Financial Technologies & Payment Systems

Katja Gilman is a Legal Analyst at Arktouros PLLC. Prior to this role, she was the Senior Public Policy Lead at Polygon Labs, an international software development company that builds blockchain scaling infrastructure, where she worked with regulators, policymakers, and industry in the United States, European Union, and United Kingdom with the overarching mission of advocating for an evergreen policy framework for decentralized technology that allows this innovation to grow while achieving the three primary policy goals of protecting consumers, preserving market integrity, and combating illicit finance.

Katja co-authored a paper entitled “Genuine DeFi as Critical Infrastructure: A Conceptual Framework for Combating Illicit Finance Activity in Decentralized Finance” that put forth a three-part framework for how to detect, deter and prevent illicit financial activity in decentralized finance systems. Link to the paper: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4607332.

Katja graduated cum laude and with Highest Distinction in Public Policy from Duke University and earned her Master of Business Administration from Yale University’s School of Management. She is currently in the Georgetown University Law Center’s Juris Doctor Evening Program.  

Katja is fluent in English and Russian.

Jennifer Vander Veer advises organizations on product strategy, compliance, and regulatory risk at the intersection of financial crime and emerging technology, drawing on frontline investigative experience and technical product leadership.

As Head of Product at TRM Labs, Jennifer joined as the founding product hire and built the product function from scratch, including strategy, org design, hiring, and operating systems. She led the platform’s development into a global investigative standard used by financial institutions, crypto businesses, and law enforcement in over 50 countries, driving 10x revenue growth over three years. She represented TRM before congressional staffers, UN representatives, and alongside leaders from Europol and HM Treasury. She also delivered cross-chain tracing across 30+ blockchains, cutting investigative time from hours to minutes.

Jennifer’s product instincts are grounded in 14 years as an FBI Special Agent in cyber and counterintelligence. A pioneering member of the FBI’s Virtual Currency Response Team, she helped establish the FBI’s early blockchain investigative capabilities, developed first-of-kind processes for on-chain asset freezes, and forged partnerships leading to multi-million-dollar digital asset seizures and international arrests. She also served as the FBI’s sole cyber investigator for Vermont, and as a certified Crisis Negotiator, responded to high-stakes incidents including the Dannemora prison escape and the Boston Marathon bombing.

Jennifer has worked complex digital asset cases as an investigator,  built the products compliance teams rely on, and developed deep technical fluency in blockchain technology. That cross-functional range, spanning engineering, legal, compliance, and go-to-market, is what she brings to client engagements, delivering compliance-by-design solutions across AML, sanctions, and financial crime risk. 

Jennifer holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Swarthmore College. She has spoken at the AMLP Forum European AML & Financial Crime Conference and City & Financial Global Digital Assets Symposium, participated in a U.S. House of Representatives staff briefing on crypto, and has been featured on podcasts including Decrypt Media’s Crime 3 and Niki Christoff’s Tech’ed Up.

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Rebecca Rettig is Of Counsel in the New York office of Arktouros PLLC. She is currently general counsel of a large international software development company that builds blockchain scaling infrastructure, including aggregated network scaling. Prior to her current role, Rebecca was general counsel at a software development company building DeFi and other blockchain-based applications. The majority of her preceding career was outside counsel — at Cravath, Swaine and Moore LLP she represented clients in litigation and enforcement matters, including on both the financial services side and in early peer-to-peer technology litigation. After Cravath, Rebecca dedicated her legal career to representing software development companies in the blockchain space, advising clients on legal and regulatory matters relating to novel technologies and litigating some of the earliest crypto lawsuits and regulatory enforcement matters and investigations.

Claiborne (Clay) W. Porter is the co-founder of Arktouros pllc.  Clay’s practice focuses advising and representing clients, including individuals and organizations, in complex international white collar criminal and regulatory matters, internal investigations, extradition proceedings, asset recovery, gaming and gambling, and compliance counseling focusing on financial integrity matters, including U.S. economic sanctions, the Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering laws and regulations (BSA/AML), fraud, international money laundering and corruption, embezzlement, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and cryptocurrency.  Clay has extensive trial and contested hearings experience from serving as the co-lead counsel in a 12 week, six defendant international money laundering trial to numerous state court trials.

