5 High Risk Areas of Banking Cannabis

Brion Nazzaro is the President of the Association of Certified Commercial Cannabis Experts, ACCCE. Prior to joining ACCCE, he had broad experience as an Internal Director and Chief Compliance Officer with extensive experience in Anti-Money Laundering/Counter Terrorist Financing (AML/CTF), sanctions, international regulatory frameworks, loss prevention, and risk management. Brion has been the Chairman on Compliance Committee, AML Committee, and Risk Committee at multiple financial institutions. He has also worked with MSBs and FinTechs with various charters both U.S. and internationally to implement commercial cannabis business customer programs. 

Brion holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Master of Business Administration concentrated in Finance from the University of Denver. Additionally, Brion has achieved recognition as a Certified Commercial Cannabis Expert (CCCE), Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS), Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager (CRCM), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), and NACD Governance Fellow.

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Chris Gunias has over 17 years of experience building Bank Secrecy Act/Anti Money Laundering programs for large and complex organizations including First Data Corporation, Western Union, and WorldRemit. Chris has held various leadership positions in BSA/AML, Regulatory Compliance, Risk Management, Audit and Information Governance. Prior to joining the Financial Services Industry in 2001, Chris was an Intelligence Analyst in the US Navy for 6 years.

Chris grew up in Florida and moved to Colorado in the late 90’s when he was still in the Navy. He holds a Bachelors degree in Accounting from CU and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Regis University and has been CAMS certified since 2007. He has been married for 20 years, has two teenage children and enjoys camping, hiking and water sports.

Cathy Scharf has over 25 years of banking experience and was awarded ACAMS Professional of 2013. She has developed and implemented BSA/AML programs and provided expert guidance leading complex, high profile projects for third party payment processing due diligence, identifying illegal processing of internet gambling, fraud and corruption investigations, transaction monitoring, and compliance training. She has consulted for both financial institutions as well as money services businesses.

Cathy currently works for a mid size bank holding company in Colorado where she is the Senior Vice President in charge of the BSA/AML Department. She has developed and implemented a program within her institution to bank certain sectors of the cannabis industry. She has had constant contact with federal and state examiner to ensure compliance.

Philip DS Martin is the Chief Executive Officer of Copacetic Strategies. He develops and implements cannabis banking solutions that balance growth with the cost of compliance for financial services clients.

Philip has experience as a state-level cannabis regulator and a financial services compliance officer. Prior to launching Copacetic Strategies, Philip was the Bank Secrecy Act Officer for Zeuss Technologies, a payments platform dedicated to the cannabis industry. Previously, he managed the Data Analysis Unit at Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division adapting anti money laundering techniques to identify non-compliant behavior through the seed-to-sale inventory tracking system.

Philip earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Richmond, The American International University in London. Philip is a former U.S. Marine.