In this episode of From The Hill To The Trenches: The Search for Justice, host Dorothy Hill speaks with Dillon Abend, founder and CEO of 3rd-i, about the nationwide campus safety crisis.

In this episode of From The Hill To The Trenches: The Search for Justice with host Dorothy Hill, financial crime compliance expert Brett Erickson reveals the shocking vulnerabilities within America's financial monitoring systems. FinCEN's suspicious activity report database serves 350+ law enforcement agencies, but insider threats remain a constant danger as foreign adversaries compromise federal employees for as little as $10,000-$20,000.

In an unprecedented move, FinCEN banned all US payments to three Mexican banks connected to fentanyl trafficking proceeds. Financial institutions must now block ACH transfers and wire payments while conducting extensive look back reviews of historical transactions. The enforcement action represents a new national security approach to anti-money laundering compliance.

Erickson breaks down the cryptocurrency compliance crisis facing major banks like JPMorgan Chase. Southeast Asian regulatory gaps allow criminals to exploit mixing services like Tornado Cash while compliance teams lack digital currency expertise. With adoption accelerating rapidly, financial institutions face dangerous knowledge gaps in detecting crypto-based money laundering schemes.

Key topics covered:

SAR report database security vulnerabilities

Mexican bank sanctions over fentanyl proceeds

Cryptocurrency mixing services and regulatory gaps

ACAMS and ACFE certification requirements

Sanctions evasion by Russian oligarchs

Politically exposed persons (PEP) monitoring

Cross-border financial crime investigation techniques

Essential listening for compliance officers, AML analysts, financial crime investigators, and banking professionals navigating complex regulatory environments.

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Ralph Dahm exposes the dark reality of romance scams and pig butchering schemes targeting elderly Americans, revealing that victims lose between $50-150 billion annually to sophisticated criminal networks operating from Southeast Asian camps. He breaks down the mechanics of crypto ATMs, the challenges of tracing blockchain transactions, and why only 2-4% of stolen funds are ever recovered.

The conversation covers the human trafficking element behind these scams, where victims themselves are forced to defraud Americans under threat of violence. Ralph Dahm also discusses the bureaucratic obstacles preventing law enforcement from effectively pursuing these cases and shares practical advice for identifying red flags before becoming a victim of cryptocurrency fraud schemes.

In Episode #4 of the podcast From the Hill to the Trenches: The Search for Justice, host Dorothy Hill sits down with Brig Barker, a former FBI agent and U.S. Army veteran with 18 years of counter-terrorism experience tracking al-Qaeda and ISIS operations. Barker shares his journey from Army officer stationed in Italy to being an FBI tactical team member responding to embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, eventually becoming fluent in Arabic through intensive immersion training. In this episode, he breaks down the current terrorism landscape facing America, explaining the concept of "fence sitters" and how geopolitical events can trigger radicalized individuals into action. The conversation covers his extensive work across Africa and the Middle East, collaboration between FBI and CIA overseas, and the challenges of investigating international money laundering networks. Barker discusses the intersection of terrorism and artificial intelligence, border security concerns, and shares practical career advice for aspiring FBI agents including the importance of unique language skills and international travel experience.

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In Episode #3 of the podcast From the Hill to the Trenches: The Search for Justice, host Dorothy Hill connects with Lili Kazemi, a Washington DC-based tax attorney who has successfully built the wellness company Dow Fit Life while advancing her corporate legal career. Lili shares her journey spanning PWC, major law firms, and now serving as in-house counsel at a tech company, all while developing her expertise in transfer pricing for multinational corporations. In this episode, Kazemi reveals her strategic approach to managing dual careers through her "one thing" daily productivity method and explains how she transformed 20+ professional mentorships into lasting relationships that shaped her success. The conversation explores Lili's iterative entrepreneurial process, including her three-year book writing journey and the development of an AI chatbot that answers fitness questions based on her content library. Listeners discover practical time management strategies for busy professionals, the economics behind transfer pricing for global companies, and Kazemi's sustainable approach to wellness that rejects fad dieting in favor of building atomic habits that create lasting lifestyle changes.

