Financial Crime Matters

In this episode of Financial Crime Matters, Kieran talks with Christina Rea about her brief tenure at Binance. US as interim chief compliance officer. Christina discusses what it was like to head U.S. compliance for Binance.com, the world’s largest digital assets trading platform, as it underwent scrutiny from regulators and law enforcement that ultimately culminated in a $4.3 billion penalty agai...

Kieran talks with Guy Ficco, the Chief of IRS Criminal Investigation. They discuss the IRS-CI’s recent success in tracking illicit cryptocurrency transactions. and the threat from money mules. Guy also identifies some of the latest typologies his agency is seeing, while crediting suspicious activity reports from financial institutions as catalysts for investigations, arrests and successful prosecu...

Kieran talks with Eliza Odom, former Section Chief of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, about the top terror threats the bureau is currently focused on. While having since become deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate, Eliza discusses the seven units within the Counterterrorism Division she once oversaw, particularly focusing on the Financial Targeting an...

Kieran talks with Hennie Verbeek-Kusters, head of the Netherlands financial intelligence unit, about her leadership over the FIU since its founding in 2008. During their discussion, Hennie details how the Dutch FIU has evolved to face the challenge of evermore sophisticated transnational criminal organizations and the professional money launderers they now utilize. The effort to track and seize dr...

Kieran talks with Molly Moeser, Acting Chief, Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section of the U.S. Justice Department, about MLARS’ efforts to seize illicit assets and, when possible, bring financial restitution to victims of crime. During their talk, Molly discusses the seizure of illicit funds associated with kleptocracy and other crimes, including crypto assets, which require “a whole of gov...

Kieran talks with Jennifer Shasky Calvery, Group Head of Financial Crime Risk at HSBC, a former Director of the Financial Crime Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, and former federal prosecutor. Drawing on her public and private sector experience, Jen details the challenges faced by financial institutions and government and how in partnership they can detect illicit funds and catch bad actors. Jen als...

Kieran talks with Daniel Stipano, partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell and a 30-year veteran of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, about the unfolding requirements of the Corporate Transparency and AML Acts and their impact on law enforcement, and financial as well as non-financial institutions. Dan also weighs in on the current court challenges to the CTA, particularly the recent Federal...

Kieran talks with ACAMS colleagues Justine Walker, head of global sanctions and AML risk, and Craig Timm, senior AML director, about the just released “ACAMS Global AFC Threats 2024.” Drawing on 788 in-depth interactions with anti-financial crime professionals that inform the report, Justine and Craig identify the top ten threats currently facing the global AFC community, including budget cuts at...

Kieran talks with Grant Rabenn, Director, Financial Crimes Legal at Coinbase. Grant, a former federal prosecutor who handled some of the Department of Justice’s earliest crypto cases, discusses the promise of blockchain offerings, while acknowledging the industry’s need to work with regulators to stem their use in financial crime and money laundering. During their conversation, Grant also touches...

Kieran talks with Zeke Faux, author of critically acclaimed “Number Go Up,” a comprehensive look at cryptocurrency, DeFi, and NFTs. Zeke, an investigative reporter for Bloomberg BusinessWeek and Bloomberg News, discusses the trek he undertook to understand the boom and sometimes bust of various blockchain offerings. It was a journey that included a New York harbor NFT “ApeFest,” time in the Philip...

Kieran talks with Kenneth Rijock, a former Miami-based lawyer who spent a decade as a bag man for drug-traffickers, investing their cash in accounts in the Caribbean and other offshore secrecy havens. Ken describes some of the classic methods he used for laundering money and how law enforcement ultimately caught up with him. Following a prison term, Ken reinvented himself as an anti-money launderi...

Kieran talks with Carly Yoost, CEO and founder of the Child Rescue Coalition, which has created technology that enables law enforcement to identify instances of online child exploitation and locate its perpetrators. During their discussion, Carly details the scope of online child exploitation and how the Coalition provides tools and training to law enforcement in 98 countries that has led to the a...

Kieran talks with James Barnacle, Chief of the Financial Crimes Section, Criminal Investigative Division of the FBI, and Christopher Soyez, Assistant Section Chief. Jim and Chris discuss how the FBI works to recover the proceeds of scams on behalf of victims. They credit banks’ suspicious activity reports with being the primary catalyst for the bureau’s successful investigations into COVID-19 rela...

Kieran talks with Kenneth A. Blanco, Chief Compliance Officer for the Financial Crimes Unit at Citigroup, who is also a former Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) director and before that held several senior roles within the U.S. Department of Justice. Ken and Kieran discuss the challenges of being FinCEN’s chief during the COVID-19 epidemic and his perspective on the Anti-Money Launderi...

Kieran talks with Seoyoung Kim, Associate Professor of Finance, Department Chair, at Santa Clara University, about the promise and possible perils of decentralized finance. They discuss the recent implosion of several cryptocurrency exchanges and stablecoin minters and the great legal and judicial debate now raging over the regulation of digital assets. In detailing some of the regulatory definiti...

Kieran talks with Rick Small, Director Financial Crimes Program, at Truist, Dan Soto, Chief Compliance Officer, Ally Financial, and John Byrne, Executive Vice President, AML RightSource, about what’s been achieved in the past 40 years in the fight against financial crime and what challenges lay ahead. In anticipation of receiving the “ACAMS Lifetime Achievement Award” at The Assembly in Las Vegas...

Kieran talks with Willem Schudel, Head of Department, Financial Crime Supervision (AML/TF) at the Central Bank of the Netherlands, live from The Assembly Europe, ACAMS’ annual conference, held this year in Dublin. Willem discusses the Dutch Central Bank’s preparations for the coming of the European Union’s Anti-Money Laundering Authority, or AMLA, and the bank’s latest initiatives with regulated e...

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 internati...

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 pr...

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,...

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...

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...

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. Manda...

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...

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. Wh...