Bank Secrecy Act Officer Amid Anchorage Digital’s Latest Hires

Anchorage Digital Bank has added and promoted a slew of C-suite executives focused on security and compliance, citing the crypto industry’s “flight to quality” following events such as the crash of FTX.

Mark duBose, now chief compliance and risk officer, held similar roles at open source technology project Centre and, prior to that, Circle. He was also a chief operational risk officer at Santander Bank and held various leadership roles at Bank of America.

Rachel Anderika, who was formerly the bank’s chief risk officer, is set to become chief operating officer as a result of the hire.

These moves are pending “supervisory non-objection” from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Anderika told Blockworks. Anchorage Digital received its OCC charter in January 2021. 

Meanwhile Frieder Weichelt, former chief risk officer at institutional crypto platform BitGo, has been named chief information security officer. 

Founded in 2017, the San Francisco-based federally chartered bank raised $350 million at a roughly $3 billion valuation in December 2021. Investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Goldman Sachs, KKR, Visa and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC.  

The hires come several months after the company hired a new head of engineering focused on scaling the team, as it sought to target “more sophisticated” institutions looking for secure crypto infrastructure.

Anchorage Digital’s new Bank Secrecy Act officer is a US agency vet

Dustin Palmer, a former senior advisor to general counsel at the US Department of Treasury also joins as interim Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) Officer. 

Though not a new role, it is unclear who Palmer is replacing. A spokesperson declined to comment. 

Prior to his time at the Department of the Treasury from 2008 to 2011, Palmer was an attorney at the US Department of Homeland Security, according to his LinkedIn page. More recently, he spent nearly 10 years as head of Promontory Financial Group’s financial crimes compliance practice, as well as a managing director at Berkeley Research Group — a role in which he will remain. 

Scott Schwartz, Anchorage Digital’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) officer, will now also work as deputy BSA officer. 

The Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), passed in 1970, established program, recordkeeping and reporting requirements for national banks, federal savings associations, federal branches and agencies of foreign banks, particularly around combating money laundering. 

Crypto exchanges fall under the scope of the BSA, too. Reuters reported in September that US authorities were investigating whether Binance violated the act.

​​”As has been well documented, regulators across the globe are reaching out to every major crypto exchange to better understand our industry,” a Binance spokesperson told Blockworks at the time. “We work with agencies regularly to address any outstanding questions.”

Arthur Hayes and Ben Delo, co-founders of crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX, pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act last February. They were ordered to pay $10 million each for their involvement in “willfully failing” to implement and maintain anti-money laundering measures at the company.

“Recent market events have reaffirmed what we have long believed — that security and regulation are key to increasing trust in the crypto economy,” Anchorage Digital CEO Nathan McCauley said in a Tuesday statement.  

Other recruits well-versed in legacy finance

The company has added others with deep traditional finance backgrounds amid its compliance push.  

Mo Abdoolraman, now interim head of know your customer (KYC), has held vice president roles in compliance at Goldman Sachs and Citi. He was also formerly a senior manager of financial crime and identity at fintech company Chime. 

Daniel Sankey is set to lead the company’s financial intelligence unit. The team completes transaction monitoring and escalates any necessary investigations to the bank’s BSA officer.

Sankey was previously head of financial crimes compliance at financial services firm Brex. He has also worked in BSA compliance, reporting and crimes investigations roles at Coinbase, Square and Wells Fargo. 

As part of the crypto bank leadership reshuffling, Jessica Perkins, who oversees third-party risk management, will now hold the title of enterprise risk management lead.

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