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Podcast:

Website: https://hill2trenches.com/

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LinkedIn: @lilikazemi

Website: Dow Fit Life 

In Episode #3 of the podcast From the Hill to the Trenches: The Search for Justice, host Dorothy Hill connects with Lili Kazemi, a Washington DC-based tax attorney who has successfully built the wellness company Dow Fit Life while advancing her corporate legal career. Lili shares her journey spanning PWC, major law firms, and now serving as in-house counsel at a tech company, all while developing her expertise in transfer pricing for multinational corporations. In this episode, Kazemi reveals her strategic approach to managing dual careers through her "one thing" daily productivity method and explains how she transformed 20+ professional mentorships into lasting relationships that shaped her success. The conversation explores Lili's iterative entrepreneurial process, including her three-year book writing journey and the development of an AI chatbot that answers fitness questions based on her content library. Listeners discover practical time management strategies for busy professionals, the economics behind transfer pricing for global companies, and Kazemi's sustainable approach to wellness that rejects fad dieting in favor of building atomic habits that create lasting lifestyle changes.

Follow Dorothy Hill:

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Podcast:

Website: https://hill2trenches.com/

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LinkedIn: @lilikazemi

Website: Dow Fit Life 

In Episode #2 of the Podcast From the Hill to the Trenches: The Search for Justice, Dorothy Hill takes listeners on an unexpected journey from Wall Street boardrooms to the Philippine coffee farms and cafes with Markus Ableitinger, a former Capital Dynamics executive. Markus shares his transformation from managing billions of dollars in Asian private equity to roasting single-origin beans at 1,400 meters above sea level. In this episode, Ableitinger reveals how his two decades of due diligence expertise translates directly to mentoring coffee farmers and explaining why 80% of Philippine coffee demand requires imports despite perfect growing domestic conditions. The conversation explores the striking parallels between venture capital portfolio management and sustainable farming practices, as Markus details his hands-on approach to elevating local coffee quality from "really bad" to internationally competitive standards. Listeners discover the shocking realities of coffee industry fraud, the $180,000 German roasting equipment that is used in premium coffee shops, and how one farmer named Marivik went from serving instant coffee to becoming the Philippines' top coffee educator. Hill and Ableitinger examine the intersection of agricultural investment, generational knowledge transfer, and the complex challenges of modernizing traditional farming communities while building sustainable coffee supply chains and cafes across Southeast Asia.

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When billions disappear through shell companies and elderly Americans lose their life savings to family members, who's tracking the money? From the Hill to the Trenches: The Search for Justice takes you inside the investigations that traditional media won't touch. Host Dorothy Hill, former Goldman Sachs Associate and financial crime investigator with 25 years of Wall Street experience, reveals how sophisticated fraud schemes operate and why our systems keep failing victims.

Each episode uncovers real cases where dirty money flows through legitimate institutions, where compliance failures enable international crime rings, and where individual families fight back against billion-dollar theft operations. You'll hear directly from former FBI agents who dismantled money laundering networks, compliance officers who caught sanctions violations before they made headlines, and whistleblowers who exposed corruption that regulators missed.

This isn't a theoretical finance discussion. These are active investigations involving cryptocurrency manipulation, elder abuse networks, and geopolitical sanctions that reshape global banking overnight. Hill connects individual fraud cases to systemic failures that threaten financial stability worldwide, giving you intelligence that impacts markets, regulations, and enforcement priorities.

Whether you're managing compliance risk at a major institution, investigating economic crimes, or simply want to understand how financial criminals operate in plain sight, From the Hill to the Trenches: The Search for Justice delivers insights you can't find anywhere else. Every episode reveals another layer of the hidden economy where crime and legitimate finance intersect.