Mark Heffer – Financial Crime Consultant, Accredited Financial Investigator and former Detective Constable
Teal Compliance’s AML division is expanding to help firms combat the ever evolving nature of AML threats, with new key appointments and the launch of their AML Awareness Campaign.
Whilst up to date policies and an understanding of the legislation are important foundations for all firms, effectively combatting AML risk means they also need to ensure that their team are fully conversant with the common methods the criminals are using to launder money.
This can often be where firms have a knowledge gap, and so Teal Compliance are running an Awareness Campaign throughout March and April to support firms with this particular issue.
Appointment of Mark Heffer
Teal are delighted to welcome Mark Heffer to the team to strengthen the AML support available to law firms. Mark is a Financial Crime Consultant, Accredited Financial Investigator and former Detective Constable.
He served for over 25 years with the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary with the Serious and Organised Crime Branch and specialised in crime such as money laundering, complex fraud, human trafficking, drug trafficking, bribery and corruption. He is an expert in all aspects of POCA, money laundering, confiscation, restraint, and SARs and has a reputation for bringing a very real world, hands on approach to his consulting work.
Free Resources
Teal Compliance have produced a range of free resources, including articles, staff questionnaires and an AML Risks poster which firms can put up in their offices to highlight key risks to their staff. These can all be accessed via the tealcompliance.com website.
Webinar Training
Teal Compliance, have produced a new AML course for 2018, which focuses on the new tactics being deployed by the baddies, and how they target not just law firms, but manipulate the banks, accountants and estate agents, before they get to the lawyers, adding layers of legitimacy which can be difficult to unravel.
Teal will be holding a webinar for partners and MLROs on the 8th May which will focus on these tactics, and how to spot and avoid them. You can buy a ticket for that here http://bit.ly/2oLZPLP
Legal Futures readers can access a discount by using the code LegalFutures
In house training
In addition, Mark and Amy Bell, CEO of Teal Compliance, are also taking bookings for their brand new in house course. It is a 90 minute course, fully incorporating the 2017 regulations and full of relevant examples of how firms are targeted. In house training can be incredibly cost effective, with up to 100 people trained a day for £1250 plus VAT and expenses.
Conference
The Teal Compliance conference on 26th April will be covering AML, the new regulations and key risks in detail. Early bird tickets are still available here http://bit.ly/2G1jxLe
As well as CEO of Teal Compliance, Amy is also the current Chair of the Law Society’s AML Taskforce and she has a clear view on the importance on raising the profile of these key ‘coal face’ AML risks,
“I’ve trained countless numbers of law firms over the last 13 years on AML and there are many money laundering tactics which have remained prominent risks throughout this time; car washes, take aways, and memorably (if you’ve been on any of my courses you’ll remember) nail bars. All of those are still relevant, but there are new ways in which the criminals are operating and it is critical that law firms have an understanding of those in order to protect their firms, the people who work for them and the wider society who are damaged by money laundering and the activities of serious and organised crime.
“What about construction clients who are using sub-contracted labour, who are in turn victims of human trafficking, what about the person who is lucky on fixed odds betting machines, who has really been pumping the machine with the proceeds of selling drugs on bicycles on street corners of the local town. We know this is all happening on firms’ doorsteps, but the challenge is they don’t necessarily have visibility of it. By launching this campaign, we hope to raise awareness of these practical risks firms should be aware of.”
