2023 Drug Trafficking and Money Laundering Forum

Time

Topic

12:30-12:40

Registration and welcome from the Forum Chair
Jo French, Expert Trainer at the School of International Financial Services

12:40-13:40

Understanding the nexus between drug trafficking and money laundering
Brian Ludlow, Co-ordinator Expert Laundering Evidence Cadre/ Operations Manager at the National Crime Agency

13:40-14:10

Money laundering fundamentals & the role of financial institutions it combatting it
Jo French, Expert Trainer at the School of International Financial Services

14:10-14:20

Refreshment break

14:20-15:20

Case studies in Drug Trafficking and money laundering
Shazia Zamir, Expert Trainer at the School of International Financial Services

15:20-15:50

The importance of public-private collaboration and information sharing
Jonathan Groom, Director of the Jersey Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU)

15:50-16:20

Regulatory compliance and best practices
Zoë Newman, Regional Managing Director, EMEA and Global Co-Head of the Financial Investigations Practice at Kroll

16:20-16:30

A quick-fire roundup of practical take-aways
Jo French, Expert Trainer at the School of International Financial Services

Jo French

Expert Trainer at the School of International Financial Services

Jo, through her company JETT Limited, specialises in developing contemporary bespoke, technical in-house CPD programmes covering a range of AML, compliance and governance issues. She has over 25 years’ experience in delivering credible training to a wide range of financial service businesses both in the Crown Dependencies and internationally, as well as institutions that include the BBA, the ACSP in the Isle of Man and the Guernsey Training Agency. In addition, she has taught on the International Compliance Association’s full range of AML and compliance qualifications since 2005, and as a Fellow of the Governance Institute (formally ICSA) written and delivered across both level 4&5 Certificate and Diploma as well as the qualifying scheme, (subjects include Corporate Governance, Risk Management, Boardroom Dynamics, Company Law and Company Compliance and Administration.)

A committed educationalist, Jo has a First Class Law Degree (LLB) and Masters in Law (LLM) (Merit) from Queen Mary University of London specialising in financial services law. She is passionate about the delivery of accessible and innovative training courses.

Brian Ludlow

Co-ordinator Expert Laundering Evidence Cadre/ Operations Manager at the National Crime Agency

Brian Ludlow is a money laundering subject matter expert within the NECC and the Coordinator of the Expert Laundering Evidence cadre which provides expert evidence to courts, investigative assistance and upskilling/ awareness around laundering. He has 35 years of law enforcement experience, 25 of which has been involved in investigating and researching money laundering . He is a money laundering expert witness and has provided expert evidence in courts within the UK and overseas. Brian’s expertise includes laundering through Informal Value Transfer Systems (such as hawala and East Asian Underground Banking), Trade Based Money Laundering, cash smuggling and criminal movements of cash. Brian has worked for several law enforcement agencies including  HM Customs & Excise, HM Revenue & Customs, Serious Organised Crime Agency and currently the NCA. He is also one of the UK SPOCs for the Anti-Money Laundering Operational Network (AMON) which is made up of over 40 countries and is an informal network which assists to assist international money laundering investigations between members.

Jonathan Groom

Director of the Jersey Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU)

Jonathan is the new Director of Jersey Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). He is one of the most experienced UK banking leads on MSHT matters and has been requested as an expert witness. He was instrumental in drafting HSBCs Modern Slavery Act Statement, delivering insight on the Group Human Rights committee, leading the European Bank Alliance (with Thomson Reuters Foundation) on the human trafficking toolkit for banks. In addition, Jonathan led the JMLIT Expert working Group on MSHT and Organised Immigration Crime. He is known for his collaboration across charities, NGOs, law enforcement and government in seeking to find solutions in this space. He was also a contributor to the FATF Human Trafficking guidance as well as helping to engage, shape and deliver North American and Asian bank alliances counter trafficking work.

Jonathan also conceived and individually delivered the award-winning Survivor Bank initiative, that has changed the lives of over 3000 survivors of MSHT, as well as those disadvantaged by homelessness. The initiative is currently being delivered by HSBC and is a centre point of the United Nations FAST programme.

Outside of banking, Jonathan has assisted Meta and other organisations in understanding and identifying human exploitation risks within their businesses and customer sets and is chairing the newly formed JFIN PPP, whose first strategic focus is MSHT.

Zoë Newman

Regional Managing Director, EMEA and Global Co-Head of the Financial Investigations Practice at Kroll

Zoë Newman is a regional managing director and global co-head of the Financial Investigations practice, based in London. Zoë leverages over 20 years of experience working across Eastern Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Middle East and has led numerous international cross-border investigations. These investigations required the tracing of complex fund flows, dissection of corporate structures and assessment of the integrity of transactions to support both civil and criminal asset recovery proceedings and disclosures to regulators.

In more recent years, Zoë has advised emerging and frontier market banking regulators on systemic issues relating to distressed banks, the integrity of their capital and the identification of abuse of the financial system by the banks’ shareholders and senior management. She has significant expertise in advising both government and corporate clients and their counsel in critical matters concerning the prevention, detection and investigation of fraud and corruption and associated money-laundering mechanisms and related asset recovery strategies.

She has a proven track record in advising and presenting to boards, regulators and government bodies on how best to approach and structure financial investigations into some of the most sensitive issues they face.

Shazia Zamir

Exper Trainer at the School of International Financial Services

Shazia Zamir has worked for over 25 years in various Senior Compliance roles held within Legal, Financial and Law Enforcement sectors. 

Her experience includes managing and setting up compliance teams, reviewing and testing effectiveness of policy and procedures, implementing process improvement, conducting AML and GDPR audits, guiding MLRO/COLP’s and COFA’s in making informed risk decisions, designing bespoke risk case management system for centralised teams, writing and delivering firm-wide training on various key compliance topics.  

Having graduated in Civil and Structural Engineering (BEng) from the University of Bradford, Shazia extended her studies further graduate in Law (LLB) from University of College London.

With her academic experience her approach to compliance is making it simple, practical and she is always honest ensuring that the solutions she proposes are workable and effective.