Financial Crime Matters

Utilizing AI to Reach and Free Victims of Violence, with Megs Shah

In this episode of "Financial Crime Matters," Kieran talks with Megs Shah, the CEO and founder of The Parasol Cooperative, a not-for-profit that has created an AI tool to reach and serve the victims of domestic violence, child sex abuse, and labor trafficking. Drawing on her successful career in AI working with large corporations and her experience as a survivor of child sexual abuse, Megs discusses how the cooperative has created technology that allows victims of violence to safely seek emotional support and ultimately resources that can help free them.

Digital Money's Anti-Financial Crime Future, with Coinbase's Joseph Salama

In this episode of “Financial Crime Matters,” Kieran talks with Joseph Salama, chief compliance officer at Coinbase, about mitigating financial crime risk associated with digital assets. Joe discusses current regulatory frameworks for crypto currencies, touching on the Stablecoin Act, Europe's Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) and some current proposals for oversight, arguing that the industry needs clear guardrails, not regulation by enforcement action. Proper regulation, he says, will produce enough friction to help identify and interdict illicit transactions, give crypto users confidence in digital markets, and minimize roadblocks to legitimate crypto asset transactions. With cryptocurrency an increasingly important component in money laundering schemes, Joe envisions holistic oversight of transactions that breaks down walls between traditional financial institutions and digital asset service providers, while expressing optimism a convergence of both is already underway and will only grow.

Disrupting Terror Finance, with the Middlebury Institute's Jason Blazakis

In this episode of “Financial Crime Matters,” Kieran talks with Jason Blazakis about his book, "Terror Disrupted: Countering the Financing of Terrorism." A professor at the Middlebury Institute and a former counterterrorism finance office director at the US State Department, Jason concludes that the current global situation and the "combination of losing [anti-terrorism] resources with the 'deprioritization' of terror as a core security threat has put us at risk in a way we haven't seen since 9-11." While describing red flags for financial institutions to identify terrorists and terror funds, Jason also names the actors he sees as most dangerous for America and argues for a greater government commitment to countering terror threats, not least from homegrown and self-radicalizing individuals who have been responsible for the accelerating number of terror attacks in America over the past thirty years.

Figuring Out Why Money Laundering Wins, with Oliver Bullough

In this episode of “Financial Crime Matters,” Kieran talks with Oliver Bullough about his latest book, “Everybody Loves Our Dollars: How Money Laundering Won.” In their discussion, Oliver details how a well-intentioned anti-money laundering effort launched in the United States in 1970 snowballed to become today’s global compliance industry, which spends $200 billion annually even as money laundering and other financial crimes spike. Oliver faults several stakeholders in the current AML status quo, not least global governments’ deputization of the private sector in lieu of adequately funding and empowering law enforcement and the courts to police the global economy. The failure of AML requires a total ‘rethink’ of the war on illicit finance, according to the author of two fundamental books on money laundering, "Moneyland" and "Butler to the World.”

Holding Court to Bring Kleptocrats to Account, with Richard Goldstone

In this episode of “Financial Crime Matters,” Kieran talks with former South African jurist Richard Goldstone about his current efforts as a board member at Integrity Initiatives International, to help create the International Anti-Corruption Court (IACC). Richard, who served on South Africa’s Constitutional Court and then led several international justice initiatives, discusses the trillion-dollar cost of corruption to many nations’ infrastructure, public health and education, and how it empowers authoritarian oligarchs. Detailing the current draft charter for the Court, Richard makes a compelling case that the IACC could seize stolen assets and hold accountable kleptocrats who currently escape the purview of the International Criminal Court, which focuses on genocide, war crimes and other acts of aggression.