Mara Senn on AI-Native, Human-in-the-Loop Investigations for Compliance

Ed. Note: Five years ago, Tom Fox looked back on 9/11 in a 20-year retrospective. This week is the 25th anniversary of that event. We will be rerunning this award-winning podcast so we never forget. On the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack, Tom Fox and guests look back on the tragic event and what it meant for them personally, as well as how it impacted the world of compliance. Today Tom’s guest is Eric Feldman. Eric is the Senior Vice President and Managing Director at Affiliated Monitors, a company that monitors large and small companies in government contracting, construction, engineering, manufacturing, and financial services. He also assesses corporate ethics and compliance programs across many countries. Eric joins Tom to discuss how the events of 9/11 changed the role of the Inspector General. The Impact of 9/11 on the IG’s Role Eric tells Tom that 9/11 was the most informative time of his career and of many other Inspector General’s. It was a moment of refocusing for everyone. Eric worked within the oversight function, but as part of the mission he was overseeing. “That focus on mission was it for me,” he tells Tom. Eric expresses that understanding the mission helped make him a better Inspector General. IGs worldwide became more concerned with the broader picture of how funds were used at their agencies to fight the war on terror, rather than the minutiae of time-and-attendance reporting. The Importance of the IG Now Tom asks Eric to elaborate on how the IG’s role rose in prominence post-9/11. Eric explains that government IGs became “part of the team” in different ways. There is more collaboration now across the agencies that IGs oversee. There is also independence: Eric expresses that there must be a balance between collaboration and independence. IGs are especially important because they ensure the dollars spent on the war and mission are spent properly. A Wake-Up Call of Unity Eric reflects that 9/11 was a wake-up call for the United States. The country came together, and unity, patriotism, and a sense of duty overtook politics. Eric hopes that the people can return to that unity without another catastrophe.  Resources: Eric Feldman | ⁠LinkedIn⁠ | ⁠Twitter⁠ ⁠Affiliated Monitors Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ed. Note: Five years ago, Tom Fox looked back on 9/11 in a 20-year retrospective. This week is the 25th anniversary of that event. We will be rerunning this award-winning podcast so we never forget. On the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack, Tom Fox and guests look back on the tragic event and what it meant for them personally, as well as how it impacted the world of compliance. Today Tom’s guest is Alex Dill. Alex is a scholar and professor specializing in financial regulation, risk management, and compliance. He also has corporate experience in ​the ethics of business practices in finance, bankruptcy, bond covenants, and debt markets. He joins Tom to discuss the Patriot Act’s impact on responding to terrorist threats. How 9/11 Changed AML Before 9/11, AML regulations were very lax and backward-looking. The focus was on prosecuting crimes already committed and on money laundering more than on terrorist financing. Banks weren’t doing meaningful customer due diligence because they felt the process was invasive. After 9/11, this all changed. Law enforcement agencies and financial institutions revamped their policies and procedures to take a more preventive approach to AML and terrorist financing. This led to the Patriot Act. The Financial Response Tom asks Alex whether he saw a similar regulatory response among non-financial institutions regarding Patriot Act AML procedures post-9/11. “There was a huge amount of rulemaking that had to be done,” Alex responds. He adds that public companies adopted customer due diligence and applied it more broadly across sectors, using a risk-based approach. Companies now had to file suspicious activity reports, not just banks. Customer identification was also introduced. “The Patriot Act sought to encourage cooperation among law enforcement agencies and among the financial institutions themselves to share information and obtain information from foreign law enforcement authorities,” Alex tells Tom. The Challenge With The Patriot Act  Alex explains to Tom that the Patriot Act has challenges. A major challenge is detecting the financing behind these attacks. Funds that finance these actions come from both legal and illegal sources, and that is a major issue. Transaction amounts can be small, which may pose a risk for some compliance officers.  Technology in Anti-Terrorism Alex remarks that technology is very important in the fight against terrorism, as it has changed how we function in our world. The downside is that technology has also helped create some of the compliance issues we face today. Social media platforms have helped to create polarization in society, and criminals have used programs like cryptocurrency for money laundering and financing terrorism. However, Alex ends on a positive note, saying the AML Act of 2020 has been helping curb these issues. Resources: Alex Dill | ⁠LinkedIn⁠ | ⁠Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ed. Note-Five years ago, I looked back on 9/11 in a 20 year retrospective. This week is the 25th anniversary of that event. I am rerunning this award winning podcast so that we never forget.  