ACAMS Today had the opportunity to chat with our 15,000 member Kim Garner, senior vice president of Global Security and Investigations for MoneyGram. MoneyGram recently participated in the new ACAMS enterprise membership.
Garner joined MoneyGram International in April 2010 as senior vice president of Global Security and Investigations. She oversees the coordination of MoneyGram's global physical security, as well as providing leadership on both internal and external investigations. In partnership with the Global Compliance team, she also works closely with law enforcement and key state and federal regulators. Garner's security leadership includes serving as a special agent in the U.S. Secret Service, where she protected the President, the Vice President and foreign heads of state. In this role, she also coordinated and conducted criminal investigations, including financial and electronic crimes. She also worked as a special agent in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigation, where she conducted and coordinated criminal investigations related to FDA regulated products. Most recently, Garner served as senior vice president of Corporate Security at First Data Corporation. She has a bachelor's of Business Administration from Clemson University.
ACAMS Today: What prompted you to join ACAMS?
Kim Garner: I wanted to stay current and up-to-date with the regulatory and compliance environments. ACAMS is a great source for information and it keeps me informed with the ever-changing compliance field.
AT: How did you first become involved in the compliance field?
KG: I became much more involved when I joined MoneyGram, especially when I was responsible for the due diligence and the Know Your Agent (KYA) programs.
One of my primary functions at MoneyGram is as a liaison between law enforcement and our compliance department. I work closely with the compliance team on any cases they uncover, as well as assist law enforcement in their investigations.
In addition, I work closely with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to identify AML issues, consumer fraud, and other illegal activity such as human smuggling, drug trafficking, etc. Also, when law enforcement comes to me with questions I generally turn to the FIU as a resource of information to help law enforcement professionals with their cases.
AT: What is the best advice you have received when conducting an internal or external investigation?
KG: Always validate people's comments when starting an investigation. Many times there are assumptions that are made and it is important to go back and start with the basics. Starting at the beginning helps people focus on how things began. This is critical because once we comprehend what happened we have a clearer understanding of what we need to do going forward.
AT: What type of compliance training would you like to receive in 2013?
KG: I would like to have more case studies available to review in-depth. In addition, I would like to study what led up to the situations discussed in the case studies and to analyze what people could have done differently to prevent a financial crime from going unchecked.
