Themis Podcasts

With Interpol estimating that deforestation contributes 6-17% of global carbon emissions, it will be impossible to mitigate the negative effects of climate change without addressing the practice. In this podcast, Carel van Randwyck, Themis’ Chief Growth Officer speaks to Marc Jessel, Chief System Integrity Officer with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to discuss what can be done to increase the sustainability of forestry and reduce illegal logging, and how firms can ensure they are not unwittingly exposed through their supply chains.

In this episode, Olivia Dakeyne, Think Tank Manager at Themis, talks to Gavin Miller, a former detective who spent time working for the Modern Slavery Human Trafficking Unit for the Police Service of Northern Ireland. This is the first in a short series of podcasts with Gavin Miller, and in this first episode, he talks about the specific crime landscape for modern slavery and human trafficking in Northern Ireland and gives us some fascinating and insightful real life cases that he worked on during his career, and how financial intelligence provided by financial institutions was so pivotal to these investigations - both to the victim experience and the prosecution. 

In this episode, Themis Think Tank Manager, Olivia Dakeyne, speaks to Rocio Domingo Ramos, who is the Business and Human Rights Officer at Anti-Slavery International. Her research and policy work seeks to tackle forced labour in global supply chains, implementing Anti-Slavery’s advocacy programmes on human rights due diligence and state-sponsored forced labour.    Anti-Slavery International is a leading charity that works to ensure that all people everywhere are free from all forms of slavery, always. They work in partnership with survivors, business, grassroots organisations and funding partners to deliver projects worldwide that challenge the root causes of modern slavery. And they do this by pushing for legal protections for people, making sure people know their rights and making the problem of, and solutions to, modern slavery much better understood by everyone.   Listen to this podcast to hear about forced labour in global supply chains and what regulation and legislation is needed to help safeguard against this. 

Viri Chauhan, Themis Financial Crime SME, talks to Naresh Aggarwal, Associate Director of Policy and Technical at the Association of Corporate Treasurers. They discuss the responsibilities of a treasury function and various financial crime risk typologies that may be encountered by treasurers and how to respond to those threats. The subjects of financial derivatives, commodities and market abuse are also considered in the conversation. This is a deeper dive, longer podcast that provides some very useful insight and takeaways for anyone wishing to find out more about financial crime risk in corporate treasury.

In this episode, Themis' researcher Eliza Thompson interviews Farheen Ishtiaq-Stansfeld, a senior associate specialising in commercial crime at FieldFisher, a full-service firm with a market-leading financial services practice. Farheen shares her career journey thus far and what motivated her to pursue a path in financial crime and white collar law. We also discuss the importance of having colleagues and mentors who champion the development of women and look to build inclusive environments, which helps drive creativity and innovation. This episode is part of a wider series of podcast conversations that Themis is releasing with impressive women working in finance and tech.

In this episode, Themis financial crime researchers Elizabeth Humphrey interviews Linda Baskett, Global Head of Financial Crime at Computershare and former Financial Crime Director for Aon’s UK entities, on the role of tech infighting financial crime, data protection, and more, as well as her experience working in the financial crime sector as a woman. This conversation is part of a wider series of conversations that Themis is holding with leading women working in financial crime and tech, traditionally male-dominated industries, about their expertise and experiences.

In this episode, Themis' Head of Research Nadia O'Shaughnessy interviews Katarina Cook, Head of Financial Crime and MLRO for Brewin Dolphin, one of the UK's largest wealth management firms. Katarina tells us about her experiences as a female leader working in the world of financial crime and shares valuable advice for young people looking to embark on this career path. She also considers the impacts of remote working on women with carer responsibilities and explores what good parental leave policy looks like. This episode is part of a wider series of podcast conversations that Themis is releasing with impressive women working in finance and tech.

In this episode, Themis Head of Research Nadia O'Shaughnessy interviews Sue Langley OBE, who has had an illustrious career both the financial services industry and in the public sector. Sue tells us about her own experiences as a female leader in what have traditionally been very male-dominated areas and shares a range of valuable tips for young people navigating their career paths. This episode is part of a wider series of podcast conversations that Themis is releasing with impressive women working in finance and tech.

Listen to this podcast to hear about the very latest developments in the field of the illegal wildlife trade - both on the side of the perpetrators and law enforcement - and some fascinating case studies from those working on the front line.

