AML is a huge issue in the crypto space and with regulatory agencies taking stronger actions the compliance issue is growing every day. Our guest on today's show is Brendan Cochrane, J D CAMS. He is a leading expert on the AML space and focuses his practice on the crypto space.
Brendan Cochrane, JD, CAMS, is a partner at YK Law LLP where he focuses on cryptocurrency and blockchain matters. Brendan is also Principal and Founder at CryptoCompli, a startup focused on the anti-money laundering compliance needs of cryptocurrency and blockchain businesses.
Brendan is a Massachusetts-licensed attorney and Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) with broad legal experience, much of which he accumulated at international law firms in New York and Seoul. Brendan has also worked as a legal analyst for a Tier-1 Fortune 50 commercial and investment bank where he contributed to the bank's Dodd-Frank compliance program, becoming familiar with each of the bank's lines of business in the process. Brendan's experience includes time in the FinTech space working for a startup cryptocurrency business. There, he oversaw investigations into fraudulent Bitcoin and Ethereum transactions utilizing a leading blockchain forensics analytics tool, and piloted anti-money laundering programs for cryptocurrency Money Services Businesses (MSBs).
Brendan speaks on anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance issues related to cryptocurrency to various professional associations, including the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists, the Association of Certified Sanctions Specialists, and the California Financial Crimes Investigators Association. Speaking topics have ranged from the use of cryptocurrency to evade sanctions, dark web marketplaces and cryptocurrency, central bank digital currency (CBDC's), and the implications of El Salvador's efforts to make Bitcoin legal tender.
Outside of work, Brendan travels every chance he gets, having visited 42 states and 29 countries thus far. When it comes to fall Saturdays, Brendan, a top graduate of the University of Michigan, watches each and every Wolverines football game with great fervor. And lastly, but certainly not least, Brendan enjoys learning Mandarin Chinese from his wife, an accomplished neuroscientist, so that they can make jokes his parents don't understand.