ASSET FORFEITURE LAW - Key Persons
Amanda Wick served as a federal prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice for nearly a decade, specializing in money laundering and cryptocurrency. After working at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, she left government to serve as th e Chief of Legal Affairs at Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics company. She briefly returned to government service when she was asked to lead the financial investigation for the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol. After serving on the Select Committee, she launched the Association for Women In Cryptocurrency, where she is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer. The Association was founded to build a global network of women and male allies in the cryptocurrency, blockchain, and web3 industries, who will advocate for the equal inclusion of women in the future of digital finance. She is also a Principal with Incite Consulting and provides expert and litigation advisory services to cryptocurrency businesses principally focused on business planning, risk and compliance strategy.
Job Titles:
- Instructor
- Expert Designation
David Tyree served for 25 years with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration as a Special Agent, the Assistant Country Attache to the US Ambassadors in Portugal and Cape Verde, Africa and as the Resident Agent in Charge in Wyoming. Mr. Tyree has been designated
as an expert in Federal Court in both money laundering and drug trafficking investigations. Mr. Tyree is a regular instructor regarding money laundering detection and prevention and asset forfeiture for both the Drug Enforcement Administration and the United States Department of Justice Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section. In addition, Mr. Tyree regularly presents investigative tools and techniques to Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering Units with several large financial institutions.
Mr. Tyree has directed investigations both domestically and internationally which have resulted in the seizure and forfeiture of over $10 million in laundered money or assets obtained from criminal proceeds.
From 1985 until November 2013, Diane Kozub was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Texas. With the exception of the period from July 2009 through January 2012, she litigated civil and criminal forfeiture cases involving violations of federal laws (e.g., drug, money laundering, specified unlawful activity, currency and reporting, firearms, and import / export ) on behalf of federal agencies (including the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), Secret Service (SS), and Fish and Wildlife Service (F&WS)).
From July 2009 until January 2012, Ms. Kozub served as the Asset Forfeiture/Money Laundering Coordinator on a detail to the Executive Office of United States Attorneys (EOUSA), United States Department of Justice, in Washington, D.C. In this capacity, she provided advice and assistance to EOUSA and 93 United States Attorney's offices, on legal, logistical, and programmatic issues arising as part of the Department's Asset Forfeiture/Money Laundering Program. She also served as a liaison between EOUSA and the Attorney General's Advisory Committee, components of the Department of Justice (e.g., DEA, FBI, ATF) and Department of Treasury (e.g., IRS, SS, DHS) Asset Forfeiture Programs, and other agencies.
Since her retirement from the Department of Justice in November 2013, she has been a consultant on asset forfeiture cases.
Donnie Ingrasselino is a retired police detective who served for more than 18 years with the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office in New Jersey specializing in money laundering and financial investigations. Serving on state/federal task forces with the DEA and FBI, he coordinated over 1000 investigations brought before Federal and Superior Courts, authored more than 100 court orders for financial, data, tracking, and authorized wiretaps, and directed covert, security, surveillance, criminal interdiction, intelligence, and undercover operations.
He has been certified as a Subject Matter Expert testifying in Federal and State courts on Money Laundering, Asset Forfeiture, and Narcotics matters, is the founder of Cop4Life LLC, a training, career development, and consulting firm, and has extensive experience in providing financial investigations training to police officers in the United States and overseas.
Jeffrey Simser served as a lawyer and legal director at the Ministry of the Attorney General in Toronto, Canada for over thirty years. He is one of Canada's leading experts on asset forfeiture and money laundering law. He holds law degrees from Queens University at Kingston and Osgoode Hall Law School.
Mr. Simser is the author of two published books, Civil Asset Forfeiture in Canada (loose-leaf) and Canadian Anti-Money laundering Law: the Gaming Sector. He is currently working with co-authors on another book, Money Laundering in Canada. He has published dozens of articles. Mr. Simser was twice qualified as an expert witness at the Commission of Inquiry into Money Laundering in British Columbia (the Cullen Commission).
Mr. Simser has provided training and support to law enforcement and to jurisdictions across Canada and around the world (including the Philippines, Guatemala and Kenya).
