RegTech Real Talk

How do $400 million in tainted crypto flows pass through the world’s biggest exchanges  after  they plead guilty to money laundering? In this episode, Jamahal and Charlie dig into the ICIJ’s latest investigation — and then go one step further. Beyond the scandal, there’s a breakthrough everyone missed: Treat crypto wallets like bank accounts. Once you do that, blockchain crime becomes  visible . W...

Tether (USDT) is no longer just another stablecoin. It’s a $157 billion shadow dollar that processes $19 billion in criminal transactions each year — and yet the U.S. government just turned it into official policy. In this episode of  RegTech Real Talk , we trace the story from Russian cybercrime towers to Washington D.C., uncovering how a shell company with 150 employees became one of America’s l...

When a £600,000 shopping spree at Harrods exposed an international money laundering operation Zamira Hajiyeva treated Harrods like her corner store - £32,000 on chocolates, £24,000 on tea, £600,000 in a single morning. But behind the absurd consumption was her husband's $3.5 billion theft from Azerbaijan's state bank. This episode follows the UK's first-ever Unexplained Wealth Order -...

How did a registered sex offender convince the world's biggest banks to move his money for over a decade? The Jeffrey Epstein story isn't just about one predator—it's about how elite institutions systematically chose profit over protection, enabling decades of abuse while compliance officers screamed warnings into the void. What you'll discover: How a failed math teacher transforme...

That perfect stranger who "gets you" might be typing from a cage. Behind every romance scam is a larger question: What happens when love becomes labour? When human connection gets industrialised by people who have no choice but to destroy strangers' lives to survive their own? This episode follows the breadcrumbs from your dating app to a concrete compound, from a cryptocurrency wall...

Who is Alice Guo? A shy pig farmer turned small-town mayor — or the mastermind behind one of the Philippines’ biggest human trafficking and online scam hubs? In this episode of RegTech Real Talk , Jamahal and Charlie break down how Alice Guo built a pig butchering scam empire literally behind City Hall — 800 people trapped, billions laundered, and a ghost identity so perfect it collapsed with one...

What do you get when you mix crypto, celebrity endorsements, existential risk, political donations, and zero internal controls? Answer: the rise and collapse of FTX. Sam Bankman-Fried didn’t just build a crypto empire—he built a belief system. Effective altruism. Earning to give. Longtermism. Philosophy became camouflage. In this episode, we unpack how the founder of FTX transformed complex ideolo...

What happens when you combine Viking ambition, African resources, and $650 million in missing money? You get the Fishrot scandal—a heist so sophisticated it makes Hollywood look unimaginative. In 2019, a poisoned whistleblower leaked 30,000 documents exposing how Iceland's biggest fishing company orchestrated the systematic looting of Namibia's ocean resources. The money—enough to build 1,...

A hobby ship-spotter posts a single photo on social media—and hours later, warships are scrambling across the Mediterranean. In this episode of  RegTech Real Talk , Charlie and Jamahal dive into the surreal world of Russia’s shadow fleet: hundreds of rusting oil tankers with fake identities moving billions in sanctioned crude, military equipment, and geopolitical influence across global waters. We...

In this episode of  RegTech RealTalk , we tell a story so outrageous it sounds fictional—except it’s backed by 700,000 leaked documents. Isabel dos Santos, once hailed as Africa’s richest woman, rose to global prominence through insider deals, offshore networks, and elite partnerships. Backed by firms like PwC and McKinsey, her business empire spanned telecoms, oil, diamonds, and banking. But behi...

A Malaysian NGO raised millions for Palestinian winter relief. Instead of helping desperate families, the money allegedly bought gold and luxury real estate. In this 7-minute episode, Jamahal and Charlie unpack one of Southeast Asia’s most shocking NGO scandals — 164 criminal charges, millions misappropriated, and a humanitarian mission derailed. They explore: - How trusted organizations can be us...

When HSBC got caught laundering $881 million in drug cartel money, their stock price went UP. In this surprising episode, Jamahal and Charlie reveal how the world's most "respected" companies have turned enabling fraud into a profitable business model. From Mercedes-Benz's shockingly casual approach to money laundering risks to Meta becoming "a cornerstone of the internet fr...