| Time | Duration | Speaker / Session |
|---|---|---|
| 08:30 | 30 mins | Registration |
| 09:00 | 10 mins | WFF Chair, Paul Cunningham — Welcome and introduction |
| 09:10 | 20 mins | Adrian Crompton Auditor General Wales — Keynote speech |
| 09:30 | 30 mins | Sarah Windress — Public Sector Fraud Authority and Role |
| 10:00 | 60 mins | Steve Baxter & Glenn Wicks — Criminal side of insolvency |
| 11:00 | 15 mins | Coffee |
| 11:15 | 60 mins | Panel: Dr Bastian Hertstein, Dr Samantha Bourton & Dr Diana Johnson — Failure to prevent fraud model |
| 12:15 | 30 mins | Branislav Hock — Pyramid fraud and the curious case of its participants |
| 12:45 | 45 mins | Lunch |
| 13:30 | 60 mins | Paul Peters & Chris Roberts — AI and fraud, Fraud prevention and response |
| 14:30 | 60 mins | Fire side chat: Dr Henry Hillman & Terry Davies — Crypto currency fraud |
| 15:30 | 15 mins | Coffee |
| 15:45 | 60 mins | James Rickett & Leeanna Feiken — Suspicious activity reports and their impact |
| 16:45 | 15 mins | WFF Vice Chair, Stephen Tooby — Closing remarks |
| 17:00 | Finish |
Adrian Crompton: our Keynote speaker, is the Head of Audit Wales. As part of his role, he oversees the annual audit of over £20 billion of taxpayers’ money and reports on value for money matters across the Welsh public sector. Most of Adrian’s career has been spent supporting parliamentary democracy at a Welsh, UK and international level. Prior to his current appointment, he held various senior roles within the Senedd and, before then, in the House of Commons. He spent several years providing expertise and practical support to senior politicians and civil servants at the heart of projects nurturing democratic transition in Sudan, Iraq, Egypt and Jordan.
Dr Sarah Windress: expert in fraud policy who has spent 10 years working in counter fraud and economic crime roles, building significant experience in the use of data. Sarah has worked across government and the private sector to build awareness of fraud across the public sector. This includes helping to develop the PSFAs role in the recently launched Fraud Strategy and Economic Crime Plan 2.
James Rickett: is the Global Lead, Anti Money Laundering at the International Compliance Association. Prior to becoming an ICA tutor, James worked for 12 years at a Tier 1 Bank, much of that time based in the Middle East region as an AML investigator in the Dubai office. James’ investigative experience spans suspicious activity reporting linked to fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, human & drugs trafficking, tax evasion, and sanctions evasion.
Leeanna Feiken: holds a master’s degree in forensic accounting and joined Gwent Police from the Probation Service in 2009. Since then, she has worked as an investigator in the Financial Investigation Unit, where she has had responsibility for some of the most serious and complex economic crime investigations handled by Gwent Police. Leeanna is accredited by the National Crime Agency as a financial investigator, counter-terrorist financial investigator, and confiscator. She is also accredited by the City of London Police as a specialist fraud investigator. Leeanna acts as Gwent Police’s Single Point of Contact for SAR-related enquiries and provides feedback to the UKFIU.
Steve Baxter: is the official receiver in Cardiff and deals with bankruptcy and compulsory liquidation cases in the Wales region. His team investigates the conduct of bankrupt’s and company directors and the recovery and realisation of assets. He is also part of the Civil Service Senior Leadership Talent Network promoting the Civil Service in Wales.
Glenn Wicks: is the Chief Investigator for the Insolvency Service Crime Investigation Team, covering the Midlands, Wales, and the West Country. He retired from the Derbyshire Constabulary as a Detective Chief Inspector in 2004 and immediately joined the civil service where he helped form and develop the Midland Fraud Forum and Government Agency Intelligence Network. He is a past winner of the Government Counter Fraud Profession award for leadership and is passionate about encouraging multi-agency contact.
Chris Roberts: is a Steering Group member of the Wales Fraud Forum and Cyber Wales and was the Co-Founder of the GDPR Alliance. Chris runs Cybata, a South Wales based, specialist Data Protection, GDPR and Cyber consultancy business that helps organisations understand data risk and deploy appropriate risk reduction measures. He deeply understands the fabric of our digital world, but is also able to communicate in ways, that help others truly engage in this important aspect of our lives.
Paul Peters: has been a police officer for over 28 years spending most of his career as a detective. In 2014 Paul transferred to Tarian, the Regional Organised Crime Unit, leading investigations into serious and complex cybercrimes as the Senior Investigating Officer, as well as working closely with businesses across Southern Wales. In 2021 Paul took the role of setting up and launching the Cyber Resilience Centre for Wales, a partnership between private sector, academia and policing.
Dr Bastian Hertstein: acts as a policy advisor to the Government of Jersey. He coordinates and implements the jurisdiction’s strategy against financial crime and illicit finance, ensuring compliance with the relevant international standards whilst protecting Jersey's integrity as a leading finance centre. His policy portfolio includes, inter alia, the legislative development of enforcement measures such as supervisory enforcement, failure-to-prevent offences, and deferred prosecution agreements.
Dr Diana Johnson: is an expert on financial crime and competition law. She is a member of the Law Society of England and Wales, the Anti-Money Laundering, Cybersecurity and Financial Compliance network, the Economic Crime Academics UK group and the International Competition Network.
Dr Samantha Bourton: is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of the West of England, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a Steering Board Member of the Southwest Fraud Forum. She teaches on the LLB and LLM programmes, with modules including the Law of Financial Crime and Regulation and International Financial Crime. Sam’s research interests lie in the law of financial crime, particularly tax evasion, fraud, and money laundering.
Branislav Hock: is a passionate interdisciplinary researcher who thrives in both an academic environment and practice contributing to the knowledge that exists in economic crime and compliance. With a rapidly developing international reputation for excellence in policy-oriented research, Dr Hock has played advisory roles both nationally (Home Office, Synectic Solutions, Crowe) and internationally (EU Commission, European Court of Auditors, OECD). Branislav has established an annual Winter Economic Crime Symposium and is the founding member of the European Compliance Centre.
Dr Henry Hillman: Lecturer in Law at the University of Reading, specialising in financial crime, cryptocurrencies, and commercial law. Awarded PhD in 2021, where his thesis analysed the money laundering threats posed by cryptocurrencies, critiquing the responses of the US, Australia, and the UK., and made proposals for incorporating cryptocurrencies into the perimeter of financial regulation. Since his PhD, he has been investigating the potential for money laundering to be detected through analysis of the blockchain.
Terry Davis: is Account Director for Asset Reality. He was Detective Chief Inspector within Merseyside Police's Economic Crime Team, leading the Fraud Investigation, Proceeds of Crime and Financial Safeguarding Teams upon his retirement from the force in October 2022. With his profile in Asset Reality, he is passionate about promoting change in both physical and crypto asset recovery, helping the public and private sector make asset recovery and management simpler, effective by returning more ill-gotten gains back to victims of fraud and communities blighted by criminality.