In this segment of AML Now, ACAMS Executive Vice President, John J. Byrne sat down with Steve Gurdak, group supervisor of Northern Virginia Financial Initiative (NVFI), to discuss the utilization of suspicious activity reports (SARs), specifically within the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) program, and the importance of the SAR process.

Gurdak has been a member of NVFI since its inception in 2003 and has supervised the team since 2009. The Initiative, comprised of a plethora of state, local and federal agencies, has become a national model for Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and SAR-based investigations. Gurdak is a retired police detective with over 30 years of experience. He has specialized in AML since 1995.  He has travelled around the country to help train and inform both the public and private sectors on BSA and SAR-based investigations. He also helped design and instruct a course called “New Detectives” for the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Academy (NVCJA).