Kieran talks with Sarah Paquet, Director and CEO of the Financial Transaction Reports Analysis Centre, FINTRAC, live from ACAMS’ 27th annual moneylaundering.com conference in Hollywood, Florida. Sarah discusses FINTRAC’s new role handling sanctions intelligence, managing the revolution in financial technology, and the financial intelligence unit’s ongoing commitment to expand and further internationalize Canada’s anti-financial crime public-private partnerships. While detailing the initial succe...
Jun 05, 2023•29 min
Kieran talks with Steve Schindler and Katie Wilson-Milne, partners at New York litigation and art law boutique Schindler Cohen & Hochman LLP about the state of financial crime in the global antiquities and art world. Charting some of the civil and criminal actions that have resulted in a recent wave of repatriations of artworks and antiquities from the world’s major museums, noted galleries and private collections, Steve and Katie also discuss the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinC...
May 18, 2023•26 min
Kieran talks with Tristram Hicks, co-author with Nicholas Gilmour of “The War on Dirty Money,” an examination of the promise and short-comings of the current costly global effort to combat financial crime. Drawing on his years as a New Scotland Yard detective superintendent and his role as an international criminal justice advisor on the operational effectiveness of anti-money laundering regimes, Tristram discusses why current anti-financial crime efforts are inadequate and how they can be impro...
Apr 17, 2023•22 min
Kieran talks with David Lewis, executive secretary of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) from 2015 to 2022, about the FATF’s recent plenary that gray listed South Africa and Nigeria, formally suspended Russia from membership, and criticized governments throughout the world for lax oversight of cryptocurrency businesses. Currently head of global AML at Kroll, David also weighs in on the United Kingdom’s and European Union’s latest AML efforts and shares his hope for greater transparency aroun...
Mar 14, 2023•22 min
Kieran talks with Oliver Bullough, award winning reporter for The Guardian, about his latest book, “Butler to the World: How Britain Became the Servant of Tycoons, Tax Dodgers, Kleptocrats and Criminals.” During their conversation, Oliver details how Britain and its territories became a favored facilitator for many of the world’s kleptocrats, having transformed a financial system that once served the country’s global empire into one adept at “investing” illicit funds and serving the whims of tra...
Feb 16, 2023•26 min
Kieran talks with Dan Stipano, partner at Davis Polk, and Jamal El-Hindi, Counsel at Clifford Chance, about the Financial Crime Enforcement Network’s far reaching new rules for creating a U.S. beneficial ownership information (BOI) database for regulators and law enforcement, including who will be required to file personal identifying information and who will not have access to the registry. Mandated by Congress to be operational by January 2024, Dan and Jamal also detail some of the essential q...
Jan 29, 2023•28 min
Kieran talks with Jonathan Dupont, a financial intelligence investigator for Western Union, and Tiffany Polyak, AFC Associate at ACAMS, about the growth in online sexual exploitation of children and the related rise in child sexual abuse materials on the Internet. In exposing the scope of the online exploitation, Jonathan and Tiffany point to the more than 100 million reports of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in Europe and the United States in 2021, with 19,000 victims being identified in th...
Jan 04, 2023•17 min
Kieran talks with Bryan Smith, chief of the FBI’s Cybercriminal Section and a 20-year bureau veteran, about the growing threat of cybercrime to both individuals and large corporations. Bryan discusses the destruction caused by cyber hacking, identity theft and old fashion fraud and he shares some of the successes the FBI has had in recovering stolen funds – whether in fiat currencies or crypto. While concerned about future cybercrime threats from criminals who are always innovating, Bryan also a...
Nov 30, 2022•28 min
Kieran talks with Nathan Lynch, author of 'The Lucky Laundry' - an expose of how Australia became the conduit for billons of dollars in laundered funds from the proceeds of drug trafficking, corruption, the sexual exploitation of children and other heinous crimes committed by transnational criminal organizations. Nathan, Manager of Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence, Asia-Pacific, details how the 'Lucky Country' (as Australians view their homeland) became the 'Lucky Laundry' undermining con...
Oct 17, 2022•27 min
Kieran talks with ACAMS colleague Joby Carpenter about the current tumult in the digital asset world, including plummeting cryptocurrency prices, digital value’s exploitation by money launderers, the threat from cyberhackers, and the rise in crypto-related fraud schemes. A global subject matter expert on cryptocurrency, Joby draws on 18 years of experience in strategic and risk analysis roles across the UK government, intelligence and regulatory community and concludes that there is a saner, alb...
