Michael Messier

Michael Messier is a financial crime and BSA/AML expert with over three decades of combined experience in law enforcement, banking, and consulting.

He began his career as a licensed and certified financial advisor in New York City, working for 10 years in the financial services industry before entering federal law enforcement. In 1995, he joined the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), where he served as a Special Agent for 15 years in both domestic and international assignments.

Messier’s final DEA role was as a Supervisory Special Agent at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, leading the DEA’s Mexico Financial Investigations Group. In this capacity, he managed DEA resources and assets in support of bilateral enforcement operations in Mexico and other Latin American countries. His work focused on supervising complex criminal investigations, including those targeting U.S. financial institutions for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) under USC Title 31, particularly failures to maintain effective anti-money laundering (AML) programs. He also collaborated closely with the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to impose economic sanctions on significant drug traffickers designated as Drug Trafficking Kingpins.

In 2010, Messier transitioned to the private sector, joining Bank of America as a Managing Director within Global Financial Crimes & Compliance. Based in Mexico City, he was responsible for building, developing, and leading the Latin American region’s financial crimes compliance efforts. He directed initiatives to integrate the Bank’s AML Enterprise Program with Latin American business lines, aligning risk mitigation with local regulatory requirements. Within his first year, he partnered with stakeholders and senior management to resolve more than a dozen significant audit issues. He later led the Bank’s Special Case Management Group, overseeing sensitive AML and Counter Financing of Terrorism (CFT) investigations, including matters involving politically exposed persons (PEPs). He worked closely with the Global Head of the Financial Intelligence Unit to enhance transaction monitoring and improve Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) filing metrics.

Since 2015, Messier has worked as a private consultant, advising select clients on financial crime, BSA/AML compliance, terrorist financing, and corruption-related risks. His work includes developing and drafting risk assessments and designing and delivering financial investigation and compliance training. He has trained law enforcement, prosecutors, and financial regulators in the United States and across Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Eurasia. In recognition of his international AML and CFT work, particularly in the Middle East and Africa, he received the 2017 Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA) Volunteer of the Year Award.

A Spanish speaker, Messier has presented at numerous conferences and participated in panels on BSA compliance and financial crime issues in both U.S. and international forums. He maintains his Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation and has attended Financial Action Task Force (FATF) training as a country assessor. He holds a BA in Economics with a minor in Quantitative Methods from The American University in Washington, DC.