Clay’s government experience includes various leadership and supervisory roles in the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division (MLARS), including Acting Principal Deputy Chief of MLARS and Chief of the Bank Integrity Unit. At MLARS, he managed a wide variety of complex domestic and international investigations focused on BSA/AML, money laundering, fraud, and U.S. economic sanctions, and coordinated those efforts with various domestic (state and federal) and foreign law enforcement and regulators, including U.S. Attorneys Offices across the country, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Federal Reserve Board, Office of the Comptroller of Currency, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, US Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Trade Commission, New York State Department of Financial Services, the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority, National Crime Agency, and the Crown Prosecution Service.  As part of Clay’s duties at MLARS, he supported the Section’s responsibilities relating to reviewing and authorizing any criminal enforcement action against a financial services firm, including banks, for violations of the BSA.  

Previously, Clay was the Chief Legal Officer of a DeFi risk management company.  Clay was also a partner in an international law firm’s financial crimes defense and compliance practice, focusing on international white collar matters, asset recovery, U.S. economic sanctions, and AML-related enforcement matters. Prior to that, Clay served as a managing director at a large consulting firm, leading its investigations group. Clay regularly advised on anti-money laundering and economic sanctions matters, including conducting full-scope reviews and gap analyses of BSA/AML and sanctions compliance programs of banks, money services businesses, and cryptocurrency exchanges.  Earlier in his career, Clay worked as an associate in two international law firms and as an Assistant District Attorney in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office handling violent crime cases.

Michael (Mike) Parker is a Partner at Arktouros PLLC.  Prior to this role, he served as the head of the anti-money laundering and sanctions practice at a prominent Washington, D.C. law firm specializing in U.S. economic sanctions administration and compliance.  In private practice, Mr. Parker was the principal attorney responsible for the very first successful lifting of U.S. economic sanctions of a Russian national following the invasion of Ukraine from the Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN List) administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).  His current and previous clients include prominent industrialists, top financial institutions, and private equity funds, in addition to international expert witness engagements.  Additionally, Mr. Parker is an Adjunct Professor of National Security Law in the Georgetown University Security Studies Program.

Mr. Parker is a former federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section (MLARS), where he served as a subject matter expert on economic sanctions for MLARS and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices across the country.  During his six-plus years at MLARS, Mr. Parker was responsible for money laundering and forfeiture investigations of transnational criminal organizations and foreign threat actors, including serving as the lead MLARS prosecutor for the “Panama Papers” case.  Among his matters, Mr. Parker prosecuted cases involving major international financial institutions, foreign ransomware actors, hostile adversarial nations, criminals who launder funds through cryptocurrency, and complex trade-based money laundering networks.  In 2017, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) awarded Mr. Parker with the FBI Director’s Award for Outstanding Counterintelligence Investigation for his work on a North Korea-related sanctions evasion and money laundering case that was perpetrated through the U.S. banking system.

Prior to his time at DOJ, Mr. Parker spent nearly eight years at OFAC where he served as a Sanctions Investigator, and later a Section Chief in OFAC’s Enforcement Division.  During his tenure at OFAC, Mr. Parker was responsible for sanctions investigations of transnational criminal organizations, cartel-related targets under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, and high-profile Middle Eastern sanctions targets under various legal authorities. He also held supervisory authority over one of three OFAC Enforcement divisions and was the supervisory enforcement officer for violations of U.S. sanctions programs.

Michael Mosier is a co-founder of Arktouros pllc.  He has twice been the first in-house counsel at emergent technology companies:  Chainalysis (blockchain analytics/investigations) and Espresso Systems (cross-chain composability & configurable privacy).  

In addition to legal, his work in the governance and risk/resilience space includes: board member and interim Chief Risk Officer for the first de novo OCC-chartered stablecoin-integrated national bank; board member of the Security Alliance (SEAL), a nonprofit coordination center for cyber/crypto threat intelligence sharing and industry security standards development; and security council member for the first decentralized derivatives exchange to earn a regulatory (BMA) license.  He previously was an independent board director and chair of the Government Security Committee for an artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicle systems public company operating under a Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) National Security Agreement.

