AML ProgrammeFramework58 MIN
The De-Risking Judgement Call: Keep, Restrict or Exit a Higher-Risk Relationship
A practitioner framework for deciding whether to keep, restrict or exit a higher-risk correspondent or customer relationship. Two worked scenarios, three graded decisions, and five points the UK text leaves open, each set out with both readings.
FraudEvidence Essay22 MIN
Failure to Prevent Fraud, One Year On: Reasonable Procedures Are an Evidence Chain
One year after section 199 took effect, this Evidence Essay tests why a defensible reasonable-procedures position depends on a traceable chain linking fraud risk, associated person, benefit pathway, control, judgement and operating evidence, not a policy binder.
AML ProgrammeIntelligence Brief20 MIN
FATF Recommendation 16: The Payment Transparency Reset
A dated intelligence assessment separating the adopted payment transparency standard from draft guidance and industry positions, with an Implementation Radar, Decision Horizon and two worked decisions.
FraudCase File35 MIN
Money Mule or Victim?
A twelve stage investigative Case File. Evidence is disclosed one stage at a time and tested against five competing hypotheses about a customer whose account moved suspected criminal funds, from deliberate mule to coerced or deceived victim.
FraudFramework25 MIN
APP Scam Decision Framework: From Claim to Defensible Outcome
Six sequential gates for separating fraud, scheme scope, consumer conduct and complaint defensibility. Two borderline cases test nominal performance, warning quality and vulnerability before blame.
Fraud13 MIN
Synthetic Identity and Device-Network Fraud: Two Different Problems People Treat as One
The industry teaches the detection technology. Nobody teaches the judgement once the alert is already in your queue. Four patterns, three decision scenarios, and a comparative matrix on stolen versus synthetic identity, with a knowledge check.
Fraud16 MIN
Money Mule Networks: The Account Was Never Fraudulent, Until It Was
Most mule accounts aren't opened for fraud anymore, they're real accounts taken over mid-life. Four decision scenarios on account handovers, instant-payment velocity, business-account fronts, and fraud-AML convergence, with a real £53m case and a knowledge check.
Crypto13 MIN
The Crypto Travel Rule: Making the Call When the Data Doesn't Arrive
The sunrise problem isn't a policy debate, it's a decision on incomplete data. An interactive decision tree for sending and receiving crypto transfers, the EU's two different thresholds, and what to do when a counterparty's data never arrives.
Onboarding15 MIN
Perpetual KYC: Why Periodic and Event-Driven Review Are Not the Same Control
The FCA's 8 April 2026 review found firms collapse periodic and event-driven review into one control, or define neither well enough to evidence. Four decision scenarios, the Nationwide £44m case, and a knowledge check.
Transaction Monitoring20 MIN
Transaction Monitoring: From Rules to AI, The Practitioner's Deep Dive
How TM systems really work, why 95% of alerts are false positives, how AI is changing the game, and what analysts actually do when the queue hits 400. Includes typology cards, alert triage simulator, and knowledge check.
Screening18 MIN
The Screening Alert Survival Guide: 7 Challenges Every Analyst Faces
800 alerts. 95% false positives. No DOB on file. The honest, unfiltered guide to what screening alert clearance actually involves, and what genuinely helps.
Screening25 MIN
What is Financial Crime Screening? The Complete Guide
A comprehensive, interactive introduction to sanctions screening, PEP checks, and adverse media monitoring, with quizzes, real examples, and live tool access.
Onboarding25 MIN
KYC / KYB / CDD / EDD: The Onboarding Dilemma
Six archetypes from lone individual to sovereign wealth fund. Six real dilemmas. Make the call yourself, then see the correct answer and the regulation behind it. The only guide that covers every customer type in one place.
Fraud15 MIN
Fraud Red Flags: Reading the Patterns, Not Just the Rules
Four live cases from Scenario Lab's Fraud Detection module, worked through properly. Account takeover, APP scams, transaction laundering, and structuring, decision scenarios with full reasoning and a knowledge check.
Screening12 MIN
The False Positive Playbook: Disposing Alerts Without Getting It Wrong
The guide the vendors don't write. Three decision scenarios on disposing sanctions, PEP, and adverse media alerts correctly, name matching, DOB mismatches, transliteration, and adverse media false hits, with full reasoning and a knowledge check.
