About Us
We are the Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime, an alliance of public and private partners determined to help improve the fight against financial crime
Our history
Founded in 2018, the coalition brings together different parts of the anti-financial crime ecosystem, and with this collective expertise it blends best-in-class approaches to financial crime management, risk intelligence, law enforcement, public-private information sharing and thought leadership on fighting financial crime, including money laundering.
Our objectives
The main objectives of the Coalition are to:
Raise global awareness of financial crime as a critical challenge with grave financial and human consequences
Promote more effective information sharing between public and private entities
Propose mechanisms to identify emerging threats and best practice approaches to more robust controls against money laundering
Identify pressure points in the current anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist framework and propose solutions to these
Our mission
Mission Statement:
To mitigate the adverse effects of financial crime through comprehensive awareness, collaborative action, and the development of effective regulatory frameworks.
Vision:
A global financial system safeguarded by robust measures that prevent financial crime and promote sustainable economic growth.
Core Values:
Integrity, Transparency, Innovation, Accountability, Collaboration
our focus
From day 1 of its existence, the Coalition recognised the need for it to operate as globally as possible. To this aim, it has established five regional chapters in Europe, the Americas, MENA, Sub-Saharan Africa and APAC. The coalition will continue to expand to further regions in the coming years.The Coalition does not have a limited number of focus areas, recognising the breadth of the financial crime space. However, our eight working groups showcase our ability to bring together experts within a specific field to advocate for change.
Anti-Corruption
Data Privacy
Digital Assets
Effectiveness
Experts on Technology
Fraud and Scams
Human Trafficking
Wildlife Trafficking
advisory board
The Advisory Board is a strategic, non-executive body. It advises the Executive Committee on the Coalition's long-term direction, priorities and partnerships, and helps uphold high standards of integrity, transparency and sound governance.
Sarah Paquet
Chair
Sarah Paquet is the former Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), Canada's Financial Intelligence Unit and the federal regulator responsible for the anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing regime. She has extensive international leadership experience in financial crime policy, including as former Chair of the Egmont Group's Information Exchange Working Group and as Co-Chair of GCFFC's FIU–Law Enforcement Effectiveness Working Group. She brings expertise in regulatory oversight, public-private partnerships and the use of artificial intelligence to prevent financial crime.
Vivienne Artz
Vice-Chair
Vivienne Artz is Chief Executive of the FTSE Women Leaders Review and a portfolio non-executive director. She has more than 25 years of experience in global financial and professional services, including at the London Stock Exchange Group, Refinitiv, Thomson Reuters and Citibank. She advises businesses on data, privacy and digital strategy, with a focus on AI, new technologies and anti-financial crime. She chairs GCFFC's Data Group and the AI and Data Advisory Group at the International Business & Diplomatic Exchange, and has advised the UK government on international data transfer strategy. She was awarded an OBE in 2021 for services to financial services and gender diversity.
Mohamed Shalo
Vice-Chair
Mohamed Shalo is Director of the Strategic Partnerships and Communications Department at the General Secretariat of the UAE's National Committee for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation Financing. He has more than 18 years of experience across financial regulation, public policy and international diplomacy. He leads the UAE's international engagement on AML/CFT/CPF and its strategic partnerships, including cooperation with the FATF, the IMF and the World Bank. He was awarded the Order of Zayed II (First Class) for his leading role in the efforts that secured the UAE's removal from the FATF grey list. He is also a Board Member of ADGM Academy.
Mu'azu Umaru
Vice-Chair
Mu'azu Umaru is Acting Secretary-General of the ECOWAS Commission. He has more than three decades of experience in policy, research and law enforcement. He spent over a decade in senior leadership at GIABA, the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa, as Director of Policy and Research. There he led research programmes, typologies work and collaborative research with the FATF, and coordinated technical assistance across 17 member states. Earlier, he headed the Secretariat of the West African Joint Operations against drug-related crime and served at Nigeria's National Drug Law Enforcement Agency. He is a Chevening Fellow.
