Financial crime risks are evolving faster than regulation. This session breaks down what’s actually happening in ML, TF and PF right now — and what Cayman firms should be doing about it.

This session explored how virtual assets, artificial intelligence, sanctions evasion and terrorist financing are converging into a new generation of financial crime risk that is more sophisticated, harder to detect, and increasingly global in nature.

Drawing on the latest FATF research, FinCEN alerts, crypto-crime reports and real case studies, Justine Plenkiewicz walked through how criminals are exploiting regulatory gaps, technology, and cross-border structures to move funds in ways that look legitimate on the surface but hide serious risk underneath.

The session focused not only on understanding the threats, but on giving Cayman compliance professionals practical ways to recognise the red flags and adapt monitoring, screening and risk assessments accordingly.

In this session we covered:

• How stablecoins, chain hopping, mixers, DeFi and P2P platforms are being used for ML and sanctions evasion
• Why AI is now a fraud, identity and cybercrime accelerator
• Deepfake and synthetic ID risks highlighted by FinCEN
• FATF findings on DPRK, Iran and Russia sanctions evasion networks
• Maritime, trade and corporate structure vulnerabilities for PF
• How terrorist financing is shifting to micro-financing, digital platforms and mixed channels
• The geographic shift in TF risk (Sahel, ISIL-K, conflict-adjacent regions)
• Practical red flags and monitoring improvements for Cayman FSPs