AML Countdown Conference March 2026

Nathan Lynch

Nathan Lynch is a writer and international speaker who has spent two decades investigating the hidden world of dark money that fuels organised crime, corruption and violent extremism around the globe. His work peels back the layers of complex financial crime schemes.

He is an international expert in money laundering, organised crime and the financing of global terrorism. Between 2010 and 2024 Nathan led Thomson Reuters’ financial crime and risk team across the Asia-Pacific region.

He has worked with government agencies and police in Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Mongolia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan, as an expert in the use of financial intelligence to tackle cross-border financial crime syndicates.

Nathan’s non-fiction book, The Lucky Laundry,  explained how the Aussie property market became a lucrative laundromat for some of the world’s dirtiest cash. He was recognised with Macquarie University’s Financial Crime Fighter of the Year award in 2022 for his work advocating for federal law reform to combat serious and organised crime in Australia.

Nathan is certified by the US Department of Justice’s elite CCIPS Cybercrime Laboratory and is a program expert with the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the Financial Services Volunteer Corps, which provide support to developing countries to help them combat the scourges of money laundering and other serious financial crimes.

He has worked as a screenwriter on Paramount and Stan’s financial crime comedy series, Population 11, which followed a fictional money laundering trail from the US to outback Australia.

Nathan has spent many years living and surfing in Yallingup, and has written about surf culture for publications such as Tracks, White Horses and Stab Magazine.

He has played a key role in preserving the rich history of surfing in the WA south-west cape region which was incorporated into the book Surfing Down South, published by Margaret River Press in 2014.

He is also the founder of West Coast eFoil,  which has introduced hundreds of people to the sport of e-foiling. He is a strong believer in the power of the ocean to inspire, energise, and transcend trauma. He has witnessed transformations in the ocean involving cancer survivors, octogenarian former surfers, special forces war veterans, recovering addicts, and at-risk teenagers.

 

Juliana Warner

Chair, AML Working Group, Law Council of Australia

Juliana Warner is a former Partner of leading global law firm, Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF), based in Sydney.

She served as the President of the Law Society of New South Wales in 2021. A member of the Law Society of New South Wales since 1987, Juliana served on the Law Society’s Fidelity Fund Management Committee, is a former Chair of the Society’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee, former Chair of the Society’s Litigation Law; Practice Committee and a former member of its Professional Conduct Committee.

Juliana became a Director of the Law Council of Australia in January 2020. She is also a member of the Legal Services Council and the Law Admissions Consultative Committee.

With more than 30 years’ experience in conducting complex disputes, Juliana represented clients in litigation, alternative dispute resolution, anti-money laundering and regulatory processes, as well as matters involving foreign and international law. She has been regularly noted as a leading practitioner in her field in legal directories and holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of New South Wale

Fiona Halsey

Halseys

Fiona Halsey, Halseys

Fiona has practised in regulatory and financial services law since 1993.

She was admitted as a solicitor in 1993 before becoming a director and in-house counsel for international accounting firm EY.  In 2000 she established Halsey Legal Services.

She is a past national councillor of the Tax Institute.

She is an owner and founder of Licensee Solutions, a well-known financial services compliance provider.

Fiona has been recognised in 2025 in Australia’s Best Lawyers.

She is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS).

Stephen Ramsay

Manager Review & Audit at Legal Practice Board of Western Australia

Stephen Ramsay is the Acting Senior Trust Account Inspector and has been with the Legal Practice Board of WA since September 2018. He is a Chartered Accountant with a Masters of Accounting and is an associate member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. Stephen has over 15 years’ experience in auditing and forensic accounting and has been involved in identifying and documenting fraud dealing with trust money.

Andrew Ham

Principal at Hunt & Hunt

Andrew is a financial services lawyer and compliance professional with over 25 years’ experience across Australia and the USA who has specialised in anti-money laundering regulation since the current regime was created in 2006.  As chair of the AML/CTF Discussion Group at the Australian Compliance Institute, Andrew specialises in translating complex regulatory requirements into practical compliance solutions. His extensive work advising financial institutions and other commercial clients has earned him recognition for delivering plain-English practical guidance and implementing effective AML frameworks. Drawing from his hands-on experience with AUSTRAC liaison, writing and reviewing AML compliance programmes, Andrew offers practical strategies that bridge the gap between legal obligations and operational reality. As a practising lawyer and AML expert, Andrew offers a unique perspective on the challenges ahead for the implementation of the AML/CTF regime in the legal sector.

Ches Rafferty

CEO at easyAML

Co-founder and CEO of easyAML, Ches Rafferty, is recognised as an identity verification and regulatory compliance expert. Over a decade in the industry, Ches has dedicated his career to revolutionising compliant digital verification solutions.

Ches has been integral to Scantek’s evolution into the RegTech and FinTech space, representing an Australian success story. A technologist at heart, he helps organisations use technology to solve immediate pain points such as organisational compliance and verification.