Sanctions Space

In this episode, Justine Walker sits down with Brad Brooks-Rubin, a leading expert in sanctions, illicit finance, and corruption to examine why gold — one of the world's oldest stores of value — has become a blind spot in modern sanctions and financial crime frameworks. Their conversation explores gold's central role in illicit finance, corruption, and the shortcomings of existing due-diligence and certification programs. Against a backdrop of intensifying geopolitical competition and evolving payment systems, they unpack what effective accountability, intelligence sharing, and sanctions strategy could look like when confronting high‑risk commodities like gold.

Brad Brooks-Rubin focuses on the intersection of different types of risks – sanctions, corruption, money laundering, political, and human rights. Most recently, Brad was a Senior Advisor in the Office of Sanctions Coordination at the U.S. Department of State, where he was responsible for sanctions policy coordination related to sub-Saharan Africa, Burma, the West Bank, and natural resources, principally diamonds, gold, and timber.

At the ACAMS Assembly Hollywood, Justine Walker sits down with Rachel Alpert, a leading authority on national security, sanctions, human rights, and global strategy, to unpack how geopolitics and sanctions are increasingly intertwined. Their conversation explores how sanctions are shaping global diplomacy—including their role in negotiations with Iran—against a backdrop of heightened geopolitical volatility. Together, they examine how developments in Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Syria, and Russia are influencing sanctions risk, enforcement priorities, and regulatory expectations worldwide, and what this evolving landscape means for organizations navigating compliance today.

At the ACAMS Hollywood Assembly, Justine sat down with Jonathan Burke, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing. Their discussion explores the evolving terrorist financing risk landscape, the importance of aligning regulation with critical threats and institutional vulnerabilities, and how technology is reshaping fraud at an unprecedented scale and speed.

Jonathan Burke leads the U.S. Department of Treasury's counter terrorist financing and anti-money laundering efforts. His career spans more than 20 years across foreign policy, national security, and financial services.

At the ACAMS Las Vegas Assembly, Justine sat down with Oksana Ihnatenko, RUSI, and ACAMS Rising Professional of the Year. Their discussion includes Oksana’s research and work to build public-private partnerships in Ukraine, how Ukrainians view current sanctions policy, and how Ukraine’s reconstruction can be funded.

Oksana Ihnatenko is a Researcher for the Supervising and Monitoring Ukraine’s Reconstruction Funds (SMURF) project at the Centre for Finance and Security at RUSI, based in Kyiv. Her research focuses on Ukraine's adherence to FATF standards, fighting financial crime, anti-money laundering efforts, and issues surrounding reconstruction. You can read more here. https://www.rusi.org/people/ihnatenko

At the ACAMS Las Vegas Assembly, Justine sat down with Carole House, Senior Distinguished Fellow, ACAMS. Their discussion includes the AFC implications of generative artificial intelligence, including increasing sophistication of deepfakes and the resulting ‘authenticity crisis’, how we can build resilience to the threat, and trends in cyber-enabled sanctions evasion.

Carole House recently joined ACAMS as a Senior Distinguished Fellow. Among Carole’s many prominent and senior roles, she previously served as the White House National Security Council (NSC) special advisor for cybersecurity and critical infrastructure policy.