Navigating Crypto Compliance and Investigations in the Trustless Blockchain

SFA is a cross-industry NON PROFIT initiative, intended to be a platform designed to facilitate collaboration between all market participants and stakeholders in the FinTech ecosystem. It is designed to be an effective platform for members to engage with multiple stakeholders to find solutions to issues.

Michael has over 20 years of extensive consulting experience in technology & cyber risk management, digital forensics, e-discovery, financial crime and in recent years, blockchain investigations. He is a leading cyber forensics expert in Asia who provides expert testimonies in Courts and thought leadership through various publications.

Upon graduating from the London School of Economics (LSE) with a master’s in Information Systems, Michael started his career with a barrister’s chamber at Lincoln’s Inn, a leading law firm in Asia and was previously a Director at a Big4 advisory firm and had led their Southeast Asia cyber forensics team. He is currently the CEO at Rajah & Tann Technologies, a pioneer in legaltech advisory services & solution provider in the Region and the Head of Cyber Forensics at Rajah & Tann Cybersecurity. In 2017, he founded AI-driven legaltech startup LegalComet, which was since acquired by Rajah & Tann Technologies.

Following his interest in the use of AI and predictive data analytics, he had a stint with the National University of Singapore (NUS) as a researcher in the field of AI and blockchain and worked directly with distinguished professors and data scientists. Michael is currently the Chairman, Cyber Risk sub-committee of the Singapore Fintech Association (SFA), a founding board member of ASEAN Legaltech (ALT) and was the Past President of the High Technology Crime Investigation Association (HTCIA Singapore Chapter).

Michael Fasanello has a career spanning public and private sectors beginning with the United States Departments of Justice and the Treasury, US Department of Treasury and moving on to First National Bank, and PNC Bank. Michael served in various roles in the US Justice and Treasury Departments. During his work with FinCEN, he advised the Office of Regulatory Policy in developing and interpreting federal regulations under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). Before that, he handled Global Economic Sanctions and embargo cases for the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). At PNC, Michael was an Assistant Vice President and Manager of Anti-Money Laundering and Global Sanctions. With First National, he oversaw a complete overhaul of the bank’s Sanctions program, from policy development to screening and adjudication. Michael is an experienced compliance professional with over a decade of experience in the public and private sectors. He specializes in Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Counter-Terrorist Financing (CTF), global sanctions, and illicit finance matters, with a focus on the digital assets and blockchain intelligence space.

William (Bill) J. Callahan III is a law enforcement veteran with 20+ years in
the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). He retired from the DEA as the
Special Agent-In-Charge for the St. Louis division and held numerous posts in
the DEA since joining in early 2000. Bill specialized in complex multi-
jurisdictional money-laundering investigations. In many of these
investigations, illicit actors took advantage of trade-based money laundering
schemes, dark web narcotic distribution involving cryptocurrency, and
market manipulation to obfuscate the true source of the funds. While assigned
to DEA Headquarters, Bill established DEA’s proactive money laundering audit
team, where he took part in the development of creating policy and procedures in
furtherance of DEA’s undercover operations involving cryptocurrency.