Oct 03, 2022•23 min
Kieran talks with Daniel Thelesklaf, Project Director for Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking (FAST) at the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research about the effort to protect refugees fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine from human trafficking. While many governments, organizations and individuals are offering support for refugees that includes information, food, shelter and job placements, “there are traffickers waiting at the borders” with job and other offers that Daniel say...
Jun 02, 2022•22 min
Kieran talks with Ilze Znotina about the challenges Latvia has faced over the past four years she has been head of the Financial Intelligence Unit, including enforcing sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. “Baltic states have suffered… a very similar situation that Ukraine is suffering right now, [but] thankfully not in recent years,” Ilze says, adding that the region is for that reason united in trying to make the sanctions work. “[Ukraine] fights for themselves and all of...
May 16, 2022•24 min
Kieran talks with Jessica Davis, a veteran of more than 20 years in defense and intelligence roles in government and the private sector in Canada. They discuss the occupation of Canada’s capitol for three weeks last winter by the so-called “Freedom Convoy,” efforts to support the group via crowdfunding, cryptocurrency, and cash as well as the Canadian government’s successful seizure or freezing of much of that funding. Jessica, president of Insight Threat Intelligence and author of “Illicit Mone...
Apr 29, 2022•24 min
Kieran talks with John Sifton, advocacy director, and Patti Gossman, associate Asia director, at Human Rights Watch about the dire humanitarian situation in Afghanistan following the return of the Taliban to power. “One in three families is facing food insecurity” from malnourishment to starvation, says Patti, adding that the crisis is affecting not only the already impoverished, but middle-class and working-class people who are no longer paid for their jobs and have no access to their savings. ...
Mar 02, 2022•22 min
Kieran talks with Olivia Swaak-Goldman, executive director of the Wildlife Justice Commission, about the Hague-based organization’s efforts to stop the illegal wildlife trade and other forms of environmental exploitation, currently the fourth largest source of funds for transnational criminal organizations. Olivia discusses how WJC targets traffickers in endangered species and those having the greatest negative environmental impact with its team of former law enforcement investigators, intellige...
Feb 15, 2022•20 min
Kieran talks with colleague Dr. Justine Walker, Global Head - Sanctions, Compliance and Risk at ACAMS, about the likely shape of sanctions against Russia should it invade Ukraine. In the wake of ACAM’s Second Annual Sanctions Summit, Justine discusses keynote speaker and White House special advisor Peter Harrell’s promise of severe sanctions against Russia should it attack Ukraine and analyzes the Summit buzz about how the United States, United Kingdom and European Union as well as the financial...
Feb 07, 2022•21 min
Kieran talks with Anjana Rajan, chief technology officer for Polaris, about the work the not-for-profit does to fight human trafficking, including having helped more than 30,000 trafficking survivors via its national hotline. In looking ahead, Anjana talks about the need to recreate the Internet to end its use by the powerful to exploit the vulnerable, a reality made only worse by the accelerated digitalization of life in the wake of COVID-19. Anjana says the current debate about Web 3, the next...
Feb 01, 2022•21 min
Kieran talks with Dr. Tom Robinson, chief scientist and founder of Elliptic, a blockchain forensics company, about the phenomenal growth of decentralized finance, or DeFi. Offering the promise of a wide array of financial services on an inexpensive and inclusive basis, DeFi also presents a significant fraud and money laundering threat, Tom says. Drawing on Elliptic’s recently released report, “DeFi: Risk, Regulation and the Rise of DeCrime, which he co-wrote, Tom covers the need for legislation ...
Jan 04, 2022•18 min
Kieran talks with Casey Michel about his just published book, “American Kleptocracy,” which details how the United States has become a favored destination for laundering money for corrupt politicians and other criminals. Competition among states such as Delaware, Wyoming and Nevada for fees for forming corporations and trusts as well as carveouts from oversight won by special interest groups are to blame, Casey says. Casey, an investigative journalist who has been published widely, including in ...
Dec 15, 2021•24 min
Kieran talks with Alex Zerden about his time as Treasury attaché at the United States Embassy in Kabul, the worsening humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and the renewed terrorism threat related to the Taliban’s return to power. Alex, the principal and founder of Capital Peak Strategies, a financial technology and digital asset advisory firm, talks about how the United States presence in Afghanistan was marked by corruption connected to an inflow of money the Afghan economy was incapable of absor...
