Over 18 years' specialist experience in financial crime and forensics at a Big 4 global consulting firm, including as the Australian Financial Crime Leader.

Career highlights

• Conducted extensive root cause analysis for a Big 4 bank's systemic know your customer (KYC) issues, providing recommendations and an implementation plan that fundamentally re-designed its onboarding operating model by introducing specialist teams and workflow.
• Provided multi-year litigation support and operational uplift for an Australian bookmaker. This work included working under instruction with lawyers to assist with the provision of legal advice, thematic advisory reviews into areas of high-risk (such as transaction monitoring (TM)), operational support for enhanced customer due diligence (ECDD), and assurance reviews.
• Led a multi-year transformation of a Big 4 bank's financial crime operating model. This involved leading a team of over 200 financial crime professionals across both risk and operational functions in a full-scale re-build and uplift of the financial crime life cycle at the bank (including policy, advisory, assurance, onboarding, risk assessments, KYC, customer due diligence, ECDD, TM, and exits). This was conducted under intense regulatory, board, and c-suite focus.
• The board of a major Australian electricity generator obtained legal advice that established that their treasury function provided a 'designated service' under the AML/CTF Act. Led a response included rapidly conducting the relevant risk assessments, building and implementing an AML/CTF Program, and remediating the required regulatory reporting for the previous seven years.
• Working with mining and resource companies to conduct forensic investigations into allegations of fraud, asset misappropriation, counterfeiting and corruption, and establishing a full-scale investigation service that could be deployed rapidly either remotely or on site, working closely with internal and external legal teams.
• Established and supported an Australasian fast moving consumer goods company's fraud function to investigate internal and external allegations of fraud and corruption, and provided ongoing investigative support for five years after establishing the function.
• Provided independent whistleblower services for a number of major Australian organisations, and ongoing investigative support for whistleblower matters.
• Conducted a detailed compliance assessment and benchmarking of a Big 4 bank's financial crime operations against best practice, local peer, and comparative international organisations. This work included engagement with heads of businesses, executives of the bank, and the board, as well as detailed walkthroughs and file testing of key areas of risk for the bank.
• Worked with internal and external counsel, provided regulatory response support for a multi-national financial services company (asset servicing, wealth management, and investment management) facing intense regulatory scrutiny by AUSTRAC. This engagement included assisting with policy, conducting file testing, reporting to the global board, and drafting formal regulatory responses.
• Conducted numerous Independent Reviews (as required by the AML/CTF regulations) for a wide variety of organisations (20 to 30 a year) in financial services and other sectors. This included performing an Independent Review for an Australian bookmaker that was later subject to an Enforceable Undertaking which included an expert reviewing in detail the Independent Review I had conducted.
• Conducted numerous ML/TF risk assessments for Australian institutions. Including enterprise-wide risk assessments (EWRAs), product risk assessments (PRAs), customer risk assessments (CRAs), and channel risk assessments (ChRAs). These engagements have included developing tailored methodologies for risk assessments, executing risk assessments, control assessments to support the risk assessments, and subsequent uplift programs.

• The AML/CTF challenge for gatekeepers
  

  The Australian AML/CTF regime has been extended to include gatekeeper professionals (such as lawyers, accountants and real estate agents). This article provides practical guidance as to what these gatekeeper entities need to consider and how challenging operationalising these changes can be.

• New AML rules target nested services relationships
  

  Nested Services Relationships are now formally defined under the AML/CTF Act, capturing arrangements between financial institutions, remitters, and virtual asset service providers where services are provided between jurisdictions.

• Beyond the written word, context matters for financial crime
  

  The increasing expectation is that boards "should have known", so what can they look for?

• AML/CTF Reform - A guide for Tranche 2 services
  

  A number of new "designated services" will now be subject to AML/CTF laws and many businesses will be regulated for the first time. Our guide explains the key requirements of the regime, common issues faced and steps you can take now.

• Reimagining Customer Due Diligence: Australia's AML/CTF Reform
  

  A landmark shift for financial crime compliance in Australia, the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Act 2024 (Cth) (Act) will redefine how Australian businesses approach Customer Due Diligence (CDD).

• AUSTRAC's AML/CTF enforcement - Clubs and EGM operators
  

  AUSTRAC sued Mounties over alleged flaws in their AML/CTF Program, poor monitoring, vendor reliance and governance deficiencies. Clubs must adopt risk-based controls, reviews and training measures.

• AML/CTF: Navigate your compliance journey
  

  A complete overhaul of Australia’s AML/CTF regime is in train.  Changes for providers of existing designated services take effect from 31 March 2026. By 1 July 2026 tens of thousands of new entities will also be regulated for the first time.

• AML/CTF Reform - A guide for existing reporting entities
  

  Existing reporting entities will need to make important adjustments to how they manage risks and obligations. Our guide explains key changes, implications, potential challenges and what you can do now.