You can’t make this sh*t up

I think for a lot of us, when we think about crypto, it still makes us cringe a little bit. And the question and the topic of today's episode is, should it still make us cringe? Whether you're a fan or you're shying away from it, the crypto ecosystem is expanding rapidly. Part of what is causing many to spurn crypto is due to reputational issues. These include the prevalence of crypto-themed fraud, and vulnerability to hacking, which make many retail investors uncomfortable and are keeping some people away. And at the same time, crypto adoption is expanding and the regulatory and enforcement environment has become more favorable to business. This confluence is opening increased opportunities for innovation, but it's also creating opportunities for a wide range of fraud schemes ranging from meme coin scans to sophisticated market manipulation. And some of the most egregious examples of crypto fraud, they continue to be addressed by law enforcement, and rightly so. But civil enforcement by victims and other private parties is equally important in addressing crypto fraud and holding crypto criminals accountable to their victims. It's also important to remember that criminal investigations primary objective is to punish those responsible, whereas making victims whole is secondary and certainly not a foregone conclusion. Civil litigation can really fill that void by seeking recovery for victims of things like pig butchering scams, crypto project, rug pulls, and institutional investment schemes such as those involving crypto startups that failed to execute. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mexico is a critically important trading partner with the U.S.  Together with China and Canada, the three account for 36.5% of all U.S. imports and 32.1% of all U.S. exports amounting to over $1 trillion of trade each year. And yet, Mexico is always a challenging country in which to do business. The gap became the wealthiest and the poorest is enormous.  Violent crime and gun violence is extremely prevalent. Government and police corruption is widespread, and Mexico is amongst the largest global producers of cocaine, heroin and Fentanyl.  In addition to being a narcotics source country, because it borders the U.S., it is a major narcotics transshipment country.  And all of the money generated by narcotics trafficking has to be laundered.  In fact, Mexican money launderers are amongst the world’s most innovative who make use of a combination of trade-based money laundering, traditional money laundering through cash intensive businesses, bulk smuggling of U.S. currency, the black market peso exchange and other proven and widely used techniques. On a more positive note, Mexico is also a huge trading and manufacturing partner for a wide range of goods including automobiles and car parts, clothing, housewares, precious metals, oil and gas and a huge volume of agricultural products. Mexico is fraught with risk, tensions between Mexico and the U.S. are at an all time high. And yet, our two economies and national security are inextricably linked.  So how do U.S. companies with significant operations in Mexico continue to operate there?  And what should companies who are considering investing in the Mexican market do to mitigate all of this uncertainty? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this special crossover episode, Scott Moritz, President of White Collar Forensic LLC and host of the Fraud Eats Strategy, and Scott Maberry, host of the Nota Bene, discuss important considerations in internal investigations and how integrating each into your process can improve efficiency and lead to better and more consistent results. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In March of 2025, Former Inspector General of the Department of the Interior Mark Lee Greenblatt and I discussed the firing of the Inspectors General and its far-reaching implications for the country. With the blizzard of Executive Orders, high profile government firings and other maneuvers that appear to continue to tear down government agencies, it would be easy to forget about firing of the IGs and the long term consequences. Mark Lee Greenblatt is making it his mission so that the American people don’t lost sight of that fact. At the time of the firing of the IGs, we could only engage in conjecture as to what the long-term implications would be. On January 24, 2025, President Trump fired 16 inspectors general of the 16 largest, most complex U.S. government agencies and a 17th, the IG for USAID Paul Martin, 2 weeks later. The number has since risen to 20.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Petrobras, Braskem, Odebrecht, Stericycle and other U.S. style compliance and regulatory actions continue to be more commonplace across Latin America in the past decade. Indeed, there has been a tectonic shift in the implementation of leading industry compliance program overhauls following significant investigations and prosecutions. Some of those matters have included the use of legal tools such as monitorships and deferred prosecution agreements. While organizations on the receiving end of what is sometimes referred to in Latin America as a “leniency agreement” and/or the imposition of a compliance monitor may not welcome these measures or the costs. And yet done correctly, they can deliver long term benefits that over time may lead to improved profitability, transparency, stronger ethical culture and improved morale.