Juan Llanos

 

Juan Llanos, born 1968, currently living in Manhattan, NY, USA

 

 

Applied Linguistics, Education, Universidad del Salvador MBA in Strategic Marketing, Universidad de Palermo

 

 

Juan co-founded and until March 2014 was EVP and Compliance Officer of Unidos Financial Services, Inc., an innovative financial services and technology provider catering to merchants and under-banked end consumers in the USA and Latin America. He was responsible for the formulation and execution of the company’s technology strategy, as well as its AML and compliance risk management infrastructure. Previously, he was Chief Compliance Officer of Remesas Quisqueyana, Inc. in New York City.

 

A Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist since 2003, Juan has over a decade’s experience of building and managing AML/CFT (Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism) and regulatory compliance programs for multiple international jurisdictions, including Canada, Italy, the United States and Spain, and is recognized as a pioneer in the development of compliance and risk management best practices for the money transfer industry.

 

Juan has been a lecturer, moderator, panelist and organizer of Anti-Money Laundering, Regulatory Compliance, Bitcoin and crypto-currency conferences, seminars, workshops and webcasts on dozens of occasions. He is an international thought leader in applied technology, hands-on skills for success, operational excellence and leadership in the AML Compliance and e-payments domains.

 

In August of 2008, Juan was granted permanent resident status by the United States by reason of extraordinary ability in the fields of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT).

 

 

Cryptocurrencies, data mining, literature, music, photography, psychology, skiing, technology, travel

 

 

Juan says he first came into contact with Bitcoin while doing research for a cyber-security and emerging payments presentation in mid-2011. Unfortunately, he wasn’t smart enough to mine Bitcoins back then, he says.

 

In late 2012, he approached the New York City Bitcoin community and started advising that they might be engaged in the highly-regulated activity of “value transfer.” In March of 2013, two weeks before the US government’s guidance on digital currencies was issued, Juan gave a talk at the NYC Bitcoin Meetup titled “Is US Regulation the Single Biggest Threat to Bitcoin?” in which he foretold the regulatory and law enforcement actions that were about to come later in the year.

 

 

Juan is a member of the Bitcoin Foundation's Regulatory Affairs and Education Committees, writes about risk and virtual currencies on his blog, is an advisor and board member at various cryptocurrency and technology startups, and is a mentor for the Plug and Play Bitcoin acceleration program.

 

In addition, he’s co-chair of the Digital Assets Transfer Authority’s AML & Compliance Working Group, where he’s helping draft risk management best practices for the industry. Juan travels the world educating entrepreneurs, professionals and government officials about the enormously transformative potential of cryptocurrencies.