The OCC Fintech Charter Panel Discussion

​Date & Time:
October 15, 2018 - 1:30 PM

​Brian A. Schneider
Secretary of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation

Christopher A. Veatch
Partner, Perkins Coie

Craig McCrohon
Partner, Burke Warren

Lisa Braganca
Attorney, Braganca Law, LLC


​Alma Angotti
Managing Director, Navigant

Secretary Brain A. Schneider Biography:
Bryan A. Schneider was appointed Secretary of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation in February of 2015. Prior to joining the Department, he served for more than 14 years in various roles at the Walgreens Company. He most recently served as Divisional Vice President and Assistant General Counsel in the Pharmacy, Health and Wellness Legal Department.

Schneider began his career as an associate at law firm Sidley Austin, and upon law school graduation, clerked for the United States Court of Appeals. He has also served as counsel to the Office of the Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives and to the Illinois House Republican Leader. Schneider was a member of the Illinois State Board of Elections for more than a decade, serving as both its Chairman and Vice Chairman. He is admitted to the practice of law in Illinois and is an Illinois Registered Certified Public Accountant.

​Schneider received his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Wisconsin, his M.B.A. from DePaul University, and his B.S. in Accounting from Trine University.

Christopher K. Veatch Biography:
Christopher K. Veatch is a partner in the White Collar & Investigations practice group at Perkins Coie. Chris is the former Chief of the National Security & Cybercrimes Section at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago, and a former SEC Enforcement Attorney. His practice includes matters involving cybercrime; securities and other financial fraud; trade secret theft; and export controls and U.S. sanctions programs. A focus of his practice is working with companies on compliance, cybersecurity, and intellectual property issues, including preparing for and responding to significant incidents. Chris is an active speaker on cyber and intellectual property risks and threats, data breach response, and white collar crime. 

Craig McCrohon Biography:
Craig McCrohon is a partner at Burke Warren specializing in corporate, software and banking law.  He has represented financial institutions in hundreds of regulated transactions and negotiations with state and Federal regulators.  His work has included regulatory advice on multi-billion bank mergers; expansion of bank technology products for top 20 banks; negotiation of a multi-billion dollar cash management and private transaction network; launching of several micro-payments firms; dismissal of Bank Secrecy Act charges against a national bank; bank charters; and negotiation of letter rulings with the Federal Reserve expanding authority of bank holding companies to operate financial technology subsidiaries.  Mr. McCrohon is a graduate of Harvard University and received his joint law degree and M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School of Business. He began his legal career working with the legal staff of the United States Senate Committee on Banking.  He has recently served as investment chairman for a $20 billion state pension investment fund.

Lisa Braganca Biography:
Celiza (Lisa) Bragança has decades of experience as a financial and securities litigator. Lisa served as a Branch Chief in the Division of Enforcement of the Chicago Office of the Securities & Exchange Commission, where she handled investigations into accounting fraud, Ponzi schemes, insider trading, churning, and unsuitability. Several of the investigations Lisa handled and supervised resulted in the CEOs and other senior executives of Mercury Finance Company and American Rice being prosecuted and ultimately serving time in prison. Since leaving the SEC, Lisa has represented participants in the cryptocurrency industry as well as directors and officers of public and non-public companies involved in SEC and DOJ investigations, class actions, and bankruptcy investigations. She has represented individuals and entities involved in SEC investigations. She has recovered substantial losses for investors in FINRA arbitration and court actions. She is an advocate for investors and people with disabilities.
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Lisa is co-author of an article on regulation of cryptocurrencies and tokens published in the PIABA Law Journal and author of an article on cryptocurrency regulation to be published in the ABA Law Practice Management Magazine.

Lisa was selected by her peers as a 2018 Leading Lawyer. She serves as 2018-2019 Vice Chair of the Chicago Bar Association Securities Law Committee and is a member of the CBA Financial & Emerging Technology Committee, Women White Collar Defense Association, and Public Investor Advocacy Bar Association (PIABA). She has been a trial advocacy and deposition skills instructor for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA) programs for legal aid attorneys. 

Lisa graduated from the University of Chicago with a B.A. (with honors) and J.D./M.B.A. (Order of the Coif, honors).

Alma Angotti Biography:
Alma Angotti is a Managing Director and Co-Head of the Global Investigations & Compliance practice. With over 25 years of regulatory practice, Ms. Angotti has held senior enforcement positions at the SEC, Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority). In these positions, she was responsible for conducting
investigations involving securities fraud, insider trading, financial fraud, anti-money laundering (“AML”) and counter terrorist financing, market manipulation, investor and market protection, and other regulatory violations. At FinCEN and FINRA, she designed and lead the AML enforcement programs. She regularly worked with criminal prosecutors in a variety of jurisdictions and the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and bring actions jointly.

Ms. Angotti has counselled her clients, large global financial institutions, multinational companies, smaller financial institutions, broker-dealers and Fintech companies, in a variety of projects, including gap analyses, compliance program reviews, risk assessments, remediation efforts, investigations and transaction reviews. Recently, she held interim senior compliance leadership positions at several global and regional financial institutions providing day-to-day management of their compliance programs and assisting them with implementing enhancements, often in the context of a regulatory or criminal enforcement action. She has trained and advised the financial services industry as well as other regulators and government officials worldwide on AML, sanctions, and combating the financing of terrorism(CFT) and other regulatory compliance issues.