Ilze Znotiņa
Member of the Advisory Board and Board Coordinator
Ilze Znotiņa is a lawyer and strategic advisor specialising in governance, financial crime, sanctions, critical infrastructure resilience and hybrid threats. She has more than 25 years of senior leadership experience across the public, private, international and academic sectors. As Head of Latvia's Financial Intelligence Unit, she led the country's AML/CFT reforms and represented Latvia in the FATF and MONEYVAL. She later served on the Management Board of Latvia's electricity transmission system operator, overseeing legal, compliance, risk and regulatory affairs. She is the founder of the advisory firm RIZEN Riga and an independent Non-Executive Director of RT Bank (Iraq), where she chairs the Financial Crime Committee. She is also a member of NATO's Hybrid Threat Expert Group.
our members
We are proud to present our members who are an integral part of the coalition. Find out more about our members
executive committee
A wider GCFFC leadership team of the ExCo plus the Chairs and Vice Chairs of all GCFFC Groups coordinates the work of the group.
Xolisile Khanyile
Chair
Xolisile Khanyile was appointed Chair of the Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime (GCFFC) in July 2025. She previously served as the head of the South African Financial Intelligence Centre and as Chair of the Egmont Group. Within the Coalition, she has been a key leader, successfully leading the Africa Chapter. Renowned for her expertise, integrity, and collaborative leadership style, Xolisile is widely respected across the global financial crime community. Her appointment marks a new chapter for the GCFFC’s global efforts to combat financial crime.
Che Sidanius
Founder & vice Chair
Che Sidanius is the Vice Chair of the Coalition, and is the Global Head of Financial Crime & Industry Affairs at LSEG. He is also the Co-Chair of the B20’s Integrity and Compliance Taskforce. Prior to joining LSEG, his work experiences include being a Senior Advisor to the Bank of England’s Financial Stability Directorate and previously a Senior Bank Examiner at the Federal Reserve Bank of NY. His most notable awards included receiving the Presidential Award for managing the 2007-09 Financial Crisis and a driving force behind LSEG’s Impact Company of the year award in 2019 and contributor to the same award in 2021.
Michal Gromek
exCo member
Michal Gromek serves as an expert on Virtual Assets for the OSCE and the UNODC. He conducts government training and legislative reviews, and has previously held the role of Chief Compliance Officer at a Nasdaq Trade Virtual Asset Service Provider. He is also a contributor to Forbes and has a background in fintech education and blockchain investigation.
Kurban Babayev
Secretary General
Kurban Babayev was appointed Secretary General of the Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime (GCFFC) in 2025. He brings over 15 years of experience in driving global partnerships, advocacy, and institutional capacity-building. Prior to this role, Kurban held senior positions at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), where he led regional governance and anti-corruption initiatives across more than 20 countries. With a proven record of managing multi-donor programmes, Kurban is an expert in financial transparency, compliance, and public-private collaboration. His extensive background also includes diplomatic service and strategic leadership in the private sector. Recognized for his ability to deliver measurable policy impact, Kurban is dedicated to strengthening stakeholder trust and collective action to address global governance challenges.
Tariq Aslam
Coordinator for Working Groups
Tariq is a senior Financial Crime Compliance and Strategy leader with over 15 years of international experience across the UK and Middle East. He advises financial institutions on governance, regulatory strategy, and enterprise-wide transformation in response to evolving financial crime risks. Having worked closely with regulators, senior executives, and global stakeholders, he brings a pragmatic, risk-based approach to strengthening financial integrity while enabling innovation. As Coordinator for Working Groups at the Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime (GCFFC), Tariq leads international expert workstreams spanning the public and private sectors, driving collaboration and collective action on emerging threats including digital assets, artificial intelligence, and new technologies.