Nov 01, 2021•18 min
Kieran talks with Jacqueline Shinfield, partner at Blakes, Cassels & Graydon about the latest legislative and regulatory requirements from Finance Canada and FINTRAC that are part of the nation’s renewed vigor to fight financial crime. Ahead of the ACAMS Annual Canada Conference on 3, 4 November, Jackie and Kieran discuss Canada’s new cost recovery plan’s impact on FINTRAC regulated entities, issues arising from ongoing regulatory examinations, technological gaps in implementing the new elec...
Oct 15, 2021•26 min
Kieran talks with Jessica Davis, president of Insight Threat Intelligence and the author of the just released “Illicit Money: Financing Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century.” Jessica discusses her comprehensive book, which is based on her study of some 50 terrorist organizations and terror attacks, in the wake of the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan and the rise of ideologically motivated violent extremist throughout the world. “Attacks are often self-funded” and difficult to track wher...
Oct 04, 2021•23 min
Kieran talks with Gurvais Grigg, Chainalysis’ Global Public Sector Chief Technology Officer, about tracking cryptocurrency used in fraud, ransomware and other crimes. Whether exchange traded digital currencies or so-called privacy coins, companies like Chainalysis, in tandem with law enforcement, are increasingly identifying cybercriminals and seizing their illicit funds, says Gurvais, who served more than 23 years with the FBI prior to joining the blockchain forensics company earlier this year....
Sep 15, 2021•23 min
Kieran talks with Elizabeth “Liz” Roper, chief of the Cybercrime and Identity Theft Bureau within the New York County District Attorney’s office. As head of one of the most sophisticated anti-cybercrime labs in the world, Liz details what she sees as the most pressing emerging cybercrime threats and offers encouragement to prosecutors throughout the country who are challenged by spiraling incidents of cybercrime in their communities. “From the day we first open a case, we’re working together wit...
Aug 18, 2021•27 min
Kieran talks with former prosecutor Liz Loewy, who founded the elder abuse bureau in the New York District Attorney’s office in 1994 and is co-founder and current COO of EverSafe, a company that utilizes financial technology to protect elderly and vulnerable individuals from financial abuse. “Loved ones have a responsibility to look out for one another,” Liz tells Kieran in describing how families should adopt a strategy to protect all their members from financial crime. With the rise in digital...
Jul 30, 2021•23 min
Kieran talks with Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director of the Counter Extremism Project, about the rising threat from right-wing domestic terror groups. Rooted in varying myths of nationalist identity, right-wing extremist groups are increasingly cooperating with one another across nation state borders, embracing long-discredited tropes that glorify white-supremacy and antisemitism, Hans tells Kieran during their discussion. While identifying some of the self-funding individual violent acto...
Jun 17, 2021•19 min
Kieran talks with James Cohen, Executive Director at Transparency International Canada, about what’s wrong with Canada, including the rise in money laundering via “snow washing” and the corrupting influence of illicit foreign fund flows from transnational criminal groups. During their talk, James discusses the battle to establish a corporate ownership registry in Canada, which received initial funding in the nation’s budget released shortly after the interview, the need for a coordinated federal...
May 03, 2021•23 min
Kieran talks with Sara Crowe, Strategic Initiatives Director for Financial Systems at Polaris, a not-for-profit dedicated to ending sex and human labor trafficking. During their talk, Sara touches on Polaris’ efforts to connect trafficked individuals to law enforcement and social services through its U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline and the use of data drawn from call-ins to the hotline to create frameworks to combat human trafficking. Financial institutions are uniquely positioned to add...
Apr 16, 2021•23 min
Kieran talks with Louise Shelley, PhD, Director of the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC) at George Mason University, about how terrorist organizations are funding themselves by engaging in illicit trade finance, often in partnership with transnational criminal organization. During their discussion, Dr. Shelly, the author of numerous publications whose most recent book is “Dark Commerce: How a New Illicit Economy is Threatening our Future,” shares typologies and identi...
Mar 15, 2021•18 min
A special episode for everyone monitoring the critical and shifting sanctions landscape. Kieran interviews Dr Justine Walker (who has her own podcast series ‘The Sanctions Space’) about the recent unprecedented scale of change of sanctions, key emerging trends, and the Biden administration’s potential approach to China, Iran, North Korea and others. Next week we’re also hosting our first ACAMS Global Sanctions Summit, with speakers from White House, World Bank, UN, OFAC and European Commission. ...
Feb 22, 2021•25 min
