RegTech Real Talk is your gateway to the hidden machinery of financial crime and the global resistance against it.
From crypto havens to the unexplored fintech frontiers of Africa, Asia, and the global South, we decode stories and patterns invisible to the conventional financial gaze.
We navigate the collision points where regulation meets innovation—exploring how bad actors exploit gaps while compliance teams race to build better defenses.
News. Analysis. No fluff. No legacy systems. Just real talk.
How do $400 million in tainted crypto flows pass through the world’s biggest exchanges after they plead guilty to money laundering?
In this episode, Jamahal and Charlie dig into the ICIJ’s latest investigation — and then go one step further. Beyond the scandal, there’s a breakthrough everyone missed:
Treat crypto wallets like bank accounts.
Once you do that, blockchain crime becomes visible.
We break down:
Why mixers and chain-hopping leave detectable fingerprints
How multi-hop network analysis exposes hidden laundering paths
Why big exchanges won’t fix the problem — and why smaller institutions must
How regional banks, remittance companies, and fintechs can finally see the crypto side of risk
The chokepoint where every laundering flow must pass: the cash-out moment
If you work in compliance, fintech, crypto, or financial crime this episode helps you understand what’s really happening behind the headlines, and how institutions can genuinely stop it.
Because the blockchain never forgets — even when the industry pretends to.
More resources: anqacompliance.com
24 Aug 2025
Tether & the Death of Borders: How Shadow Money Won Washington
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) (https://www.anqacompliance.com/anqa-blog/tether-stablecoin-aml-compliance)
Subscribe for more RegTech Real Talk — the true stories behind financial crime.
6 Aug 2025
The £16 Million Shopping Spree That Rewrote 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 (https://www.anqacompliance.com/anqa-blog/unexplained-wealth-orders-sow-guide)
24 Jul 2025
The Billionaire’s Best Friend: How Jeffrey Epstein Gamed the Global Financial System
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:
How a failed math teacher transformed into a financial "genius" through criminal apprenticeships
Why JPMorgan executives visited Epstein in jail during his work release
How $1.5 billion in flagged transactions kept flowing despite red flags
How media mythology laundered a predator's reputation
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.
11 Jul 2025
The Love Factory: Inside the Global Expansion of Digital Slavery
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
6 Jul 2025
Alice Guo and the Pig Butchering Empire Behind City Hall
Hosts Jamahal and Charlie investigate the curious case of Alice Guo, a small-town mayor allegedly running a vast human trafficking and online scam operation, revealing compliance lessons for identifying similar schemes in this interview.
27 Jun 2025
A $32 Billion Lesson in Image Laundering
This episode analyzes Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX collapse, revealing how philosophical branding and unchecked power masked financial crimes, impacting regulators and the crypto industry.
20 Jun 2025
The Fishrot Files: How to Steal an Ocean and Get Away With It
Podcast hosts Jamahal and Charlie dissect the Fishrot scandal, revealing how a fishing company looted Namibian resources through shell companies and exploited legal loopholes, highlighting the ease of international financial crime.
13 Jun 2025
Russia’s Shadow Fleet: The Post That Exposed a Ghost Navy
Open-source analyst Yörük Işık's social media post exposes Russia's shadow fleet, prompting an international naval response, as Charlie and Jamahal explore the weaponization of global commerce in this interview episode.
6 Jun 2025
Billion Dollar Heist in Plain Sight: The Isabel dos Santos Sanctions Story
This episode of RegTech Real Talk examines Isabel dos Santos's sanctions story, revealing how compliance systems failed to detect red flags and the role of Western enablers in her empire.
27 May 2025
When Trust Gets Exploited: NGOs and Financial Crime
Hosts Jamahal and Charlie examine the Aman Palestin Berhad scandal, revealing how NGOs can be exploited for money laundering and why strong financial controls are crucial, in this interview episode.
20 May 2025
Corporate Enablers: The Hidden Players in Financial Crime
Hosts Jamahal and Charlie expose how major corporations enable financial crime for profit, highlighting the hidden role of respected companies in facilitating fraud.
14 May 2025
The Hidden Advantage: Africa's Digital Compliance Revolution
Industry experts discuss how Africa's technological disadvantages have become a competitive advantage, building streamlined digital-native operations and transforming compliance into strategic currency.
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