In public service, Michael was Acting Director, Deputy Director, and the first Digital Innovation Officer of the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), where he worked closely with federal, state, and international counterparts on the development and implementation of policy and regulation, as well as launching digital identity and privacy-enhancing technology initiatives to advance personal sovereignty and opportunity.  He also was Counselor (Cybersecurity & Emerging Technology) to the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury.

Previously, Michael served as Associate Director and Acting Deputy Director of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), leading the Office of Compliance & Enforcement and Office of Sanctions Policy & Implementation.    

Before Treasury, Michael was a Deputy Chief in the Department of Justice’s Money Laundering Section, where he created and led the Special Financial Investigations Unit.  He also served at the White House National Security Council as Director for Transnational Organized Crime.  

Michael has been an adjunct professor (Advanced Evidence for Trial) at Georgetown University Law Center and began his public service as a prosecutor with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

Michael also works with ex/ante, an early-stage venture fund investing in technology that advances human agency and democratic resilience.

Kenneth A. Blanco (Ken) is a recognized industry leader and speaker in the areas of law, financial integrity and compliance, international governmental relations, and leadership/management dynamics. As an experienced trial attorney, regulator, and compliance officer, Ken has held senior leadership and managerial roles in both the private and public sectors while leading and managing large and diverse global organizations. Ken has served, worked with, and advised numerous U.S. Attorneys General and other Cabinet and Sub-Cabinet members of the United States government, including White House Officials, the National Security Council, the Secretary of the Treasury, as well as boards of directors and senior executives of various public and privately held companies. Ken has worked with, advised, and collaborated with Presidents, Vice Presidents, Supreme Court Justices, Ministers of Finance, and other high-ranking government officials and business leaders from around the world.  He has testified before Congress numerous times and has briefed congressional staffers on many occasions regarding important legal, regulatory, and financial issues and topics. He has held the highest security clearances in the U.S. government, and although no longer a government official Ken still holds a Top Secret SCI.  He has led teams, worked in, and served as a civilian in war zones and terrorist occupied areas on behalf of the United States government.

Ken is managing partner, based out of the Florida office of Arktouros PLLC, an American law and advisory boutique specializing in risk management, emergent technology, and civil society. Prior to joining Arktouros, Ken served as the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) for Citigroup’s Global Financial Crimes Program, and as a member of Citi’s Independent Compliance Risk Management (ICRM) Executive Management Team, where Ken led and managed a global organization of several thousand compliance professionals in 97 countries around the world.  In this role, Ken helped support and protect Citi, and the U.S. financial system, against financial crimes risks by overseeing the firm’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Global Financial Crimes Investigations and Intelligence, Sanctions, and Anti-Bribery & Corruption programs, across all lines of business, subsidiaries, and jurisdictions in which Citi operates. 

Prior to joining Citi in April 2021, Ken served as the Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a Bureau within the U. S. Department of the Treasury, where he worked to combat domestic and international financial crime and enforce and promulgate regulations to protect the United States’ financial system and national security against money laundering and its related crimes, including terrorism financing.

Prior to his appointment as FinCEN Director by the Secretary of the Treasury in 2017, Ken served as the Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division at the United States Department of Justice, and for 11 years as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Division.  In these roles, Ken led and was responsible for national and international criminal matters relating to U.S. law, including Bank Integrity, Fraud, FCPA, Money Laundering, Asset Forfeiture, Kleptocracy, and Public Corruption.

After graduating from Georgetown University Law Center in 1989, Ken returned to his native Miami and began his career at the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, where he served as a trial lawyer in various sections including the Organized Crime Section, Public Corruption Section, and the Major Narcotics Section.  In 1998, Ken joined the United States Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida (Miami) as an Assistant United States Attorney, where he served in numerous leadership positions including Deputy Chief of Narcotics/Chief of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, Acting Chief of Narcotics, and Deputy Chief of the Major Crimes Section.

During his time at the United States Attorney’s Office, Ken was detailed to Washington, D.C. in 2002 for two years where he served as General Counsel to the 94 United States Attorney’s Offices and the Executive Office of United States Attorneys. In 2006, Ken returned to Washington, D.C. to serve as the Chief of the Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section at the Department of Justice. He was later promoted to the position of Deputy Assistant Attorney General, where he supervised the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section, Organized Crime and Gang Section, Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section, and matters relating to Afghanistan, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, and Panama.

