RegTech Real Talk

When a £600,000 shopping spree at Harrods exposed an international money laundering operation

Zamira Hajiyeva treated Harrods like her corner store - £32,000 on chocolates, £24,000 on tea, £600,000 in a single morning. But behind the absurd consumption was her husband's $3.5 billion theft from Azerbaijan's state bank.

This episode follows the UK's first-ever Unexplained Wealth Order - a legal weapon that forces the ultra-...

How did a registered sex offender convince the world's biggest banks to move his money for over a decade?

The Jeffrey Epstein story isn't just about one predator—it's about how elite institutions systematically chose profit over protection, enabling decades of abuse while compliance officers screamed warnings into the void.

What you'll discover:

• How a failed math teacher transformed into a financial "genius&qu...

That perfect stranger who "gets you" might be typing from a cage.

Behind every romance scam is a larger question: What happens when love becomes labour? When human connection gets industrialised by people who have no choice but to destroy strangers' lives to survive their own?

This episode follows the breadcrumbs from your dating app to a concrete compound, from a cryptocurrency wallet to a rescue operation more complex...

Who is Alice Guo? A shy pig farmer turned small-town mayor — or the mastermind behind one of the Philippines’ biggest human trafficking and online scam hubs?

In this episode of RegTech Real Talk, Jamahal and Charlie break down how Alice Guo built a pig butchering scam empire literally behind City Hall — 800 people trapped, billions laundered, and a ghost identity so perfect it collapsed with one simple question: “Who was your teache...

What do you get when you mix crypto, celebrity endorsements, existential risk, political donations, and zero internal controls?

Answer: the rise and collapse of FTX.

Sam Bankman-Fried didn’t just build a crypto empire—he built a belief system.

Effective altruism. Earning to give. Longtermism. Philosophy became camouflage.

In this episode, we unpack how the founder of FTX transformed complex ideology into one of the greatest confidence ...

What happens when you combine Viking ambition, African resources, and $650 million in missing money? You get the Fishrot scandal—a heist so sophisticated it makes Hollywood look unimaginative.

In 2019, a poisoned whistleblower leaked 30,000 documents exposing how Iceland's biggest fishing company orchestrated the systematic looting of Namibia's ocean resources. The money—enough to build 1,300 schools—vanished through a dizzy...

A hobby ship-spotter posts a single photo on social media—and hours later, warships are scrambling across the Mediterranean.

In this episode of RegTech Real Talk, Charlie and Jamahal dive into the surreal world of Russia’s shadow fleet: hundreds of rusting oil tankers with fake identities moving billions in sanctioned crude, military equipment, and geopolitical influence across global waters.

We follow the true story of the Barbaros,...

In this episode of RegTech RealTalk, we tell a story so outrageous it sounds fictional—except it’s backed by 700,000 leaked documents.

Isabel dos Santos, once hailed as Africa’s richest woman, rose to global prominence through insider deals, offshore networks, and elite partnerships. Backed by firms like PwC and McKinsey, her business empire spanned telecoms, oil, diamonds, and banking. But behind the glossy headlines was something ...

A Malaysian NGO raised millions for Palestinian winter relief. Instead of helping desperate families, the money allegedly bought gold and luxury real estate.

In this 7-minute episode, Jamahal and Charlie unpack one of Southeast Asia’s most shocking NGO scandals — 164 criminal charges, millions misappropriated, and a humanitarian mission derailed.

They explore:

• - How trusted organizations can be used to launder money

  - What went w...

When HSBC got caught laundering $881 million in drug cartel money, their stock price went UP.

In this surprising episode, Jamahal and Charlie reveal how the world's most "respected" companies have turned enabling fraud into a profitable business model. From Mercedes-Benz's shockingly casual approach to money laundering risks to Meta becoming "a cornerstone of the internet fraud economy," discover how corp...