John Cassara began his 26 year U.S. government career as an intelligence officer during the Cold War. He later served as a Treasury Special Agent in both the U.S. Secret Service and US Customs Service, where he investigated money laundering, trade fraud and international smuggling.
He was an undercover arms dealer for two years. Assigned overseas, he developed expertise in Middle East money laundering, value transfer and underground financial systems. Concerned about trade-based money laundering, he invented the concept of Trade Transparency Units (TTUs). He also worked six years for Treasury’s FinCEN and was detailed to the Department of State. Mr. Cassara’s final assignment was with Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI). Since his retirement, he has lectured in the United States and around the world on a variety of transnational crime issues.
He has been a consultant for government and industry. He is on the Board of Directors of Global Financial Integrity. He has testified numerous times as an expert witness before Congressional committees. Mr. Cassara has authored numerous articles and five books, including Trade-Based Money Laundering: The Next Frontier in International Money Laundering Enforcement and the 2020 release of Money Laundering and Illicit Financial Flows: Following the Money and Value Trails.
Join our CEO, Ian Henderson as he finds out from John:
- How terrorist financing has evolved in the past few years.
- What were the most impactful experiences from his days as a special agent and how did these shape his path as an AML and terrorist financing expert.
- What metrics matter when evaluating our success to combat money laundering.
- What can we do to combat illicit financial flows.