Kirsten Albers-Fiedler has extensive experience advising founders and emerging growth technology companies on the full spectrum of product, regulatory, corporate, and transactional matters. She focuses her practice on representing blockchain, cryptocurrency, and other emerging technology companies, having counseled clients on matters ranging from venture capital financings and securities law compliance to token issuances and digital asset classification.

Kirsten most recently served as an associate at a corporate law firm, where she counseled clients on transactional matters at every stage of growth from idea through exit, including corporate formation, corporate governance, venture capital financings, general corporate issues, and M&A transactions.  Kirsten has served as Chief Legal & Operations Officer at two technology companies — Social Money, Inc. and Legaler Pty. Ltd. — where she advised on pre-seed investment, SAFEs, blockchain-based token issuances, NFT regulatory frameworks, and virtual currency licensing. Her in-house experience also includes time as a Law Associate and Legal Engineer at ConsenSys, which builds infrastructure and developer tools for the Ethereum ecosystem, where she advised on digital asset securities law and exempt offerings under Regulation D and Regulation S.  Kirsten also served as Vice-Chair of the Legal Advisory Working Group at the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, where she moderated discussions on blockchain regulation with leaders including SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce.

Earlier in her career, she structured impact investment transactions at The Nature Conservancy’s investment unit, NatureVest, and interned with the Division of Enforcement at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Kirsten earned her A.B., magna cum laude, from Georgetown University, her J.D. from The George Washington University Law School, and her LL.M. in Law & Entrepreneurship from Duke University School of Law. 

She is admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia and New York, and is proficient in German.

Brad Brooks-Rubin focuses on the intersection of different types of risks – sanctions, corruption, money laundering, political, human rights – across a range of sectors and geographies and then identifies tangible, practical, and creative solutions. For more than 20 years, in roles across the private sector, government, and civil society, Brad has proved uniquely skilled at developing and implementing comprehensive and proactive strategies to address complex issues.

Brad has a track record of concrete action, from spearheading the innovative G7 initiative to restrict Russian diamonds through supply chain traceability, issuance of numerous sanctions actions and multiple business risk advisories by the U.S. government, unique termination and transition of the Zimbabwe Sanctions Program, and the creation of the Public Private Alliance for Responsible Minerals Trade and innovative “banking roundtables” where compliance analysts could receive critical risk-related information from civil society. Through his unique breadth of experience, Brad understands how companies and other actors can take action to address risks on multiple levels and to respond to varying stakeholder interests and expectations when issues arise.

Most recently, Brad was a Senior Advisor in the Office of Sanctions Coordination at the U.S. Department of State, where he was responsible for sanctions policy coordination related to sub-Saharan Africa, Burma, the West Bank, and natural resources, principally diamonds, gold, and timber. Brad re-joined State from 6.5 years as Policy Director and then Managing Director at The Sentry, an innovative civil society organization focused on the investigating and disrupting the intersection of conflict and corruption. Brad also served as the Strategic Advisor & North America Engagement Lead at the Responsible Jewellery Council in 2021-2022.

Prior to The Sentry and RJC, Brad held roles at the Gemological Institute of America (where he focused on a range of projects related to sustainable development, human rights, and compliance), the U.S. Department of State (where he focused on the Kimberley Process and conflict minerals in eastern DRC, as well as a range of sanctions issues), the Department of the Treasury (where he served as an Attorney-Advisor for the Office of Chief Counsel, Foreign Assets Control, and concentrated on sanctions issues, principally related to a range of sub-Saharan African conflicts), as well as two law firms (where he advised clients on economic sanctions, export controls, and a range of business/human rights issues).

Brad speaks frequently at events on sanctions and natural resources-related policy and compliance conferences and has published extensively in a range of outlets around the world. Brad is an active member of the community in Washington, DC and beyond, serving as an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, Board Member of both the Wildlife Justice Commission and We Are Family DC, DJ on WOWD-LP, co-creator of the 3albums6oldguys substack, and a youth basketball coach.