christophe sebaaly

I’m a Financial Crime and Compliance professional with 6+ years of experience across AML/CFT, sanctions, and forensic investigations within the UAE. I help banks, financial institutions, and Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) strengthen compliance programs through enforcement-driven remediation and risk-based approaches.

In my current role as Senior Associate – Investigations and Compliance at Secretariat Consulting, I lead AML/CFT, sanctions, and financial crime compliance reviews aligned with UAE regulatory frameworks. I engage directly with regulators and senior compliance leadership to design and execute remediation plans following regulatory findings and enforcement actions.

I also deliver large-scale CDD/EDD remediation, including PEP reviews, KYC/UBO validation, source of wealth and source of funds analysis, transaction analysis, screening result assessments, customer risk assessments, and SAR/STR procedures and submissions. I contributed to a full-scope Operational Readiness Review (ORR) for a UAE bank under FSRA/ADGM, assessing governance, products and services, risk management, compliance, technology and data, people and organization, finance, operations, and stress testing—resulting in an ORR report submitted to regulators.

My work blends governance and control improvements with hands-on investigations. I evaluate board effectiveness and compliance/internal audit independence, enhance policies and procedures (including transaction monitoring and sanctions), support transaction monitoring system calibration and effectiveness testing, and perform screening using tools like Refinitiv World-Check, LexisNexis, and World-Check. Before this, I supported forensic accounting and regulatory-driven engagements at Forensic Risk Alliance and worked as a Financial Accountant and Compliance professional at Amana Capital.