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The world is a turbulent place in 2025 and doing business outside of the U.S. means needing to understand and to be able to react to a dynamic and evolving risk environment. The many countries and amazing people comprising Latin America are an important customer base and trading partner for most global organizations. Many global businesses have significant operations in the region and despite the turbulence, the region is full of opportunity. Drug cartels, transnational crime groups and gang violence, corrupt public officials, unstable governments, and professional kidnap for ransom operations are just a handful of the challenges that face global organizations operating in Latin America.  To take advantage of the bountiful opportunities across the region, organizations need to be able to proactively identify, manage and mitigate these and other operational risks. It starts with knowing who you are doing business with, their reputations, prior conduct and whether their political connections are a help or a significant hindrance.  Likewise, it is equally important to be able to deploy international counsel and their partners to triage crises, investigate negative events, stabilize volatile situations, understand and act upon the compliance implications and pursue avenues of recovery when losses occur.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On inauguration day, President Trump rescinded numerous Executive Orders from prior administrations including one in which appointees within each Executive Branch Agency was required to sign a pledge not to accept gifts from lobbyists, recuse themselves from matters related immediate former employers or clients for 2 years, and not to participate in any matter for which they lobbied the government as a registered lobbyist for 2 years. The pledge also required appointees upon leaving government not to communicate with their former agency or senior White House Senior Staff for 2 years, not to assist others to do so, not to lobby the U.S. government or on behalf of a foreign government or political party, not to accept a golden parachute payment coinciding with the acceptance of an appointment and to make employment decisions on their merits. The President has made a series of unorthodox appointments to head major government agencies including people who have publicly advocated for disbanding and/or radically changing those agencies and calling them “irredeemably corrupt” or other extremely derisive terminology. Also on inauguration day, the President pardoned ~1500 January 6th rioters and commuted the sentences of 14 others.  Then, the DOJ mandated that the FBI turn over the names of all FBI personnel who participated in the January 6th investigations and fired or threatened to fire anyone who refused to comply.  This was preceded by over a dozen firings of senior FBI and DOJ officials who played a substantive role in the January 6th investigations and prosecutions. Ultimately, the names of ~5000 FBI personnel were turned over without much assurance that their names wouldn’t be publicly released posing genuine safety concerns.  But perhaps the biggest body blow to the federal law enforcement community came on January 24, 2025 when President Trump fired 16 inspectors general of the 16 largest, most complex U.S. government agencies and a 17th, the IG for USAID Paul Martin, 2 weeks later. In case that purge wasn’t enough to upend the government’s ability to police itself, Hampton Dellinger, the head of the Office of Special Counsel and David Huitema, Director of the Office of Government Ethics were also fired.  And the upheaval continues unabated.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s episode is the continuation of a new series in which my former FBI Colleague Kevin Cearlock and I explore the funnier side of the FBI based on our own experiences and our friends. The working title is “You can’t make this sh*t up”. Law enforcement is full of great story tellers. Hard to say whether storytellers tend to become law enforcement officers in disproportionate numbers or, perhaps more likely, it’s the fact that ridiculous things sometimes happen during the course of one’s law enforcement career and they can make for some great stories. Some of the best stories Kevin Cearlock and I have relate to bank robberies, and this episode shares one of my favorite stories witnessed first-hand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Of the various fraud scheme names that have been coined over the years, “Pig Butchering” is one that provokes the most visceral response based on the name alone. And yet, the actual act of Pig Butchering is even more horrible than the name suggests. It is the latest variation of an age-old type of crime under the umbrella of “Romance Schemes”.  People who prey on the lonely and elderly pretending to be a potential romantic partner with the express purpose of defrauding them. Guest Erin West, founder of Operation Shamrock, speaks about the mission to raise awareness of pig butchering with everyone, everywhere, all the time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s episode is the introduction of a new series in which my former FBI Colleague Kevin Cearlock and I explore the funnier side of the FBI based on our own experiences and our friends. The working title is “You can’t make this sh*t up”.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices