ACAMS Carolinas Chapter May 2026 Event: Inside Chinese Money Laundering Networks: Typologies and Insights from Banks, Crypto, and Law Enforcement

Carolyn Czarnecki serves as a Special Agent with Homeland Security Investigations in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she is assigned to the Carolina Financial Crimes Task Force. In this capacity, she specializes in complex financial investigations, including fraud and money laundering. Special Agent Czarnecki’s previous law enforcement experience includes conducting narcotics investigations as well as cases involving arts and antiquities theft. Prior to her federal law enforcement career, she worked as a federal bank regulator, focusing on Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), Anti-Money Laundering (AML), and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) compliance.

Gary Lawrence, CAMS works in financial crimes with Truist Bank and is a retired Supervisory Special Agent with the DEA. He previously led the HIDTA task force in Charleston, South Carolina, with prior assignments in Los Angeles and multiple overseas locations. Prior to serving with the DEA, Gary was an officer with the Raleigh Police Department, is a U.S. Navy veteran, and holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of South Carolina.

Shelby Arneson is the current Associate Manager of Coinbase's Suspicious Activity Monitoring (SAM) team at the Charlotte based Center of Excellence (COE). Shelby manages a team of + investigators, who are responsible for conducting case investigations on various suspicious alert typologies. Prior to her tenure at Coinbase, Shelby served as a Special Agent with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) at the Charlotte, NC field office. There, Shelby specializing in Child Exploitation investigations, focusing on the production and distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). Prior to her time in federal law enforcement, Shelby has many years of experience working in financial crimes compliance, customer due diligence, OFAC screening and USA PATRIOT Act adherence. Shelby is a Charlotte, NC native (a unicorn!)