologies.

Jackie Blaesi-Freed, Deputy Associate Director, Policy Division, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network - U.S. Department of Treasury

Jackie Blaesi-Freed is the Deputy Associate Director for FinCEN’s Policy Division. In this position, she oversees FinCEN’s regulatory functions and leads the staff that defines the framework for protecting the U.S. financial system from money laundering, terrorist financing, and other illicit finance activity. The Policy Division is responsible for drafting complex and diverse Bank Secrecy Act rules and clarifying guidance, as well addressing broader strategic policy issues in the area of anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism.

Laura Richardson, Independent Consultant

Laura Richardson is currently an independent consultant with expertise in Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) programs and elder fraud investigation. Most recently, she was a contractor for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CPFB), and developed a program to expand use of BSA filings for elder fraud prevention and response. She also served for 12 years as a Supervisory Analyst at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), managing the fraud and cyber sections and Western Hemisphere office. Prior to joining FinCEN, Laura worked for financial institutions as an equity analyst covering the consumer sector, and as a consultant in the consumer sector. Ms. Richardson holds an undergraduate degree from Tufts University and an MBA from the University of Michigan.

Laurel Sykes, EVP, Chief Risk Officer, American Riviera Bank

With over 30 years’ experience in the banking industry, Laurel currently serves as EVP, Chief Risk Officer for American Riviera Bank. She leads the Bank’s consumer compliance and anti-money laundering/financial crimes divisions, and oversees the Human Resources, Marketing and Product Management functions. Ms. Sykes has comprehensive executive-level experience in risk management, and specializes in governance, internal audit, BSA/AML, compliance, CRA, financial privacy, fair lending, fraud management and elder financial abuse prevention, vendor management, business continuity planning, and human resources management.

Lisa Matthews, Senior Director, Ally Bank

Lisa Matthews joined Ally Financial as a Cybersecurity Compliance Senior Director in November 2021. Her role is to support compliance with laws, rules, and regulations (LRR’s) as well as provide effective challenge to strengthen Ally’s security posture and reduce its threat landscape. Her primary areas of focus include data protection (including insider threats) and emerging technologies (AI, PQC, digital assets, cloud security). Lisa sits on both the AI Governance Group (AIRMSC) and the AI Working Group (AIWG) within Ally. Lisa sits on FS-ISACs AI Steering Committee and is actively engaged in the development of several research papers published by the industry consortium, with the most recent focused on deepfakes. She is also an active member of CRI AI Standards Committee, BPI, BITS and FSSC.

Lois Greisman, Associate Director, Division of Marketing Practices, Federal Trade Commission

Lois C. Greisman heads the Division of Marketing Practices in the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, where she directs the agency’s fraud program. Under Ms. Greisman’s management, Marketing Practices leads the FTC’s law enforcement initiatives tackling telemarketing fraud including Do Not Call/Robocall enforcement; fraudulent business and investment opportunity schemes, including multilevel marketing; mail fraud, including sweepstakes and lotteries; illegal spam; and Internet frauds, including technical support scams. Ms. Greisman also directs the FTC’s work to curb fraud in connection with different methods of payment, such as credit cards and ACH debits.

Michelle Pilsworth, Head of Fraud & Complaints, Santander Bank

Michelle Pilsworth is a seasoned financial services leader with over 20 years’ experience dedicated to transforming processes and culture to put the customer at the heart of every decision. As Head of Fraud & Complaints at Santander UK, she plays a pivotal role in protecting customers from emerging threats, leading industry-leading campaigns and strategies to prevent financial harm.

Dr. Natalie Denburg, Professor, University of Iowa

Natalie Denburg received a PhD in Clinical Psychology/Neuropsychology from Michigan State University. She completed her residency training in Neuropsychology at the University of California San Diego, and her postdoctoral training at the University of Iowa under the mentorship of Drs. Hanna Damasio and Robert Wallace. Dr. Denburg joined the faculty in the Department of Neurology in 2000, where she has been ever since. Denburg currently holds joint appointments as Tenured Full Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Psychological and Brain Sciences. She is also affiliated with Iowa’s Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Neuroscience. Dr. Denburg’s clinical expertise focuses on the assessment and differential diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

Nikki Bargains, Senior Vice President, Aging & Vulnerable Client Program Manager, Bank of America

Nikki has more than three decades of experience in financial services and currently serves as the Aging and Vulnerable Client Program Manager at Bank of America, leading initiatives to protect older adults and at risk individuals from financial exploitation. She focuses on education and industry partnerships - strengthening awareness, equipping stakeholders with practical tools, and fostering collaboration across the bank and with external organizations to improve prevention and response to financial harm.

Paul Benda, Executive Vice President, Risk, Fraud & Cybersecurity, American Bankers Association

Paul Benda is the Executive Vice President for Risk, Fraud and Cybersecurity at the American Bankers Association. Paul joined the ABA in 2018, where he leads the association’s initiatives in fraud, cybersecurity, physical security, and information security practices and chairs the ABA Fraud Coordination Group. In addition, he acts as a media spokesman for the ABA and the banking industry on these issues. He currently serves as the Chair of the International Banking Federation Scams and Fraud Taskforce and is the immediate past Vice Chair of the Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council which is the primary point of contact for the Departments of Treasury and Homeland Security on cybersecurity and resiliency issues facing the Financial Sector.

His past experiences include leadership positions in the Department of Homeland Security where he was head of research and development and in the Department of Defense where he was a DARPA Program Manager and designed security systems for the Pentagon. Paul started his career as an Active Duty U.S. Air Force officer and transitioned to the private sector where he worked as a consultant for Booz Allen before returning to government service.

Ray Olsen, SVP, Senior Director of Enterprise Fraud Management, Wintrust Financial Corporation

Ray Olsen is an accomplished financial crime executive leader with 19 years of professional banking and financial services experience, specifically in Fraud, AML/BSA and OFAC. He is currently the Senior Vice President Senior Director of Enterprise Fraud Management at the Wintrust Financial Corporation in Rosemont, IL. Wintrust Financial Corporation is a full-service bank, 68 billion in assets, 200 branch locations in IL, WI, IN, MI and FL. Ray leads a large team of Fraud Investigative professional fraud analysts, investigators, and leaders. Ray is a former law enforcement officer and a US Army Reserve veteran.

Rich Goldberg, Associate Counsel, Consumer Protection Branch, U.S. Department of Justice

Rich Goldberg is an Associate Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice, Consumer Protection Branch, where he oversees the Branch’s consumer fraud and privacy portfolio. Since 1999, he has brought and supervised criminal and civil cases relating to fraudulent telemarketing schemes, internet deception, mass-mailing fraud, unauthorized account charges, and other offenses. He helps coordinate the Department’s Transnational Elder Fraud Strike Force and serves as a co-chair of the Global Antifraud Enforcement Network, which consists of government authorities from across the globe dedicated to halting large-scale international fraud schemes.

Sherry Camacho, Adult Protective Services Specialist, York/Poquoson Social Services

Sherry Camcho graduated from Kansas State University with a bachelor’s degree in human services and has over 10 years of experience in the human services field. Her career has spanned work with municipal courts, the district attorney’s office, urban schools, and social services, giving her a broad and well-rounded perspective on serving diverse populations. In her current position as an Adult Protective Services Specialist, she has a particular passion for working with elderly and disabled individuals, with a strong focus on preventing financial exploitation and supporting independence. In addition, she serves as a facilitator for a multidisciplinary team addressing hoarding, where she helps coordinate collaborative solutions that balance compassion with effective intervention.