Financial Crime Matters

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 related scams, while also questioning a rising reluctance within the industry to aid customers in recovering the proceeds of other kinds of fraud.

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 Laundering and Corporate Transparency Acts created and passed during his tenure.

Having now served within both the public and private sectors in the fight against financial crime, Ken also talks about what regulators, law enforcement and AFC professionals at financial institutions don’t understand about each other and the importance of them joining forces in public private partnerships.

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 definitional claims now being adjudicated in U.S. courts, Seoyoung argues that the contested offerings are all analogous to financial instruments already regulated under the extant centralized finance system. As a result, she says that the proper application of rules from the centralized finance world are sufficient for oversight of DeFi.

In concluding, Seoyoung says that executing transactions on a publicly transparent blockchain, rather than on exchanges that facilitate money laundering and fraud via mixers and tumblers or privacy coins, is as essential as regulation to the ongoing integrity and promise of DeFI.

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 in October, Rick, Dan, and John discuss the successes and shortcomings of past Bank Secrecy Act regulation, as well as what’s good and what’s bad in the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 and the Corporate Transparency Act.

Drawing on nearly 150 years of collective public and private sector experience fighting financial crime, the three old friends celebrate the rise of the AML community, the establishment of AFC as a profession and their association with ACAMS since its inception. In concluding, they offer advice to the next wave of anti-financial crime professionals who will face variations on old crime typologies and new scenarios connected to AI and other technologies adopted by industry, law enforcement and, sadly, savvy criminals.

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This Financial Crime Matters episode is sponsored by:

NICE Actimize - https://www.niceactimize.com

SAS -https://www.sas.com/fraud

Fenergo - https://www.fenergo.com

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 entities, including expectations they adopt technology that will identify criminal activity and reinforce the risked-based approach.

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This Financial Crime Matters episode is sponsored by:

NICE Actimize CDD-X - https://www.niceactimize.com

SAS - https://www.sas.com/fraud

Fenergo - https://www.fenergo.com

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 success of the partnerships, including initiatives around human trafficking, online child exploitation and the fentanyl trade, the FINTRAC director says “we are definitely looking to bring [all] our partnerships to an international level” because FINTRAC should be seen not just as Canada’s FIU but as a trusted partner by global industry, law enforcement and the public.

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This Financial Crime Matters episode is sponsored by:

SymphonyAI - www.symphonyai.com

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 (FinCEN) recent extension of anti-money laundering and counter-terror finance reporting responsibilities to antiquities dealers.

In laying out some of the red flags associated with illicit art and antiquities transactions Steve and Katie, who co-host “The Art Law Podcast,” also share their sense of where regulation of the two markets is headed in the United States and the world.

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 improved.

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 around corporate ownership drawing on his own experience as a senior official in the UK Treasury and the National Crime Agency.

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 transnational criminals. A Russian studies specialist, Oliver expresses guarded optimism about recent U.K. legislative and regulatory developments in response to the invasion of Ukraine that may be a step toward ending Britain’s role as butler to the world’s financial criminals.