Tether (USDT) is no longer just another stablecoin. It’s a $157 billion shadow dollar that processes $19 billion in criminal transactions each year — and yet the U.S. government just turned it into official policy.
In this episode of RegTech Real Talk, we trace the story from Russian cybercrime towers to Washington D.C., uncovering how a shell company with 150 employees became one of America’s largest creditors by buying U.S. Treasuries — and why criminals and governments alike now depend on the same rails.
What we cover:
How Tether enables money laundering for Russian hackers, drug gangs, and scam compounds
How Washington embraced stablecoins as a tool for U.S. dollar dominance
Why Trump’s administration celebrated the same infrastructure investigators call a compliance nightmare
The red flags AML teams should watch for when clients use Tether and stablecoins
Why “shadow banking” is no longer underground — it’s officially sanctioned
For compliance teams, fintechs, and anyone watching the future of money, this is the story of how financial borders died — and how the same digital dollars serve families, fraudsters, and foreign policy at the same time.
🔗 Compliance deep dive: Anqa Blog — What Compliance Teams Need to Know About Tether (USDT)
Subscribe for more RegTech Real Talk — the true stories behind financial crime.
When a £600,000 shopping spree at Harrods exposed an international money laundering operation
Zamira Hajiyeva treated Harrods like her corner store - £32,000 on chocolates, £24,000 on tea, £600,000 in a single morning. But behind the absurd consumption was her husband's $3.5 billion theft from Azerbaijan's state bank.
This episode follows the UK's first-ever Unexplained Wealth Order - a legal weapon that forces the ultra-wealthy to explain their impossible lifestyles. After 6 years of legal battles and one spectacularly misguided selfie with law enforcement, Zamira lost her mansion and golf club... but kept £10 million.
Jamahal and Charlie explore how this case exposed the limits of fighting kleptocracy: even with overwhelming evidence, revolutionary legal tools, and international cooperation, the criminals often keep enough to stay comfortable.
A story about stolen billions, industrial-scale luxury consumption, and why the house always wins - even when it loses.
For more on the financial compliance angle read Anqa's story: From Luxury Shopping Sprees to Legal Scrutiny
How did a registered sex offender convince the world's biggest banks to move his money for over a decade?
The Jeffrey Epstein story isn't just about one predator—it's about how elite institutions systematically chose profit over protection, enabling decades of abuse while compliance officers screamed warnings into the void.
What you'll discover:
This isn't conspiracy theory—it's institutional capture in broad daylight. From the Dalton School to Bear Stearns, from Vanity Fair profiles to private islands, we trace how wealth can manufacture immunity from consequences while devastating real lives.
The victims deserved better. The system failed them. But their courage in speaking out accidentally created the ultimate education in how elite protection really works.
For compliance professionals: Every red flag matters. Every pattern recognition saves lives. Every difficult conversation with management is how we build systems that protect people instead of predators.
That perfect stranger who "gets you" might be typing from a cage.
Behind every romance scam is a larger question: What happens when love becomes labour? When human connection gets industrialised by people who have no choice but to destroy strangers' lives to survive their own?
This episode follows the breadcrumbs from your dating app to a concrete compound, from a cryptocurrency wallet to a rescue operation more complex than a bank heist.
We expose the targeting psychology that makes certain people more vulnerable, reveal why the real victims aren't who you expect, and discover how this industry is spreading from Southeast Asian compounds to African "technology parks" to Pacific island "resorts" with new franchise efficiency.
The $75 billion question isn't just how to protect yourself—it's whether we can recognise the humanity trapped inside the machine before it's too late.
Your next "good morning beautiful" might be someone's only hope for rescue. The only question is: will you see it?
👉 Subscribe for more real stories behind financial crime and how good compliance breaks the chain.
Want the compliance angle? Read the Anqa blog here:
https://www.anqacompliance.com/anqa-blog/modern-slavery-behind-the-screens-aml
Who is Alice Guo? A shy pig farmer turned small-town mayor — or the mastermind behind one of the Philippines’ biggest human trafficking and online scam hubs?
In this episode of RegTech Real Talk, Jamahal and Charlie break down how Alice Guo built a pig butchering scam empire literally behind City Hall — 800 people trapped, billions laundered, and a ghost identity so perfect it collapsed with one simple question: “Who was your teacher?”
Listen in for the true crime, the spy twist, and the compliance lessons for spotting the next Alice Guo.
Want the compliance angle? Read the Anqa blog here:
https://www.anqacompliance.com/anqa-blog/alice-guo-philippines-pogo-human-trafficking
Want every messy twist? Read the full Substack here:
https://justinpemberton.substack.com/p/alice-in-phantom-land
What do you get when you mix crypto, celebrity endorsements, existential risk, political donations, and zero internal controls?
Answer: the rise and collapse of FTX.
Sam Bankman-Fried didn’t just build a crypto empire—he built a belief system.
Effective altruism. Earning to give. Longtermism. Philosophy became camouflage.
In this episode, we unpack how the founder of FTX transformed complex ideology into one of the greatest confidence tricks in financial history—convincing regulators, politicians, and celebrities that he was crypto’s ethical saviour… all while customer funds were vanishing behind the scenes.
We cover:
The rise of “earning to give” and how it justified extreme risk and eventual theft
Longtermism and the cosmic math that made current losses seem morally acceptable
Why a $32 billion company operated without a CFO—or even proper accounting
The role of image laundering in building unearned trust
How the same system that let FTX thrive penalises smaller, legitimate firms
It’s more than a crypto collapse. It’s a masterclass in how philosophy, branding, and unchecked power can cover up one of the greatest financial crimes of our time.
