Uncovering Abuse: Tracing Illicit Financial Flows Tied to Online Child Exploitation

Tiffany Polyak is an Anti-Financial Crime (AFC) Associate specializing in Threat Finance for the Global Thought Leadership team at ACAMS. She analyzes potential threats related to money laundering and terrorist financing while also assisting in building public-private partnerships. Tiffany earned her Master of Arts (M.A.) in Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies from Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) in May of 2021. Before obtaining her M.A., Tiffany received her Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Biology with a focus in molecular genetics and psychology from Indiana University Bloomington. Prior to ACAMS, she researched at various organizations centering around biological weapons proliferation, the crime-terror nexus, terrorism financing, and has also worked briefly in AML compliance. Tiffany can speak Spanish and is currently learning Russian. She holds certificates in anti-money laundering (CAMS), sanctions (CGSS), cryptocurrency blockchain investigations (CTCE), and open-source intelligence (C|OSINT). Tiffany’s research interest centers around the illicit financial flows regarding virtual currencies and how emerging technologies can potentially be misused by criminal and terrorist entities.

Jonathan Dupont is a financial intelligence investigator in the High-Risk Investigations Team at Western Union’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). As a financial intelligence investigator, Dupont has been conducting various types of higher-risk investigations on a wide range of criminal activities. Dupont is also a subject-matter expert on cryptoassets, human trafficking and crimes against children. Dupont regularly publishes articles on these matters in the award-winning ACAMS Today magazine. During the year, he also co-authored a Social Impact Certificate Course for ACAMS about Preventing Child Exploitation with Financial Intelligence and published one of the first major studies on the phenomenon of live online child sexual abuse for ECPAT France, which received positive feedback from key players in the field worldwide. Dupont is known to be a trusted AFC professional among his peers. He has obtained multiple certifications and awards such as the ACAMS’ AFC Professional of the Month in May 2022 and the Rising AFC Professional of the Year 2022.

Dr. Frank Haberstroh is an AFC Specialist with the Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking (FAST) initiative, a project of the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research. Before joining FAST, he worked for three years at a Private and Commercial Bank as Compliance Officer for Anti-Financial Crime (AFC) and Sanctions Compliance and two years as a consultant for AFC and Capital Market Compliance at a Big Four consulting firm. Alongside his work, he has initiated the creation of a project to identify and combat financial flows of human trafficking within the framework of the Anti-Financial Crime Alliance (AFCA), a German public-private partnership. Under Dr. Haberstroh's leadership, this project brought together the expertise of several international banks, the German Federal Police, and other public sector institutions and has been recognized internationally as a best practice model for such collaborations. Dr. Haberstroh holds a Doctorate in Law from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (summa cum laude), a qualification to practice as a magistrate in Germany, and a Masters degree in Defense, Security, and Geostrategy. 

Joseph Mari is a Director within the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) at Scotiabank, overseeing investigatory operations related to capital markets, major investigations and transaction monitoring. Mr. Mari also serves as the Director of External Partnerships in the Financial Crimes Risk Management Division. In this role, Mr. Mari develops strategic partnerships with external stakeholders that seek to strengthen the bank's commitment towards sustainability initiatives. Additionally, Mr. Mari has acted as the lead coordinator for the Canadian financial industry led anti-sex trafficking public/private partnership, Project Protect, since its creation in 2015.

Mr. Mari is extremely experienced with public-private partnerships having worked with a variety of national and transnational institutions that include the US State Department, the Vatican, Public Safety Canada, and the United Nations. He is the recipient of a 2019 Community Member Award from the Toronto Police Service and Toronto Police Services Board. A subject matter expert for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and has been featured in multiple publications such as Forbes, the CBC and Coindesk.