Len Briskman is an expert in property management. He was the Program Manager for complex assets at the Asset Forfeiture Division at the US Marshals Service where he was responsible for the evaluation, monitoring, and disposal of all operating businesses, real estate, both residential and commercial, and complex financial instruments seized and forfeited by the US Department of Justice. In that capacity, he managed some of the largest and most complex forfeiture cases that the Marshals Service has had to undertake.
Len is an Accredited Senior Appraiser in business valuations with the American Society of Appraisers and holds certifications from the Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors as a Restructuring and Insolvency advisor and in Distressed Business Valuation. He is available to assist law enforcement agencies and private parties in cases where his expertise is needed to evaluate, appraise, monitor, manage, and assist in the recovery process of assets subject to seizure and forfeiture .
Michael J. Messier's career as a Special Agent with United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) spanned 15 years in domestic and international assignments. In 1995, Mr. Messier entered DEA after spending 10 years as a practicing, licensed financial adviser in New York City. His last position with DEA was as a Supervisory Special Agent stationed at the US Embassy in Mexico City where he led DEA's Mexico Financial Investigations Group. Mr. Messier also worked closely with the US Department of Treasury to impose economic sanctions on significant drug traffickers designated as Drug Trafficking Kingpins by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
In 2010, Mr. Messier left DEA to join Bank of America as a Managing Director tasked to build out, develop and lead the Latin American Region under Global Financial Crimes & Compliance. Based in Mexico City, Mexico, Mr. Messier directed efforts to integrate the Bank's AML Enterprise Program with Latin American lines of business to mitigate risks and to comply with local regulatory requirements.
In 2015, Mr. Messier became a private consultant and currently advises and provides counsel to select clients on financial crime and BSA compliance matters, specifically related to money laundering, financing of terrorism and corruption, along with developing and drafting risk assessments. He has also created, developed and delivered financial investigation and compliance training to law enforcement personnel, prosecutors and financial regulators in the US and countries in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Eurasia. A Spanish speaker, Mr. Messier has spoken at numerous conferences and participated on panel discussions on BSA compliance and financial crime matters in domestic and international venues.
Peter German is the author of ‘Dirty Money" and ‘Dirty Money Part 2, reports commissioned by the Attorney General of BC, relating to allegations of money laundering in the Casino, Real Estate, Luxury Vehicle & Horse Racing sectors. Dr. German is President of the International Center for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy at the University
of British Columbia. A lawyer and member of the Ontario and British Columbia bars, he previously served as a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, retiring as Deputy Commissioner for Western and Northern Canada, and as Regional Deputy Commissioner Pacific for Correctional Service Canada. He holds various degrees including a Doctorate in Law from the University of London, focused on asset recovery. He is the author of ‘Proceeds of Crime and Money Laundering', published by Thomson Reuters. His awards include Queen's Counsel and Officer of the Order of Merit of the Police Forces.
Yehuda Shaffer served as the Israeli Deputy State Attorney (Financial Enforcement) from 2009 until 2018, his major responsibilities being the oversight of all investigations and prosecutions of proceeds-generating crime, including money laundering and confiscation. Before that he was the director and founder of IMPA - (the Israel Money-Laundering and Terror-Financing Prohibition Authority), which is the Israeli FIU (Financial Intelligence Unit) in the Ministry of Justice.
Mr. Shaffer has been an expert evaluator in several Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Terror Financing (AML/CFT) evaluations on behalf of the Council of Europe (Moneyval) and the IMF (Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Poland, Jersey, Isle of man), and is a regular trainer of evaluators in Moneyval\FATF evaluator courses. He serves regularly as an expert as part of technical assistance programs for Financial Intelligence Units and Police, Prosecutors and Judges, and has assisted in drafting of legislation and National Risk Assessments (NRA), on behalf of the Council of Europe and UNODC. For example, he has consulted with Latvia on the investigations emerging from the ABLV bank self-liquidation process and with several financial centers in the Moneyval region on preparation for Moneyval and FATF evaluations, and has trained prosecutors and judges on these matters in several European and Asian jurisdictions.