Onboarding14 MIN
The UBO Investigation Handbook: Finding the Real Owner
Checking a register isn't investigating an ownership structure, it's the starting point. Three decision scenarios on nominee directors, unreliable PSC register data, the 2022 CJEU ruling on EU register access, and trust beneficiaries, with full reasoning and a knowledge check.
Onboarding13 MIN
The Source of Wealth Investigation Handbook: Telling a Plausible Story from Verified Evidence
A well-told explanation is not the same as a verified one. Three decision scenarios on verifying source of wealth and source of funds, a two-step gift case study, and a knowledge check, for compliance analysts who need to distinguish a plausible story from actual verification.
Screening12 MIN
The Adverse Media Intelligence Guide: Reading the Story Behind the Headline
Confirming identity is the easy half. Three decision scenarios on weighing legal stage, source credibility, recency, and role in adverse media hits, with a source credibility hierarchy and a knowledge check.
Sanctions14 MIN
Vessel Sanctions Fundamentals: What the Shadow Fleet Actually Is
Designated vs specified, the six routes a party can be caught by a vessel sanction, and why IMO number beats name-based screening. Part 1 of 2, with two decision scenarios and a real SMYRTOS case study.
Sanctions13 MIN
The Shadow Fleet Investigation Playbook
Why insurance, not AIS tracking, is where fraud actually hides. The Seaguard P&I fake-insurer case, the IG Clubs verification step, and two more decision scenarios. Part 2 of 2.
Fraud22 MIN
Inside the Scam Compound Money Laundering Machine
A scam compound generates victims. A separate machine launders the proceeds. Nine payment-chain nodes from receiving account to stablecoin off-ramp, two worked scenarios on network reconstruction, and a verified FinCEN Section 311 case study.
Onboarding18 MIN
Annex 1 Firms and the AML Blind Spot
What "FCA registered" establishes, what it does not, and the entity, activity, ownership, SPV and financing checks an investigator should perform next.
Fraud14 MIN
The Fraud Investigation Playbook: Building a File That Survives Review
Most investigation guides teach corporate fraud. This one teaches the queue. Three decision scenarios on testing theories, the POCA disclosure boundary, and file documentation, with the full reporting chain from detection to DAML.
Screening16 MIN
Tuning Screening Algorithms: Why Fuzzy Matching Isn't Magic
The default threshold, the algorithms actually in production, and the real case where two different people scored 0.98 on the same sanctions list. An interactive pipeline visualizer walks four name pairs through retrieval and scoring.
Sanctions15 MIN
Sanctions Compliance: OFAC, OFSI and Beyond
Sanctions explained in plain English, a real OFAC case that generates false positives against ordinary people, flip flashcards, and a live comparison against a globally known designation.
Career14 MIN
The Certifications Dilemma: AML & Compliance Credentials Compared
Twelve credentials, cost, eligibility, and recertification burden checked directly against each issuing body's own site, not ranked against each other, matched to the career stage each one actually fits.
Fraud17 MIN
What Actually Happens After You Suspect a Deepfake at Onboarding
The detection tool gives you a confidence score, not a verdict. Four worked scenarios on the judgement that comes next, a real 47-account ABN AMRO case, and a knowledge check.
Fraud18 MIN
The AI Agent Transaction Nobody Can Screen
No settled UK answer exists for who is liable when an AI agent makes the purchase. Four composite scenarios grounded in real FCA, CMA, and IMF sources, not a technology explainer.
Fraud16 MIN
Gambling's White-Label Blind Spot
A licensed operator supplies the licence, a separate brand supplies the front end. UKGC's own case material and enforcement pattern show exactly where accountability gets lost.
Onboarding18 MIN
Where Does the Money Actually Stop? Investigating Financial Crime Risk in Private Markets
Given a real fund ownership chain, LP to fund to GP to SPV to portfolio company, where does the CDD obligation actually start, and where does it genuinely have to stop. Two worked scenarios on upstream beneficial ownership and PEP exposure in a fund-of-funds structure, plus ten Risk/Signal/Response investigation patterns.
Fraud14 MIN
Classification Asymmetry: The Fraud vs AML Divide
A fraudster steals from one bank. The money lands at another as an unremarkable deposit. One granted patent argues that fraud-style behavioural scoring can produce money laundering false positives while missing laundering that doesn't deviate from normal behaviour.