On the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack, Tom Fox and guests look back on the tragic event and what it meant for them personally, as well as how it impacted the world of compliance. Juan Zarate is the Global co-Managing Partner and Chief Strategy Officer at K2 integrity. On 9/11 he was a prosecutor at the Treasury Department working on international enforcement issues, anti money laundering, anti-corruption and anti-terrorist financing. He joins Tom Fox to commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11. They discuss how his role changed, the Treasury Department response and what the tragic event means for him. A Change of Mission 9/11 changed the mission of the Treasury Department. Juan tells Tom, “We went after terrorist financing to try to disrupt and dismantle Al-Qaeda's terrorist networks and infrastructure, and disrupt how illicit financing was flowing through the international system.” He recalls where he was on the fateful day and how seeing the smoke from the Towers and the Pentagon affected him emotionally. Something very different was happening, he recalls; the country was under attack. He outlines the strategic, departmental and tactical changes implemented after 9/11 to fight terrorism. The President declared that we were now at war. “The attitude and the strategic direction of the government was [that] we now have to prevent terrorist attacks,” Juan recalls. “We have to disrupt and dismantle terrorist networks. And that led to an entire preventative paradigm for the counter-terrorism approach to the government.” The new mission of the Treasury Department was the following areas, Juan remarks: “How do you use financial information more aggressively? How do we think about the use of tools and authorities that the Treasury has, like sanctions, anti money laundering rules? How do we think about the relationships internationally with central banks, finance ministries? How do we get the world on board to disrupt terrorist financing, to rip these organizations out of the legitimate financial commercial world?” The Patriot Act was one tactical change, among others, that was implemented to achieve the new mission of fighting terrorism. What 9/11 Means Tom asks Juan, “What are your reflections now as we come up on the 20th anniversary of the day of 9/11, and really what it meant for America and for you 20 years later?” Juan responds that he has mixed emotions. He thinks about the victims and their families first of all. That day changed history, he says. “It changed the way that the U S government viewed the world. It changed the way that we operated our strategy. And it changed the sense of our vulnerability.” The recent events in Afghanistan make the 20th anniversary even more difficult for Juan. “I have very mixed emotions coming on the 20th anniversary of 9/11,” he concludes, “but I'm very proud of the work that we did. I'm proud of the people I served with and my sympathies go out to the victims and their families.” Resources Juan Zarate at ⁠K2 Integrity⁠    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ed. Note-Five years ago, I looked back on 9/11 in a 20 year retrospective. This week is the 25th anniversary of that event. I am rerunning this award winning podcast so that we never forget.  On the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack, Tom Fox and guests look back on the tragic event and what it meant for them personally, as well as how it impacted the world of compliance. Tom’s first guest this week is Gabe Hidalgo, anti money laundering compliance expert, who shares how the events of that fateful day changed the course of his career. Looking Back Gabe - who worked as outside counsel for insurance companies at the time - remembers turning on YahooTV as soon as he got to his office on 9/11 and seeing the second plane hit the World Trade Towers. He knew immediately that it was a deliberate attack. “I knew that this was kind of a hallmark moment,” he tells Tom, “that this was not an accident.” He details leaving the office in haste to get to his pregnant wife, and the obstacles and roadblocks he faced on the way. When they finally reunited at home, they were overcome with emotion. He remembers feeling gutted thinking about the unborn children who would grow up never knowing their fathers. Needing to Do Something Gabe needed to do something more than just shed tears about 9/11, he tells Tom. He started to think about how he could use his skills as an attorney. “I went down the path of looking in private industry, what I can do, and came across anti money laundering compliance, which I thought was fascinating. And I said to myself, I need a way for me to be able to get into that so that I can start making a difference.” He shares his journey into the field, and that it was exactly the right time and the right fit for him. 9/11 was a wake up call for America, he remarks. It made us realize that we need to do whatever we can to prevent anything similar from happening again. Evolution of AML Since 9/11 Tom asks Gabe how AML compliance has advanced since 9/11. It’s much more difficult for terrorist financiers to move funds now, he responds. “A lot of institutions have strengthened and hardened their compliance programs to the point where they can monitor individual transactions as they're moving across the transactional workflow in the United States. They examine each and every transaction that's coming across from a correspondent banking perspective, which is probably one of the most high-risk channels for money movement.” Gabe and his colleagues have done great work over the past 20 years, which has helped law enforcement stop and apprehend would-be terrorists. However, we can’t be complacent, Gabe says. Tom asks what 9/11 means for America. The 20th anniversary is a somber one, Gabe replies. 