On this episode of RiskWatch, we spoke with Channing Mavrellis who’s a Director of Illicit Trade at Global Financial Integrity in Washington, DC. We discussed a paper she co-authored in 2018 titled Illicit Financial Flows and the Illegal Trade in Great Apes and we dove deep into a number of topics linked to illicit supply chains, global corruption, and its impact both on wildlife and the world. You can download GFI's paper here.

RiskWatch

Illicit Financial Flows and the Illegal Trade in Great Apes

In this episode of the podcast, Vcheck Global Directors Alex Sorin and Rahul Ravi speak with Mike Blankenship who is a Partner in the Houston office of Winston & Strawn and focuses his practice on corporate finance and securities law. We discussed why SPACs continue to gain investor attention and the role of investigative due diligence in mitigating potential risks on the operational company and the SPAC management team. 

SPAC Due Diligence

In this episode of the podcast, we spoke with an investigator at The Sentry about the May 2020 report: Making a Killing – South Sudanese Military Leaders’ Wealth, Explained. The investigative report examines how officials in the top echelons of military and armed opposition leadership of South Sudan have engaged in business activities indicative of money laundering and corruption and how these activities continue to weaken the country’s institutions, undermine the rule of law, and may lead to renewed violence. You can download the paper at TheSentry.org where you can also learn more about the organization’s mission.

Making a Killing: South Sudanese Military Leaders' Wealth, Explained

In this episode, we spoke with Jessica Noll, who is a Ph.D. candidate at Helmut Schmidt University in Hamburg, Germany. From October 2017 to May 2018, she was a visiting research fellow at the DC think tank the Project on Middle East Democracy and in February 2019 published a research study titled Fighting Corruption or Protecting the Regime? Her study examined the history of anti-corruption drives and institutions in Egypt. In our talk, Jessica explains how corruption takes root in societies and the underlying motivations of some regimes when launching anti-corruption campaigns or establishing anti-corruption bodies. 

The Corruption Behind Anti-Corruption Campaigns

In this episode of the podcast, we spoke with Shawn Hauser who is a partner and chair of the Hemp and Cannabinoids Practice Group at Vicente Sederberg. Shawn helps marijuana and hemp businesses navigate state and federal law, investment, regulatory compliance and intellectual property. We covered a number of items in our talk, including how the legal landscape has changed over the years, how companies in the space can navigate regulatory compliance, and some core requirements for conducting due diligence. 

Navigating Cannabis Compliance

In this episode of the podcast, we spoke with former US Ambassador Luis C.deBaca who is currently the Senior Fellow in Modern Slavery at Yale’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition. Prior to this, Ambassador C.deBaca coordinated the U.S. government’s activities in the global fight against modern slavery as head of the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons during the Obama Administration. We discussed the issue of modern slavery in corporate supply chains and the steps companies can take to combat and prevent it.The show host is Alex Sorin, a Director at Vcheck Global.

Modern Slavery in Corporate Supply Chains

RiskWatch is a due diligence and compliance podcast featuring interviews with leading compliance, investigations, and research professionals to shed light on global corruption and compliance-related issues. RiskWatch is brought to you by Vcheck Global, a business-to-business provider of due diligence, background checks, employment screening, document retrieval, and specialized research of both business entities and individuals. The podcast is hosted by Alex Sorin, a Director at Vcheck Global.