International Anti-Financial Crime Summit 2024

Aamir is the Regional Vice President, AML Compliance for EU / CIS / Africa for Western Union. He has held multiple positions in the anti-financial crime space in the public and private sectors including as the Head of Financial Crimes for EMEA / UK MLRO for Stripe, the Regional Head for the US Law Compliance Program for ASEAN and South Asia for Standard Chartered Bank, and the Head of Financial Crimes for the Middle East and North Africa (excluding the UAE) for Standard Chartered Bank. Aamir has also led financial management teams for Expedia and Boeing; and spent nine years working in the U.S. government focusing on geopolitical, intelligence and global financial crime issues.

Aamir has an MBA in Finance and Marketing from the Johns Hopkins University and a Masters in International Policy and Practice from George Washington University.

Federica is a Partner at Interpath Advisory, where she co-leads a team of regulatory experts who assess and investigate regulatory and financial crime concerns on behalf of regulators and enforcement agencies globally.

Federica has led and been involved in numerous of the recent large-scale investigations (Swedbank, Latvian/ABLV flows, organised crime) on behalf of regulators in Europe and the US, including a dual-track (criminal and regulatory) investigation into a major universal bank that revealed the facilitation of significant terror-related activity.

Federica translates her direct, hands-on, experience of investigating complex financial crime schemes (encompassing illicit use of shell companies/complex ownership structures, cryptocurrencies, hacking incidents, ransomware scams, identity theft schemes and bribery and corruption) involving a wide range of jurisdictions (including Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Malta, Cyprus, UK, US, Sweden, Italy, Libya, Hong Kong, the BVI, Panama, Bermuda and Curacao) into practical advice for supervisors and regulated firms and advises regulators and law enforcement agencies as to how to build and improve (intra-)jurisdictional infrastructure to prevent an investigate financial crime .

Federica has conducted investigations and served as a strategic advisor to the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) and Malta Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) on the topic of financial crime and served, on an interim basis, as Head of the MFSA’s Financial Crime Unit. She also advises the regulators and other government entities in preparation for upcoming FATF assessments.

Amongst Federica’s clients are the EMEA regulators (including the UK FCA, MFSA, FIAU, CySEC, CBUAE, BaFIN, Bermuda Monetary Authority, Guardia di Finanza and Danish FSA), governments (e.g., UK, Malta, UAE, Cyprus, Lithuania and Cayman Islands) and a wide range of financial institutions (including gambling and cryptoassets businesses).

She is a Board Director of Malta’s ACAMS Chapter and AML Intelligence and a senior adviser to the EU AML/CFT Global Facility on the topics of beneficial ownership and virtual assets.

In her early career, Federica set up and co-led an independent firm consulting financial services and government agencies in Europe on quantitative risk management and general compliance.

Later, Federica held senior compliance and control roles (including Head of Compliance and MLRO) in industry (including at Credit Suisse, RBS and ICICI Bank, all in the UK), setting up and leading control and compliance units. She also led the regulatory affairs team that negotiated (with, inter alia, the FCA, PRA, HMT and European Commission) the terms of the Banking Licence Application for Williams & Glyn as part of the RBS rescue package deal with the UK government.

Federica is a frequent speaker and writer on various financial crime topics, the predicate offences that drive it, the small (but impactful) shortfalls that cause illicit flows to pass through the financial system, the consequences of financial crime and to provide pragmatic advice as to how to remediate them.

Sarah Beth Felix has over 20 years of experience in anti-financial crimes with operational, audit and consulting roles, working with banks, payment firms, and global Fintechs. Operationalizing AML/sanctions threats is one of her most well-known attributes, providing actionable solutions. Beyond traditional banking, she has specialized years of work in Fintechs, Lendtechs, cannabis banking, crypto, correspondent banking, and trade finance.

While managing a thriving AML/sanctions advisory firm for over 12 years, Palmera Consulting, she is also co-founder and CAMLO for a de novo digital correspondent bank – Acceleron Bank, in formation – based in Vermont, U.S. She has a 360-degree view of banking and how money flows throughout the world. Sarah Beth and her team are building a highly compliant digital bank focused on providing cost-effective solutions to US banks.

With global speaking engagements and her years spent on the operational AFC front, she focuses on impactful takeaways that move listeners to ‘take action’ in improving their AML/sanctions programs. Sarah Beth is also a guest lecturer at the National War College in Washington, D.C. and is frequently asked to train various US federal law enforcement agencies on private sector data availability that impacts subpoenas and unregulated payment ecosystems.

