At the ACAMS Europe Assembly in Paris, Justine sat down with Stephanie Baker, Senior Writer, Bloomberg. Their discussion includes how Russia has exploited loopholes to circumvent sanctions and export controls and continue financing its war, how Russia’s wartime economy may impact peace negotiations, and how the new economic tool of ‘secondary tariffs’ could potentially play out. Stephanie recently published a book titled ‘Punishing Putin: Inside the Global Economic War to Bring Down Russia’. You...
May 28, 2025•22 min
On the margins of the ACAMS Hollywood Assembly, Justine sat down with Laura Ferris, The Sentry, to discuss illicit financial flows linked to environmental crime. Their discussion includes assessing the distinct overlap between environmental crime, sanctions, and corruption, as well as a spotlight on the illegal logging trade – including how funds are laundered, the current state of global action to address the trade, and how organizations should think about their related supply chain risk. Laura...
May 19, 2025•19 min
‘As we start to piece this all together, we found that there were certain trends and typologies that were very similar in terms of how China was working with Russia, as well as how China was working with Iran, and then just kind of shaping out this broader network of actors.’ In the latest episode of the Sanctions Space Podcast – recorded at the ACAMS Hollywood Assembly - Justine is joined by Kimberly Donovan, director of the Economic Statecraft Initiative within the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconom...
May 06, 2025•22 min
‘I think that the administration is prudently reviewing the sanctions to determine what measures could be eased, in what sequence, in the event that Russia does prove amenable to negotiations. I, for my part, believe that we will have to go down the path of additional punitive measures first.’ -Marshall Billingslea on potential sanctions easing on Russia In the latest episode of the Sanctions Space Podcast, Justine is joined by Marshall Billingslea, Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute. They di...
Mar 12, 2025•30 min
‘We’re living in an age of economic warfare. Sanctions, export controls, tariffs – they’re now the primary way that states compete with one another.’ In the latest episode of the Sanctions Space Podcast, Justine is joined by Edward Fishman, author of Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare and a senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy, among other roles. They discuss the latest U.S. - Russia negotiation headlines, the importance of leveraging sanctions re...
Feb 18, 2025•28 min
‘Navigating the fault lines between the U.S. and China and this accelerated convergence of economic statecraft – not just how sanctions might be deployed, or export controls, but also tariffs and investment review – all of which are going to figure into this new space.’ -Elaine Dezenski on key risks to be thinking about In the latest episode of the Sanctions Space Podcast, Justine is joined by Elaine K. Dezenski, senior director and head of the Center on Economic and Financial Power at the Found...
Jan 29, 2025•24 min
‘I believe that it’s become very complex for financial institutions to actually comply. The ask by the Treasury to focus on sanctions evasion is really, in many ways, the bridge back to AML’ -Bill Fox on the global sanctions landscape and what it means for FIs ‘The only sector that really can enforce [sanctions] are the financial institutions sector. We are the police – even though we say all the time in the AML world that we’re not the police – I think we are the police when it comes to sanctio...
Nov 12, 2024•24 min
‘Looking at KYE (know your ecosystem), you’re able to essentially review the transaction that is not directly with you, and so you can see where the tokens are landing before potentially they’re going towards some sort of illicit flow or to an illicit actor.’ -Jasleen Bains on how to mitigate CTF risks Recorded at ACAMS Las Vegas Assembly, in this latest episode of the Sanctions Space Podcast, Justine sat down with Jasleen Bains, Compliance Consultant, Ondo Finance and Founder, Bains Labs. They ...
Oct 21, 2024•20 min
‘We’re all going to be on this journey, I don’t think we’re going to be in a world where no one’s going to use AI because it’s too hard, we are going to use it, the question is how do we make sure to implement it and execute it so that it’s efficient and credible’. -Jessica Bartlett In the latest episode of the Sanctions Space Podcast, Justine is joined by Jessica Bartlett, Managing Director and Head of Global Financial Crime Legal at Barclays. They discuss how the global sanctions landscape has...
Oct 14, 2024•23 min
‘As the other core markets for Russia are closing down and tightening the grip, they’re looking for other mechanisms. And we may be seen as an easier mechanism because we haven’t had the benefit of the learnings of the European and the American banks, where they have been really having to grapple with this on a day-to-day basis. We’re now really having to turn our attention to that indirect risk.’ -Kylie Oliver on sanctions risks in Australia ‘We need to think about customers and markets that we...