Find out more on Anqa's blog: https://www.anqacompliance.com/anqa-blog/ftx-collapse-image-laundering-vs-compliance
What happens when you combine Viking ambition, African resources, and $650 million in missing money? You get the Fishrot scandal—a heist so sophisticated it makes Hollywood look unimaginative.
In 2019, a poisoned whistleblower leaked 30,000 documents exposing how Iceland's biggest fishing company orchestrated the systematic looting of Namibia's ocean resources. The money—enough to build 1,300 schools—vanished through a dizzying maze of shell companies spanning Cyprus, Dubai, Mauritius, and Norway.
Six years later, the masterminds are free, the trial keeps getting postponed (latest excuse: no WiFi in the courtroom), and European supermarkets still stock the stolen fish. Meanwhile, the whistleblower breathes through damaged lungs, and Namibian fishing communities remain destroyed.
Join Jamahal and Charlie as they unpack this modern-day pillage dressed in spreadsheets: fake consultants who never consulted, the Justice Minister who took bribes, ghost companies with million-dollar invoices, and why Norway's biggest bank treated a $45 million fine as a cost of doing business.
This isn't just another financial crime story—it's a masterclass in how to exploit jurisdiction gaps, weaponize legal procedures, and turn corruption into corporate strategy.
Key moments:
A RegTech RealTalk episode that proves truth is stranger—and more infuriating—than fiction.
🎧 Subscribe for more wild stories from the world of financial crime
And for compliance solutions visit https://www.anqacompliance.com
#FinancialCrime #Fishrot #RegTech #Corruption #TrueCrime #Podcast
A hobby ship-spotter posts a single photo on social media—and hours later, warships are scrambling across the Mediterranean.
In this episode of RegTech Real Talk, Charlie and Jamahal dive into the surreal world of Russia’s shadow fleet: hundreds of rusting oil tankers with fake identities moving billions in sanctioned crude, military equipment, and geopolitical influence across global waters.
We follow the true story of the Barbaros, a ghost ship spotted by open-source analyst Yörük Işık, and explore how a single X post triggered an international naval response.
Also in this episode:
How Russia built a $10B shadow fleet
Why 86% of Russian crude exports evade sanctions
The terrifying overlap of sanctions evasion, hybrid warfare, and environmental risk
Why traditional compliance tools are failing — and what must change
This isn’t just about sanctions. It’s about the weaponization of global commerce.
Get free, practical sanctions training at anqacompliance.com
In this episode of RegTech RealTalk, we tell a story so outrageous it sounds fictional—except it’s backed by 700,000 leaked documents.
Isabel dos Santos, once hailed as Africa’s richest woman, rose to global prominence through insider deals, offshore networks, and elite partnerships. Backed by firms like PwC and McKinsey, her business empire spanned telecoms, oil, diamonds, and banking. But behind the glossy headlines was something else: a cautionary tale of compliance systems that saw nothing, asked nothing, and stopped nothing.
Then came the Luanda Leaks, exposing a sprawling network of shell companies, sweetheart contracts, and red flags that should’ve triggered action years earlier.
We explore:
How risk systems failed to flag one of the world’s most politically exposed individuals
The role of Western enablers in building her empire
What the Isabel case reveals about the infrastructure gap in global compliance
Why these failures aren’t rare—and why it’s time compliance tools became essential infrastructure
It’s not just about one woman’s fortune. It’s about what happens when global systems are built to serve profit, not protection.
🎧 Tune in now to learn why this case matters for every compliance officer, regulator, and policymaker fighting financial crime.
Dive deeper into the Isabel dos Santos case and the compliance gaps it exposed on our blog:
https://www.anqacompliance.com/anqa-blog//isabel-dos-santos-sanctions-pep-screening
And read more about this incredible story here:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-165163976
A Malaysian NGO raised millions for Palestinian winter relief. Instead of helping desperate families, the money allegedly bought gold and luxury real estate.
In this 7-minute episode, Jamahal and Charlie unpack one of Southeast Asia’s most shocking NGO scandals — 164 criminal charges, millions misappropriated, and a humanitarian mission derailed.
They explore:
- How trusted organizations can be used to launder money
- What went wrong in the Aman Palestin Berhad case
- Why even small NGOs need strong financial controls
- How compliance can protect both donations and lives
A must-listen for anyone working in the humanitarian space.
For the free compliance training course built specifically for nonprofits discussed in this episode visit:
https://www.anqacompliance.com/free-aml-sanctions-training-for-ngos
Please share.
#NGOCompliance #FinancialCrime #HumanitarianAid #TrustMatters #MoneyLaundering #Palestine #FreeTraining
When HSBC got caught laundering $881 million in drug cartel money, their stock price went UP.
In this surprising episode, Jamahal and Charlie reveal how the world's most "respected" companies have turned enabling fraud into a profitable business model. From Mercedes-Benz's shockingly casual approach to money laundering risks to Meta becoming "a cornerstone of the internet fraud economy," discover how corporate giants have mastered the art of looking the other way—and making billions doing it.
The most dangerous player in modern financial crime isn't wearing a mask or hiding behind encryption. They're wearing a business suit and hiding behind respectability.
🎙 Based on Respectable Racketeers by Justin Pemberton: https://medium.com/@justin_92850/respectable-racketeers-how-corporate-giants-quietly-helped-build-the-modern-fraud-economy-ed18602fcda9
#FinancialCrime #CorporateComplicity #RegTech #RespectableRacketeers