9/11 taught us not to be naive, that we’re not as protected as we think we are. He is proud of the advancements made to keep everyone safe, but the work continues. “It's a moment of reflection,” he points out. “We need to think about not only the people who have lost their lives, but everyone that was impacted - whether they were directly impacted through a family loss, or they were emotionally impacted by what actually occurred.” Resources Gabe Hidalgo on ⁠LinkedIn⁠    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Tom Fox welcomes Mara Senn, founder and CEO of Ethakos, about her path from big law and a decade as a partner at Arnold & Porter to anti-corruption work at the Kleptocracy Initiative, investigations at the World Bank, and in-house leadership roles at Fortune 500 medical device and pharma companies. Senn explains she built the Ethakos compliance investigations platform using “vibe coding” with Claude, reducing reliance on software engineers and enabling rapid product decisions. She describes Ethakos as AI-native and human-in-the-loop, designed around how compliance teams actually work, with cleaner data creation, configurable workflows, and features that automate painful reporting tasks (e.g., investigation updates) and first drafts of chronologies, interview outlines, and reports. Senn emphasizes audibility via logs and citations, advises starting AI projects with clear risk goals, and predicts AI will remove menial work so teams can cover more risks while becoming more data- and tech-forward. Contact options include ethakos.com, email, and LinkedIn. Key highlights: Why Build Ethakos AI Native Platform Design Solving Reporting Pain Starting AI in Compliance Avoiding Common AI Mistakes Investigation Workflow Automation Auditability and Regulator Proofing Future of Compliance Teams Resources: Ethakos Mara Senn on LinkedIn Tom Fox Instagram Facebook YouTube Twitter LinkedIn To learn about the intersection of Sherlock Holmes and the modern compliance professional, check out Tom’s latest book, The Game is Afoot-What Sherlock Holmes Teaches About Risk, Ethics and Investigations on ⁠Amazon.com⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, I take things in a very different direction. Last week I did a 5-part blog post series on leadership lessons from the hit TV show Ted Lasso. I took those 5 blog posts and fed them into Notebook LM. What came out, in the AI voices of Timothy and Fiona, is what I posted for this podcast. Timothy and Fiona use Ted Lasso characters as operational profiles to show why empathetic leadership and “good vibes” are insufficient under compliance frameworks like the DOJ ECCP, COSO, and the Caremark Doctrine. Some of the analysis includes: Ted Lasso creates psychological safety but introduces key-person risk by relying on an open-door culture without institutional “listen-up” systems, case logging, escalation, and anti-retaliation protections; his immediate forgiveness of Rebecca’s sabotage illustrates why mercy cannot replace investigation, evidence preservation, root-cause analysis, and remediation. Rebecca Welton exemplifies corrupted tone at the top and conflicts of interest, including her relationship with Sam, before shifting toward accountable governance by rejecting unethical commercial moves and selling 49% to fans. Keeley Jones highlights governance debt from rapid scaling, affinity hiring, and investor conflicts, leading to incident-response and third-party concentration failures. Roy Kent demonstrates “tone in the middle,” accountability, and root-cause diagnosis, but also risks of unchecked informal authority. Nate Shelley shows the danger of promoting technical skill without evaluating leadership ethics, enabling “relocating harm,” data silos, and a major confidentiality leak—reinforcing that auditable controls, oversight, and monitoring must outlast charisma. I would really like to hear your thoughts on this podcast and the approach I have taken. I would greatly appreciate it if you left a comment or emailed me your reaction to both my use of Notebook LM for this analysis and the AI-generated voices for Timothy and Fiona. Blog Posts on the following Ted Lasso characters: Ted Lasso Rebecca Welton Nate Shelley Roy Kent Keeley Jones Other Takes on Ted Lasso Tom and Matt Kelly on Ted Lasso in Compliance into the Weeds Matt Kelly in Radical Compliance Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Tom Fox welcomes back Vince Walden, CEO of konaAI, which is the sponsor of this podcast series. Vince is well known for his leadership in data analytics, machine learning, and AI, and we take a deep dive into all of these topics through the lens of the Scoular FCPA Enforcement action. The Scoular case is a unique learning tool for using data analytics, machine learning, and AI for compliance. In this matter, roughly 2,000 near-$2,000 payments were tied to customs brokerage activity. This case illustrates broader uses of data analytics beyond numbers, including mining unstructured text in invoice and payment-description fields (e.g., repeated terms like “re-inspection fee” and Spanish phrases) and linking it to structured AP data. Walden explains how combining structured and unstructured data reduces