Opinions My Own: Risk, FinTech and the Law

WARNING.

Human trafficking, illegal guns & drugs, child pornography, stolen cryptocurrency, credit cards.... this is the marketplace.

Insulin, need any? Sex dolls, want some? This is the place, and there are 4 and 5-star reviews for those selling.

Crime-as-a-Service? This is where bitcoin mixers and contract killers mingle with expert cartels and lone wolves with novice computer skills in an un-indexed, haphazardly policed bizarre bazaar.

Welcome to the Dark Web. Don't have the stomach? Head to Mos Eisley's Cantina. It's tamer. Much.

This shit's real.

In my hour long conversation with cybersecurity expert and professor Will Spettmann, we don't just discuss cybersecurity and cyber crimes, we stroll the streets of the seedy and lawless place everyone's heard about but few have seen. Here's what you need to know about what's going on right as we live and breathe and how to protect yourself.

WARNING. CERTAIN SUBJECT MATERIAL IS UPSETTING.

Scene One: Industry Conference

Moderator: "What keeps you up at night?"

CEO: Cybersecurity.

Scene Two: Company conference room

CISO: Well done, everyone. Great tabletop exercise.

I discuss with the former CISO of the Israel Defense Forces, Gad Abadi, the root cause of Scenario One, so many CEOs' sleepless nights, and the glaring blind spot with Scenario Two, which overemphasizes the CISO, CIO and the technical SMEs but largely ignores the other C-Suite players and their teams critical to timely recovery, firm reputation and client servicing.

Please enjoy, share and like. Find us also on YouTube.

Thanks for listening.

Paul Caulfield

Guest: Gad Abadi, Lieutenant Colonel, former CISO, Israel Defense Forces

Time: 48 minutes

When do you need a lawyer? As a company engaged in blockchain, crypto or other innovative areas there are many instances when you might need to call a lawyer for advice on how to proceed in these uncharted waters. Throughout the previous episodes we have hinted at hiring lawyers and in this episode we speak to one of the lawyers you might need to hire - Lilya Tessler.  Lilya is a partner and head of Sidley Austin’s FinTech and Blockchain group. If you need advice on regulations and the legal implications of business decisions in the FinTech/Blockchain space she is who you should call. We have a conversation in this episode about her approach to the law, her clients and what pressing legal questions start-ups have.

NO ONE IS WALKING THE #AML BEAT IN VIDEO GAMES, and the bad guys know it. Elsewhere...in cryptocurrencyland, the media, law enforcement, Capitol HIll, OK...everyone is talking about the newest, shiny ball. Regulation and enforcement will soon kick into overdrive as mainstream market adoption of crypto assets explodes. Just check out the Twitter feeds of Michael Saylor (MicroStrategy) and Gary Gensler (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair). Don’t even get us started about Bloomberg LP (news not the man). 

We’re big Prince fans here at Opinions My Own, and in honor of his best album turning 30, we sought out Don Palmieri, master gemologist, world renowned appraiser and decorated Vietnam veteran. As we’ve said, the diamonds and jewels industry needs some much needed light shined on (or is it through?) it - conflict diamonds, child labor, fraud, AML, corruption. In this, the enlightened age of ESG, our interview with Don, a 50 year veteran in the field, does just that. 

Please enjoy, share and like. Find us on YouTube, streaming on Spotify, iTunes and @Twitter. And, keep sending us those topics!

Oh, and here’s Prince & the NPG’s own Diamond & Pearls.

Thanks for listening.

Zila & Paul

Guest:

Don Palmieri, Diamonds & Jewels Ninja

Time:

57 minutes

That’s Amanda Wick on America’s early frontier, the real Wild West. But in crypto, where the likes of tech bros haven’t yet fully dominated the field, Wick sees hope. But she’s got some hard scrabble advice…

The first of our “Women Our Own” series, Amanda offers not-to-be missed insights on women in law and technology, especially cryptocurrency. Former federal prosecutor, current practitioner of Krav Maga and fierce advocate for women in [insert ANY industry here], Amanda isn’t mincing words: “What is your solution to fix things?”

Please enjoy this spotlight episode on Women in AML, FinTech & the Law. Find us on YouTube, streaming on Spotify, iTunes and @Twitter. Like, share and, if interested in a topic, let us know.

Thanks for listening.

Zila & Paul

Guest:

Amanda Wick, recent Chief of Legal Affairs of Chainalysis Inc., former DOJ Attorney, Senior Policy Advisor at FinCEN

Time:

19 minutes

Guest:

Amanda Wick, Chief of Legal Affairs of Chainalysis Inc., former DOJ Attorney, Senior Policy Advisor at FinCEN,

Overview:

"I personally think that bitcoin is worthless," Jamie Dimon, CEO, JPMorgan Chase & Co. Monday, October 11, 2021 at the Institute of International Finance.

“A Ponzi scheme from the jump.” That’s what cryptocurrencies are...right? In this episode, Zila and Paul speak with Amanda Wick, Chief of Legal Affairs at Chainalysis Inc. about her career in law and migration to blockchain and crypto. Amanda helps bust some common myths while offering candid opinions about the state of the public sector’s understanding of this revolutionary technology.

Time:

42 minutes

Guest:

John Moscow, Deputy Chief, Investigations Division, New York County District Attorney’s Office (retired)

Overview:

John Moscow, the legendary Manhattan Assistant District Attorney, described the decades-defunct-but-still-notorious Bank of Credit and Commercial International to me this way: “It was a full service bank that would do anything its customers wanted.” (Emphasis mine.) Money laundering. Tax evasion. Drug trafficking. Terrorist financing.

Moscow’s and, more precisely, D.A. Robert M. Morgenthau’s prosecution of BCCI reverberated globally as the bank pled guilty and was then liquidated in 1991. Vanity Fair magazine wrote a feature, How They Broke the Bank, the following spring that still holds up as an enthralling account of D.A.N.Y.’s dismantling of one of the then-largest banks in the world.

Aside from lawmakers, regulators and educators, the world of pop culture noticed. The Infiltrator, former U.S. Customs’ Agent Robert Mazur’s book on the early role he played, became a movie by the same name in 2015. Bryan Cranston played the lead. American Made came out two years later detailing the improbable tale of former TWA pilot Barry Seal’s drug smuggling for the Medellin Cartel, side work for the CIA and turning informant for the DEA.

In this episode, Zila and Paul discuss BCCI before Paul and John revisit the investigation, the oddity of the media attention that followed, how AML efforts have fared since then and, of course, “that photo”.

Time:

35 minutes

Guests:

Joe Friscia, Chief Revenue Officer, Tookitaki; former President, Nice Actimize

Abishek Chatterjee, Founder & CEO, Tookitaki

Overview:

The bane of transactional surveillance - a regulatory requirement for identifying potentially suspicious, potentially criminal financial transactions - is the “false positive”. Basically, thousands of alerts are triggered, but only a small percentage require actual investigation.

“What a waste!” would be the understatement of the year.

The best and brightest companies, including IBM and its Watson Artificial Intelligence tools, understand that solving this problem, which affects all banks, translates not just into reducing costs (and getting a devoted clientele) but identifying and preventing criminal activity more effectively...the whole point of these efforts!

In this episode, Zila and Paul speak with Joe and Abishek from Tookitaki and dig a little deeper into machine learning (a subset of AI) and how it might assist existing technologies and their banks finally harpoon Moby Dick.

Time:

43 minutes