In at this time’s episode I’m joined by Sigal Mandelker, Common Associate at Ribbit Capital, an funding agency centered on monetary providers and expertise.
Sigal and I cowl a spread of subjects, together with:
Sigal’s Work within the Public Sector:
After receiving her legislation diploma from the College of Pennsylvania Carey Regulation Faculty, Sigal went on to carry quite a few senior positions within the U.S. authorities, together with Deputy Assistant Common within the Felony Division. A lot of Sigal’s work centered round counter-terrorism nationwide safety. In December of 2016, she acquired a proposal to function the Beneath Secretary of Treasury for Terrorism and Monetary Intelligence. As Beneath Secretary, she supervised 4 important parts of the Treasury — OFAC, FinCEN, the Workplace of Intelligence and Evaluation, and the Workplace of Terrorist Financing and Monetary Crimes. Throughout her time within the public sector, Sigal noticed an unbelievable alternative for progress inside fintech, and in April of 2020, she joined Ribbit to assist bridge the hole between private and non-private partnerships.
Cryptocurrencies and Anti-Cash Laundering:
Throughout her time as Beneath Secretary, Sigal seen that incentives for monetary establishments to innovate in AML weren’t the place they need to be — banks spent a overwhelming majority of their time proving a damaging assertion. She labored to offer banks with the leeway to construct out AML techniques extra effectively. Moreover, in the direction of the top of her time working within the public sector, Cryptocurrencies had change into a serious speaking level. She centered on serving to the expertise and its use instances develop whereas limiting its use for nefarious actions. Sigal additionally factors out that cryptocurrencies are far more clear than conventional monetary infrastructure as a result of (for probably the most half) the blockchain they depend on is clear and immutable.
“For those who speak to prosecutors and also you gave them the selection of their felony instances of going after money-laundering that occurred both in money… versus money-laundering that occurred in crypto, universally they’ll say sure, please give me the crypto instances.”
Ribbit’s Funding in Chainalysis:
Sigal had some publicity to Chainalysis throughout her time within the public sector — she used a Chainalysis report back to establish completely different connections to a sanctioned digital pockets. Quick-forward to Sigal’s time at Ribbit, and Chainalysis was one of many first offers Sigal participated in. She presently works as an advisor to the corporate.
Over the previous few weeks, Chainalysis has created quite a few stories on crypto flows into Ukraine. Ukraine raised $70M in cryptocurrencies in just a few weeks for humanitarian functions together with meals and provides. Sigal is a agency believer in the way forward for cryptocurrencies as an “enabler for humanitarian support”. Chainalysis’ stories additionally discover that cryptocurrencies haven’t been used at a big scale for sanction evasion.
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Sigal Mandelker:
Sigal Mandelker joined Ribbit Capital as a Common Associate in April 2020. Ribbit is an funding agency centered on monetary providers and expertise. Previous to Ribbit, she served as Beneath Secretary of Treasury for Terrorism and Monetary Intelligence. As Beneath Secretary, Sigal supervised 4 important parts of Treasury (OFAC, FinCEN, the Workplace of Intelligence and Evaluation, and the Workplace of Terrorist Financing and Monetary Crimes). Earlier than serving as Beneath Secretary of Treasury, Sigal was a associate at Proskauer in New York. Sigal additionally beforehand served in quite a few senior positions within the U.S. authorities, together with as Deputy Assistant Lawyer Common within the Felony Division of the Justice Division, an AUSA within the Southern District of New York, Counselor to Secretary of Homeland Safety Michael Chertoff, and Counsel to the Deputy Lawyer Common. Sigal can be an Advisor to Chainalysis, is on the Board of the Monetary Know-how Affiliation, serves on the advisory group to the Digital Greenback Mission, and is Member of the US Holocaust Memorial Council.
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Concerning the Creator:
Anirudh Singh is a second-year MBA Candidate at The Wharton Faculty, the place he’s a part of the Wharton FinTech Podcast group. He has a ardour for financial growth, enterprise capital, monetary providers, and all issues FinTech. Don’t hesitate to achieve out with questions, feedback, suggestions, and alternatives at singhan@wharton.upenn.edu.
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