Jul 19, 2024•24 min
‘there must a deterrent effect, that people must be afraid to breach sanctions, especially when it involves common high priority goods or items that generate a lot of revenue to the Russian government to wage war in Ukraine. By proper deterrent effect, I mean real convictions with proper jail times or very hefty fines levied against those who have been intentionally involved in breaching sanctions or have been grossly negligent’ -Paulis Iļjenkovs on strengthening sanctions enforcement in the EU ...
May 29, 2024•20 min
‘It’s one of the most important developments I think you’ll see coming out of the US in terms of sanctions enforcement, probably for years’ -John Smith on the extension of OFAC’s statute of limitations to 10 years for sanctions violations. In the latest episode of the Sanctions Space Podcast, Justine is joined by John Smith, co-head of Morrison Foerster’s National Security practice and former Director of OFAC, and Chloe Cina, Partner at Morrison Foerster. They discuss the evolving sanctions enfo...
May 20, 2024•19 min
‘We’ve got new legal powers which we will be using… but also the scale of how we’re operating has, for OFSI at least, changed. Both in terms of the volume of self-disclosures and other intelligence we’re getting from different sources… and secondly how capabilities at OFSI are changing and transforming.' -Giles Thomson on changes in the UK sanctions enforcement landscape In the latest episode of the Sanctions Space Podcast, Justine is joined by Giles Thomson, Director of the UK Office for Financ...
Apr 19, 2024•16 min
'they have a critically important role to play. I think we’re at an inflection point… export controls have never been more important – and the reason why is because of the nature of the national security threat, which has really changed over the last decade or two.' -Assistant Secretary Axelrod on the importance of the role of financial institutions with respect to export controls. In the latest episode of the Sanctions Space Podcast, Justine is joined by Matthew Axelrod, Assistant Secretary for...
Apr 12, 2024•15 min
‘The last time this was done - with Iraq - you had two things we’re not going to have here, which is number 1 a [UN] Security Council Resolution, and number 2 the consent of the government of Iraq. We are not getting either in the case of Russia, at least in the near term. And so the credibility of the international mechanism is going to be really important. And so I think it can be done but, look, everything is unprecedented until you do it the first time’. -David Mortlock on the likelihood of ...
Apr 03, 2024•21 min
‘You’re not in this classic terror finance space where you are looking at a group like Al Qaeda and people trying covertly to move donations or other forms of money to terrorist groups who have no ability to raise money through conventional means.’ -Edmund Fitton-Brown In the latest episode of the Sanctions Space Podcast, Justine is joined by Edmund Fitton-Brown, Senior Advisor at the Counter Extremism Project and former UK Ambassador to Yemen. They discuss the ongoing tensions in the Red Sea, t...
Feb 16, 2024•27 min
‘There are going to be frictions – I think what we can hope for is that both sides will try to figure out a way to just kind of manage through the bumps in the relationship, and so while there will be challenges, and while there will be bumps, at the strategic level the relationship will remain broadly stable – at least that’s the hope.’ -Peter Harrell on US-China relations in 2024 In the latest episode of the Sanctions Space Podcast, Justine is joined by Peter Harrell, nonresident fellow at Car...
Jan 11, 2024•27 min
‘It’s the biggest deal. It’s the tip of the spear in the regulators effort to constrain Russia’s war ability’ -Melissa Duffy speaking about strategic trade and export controls In the latest episode of the Sanctions Space Podcast, Justine is joined by Melissa Duffy, Partner, Trade and National Security at Fenwick & West LLP. Speaking on the margins of the ACAMS Vegas conference, they discuss the increasing use of strategic trade controls and export controls in countering Russia and China, dem...
Oct 23, 2023•19 min
‘I think the risk is still high. It’s going to take some time for the Wagner Group’s new leaders to step into those roles… I still see the organization as a significant threat to international peace and stability’ In the latest episode of the Sanctions Space Podcast, Justine is joined by Jason Blazakis, Professor of Practice, Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies; Director of Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. Speaking on t...
Oct 13, 2023•23 min
‘What we’re really seeing is the use of professional enablers, both by oligarchs to continue to hide their assets, and also in the export controls sanctions cases where they’re using shell corporations to hide the true shipment of goods’ In the latest episode of the Sanctions Space Podcast, Justine is joined by Jonathan Schnatz, Special Agent and Senior Analyst at the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS:CI). Speaking on the margins of ACAMS Europe conference, they discuss ...
