About Us

Executive Team

Maleka Ali has 35+ years’ of experience servicing the financial community in all areas, including operations, fraud, compliance, and risk management. Her experience included a 13-year tenure for a major AML software company, where she learned the ins and outs of how AML systems work from the ground up. Her roles at the software vendor included system design, quality control, AML outsourced monitoring, and director of education and consulting. She has worked heavily with OFAC and BSA compliance and developed and implemented AML/CFT programs, comprehensive risk assessments, and Model validations at dozens of financial institutions. 

Maleka is CAMS certified (Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist) and was also part of the inaugural class for the advanced CAMS-Audit certification, demonstrating advanced skills in auditing the effectiveness and adequacy of BSA/AML compliance programs. She was a founding Board Member for the ACAMS Southern California chapter and currently serves on the Board for the ACAMS San Diego Baja Chapter. She has assisted over 750 Banks and examiners in areas such as data integrity, program efficiency, risk assessment, exam remediation, policies and procedures, AML/CFT enhancement, training, and how to utilize automated monitoring systems effectively.

Sudhir Vijaykumar is an analytical former banker with over 25 years of experience leading operations, risk management, and executing long-term strategic plans for financial institutions. He has demonstrated and proven his ability to optimize existing technology and develop, implement, and drive the adoption of new solutions and processes to maximize efficiency and the identification of suspicious activity. 

In his 5+ years since joining Arc-Serv, he has conducted multiple model validations and is responsible for maintaining and securing the organization’s network and systems. Sudhir’s specialty is conducting data integrity validation reviews, working with database programs, analyzing financial data, and exploring AML systems and security systems. He graduated with honors from California State University, Long Beach, with a degree in Business Administration, Finance.

Joan Kruger is a Bank Secrecy Act professional with over 25 years’ experience in BSA and OFAC compliance and Banking operations. Her diverse background includes operations, sales, customer service and supervision, product development, product training, and writing documentation for customers and salespeople.

Joan has worked with over 450 financial institutions to implement their BSA compliance products. She has created customized training procedures and assisted in working with IT departments to make the implementation seamless. She is committed to quality and excellence.

Joan is CAMS certified (Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist) and a member of ACAMS and the ACAMS Boston Chapter. She has received the OFAC Essentials Certificate from the Association of Certified Sanctions Specialists and the ACAMs Certificate for Fighting Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking. Joan is also a Certified Global Sanctions Specialist (CGSS).

Ibelise Acosta Carroll has 16 years of experience in the banking/credit union and money service businesses industries. She is a subject matter expert in areas of BSA/AML, Sanctions Compliance, and Risk Management. She has managed day-to-day BSA/AML operations, educated institutions on best BSA/AML practices, performed model validations and risk assessments, calibrated monitoring systems, and developed and implemented various quality control programs.

Ibelise is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) and is currently serving as the Membership Co-Director for the Central Texas Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) chapter.

Elizabeth (“Liz”) Slim has been a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (“CAMS”) for 17 years, with over 35 years specializing in bank operations, compliance, risk management and regulatory training at various community to mid-size financial institutions. She spent 15 years as an experienced Bank Secrecy (“BSA”) and Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”) Officer managing a team of analysts that conduct fraud and money laundering investigations. In that role, she managed and had oversight responsibilities of the financial institution’s BSA and Sanctions program, BSA/OFAC risk assessments, transaction monitoring, government reporting, and training.

Through the years, she has developed a rapport with federal regulators and law enforcement. She is a founding member and currently serves as the chairperson of the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (“ACAMS”) Southern California Chapter. She also participates in the ACAMS Education Task Force and CAMS Advanced Audit Certification programs. In 2013 she was the ACAMS recipient of the Al Gillum Volunteer of the Year Award. Additionally, Elizabeth has been an invited guest speaker at several national conferences on various topics related to anti-money laundering and financial fraud.

Tahir Ali is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist with over 12 years of experience managing frontline operations and compliance in the insurance industry. He specializes in interpreting regulations, policies, and procedures and effectively instructing teams on strategies to manage risk in a continuously changing regulatory environment.

His prior work includes conducting internal audits, analyzing data, and streamlining compliance efforts by developing and implementing best practices aligning the organization’s goals with current regulations. Tahir is a member of the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) and the ACAMS San Diego Baja California Chapter. 

Robert Casares brings over two decades of specialized Financial Crime Risk Management expertise and is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS). Robert provides invaluable insights into check fraud and debit/credit card fraud with his extensive experience conducting intricate data-driven banking projects. Notably, he served as a subject matter expert in a pivotal payment platform project for a major financial institution and a leading tech company, offering crucial recommendations for the bank’s card fraud system and ensuring the secure rollout of a new payment card. As a Senior Consultant for a fraud and compliance software company, he advanced debit/credit card fraud detection systems, contributing significantly to the company’s fraud and AML product portfolio.

Prior to these roles, Robert was the Director of Card Fraud, where he played a significant role in establishing and expanding the Card Fraud division for a data processing center, leading a team of skilled fraud risk analysts that provided fraud prevention services to over 250 financial institutions.

Michelle Stewart is our resident Office Manager and brings over 35 years of experience organizing and keeping things on track and accounted for throughout offices nationwide, all the while having a smile and a friendly word for everyone she encounters. If you have a relationship with Arc-Serv, you will undoubtedly cross paths with Michelle (albeit virtually)—our administrative guru extraordinaire.