Sanctions Space

Justine sits down with Nathalie von Taaffe, a leading expert in sanctions and financial crime compliance, to explore how geopolitics — and the global race for dominance — are reshaping the compliance landscape. They discuss shifting enforcement priorities, sanctions enforcement and anti-blocking legislation, and the unintended consequences of de-risking, including financial exclusion and illicit a...

Justine Walker sits down with Dawson Law, a senior advisor on geopolitical risk and compliance. Their conversation explores potential scenarios for Iran, including protracted conflict, partial sanctions relief, and regime collapse — highlighting how economic measures and geopolitical negotiations could shape different outcomes. They also consider broader global developments, from shifting Gulf inv...

In this episode, Justine Walker sits down with Brad Brooks-Rubin, a leading expert in sanctions, illicit finance, and corruption to examine why gold — one of the world's oldest stores of value — has become a blind spot in modern sanctions and financial crime frameworks. Their conversation explores gold's central role in illicit finance, corruption, and the shortcomings of existing due-diligence an...

At the ACAMS Assembly Hollywood, Justine Walker sits down with Rachel Alpert, a leading authority on national security, sanctions, human rights, and global strategy, to unpack how geopolitics and sanctions are increasingly intertwined. Their conversation explores how sanctions are shaping global diplomacy—including their role in negotiations with Iran—against a backdrop of heightened geopolitical...

At the ACAMS Hollywood Assembly, Justine sat down with Jonathan Burke, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing. Their discussion explores the evolving terrorist financing risk landscape, the importance of aligning regulation with critical threats and institutional vulnerabilities, and how technology is reshaping fraud at an unprecedented scale and speed. Jonathan Burke leads th...

At the ACAMS Las Vegas Assembly, Justine sat down with Oksana Ihnatenko, RUSI, and ACAMS Rising Professional of the Year. Their discussion includes Oksana’s research and work to build public-private partnerships in Ukraine, how Ukrainians view current sanctions policy, and how Ukraine’s reconstruction can be funded. Oksana Ihnatenko is a Researcher for the Supervising and Monitoring Ukraine’s Reco...

At the ACAMS Las Vegas Assembly, Justine sat down with Carole House, Senior Distinguished Fellow, ACAMS. Their discussion includes the AFC implications of generative artificial intelligence, including increasing sophistication of deepfakes and the resulting ‘authenticity crisis’, how we can build resilience to the threat, and trends in cyber-enabled sanctions evasion. Carole House recently joined...

At the ACAMS Las Vegas Assembly, Justine sat down with Alex Zerden, Capitol Peak Strategies. Their discussion covers a range of U.S. sanctions priorities, including significant action undertaken on both drug cartels and Iran, easing measures on Syria, and the implications of a U.S.-backed stablecoin. Alex Zerden is the Founder and Principal of Capitol Peak Strategies, a risk advisory firm based in...

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...

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 t...

‘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 Kimb...

‘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 Spac...

‘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. Th...

‘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 Ela...

‘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...

‘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, Jus...

‘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 H...

‘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.’...

‘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...

‘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 Dire...

‘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 t...

'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 e...

‘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...

‘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 Extr...

‘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 e...