Piotr Bobolowicz
Programme and Policy AdvisEr
Piotr Bobołowicz is a Program and Policy Advisor for the Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime, where he also serves as Secretary for the Financial Crimes in Gaming Workstream. He concurrently holds the position of Lead Analyst with the G7 Research Group, focusing on high-level international security and policy analysis. His professional work is primarily dedicated to research and investigations in the area of novelty threats, specifically regarding the security implications of emerging technologies. Piotr leverages extensive experience in international cooperation and analytical research to provide strategic insights into complex risk in fast evolving environments.
Seán Doyle
Adviser to the Executive Committee on Partnerships, Collaboration and Membership Growth
Seán Doyle is adviser to the Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime's Executive Committee, focusing on Partnerships, Collaboration and Membership Growth. Seán is Director of Anti-Cybercrime at Crime Stoppers International. Before this, he led development of the Cybercrime Atlas, an open-source investigations and research collaboration hosted at the World Economic Forum. Seán has worked across the financial services, technology, and non-profit sectors on disrupting the operations of cybercrime networks, financial intelligence sharing, cross-border asset tracing, corporate intelligence and bribery-and corruption investigations.
Dimitrij Gede
ExCo Adviser
Dimitrij serves as an Advisor to Exco and Vice Chair of the Digital Asset Task Force, bringing deep expertise in AML/CFT and virtual assets. Together with Michal Gromek, he co-leads the Attribution Center project. He also leads member onboarding due diligence and OSINT-driven risk assessment, safeguards the integrity of the coalition's membership, and helps shape its strategic direction on digital asset regulation and financial crime prevention.
Alexandra Malangone
ExCo AdvisEr
Alexandra is a Slovak human rights lawyer and a former member of the Board of Directors of Human Rights League - a prominent Slovak NGO in the field of immigration and asylum law. Awarded the 2023 Human Rights Defender Award, over two decades, she has been tirelessly exposing major human rights violations of individuals affected by organized crime. Alex has been focusing on human trafficking predicative character and its nexus with AML, TF, corruption and fraud impacting on most vulnerable members of the society. As Associate Fellow at Johns Hopkins SAIS, she has coordinated the Human Trafficking Initiative Hub facilitating a groundbreaking approach to supporting investigative and accountability efforts. Alexandra has been working closely with the law enforcement, prosecutorial authorities, investigative journalists, civil society and the private sector to design and implement solutions impacting financial crime at its core.
Amélie Malmaison
ExCo AdvisEr
With over 17 years of experience, Amélie offers a unique dual perspective across Tier 1 Investment Banking (15 years) and the FinTech sector (2 years). She bridges a rigorous foundation in Compliance and Audit with hands-on expertise in Trading Operations and Digital Assets. Driven by a passion for technological innovation, her track record includes managing a major OFAC Sanction remediation program for a leading global bank, as well as designing and implementing end-to-end Financial Crime frameworks within the digital asset ecosystem.
Maureen Moriarty
Adviser to the Executive Committee on Partnerships, Collaboration and Membership Growth
Maureen Moriarty, PhD CAMS has 30 years of experience in land and natural resource governance at the Triple Nexus of development, peacebuilding, and humanitarian assistance and has served as a Senior Fellow at the Duke University Center for International Development where she is currently lecturing.
Maureen’s recent research and practice focuses on Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) at the intersection of land, fisheries and forests, human security, transnational organized crime, resource governance, and associated financial crimes. She has been an investigator, co-authoring a two year study in Mozambique examining the links between the convergence crimes of illicit forest activity, and vulnerability to forced labor and human trafficking. Maureen also co-authored research with the Environmental Investigation Agency into the role of illicit timber in terrorist financing, which was featured by the BBC in 2024. She has worked extensively with the private, military, and security sectors and has published on due diligence in the areas of labor, land and forest acquisition, ESG, climate, and conflict sensitivity. She is currently researching the exploitation of children and youth at the nexus of organised crime and the financial system.
She holds a certificate in AML/CFT and Financial Inclusion from the Digital Frontiers Institute and is a Certified AML/ TF specialist from ACAMS.