investigator bias, how round-dollar and repetitive payments to high-risk vendors can be continuously risk scored using hundreds of tests, and how machine learning can “find more like this” across large transaction populations. We discuss integrating communications data when available, using monitoring within typical 30–60-day payment cycles to prevent payments, supporting self-disclosure decisions amid DOJ guidance, and launching a minimum viable analytics program by starting with AP spend, invoices, POs, and payments pulled from ERP systems. Key highlights: Structured vs. Unstructured Data Red Flags Round Dollars Text Mining and Three Lines Transactional Fingerprints Machine Learning for Compliance Linking Comms and Payments Prevention Through Monitoring Continuous Improvement and ROI Self-Disclosure and Culture Data 90-Day Analytics Roadmap Resources: konaAI Vince Walden on LinkedIn Tom Fox Instagram Facebook YouTube Twitter LinkedIn To learn about the intersection of Sherlock Holmes and the modern compliance professional, check out Tom’s latest book, The Game is Afoot-What Sherlock Holmes Teaches About Risk, Ethics and Investigations on Amazon.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Tom Fox welcomes back his good friend and colleague Mike Volkov and takes a deep dive into the Asante Berko FCPA guilty verdict. They question why Berko went to trial given the strength of the case, discuss the power of recorded statements like requests to use private email, and highlight Goldman Sachs compliance personnel as corroborating witnesses after the firm stopped the transaction and disclosed it. They conclude with compliance lessons that include rigorous deal due diligence, escalation of red flags, sampling internal communications, and monitoring attempts to move discussions off-channel. Key highlights: Quick Jury Verdict Recordings And Emails Goldman Compliance Witness Sentencing Trial Penalty SEC Settlement Strategy Compliance Lessons Red Flags Resources Berko Trial Blog Post series on FCPA Compliance and Ethics Report Mike Volkov on LinkedIn Tom Fox Instagram Facebook YouTube Twitter LinkedIn To learn about the intersection of Sherlock Holmes and the modern compliance professional, check out Tom’s latest book, The Game is Afoot-What Sherlock Holmes Teaches About Risk, Ethics and Investigations on Amazon.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Tom Fox welcomes back Matt Ellis of Miller & Chevalier to recap ACI’s inaugural two-day Cartel Conference in Washington, DC, highlighting an unusually collaborative, high-energy atmosphere around emerging cartel/TCO/FTO compliance risks in Latin America. They discuss DOJ’s Scoular FCPA action as illustrating the long tail of enforcement and a high bar for managing cartel-related and national security risks, while noting the DPA’s remedial steps focus more on traditional anti-corruption controls than TCO/FTO-specific guidance. Government participants emphasized a “whole of government” approach, voluntary disclosure, and potential public-private engagement (including embassy attachés and Treasury) in high-risk scenarios. Key themes included narrow duress defenses, complex “imposter” risks, evolving due diligence beyond traditional screening using data/anomaly detection and local intelligence, and the need to integrate compliance across AML, sanctions, security, and supply chain given severe reputational and business consequences of terrorist or cartel support. Key highlights: Conference Vibe and Energy Scoular FCPA Case Takeaways When to Engage Government Duress Defense and Safety Payments Cartel-Focused Due Diligence AML Lessons for Banks Breaking Silos in Compliance Parallels to Early FCPA Era National Security Stakes Resources: ACI National FCPA and Global Anti-Corruption Conference, December 10-11 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Washington, DC Matt Ellis on LinkedIn Tom Fox Instagram Facebook YouTube Twitter LinkedIn To learn about the intersection of Sherlock Holmes and the modern compliance professional, check out my latest book, The Game is Afoot-What Sherlock Holmes Teaches About Risk, Ethics and Investigations on Amazon.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the award-winning FCPA Compliance Report, the longest-running podcast in compliance. In this episode, Tom welcomes back former Houston Chronicle business columnist Loren Steffy to discuss the business aspects of returning to Venezuela. Loren Steffy has spent much of his career analyzing the energy industry and the challenges of oil and gas development. On Venezuela, he argues that Trump administration moves are unlikely to produce meaningful gains in oil output and are more likely to deepen market uncertainty, especially in West Texas. Steffy says Venezuela’s oil sector is effectively too risky and too unstable for major foreign investment because its infrastructure has deteriorated, its legal and political environment remains unclear, and rebuilding production would require major capital, advanced technology, and years of work. Even if some companies were willing to take a chance, he believes the combination of insecurity, weak rules, and Trump-era policy uncertainty makes a broad investment revival in Venezuela highly unlikely. Resources: Loren Steffy on LinkedIn Stoney Creek Publishing Tom Fox Instagram Facebook YouTube Twitter LinkedIn The FCPA Compliance Report was recently named the world’s Best Business Ethics Podcast by FeedSpot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices