STR: Suspicious Transaction Report

About STR: Suspicious Transaction Report

From the team analysing the intersection of finance and security, tune into compelling conversations on the real-world impact of global illicit finance. This podcast explores the financial dimensions of today's leading transnational security challenges. Host Tom Keatinge and the team from the Centre for Finance and Security at RUSI bring you unique insights on the challenges posed by illicit finance and practical analysis of the policy responses. They interview top thinkers and influential voices who unpack the complex world of money laundering, corruption, sanctions evasion and illicit flows, and explain how this shapes the evolving global security landscape, and what democracies and international institutions must do to stay ahead when it comes to the financial dimensions of the global threat outlook. Suspicious Transaction Report is also home to CFS's 'Financial Crime Insights' podcast, which ran from 2020 to 2023.

Publisher

Royal United Services Institute

Category

news · news

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

4 Sept 2019

Latest episode

2 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

1 of 141 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   2 Oct 2026

   From 1MDB to The China Contract

   Clare Rewcastle Brown on how Malaysia's 1MDB scandal became a story of debt, infrastructure, China and geopolitical leverage. The 1MDB scandal exposed how billions of dollars were stolen from Malaysia, moved through offshore structures and the international financial system, and used to fund political power, a movie, luxury assets and influence. But for investigative journalist Clare Rewcastle Brown, whose reporting helped expose the scandal, the story did not end there. In her forthcoming book, The China Contract, she examines what happened when Malaysia's then prime minister, Najib Razak, faced a growing hole in 1MDB's accounts and mounting pressure from US investigators. In this episode of the Suspicious Transaction Report, host Tom Keatinge speaks with Clare about how 1MDB moved from a story of kleptocracy and professional enablers to one involving alleged inflated infrastructure deals, Belt and Road projects, Kuwait-based laundering routes and China's strategic interest in Malaysia. They discuss the role of Jho Low as fixer and proxy, the professional ecosystem that enabled stolen money to be moved and disguised, and why Malaysia's geography, including the Strait of Malacca, made the country strategically important. The episode asks what 1MDB reveals about the relationship between corruption and national vulnerability: when leaders are compromised, public money is stolen and financial systems enable the cover-up, foreign influence can find an opening. Further reading and listening: Pre-order Clare's book:  The China Contract The Inside Story of the World's Biggest Financial Scandal ... and How It Was Covered Up Synthesis Paper: Velvet glove, iron fist: Understanding China's use of state threats Listen to more on this topic: Season 6, Episode 9: Sanctioning China: Examining the Dilemma

2. 

   18 Sept 2026

   Financing War in the Grey Zone

   This episode explores how conflict financing and hybrid threats expose gaps in the global anti-financial crime framework. Wars and hostile state activities are not sustained by weapons alone. They depend on money, commercial networks, natural resources, corruption and access to the international financial system. In this episode of the Suspicious Transaction Report, Kinga is joined by Justyna Gudzowska, Executive Director of The Sentry and a RUSI Associate Fellow, and Olivia Allison, also a RUSI Associate Fellow and a specialist in illicit finance, corruption and Russian-linked networks. Both guests have contributed to the CFS special issue of the RUSI Journal, 'Illicit Finance in a Fragmenting World'. Their conversation examines why conflict and hybrid-threat financing both often fall between established categories of money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing. They discuss how armed groups generate, move and spend money; how gold, natural resources and regional financial centres can sustain war economies; and how small payments, criminal networks and social media monetisation can support sabotage, recruitment and other forms of hostile state activity. The episode also considers what the Financial Action Task Force, governments, financial intelligence units and banks should do differently; from developing conflict-financing typologies and recognising regional laundering hubs, to adopting more agile, network-based approaches to sanctions, screening and risk detection. Further reading The FATF Needs to Tackle How War is Financed | Royal United Services Institute Combatting the Illicit Financing of Hybrid Threats | Royal United Services Institute Responding to Russian Sabotage Financing | Royal United Services Institute

3. 

   4 Sept 2026

   From Compliance to Risk Management: A View from the US Treasury

   This episode examines how the US Treasury thinks about financial crime, sanctions, fraud and protecting the integrity of the financial system. Financial crime, sanctions and illicit finance have become central to national security and economic security. But how can governments and the private sector ensure that the response is effective, risk-based and focused on outcomes? In this opening episode of the new season of the Suspicious Transaction Report, Tom Keatinge is joined by Jonathan Burke, Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes at the US Treasury Department. Drawing on his experience in both government and financial services, Jonathan discusses why the financial crime agenda must move from compliance to risk management, and why effectiveness should not be confused with simply adding more rules or easing pressure on the system. The conversation explores fraud as a growing financial and national security threat, the role of technology and data in identifying illicit finance networks, and the challenge of modernising frameworks such as the Bank Secrecy Act for a changed financial system. They also examine the Treasury's wider toolkit – including sanctions, Section 311 actions, enforcement and information-sharing – and why success should be measured not by the number of actions taken, but by whether financial threats are disrupted and the integrity of the system is protected.

Inside a recent episode

The Many Facets of the Cyber Threat

Published 9 Jun 2023 · Transcript excerpt

[…] We see where we say Iran, much heightened risk tolerance, conducting a variety of cyber operations in the Middle East. And then we also see quite a lot of emerging states that are coming to the fore. So the likes of Belarus, the likes of Vietnam, these states that maybe we didn't talk about too much a few years ago, but we see a lot more groups becoming prominent and with that the use of contractors, the use of non -state actors, whether that is contractor groups themselves that are selling tools and capabilities to states where it's maybe marketing and PR firms that are actually involved when it comes to say information operations, as well as some of the links that we've observed between states and cyber crime, such as with the Conti leaks that came out last year, highlighting some of the links between the Russian government and Russian cyber criminal communities. […]

Who has been a guest on STR: Suspicious Transaction Report

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Kathryn Westmore
• Josie Stewart
• Veronica Dragalin
• Eddie Fishman
• Thomas Vos

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.5 / 5

8 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

29 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 61 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

86

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

92

Contact STR: Suspicious Transaction Report

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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