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News

Banking Investigators Forum Round up

On Thursday, 26th May ACi proudly hosted its first Banking Investigators Forum event, kindly sponsored by Forensic Risk Alliance. The event was attended by banking investigators from 80 different banks and covered a range of issues, all of which had been selected by delegates as points of interest.

Our prestigious speakers included:

  • Colin Bell, CEO, HSBC
  • Stephen M Kohn, Managing Partner, Kohn & Kohn LLP
  • Jonathan Shatford, Head of Investigations, JP Morgan EMEA
  • Madalina Florea, Head of SM?MRT Investigations, Lloyds Banking Group
  • Michael Delf, Global Employee Conduct Director, Citibank
  • Charlie Steele, Partner, FRA
  • Dave Francis, Head of Litigation & Investigations, NatWest Bank Plc
  • Lorene Wiggin, Managing Investigator, NatWest Bank Plc
  • Gerben Schreurs, Partner, FRA
  • Jamie Brown, Executive Director, Head of Fraud Intelligence and Investigations, Standard Chartered Bank
  • Paul Carroll, Manager, Fraud Inestigations, Intelligence & Policy, TSB
  • Ronan Guckian, Deputy Head, Financial Crime Unit, KBC Bank
  • Magdalena Boskik, Head of RegTech and Crypto Compliance Services, Sygnum Bank
  • Katerina Androutsou, RegTech & Crypto Compliance Services, Sygnum Bank
  • Robert Clarke, Managing Director, Global Head of Investigations, Citibank
  • Cecillie Fjellhoy, romance scam victim

During the day, delegates grappled with a range of issues such as whether investigative interviews should always be recorded, the current crypto landscape and what it means for investigators, and skills and tools that investigators should have for successful outcomes.

The day was ably managed by Simon Scales who had the delegates giggling in their seats with his engaging and witty moderating style.

Feedback from attendees has been outstanding. For example one delegate said,

“The event was run really efficiently, the venue was excellent but mostly important the speakers and subject matter was just brilliant. Often I see people on their phones at lot at these events catching up with emails etc but as I looked around, like myself everyone was listening intently. It really was one of the best conferences I have attended in many years (ignoring the pandemic). Thanks to everyone involved, with a little special mention to Simon who I thought was amazing as an MC.Already looking forward to the next one, please keep my details within your database. I will be selling the events for you as I speak with all of my bank investigator contacts throughout the whole industry. So many of them would have benefitted and enjoyed yesterday.”

You can read our event programme here. Thank you to everyone involved especially our sponsor Trevor Wiles and the FRA team, Simon Scales, our speakers and not least of all the delegation who made it such a special event.

We look forward to seeing everyone next year.

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External Events News

Tweets from #RelativityFest

ACi’s Steve Young, Mary Eastwood Jones and Manu Hanspal had an exceptional reception at #RelativityFest in London this May, as they revealed the Association’s new Investigations Principles and Guidelines and Investigations Typology (available in the ACi Members’ Area).

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News

ACi Launches its Investigations Principles and Good Practice Guidance

In this short video extract ACi members briefly discuss the Principles

ACi is delighted to announce the launch of its new Investigations Principles and Good Practice Guidelines guidance. This is the first wide-reaching practitioner-led Principles and good practice guidance developed for the global corporate investigations profession.  These foundational Principles and Guidelines are the culmination of working group discussions with a highly diverse group of corporate investigation subject matter experts, both in-house and external, from various industries and sectors. They are intended to help guide the work of corporate investigators. 

The ACi would like to thank all those who contributed subject matter expertise in our working groups, and our group leads Mary Eastwood Jones, Jeff Giddings, Patrick Wellens and content creator Esther-Gail Fraser. The following are some quotes from our members about the importance of our Investigation Principles.

Jeff Giddings, Senior Investigator at OSCE said, “Core principles and guidelines are foundations for a successful corporate investigative function. The ACi Principles and Good Practice Guidelines are fusions taken across the wide spectrum of ACi members. Given the multitude of industries represented in the ACi, it was a challenge in getting consensus for having succinct, yet inclusive, principles and guidelines.  To my knowledge, this has never been accomplished until now, which demonstrates the strength and commitment of the ACi and its members.  This is truly trailblazing.”

Patrick Wellens, Investigations Expert said,”The creation of the new Principles and Good Practice Guidelines fits perfectly in the mission of the ACi to professionalize Corporate Investigations. It is a major achievement to now have a common set of Standards and Good Practice Guidelines that can be applied across Corporate Investigators in any industry. I am personally very proud to have actively contributed to these documents.”

Ash Sharma, Group Investigations Manager, Anglo American, said, “Corporate Investigation is a unique profession. The Corporate Investigator might be asked to investigate financial crime, physical or psychological safety, health or environmental breaches, data and cybercrime amongst others. Corporation Boards, employees, investors, customers and the wider community expect the highest standards from these investigators. The ACi will ensure these expectations are met by educating, supporting and mentoring their members. The release of the ACi Principles and Good Practice Guidelines is an exciting achievement for the profession. I am proud to be part of this community and support the evolution of the profession.”

