The AFC Professional of the Month for October was awarded to Steve Gurdak for his passion in money laundering investigations and fighting financial crime. Gurdak is the group manager of Washington Baltimore HIDTA’s Northern Virginia Financial Initiative (NVFI) and a member of the George Mason University (GMU) faculty. The initiative is a national model for the use of Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) information to include suspicious activity reports in the initiation of investigations. Gurdak has over 30 years of police experience with an impressive list of awards and commendations. He has specialized in money laundering investigations since 1995, has testified before a Senate Caucus as well as in Federal Court as an expert witness in anti-money laundering. Gurdak is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) through ACAMS. Heis on the ACAMS Capital Chapter Board and also on the board of the BSA Coalition. Gurdak regularly trains new detectives in general investigative skills, as well as financial investigative skills. He has also written a number of articles and participated in webinars and various presentations on financial investigations.