In this episode, as part of Themis’ Women in Financial Crime series, Consuelo Marzi, a Senior Manager at the Maltese Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, talks to Themis Think Tank Manager, Olivia Dakeyne, about Malta’s impressive work to improve its anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing controls, which resulted in it being taken off the Financial Action Task Force’s greylist of jurisdictions with strategic deficiences in June. Listen to this podcast to find out more about Malta’s response to the FATF greylisting, the country’s subsequent work on key financial crime issues and lessons learned from the process.

Viri Chauhan talks to Professor Nic Ryder, a global expert on terrorist financing about the risks that crypto assets could bring to this topic. In this podcast Nic explains how the use of crypto assets contributes to the terrorist financing typologies and provides some cases and examples of how criminals have taken advantage of technology to fulfil their goals. Nic and Viri also discuss some important developments in the war in Ukraine and how a certain country has designated Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and the implications of this.

In this episode, Themis financial crime researchers Elizabeth Humphrey and Eliza Thompson discuss the UAE government’s impressive work to combat illicit financial flows through the Emirates. Listen to this podcast to find out more about the UAE’s response to the recent FATF greylisting and the country’s work on key financial crime issues.

In this podcast we talk to Dominika Benton, a PhD candidate whose research focuses on the use of cryptocurrencies in terrorist financing and the use of distributed ledger technology within the suspicious activity reporting regime in counter terrorism financing, about the use of cryptocurrencies, online gaming and the Metaverse in terrorist financing activities. We discuss what has been referred to as the 'gamification' of terrorist violence, a trend where those involved in terrorist financing are making more use of virtual worlds, video games, live streaming platforms and virtual currencies to finance terrorism. Dominika also gives a breakdown of the Dark Web, the future of virtual means of terrorist financing and advice for staying vigilant on social media. Dominika Benton is a part-time PhD candidate. Her research focuses on the use of cryptocurrencies in terrorist financing and the use of distributed ledger technology within the suspicious activity reporting regime in counter terrorism financing. Outside of academia, she is a legal advisor.

With the war in Ukraine having displaced more than 8 million people, and the number of people forced to flee conflict, violence, human rights violations and persecution worldwide having now crossed 100 million, vulnerability to trafficking and exploitation has never been higher. As part of our series of podcasts exploring the financial crime, human trafficking and modern slavery nexus, we talk to Jonathan Bell, Partner at RedCompass Labs, about the recently launched anti-slavery digital learning tool, and the RedFlag Accelerator, both of which can help financial services tackle this terrible trade in human beings. Listen here and find out how you can take action to fight modern slavery and human trafficking. 

With concerns over an imminent invasion of Ukraine, the UK Government is considering sanctions and asset freezes on the wealthy Russians oligarchs who frequent London. In this podcast, Henry Williams and Francesca Lewis discuss whether this approach will work and examine how so much dubious wealth made the UK's capital its natural home.

Viri Chauhan from Themis talks with Dr Jonathan Brewer who is an expert on proliferation financing, which is the financing of weapons of mass destruction. Dr Brewer is a Visiting Professor at Kings College London and has held several UN posts related to sanctions and proliferation financing. Listen to this podcast to find out how proliferation financing is connected to money laundering and sanctions and what financial institutions should do about managing it.

Elizabeth Humphrey, Financial Crime Researcher at Themis, speaks to Will Fitzgibbon, senior investigative journalist at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), regarding the recently released Pandora Papers - the largest leak of offshore data in history. Will discusses his inside insights on the evolving story and its implications for the fight against financial crime.

Tackling environmental destruction and financial crime: An interview with Clare Rewcastle-Brown In this podcast, brought to you in the lead-up to COP26, Carel van Randwyck, Chief Growth Officer at Themis, speaks to award-winning investigative journalist and environmental campaigner Clare Rewcastle-Brown, about her work at the nexus of environmental and financial crime in South East Asia. Not only was Clare at the forefront of investigations into the 1MDB scandal, she has also been shining an important light on deforestation and associated environmental destruction in the region.

Co-Author of the Key Man - Will Louch, talks to Themis CFO and MD MENA, James Wightman, about the brazen international fraud that he helped to uncover, at the heart of which lay Dubai-based private equity firm Abraaj and its charismatic founder, Arif Naqvi. You're about to hear how a promise to make a lot of money whilst doing a lot of good went very wrong...

In this podcast Carel van Randwyck, Chief Growth Officer at Themis talks to Jasmine O'Connor, CEO of Anti-Slavery International, and Charles Mathias, Group chief risk officer at Fidelis Insurance, about the work they have been doing to integrate modern slavery considerations into insurance contracts.