Steve Young, CEO, ACi, said, “Investigators are bound by the moral imperative to find the true facts. For me, the ACi principles underpin this obligation, which we all carry as members of the corporate investigations community. “

Mary Eastwood Jones, ED, ACi added, ‘The work we do carries great responsibility to establish the facts ethically- the consequences of a poorly or unfairly executed investigation can be devastating for the people and organisations involved. I am proud to be part of this first practitioner-led foundational project and am so grateful to all in our community who have collaborated and reached consensus to make this possible. The Investigation Principles are integral to conducting robust and ethical investigations, and are essential on our journey to professionalising corporate investigations.’

Please visit our web pages for further details.

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Uncategorised

27 April 2022 – Members Meeting

Our next members’ meeting takes place on Wednesday 27th April at 12.30 – 1.30 pm UK time. Members are invited to attend via teams meeting invite. Please visit the members area for information.

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News

Luke Cocks as Data Analyst

ACi is delighted to announce the appointment of Luke Cocks as Data Analyst.

Luke is a recent Mathematics graduate from the University of Lancaster. Luke’s work will be instrumental in helping the ACi develop products and services which resonate with our members. He will be working closely with the marketing team to devise targeted campaigns and will help ensure ACi works in accordance with GDPR rules

Please join us in welcoming Luke to Team ACi!

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News

Jacob Atkinson as Research Assistant

ACi is delighted to announce the appointment of Jacob Atkinson as Research Assistant.

Jacob holds a degree in History and a postgraduate degree in Heritage Studies from Newcastle University. Jacob is assisting with research on certification pathways for corporate investigators, as well as horizon scanning for developments of interest to our community. Jacob also assists with research and editorial work on ACi Core Projects including the production of the Investigator Handbook. 

Please join us in welcoming Jacob to Team ACi!

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News Webinars

Add your voice to the #BreakTheBias Campaign

This year, in support of the International Women’s Day 2022 campaign #breakthebias, ACi is collecting quotes, anecdotes and thoughts from our corporate investigation community on working with, hiring, promoting or supporting women in corporate investigations, or your experiences as a woman working in corporate investigations and how we can all break the gender bias. You can read all about the campaign here.

Please share your views with us – just click the button below to send us your quote.

QUOTE ME

Women’s Day Webinar

You can also register for our #Breakthebias Women’s Day event. It takes place on Wednesday 8th March 2022 from 12.00 pm – 1.30 pm. Click here to see details of our women panellists and register for your free place.

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Articles Members News

New Members’ Resource

ACi members can read Chapter 21 of GIR’s ‘The Practitioner’s Guide to Global Investigations (sixth edition). The chapter, written by ACi’s CEO Steve Young focuses on Whistleblowers: The In-house Perspective. The document is available in our members’ area. To purchase the full guide, visit:

https://globalinvestigationsreview.com/guide/the-practitioners-guide-global-investigations/2022

Categories
News

Announcing the appointment of Alex Gaft as ACi Advisor

The ACi is excited to announce the appointment of Alex Gaft as ACi Advisory Panel Member. As a seasoned corporate investigations professional, Alex will provide the ACi with advice on corporate investigations management, cyber fraud, networking, and will contribute to the ACi’s key projects (including training, investigation standards, and knowledge bank).   

Alex has over 20 years of professional investigation experience at both national and international levels, within the public and private sectors.  Alex started his career in 2001 as an investigator with the Israeli National Police. From 2010 to 2012, Alex worked as a Regional Head of Forensic Audit for ArcelorMittal, covering CIS and based in Ukraine. In 2012 Alex joined ENRC in London as Group Head of Investigations and between 2014 and 2018 led Corporate investigations team, covering 7 countries in CIS, for Veon, based in Amsterdam. In 2018 Alex returned to Israel and worked in Cyber Security and Cyber Fraud prevention. Since January 2020 Alex is heading Forensic Services team for BDO. He holds an MBA and is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Certified Information systems Auditor (CISA), and is Certified in Financial Crime Prevention.  

Speaking of the appointment, ACi’s Executive Director, Mary Eastwood Jones, said: 

‘Alex has been a very proactive ACi supporter for some time- in fact, he introduced me to the ACi community.  Alex is a highly skilled and talented subject matter expert, networker, and horizon scanner. He really has his finger on the pulse of the key emerging issues of importance to corporate investigators, and we are excited to be working with him for the benefit of our community.’  

Please join us in welcoming Alex as an official member of our Advisory Panel.  

Categories
News

Wishing you a very happy New Year

As we launch into 2022, ACi wishes all our members and supports a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year ahead.

We are working hard to bring you more innovative training, networking and education events this year. While the Pandemic continues to disrupt the usual working practices of investigators, our community is continuing to adapt and evolve, learn new skills and tackle investigations challenges in new ways.

ACi is here to support its members and we appreciate the commitment of our members and our sponsors to help grow our community and to improve investigations standards. Watch this space for news of our upcoming events – to be announced very soon!