Linda started her career as a commercial litigator in an international law firm in Edinburgh.  Since joining the civil service, she has had a range of interesting and challenging roles, including Private Secretary to the First Minister of Scotland; Head of Civil Asset Forfeiture for Scotland; Deputy Director of Defence, Security and Cyber Resilience; and Senior Responsible Officer for EU Exit in the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland.

Linda joined the Fraud Investigation Service in HMRC in April 2021 and originally led Offshore, Corporate and Wealthy, managing white collar civil and criminal investigations into wealthy individuals and large corporates.

Since September 2022, Linda has been Head of Organised Crime, leading complex international investigations to disrupt and dismantle Organised Crime Groups. Linda leads a team of 1500 civil and criminal investigators across 15 sites and 3 legal jurisdictions in the UK. She specialises in all elements of economic crime, including money laundering, bribery and corruption and fraud and has concluded a number of Deferred Prosecution Agreements. Linda is committed to  collaborating with domestic and international partners to maximise impact against financial crime.

Jackie leads Brussels-based Ibec Global, Europe's leading English-speaking, globally networked business organisation, and the international business division of Ibec - Ireland’s largest and most influential business advocacy and representative organisation.

Ibec Global’s engagement spans across Irish and global stakeholders to shape the conditions for international businesses to thrive, and to advance practical and scalable solutions that economies and societies need to prosper. Her previous roles include Chief Operating Officer at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, and Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Ottawa, Canada office of a leading international public affairs and strategic communications consulting firm.

Jackie has over two decades of experience as an international business leader, building high-performing teams and transforming organisations for the future. She is recognised as an expert in managing risk for organizations with international exposure, and has worked with executives, their boards, and public-sector officials in every sector of the global economy to protect and enhance reputation and deliver results for business and communities.

Ilze Znotiņa is the former Director of FIU Latvia. Prior to joining FIU Latvia she has had a career as a sworn attorney-at-law specializing in dispute resolution. Her main areas of expertise included regulatory issues, insolvency, anti-bribery and anti-money laundering, fraud and white-collar crime.

A former Partner of law firm Deloitte Legal, Ms. Znotina has represented a wide range of local and international clients in courts as well as performed an anti-fraud reviews at many international and local companies where she led investigation of corruption, false accounting, fraud, theft, asset recovery, tax evasion, money laundering and obstruction of justice cases.

Her recent activities before the appointment related to leading the preparation of Latvian National AML/CFT Risk assessment and several sectoral assessments.

Ms. Znotina has submitted her doctoral thesis in the Faculty of Law, University of Latvia. She holds a Master degree in International and European Law from Riga Graduate School of Law and a Bachelor degree in Law from the University of Latvia. She is an author of a number of publications related to law, fraud and corruption as well as a frequent speaker on these topics.

Paul Coady has over 25 years of financial services experience focused on compliance and financial crime practice and related people risk.

He has held senior roles that included Business Ethics, Policies & Training Manager for AIB Bank, Group Head of Compliance Policy & Learning for Barclays, Global Head of Financial Crime Risk Education & Culture for Deutsche Bank, and has recently founded ComplianceLnD, a new boutique consulting and professional education practice. Paul has worked in Dublin, London, and New York and led teams and complex transformation and regulatory requirements throughout the UK, US, EMEA, APAC and Africa.

He is a regular international speaker and thought leader promoting the people-side of compliance and financial crime. Paul holds an MSc. in Education & Training Management from Dublin City University (DCU), and is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS), Licentiate of the Compliance Institute of Ireland and a Fellow of the Learning & Performance Institute (LPI).

With over 20 years of experience, Liliya has worked across the financial crime space in different roles and capacity and across different business segments. She has managed teams, due diligence projects in challenging environments, and led major investigations and litigation support cases. In the late 1990s she joined Bulgaria’s Financial Intelligence Unit where she headed the International Contacts and Legal Coordination department.

Her experience also includes Transparency International in Berlin, several London-based investigative consultancy firms and the Royal Bank of Canada in London. In 2016 she joined Commerzbank London where she managed the AML Advisory and EDD Team until her appointment as head of Transactions Monitoring and Investigations/UK FIU and deputy MLRO.

In 2020 she joined CACIB as Head of UK Financial Security; she is also the MLRO. She holds a doctorate in AML policies from Tilburg University in the Netherlands and gives lectures at the University of Manchester. A speaker at industry events, Liliya has delivered presentations on behalf of Stop the Traffik, a London-based non-profit organisation that fights human trafficking and slavery.