Jun 05, 2023•16 min
‘The amount of resources they have going into this is significant - there are people in every state in the country focused on this… and I expect you will see more and more actions as the year goes on’ -Craig Timm on looking to the horizon for DOJ on sanctions In the latest episode of the Sanctions Space Podcast, Justine is joined by Craig Timm, Senior Director of Anti-Money Laundering at ACAMS. They discuss key takeaways from the Global Sanctions Summit at ACAMS Hollywood, the role the US Depart...
May 24, 2023•14 min
‘I always like to describe Congress as writing in pen, and the administration as writing in pencil’ In the latest episode of the Sanctions Space Podcast, Justine is joined by Matt Zweig, Senior Director of Policy at FDD Action. They discuss how sanctions are introduced within the US political system, who the key movers and shakers are, and looking ahead to future Congressional sanctions priorities. Previously, Matt served as Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. From July 2...
May 18, 2023•15 min
‘Unfortunately, I must say that you don’t have to be a criminal mastermind to come up with a sanctions evasion or circumvention scheme… most of the time, they’re not very sophisticated’ In the latest episode of the Sanctions Space Podcast, Justine is joined by Toms Platacis, Acting Head of Latvia’s Financial Intelligence Unit. They discuss current sanctions evasion typologies in Latvia – ranging from the sophisticated (dismantling range rovers into individual pieces and later reassembling) to th...
Apr 26, 2023•19 min
‘We should not consider Wagner as a traditional mercenary group, but more as a powerful weapon used by Russia and we should all feel threatened by its expansion because it’s a rising global threat’ -Nathalia Dukhan on the threat posed by the Wagner Group In the latest episode of the Sanctions Space Podcast, Justine is joined by Nathalia Dukhan, Senior Investigator at The Sentry, and Naureen Chowdhury Fink, Executive Director of the Soufan Center. Their discussion takes a closer look at the Wagne...
Feb 14, 2023•26 min
‘As we look at Ukraine, as we look at these unprecedented sanctions, we really have to close the loopholes that are created by the Wagner Group’s presence in many countries around the world, in particular in Africa.’ The Sanctions Space Podcast is back! Justine is joined by Justyna Gudzowska, The Sentry, and Dan Tannebaum, Atlantic Council. Their discussion includes the illicit activities of the Wagner Group, the potential evolution of Russia sanctions, including possible 'skinny sanctions' and ...
Jan 26, 2023•25 min
ACAMS was honoured to be joined at our Europe conference by two advisors of the Office of the President of Ukraine - Professor Alexander Rodnyansky and Markiyan Kliuchkovskyi. In the margins of the event, Alexander and Markiyan sat down with Justine for this Sanctions Space Podcast Episode - their discussion includes the measures they're looking at to styme Russia's ability to fund its invasion, the weaponization of global food insecurity by Russia, and efforts being explored to use the assets o...
Jun 15, 2022•19 min
“the oligarchs are symbolically important and also, if anybody is going to have an opportunity to whisper in the ear of Vladimir Putin and say ‘what you’re doing is completely wrong, completely inappropriate, unacceptable, you need to reverse what you’re doing’, it’s going to be one of those people. “ Following their appearance as witnesses to both the Treasury Select Committee and Foreign Affairs Committee earlier this week, Justine is joined by Tom Keatinge, founding Director of the Centre for...
Mar 10, 2022•19 min
‘’In one week we have seen governments change their historical policy positions in what is really now being considered to be a watershed moment, particularly for defense policy.” In this episode, Justine is joined by Emily Rees, international trade policy expert and Founder, Trade Strategies, in which they discuss the enormous trade implications and challenges that will result from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Emily talks us through some of the key global exports and jurisdictions likely to be ...
Mar 04, 2022•17 min
In this special episode, our two ACAMS podcasts meet for the second time - Financial Crime Matters and the Sanctions Space. Following conclusion of the second ACAMS Global Sanctions Summit, Justine and Kieran convene to discuss the current Russia-Ukraine crisis. Drawing on summit deliberations they explore the current state of play of the international sanctions response, including the prospect for a ‘start high, stay high’ approach.
Feb 07, 2022•21 min
“we should acknowledge the simple fact that, in economic terms, Russia matters much more to the EU than it does to the US, and that the EU matters to Russia much more than the US does to Russia.” In this episode, Justine is joined by George Voloshin, corporate intelligence expert and ACAMS CGSS instructor, in which they discuss Russian-EU trade and considerations for entities with Russian exposure. George provides a detailed overview of the dynamics of Russia and the EU’s economic relationship, ...
Jan 28, 2022•25 min
