Meet Our New Experts

Bates Group is proud to announce our new Experts and Consultants.

 

{image_1}

Susan Berger - Fraud, AML, Regulatory & Compliance

Susan Berger is a consulting expert and attorney based in New York specializing in anti-money laundering/countering terrorist financing (AML/CFT) regulation and compliance for U.S. and global broker-dealers and registered investment advisors.  Ms. Berger has served as senior assistant district attorney supervisor of trials of Organized and White Collar crime and Political Corruption in the Rackets Bureau of the Kings County (Brooklyn) District Attorney’s Office, after which she held in-house counsel positions and supervised regulatory matters.

Most recently, Susan has advised the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Technical Assistance in their global AML/CFT efforts.  She has also worked as an independent Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and AML/CFT expert consultant, providing services and litigation support to U.S. broker-dealers and attorneys, including conducting assessments and independent examinations of broker-dealers’ AML compliance programs, and providing expert testimony.  In 2005, Ms. Berger was designated a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS).  Click here for full bio.

 

 

{image_2}

Susan Faulkner - Banking

Susan Faulkner is a Bates banking expert and CEO of Marquis Software Solutions, Inc. Ms. Faulkner has also served as a strategic advisor assisting companies evaluate, assess and launch innovative financial services business solutions, products and capabilities.  Ms. Faulkner is a proven senior bank executive with 30 years of experience in the financial services industry and broad-based knowledge and expertise across finance, strategy, risk management, consumer and small business products, operations, sales and customer service.

During Ms. Faulkner’s long tenure at Bank of America, she held many executive positions overseeing Enterprise Risk Management, Credit Risk Management, Consumer and Small Business Products, and Operations and Finance.  Ms. Faulkner has also served on the board of the Consumer Bankers Association (past Chair) and is a past member of the Financial Services Roundtable.  In 2008, the Charlotte Business Journal named her to its list of Top 25 Women in Business.  Click here for full bio.

 

 

{image_3}

Miriam Lefkowitz - Compliance, Regulatory and Securities Litigation

Miriam Lefkowitz is a Bates expert with more than 20 years of professional experience in broker-dealer and investment adviser securities compliance.  She has hands-on experience protecting and defending firms as an in-house legal and compliance professional, as a private securities defense counsel and as an independent compliance consultant and expert witness.  Since 2002, Ms. Lefkowitz has served as the General Counsel (or Chief Legal Officer) and senior compliance and regulatory advisor (often as CCO) to small and regional SEC-registered, dually-registered retail investment advisers and broker dealers.  Due to the size of such firms, she was not only a senior member, but also actively involved in, and had direct experience with, regulatory disclosures (Form ADV, Form BD, Forms U4 and U5, etc.), the development of all compliance procedures and supervisory controls, internal investigations, complaint resolution, branch examinations, annual reviews, risk assessments, supervision of trades, and customer communications.

Ms. Lefkowitz is Chair Elect of the National Society of Compliance Professionals (NSCP), a leading industry organization dedicated to serving and advancing the needs of financial services compliance professionals.  She regularly speaks on a broad range of securities and compliance topics for a number of industry groups, including for FINRA, and is the Immediate Past Chair of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s (ACC) Financial Services Committee.  Click here for full bio.

 

 

{image_4}

Keith Underwood - Foreign Exchange

Keith Underwood is a respected 25-year veteran of the global foreign exchange market where he earned a reputation as a formidable FX derivatives portfolio manager and business architect.  He is a derivatives expert with vast trading, risk management, and speculative trading experience across asset classes.  He is an expert in market practice and in the institutional structure and widespread trading strategies commonly employed by traders.  In the course of building successful customer franchise businesses for US investment banks and European commercial banks, his endeavors carried him to every major trading center in the world.

Mr. Underwood is presently Founder and CEO of Underwood FX which is an innovative financial and economic consulting firm that delivers highly specialized traded markets intelligence to clients around the world.  Knowledge and expertise is provided by market experts who have earned impeccable reputations of colleagues, competitors, and regulators during their extensive careers.  Underwood FX was founded to meet the ever increasing need to provide market insight to the legal and professional investment community globally.

Mr. Underwood is a dual citizen of the US and the United Kingdom and presently resides in NY.  He obtained a B.A. from Syracuse University and an Executive MBA from the University of Colorado, Denver.  He is a qualified FINRA dispute resolution arbitrator and an adjunct professor at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry NY.   Click here for full bio.