Catherine Ahn

She brings two decades of experience in financial crime, compliance, risk analysis and data protection as Head of Complex Investigations at HSBC, a federal prosecutor in major fraud and an intelligence and legal advisor at the U.S. Treasury Department. Her extensive experience with both private and public clients, enables her to deliver practical solutions integrating technology and business priorities and effectively addressing fraud and financial crime.

Prior to joining Kroll, Catherine served as Head of Complex Investigations for Complex Corporates and as Acting Regional Head of UK EMEA, U.S./Canada, Mexico and Latin America within Group Financial Crime Investigations at HSBC, managing teams in Dubai, New York, Mexico City, London and Edinburgh.

Catherine also served as Assistant U.S. Attorney (Major Frauds, CDCA) and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney (EDVA), where she prosecuted one of the largest COVID-related fraud and money laundering conspiracies charged by the U.S. Department of Justice. She led multi-agency investigations into bank, wire and securities fraud in parallel with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including a billion-dollar fintech investment fraud scheme, and prosecuted cases involving drug and human trafficking conspiracies and violent crime.

As Attorney-Advisor for Enforcement and Intelligence and Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, she worked with the White House, Congressional Committees, the United Nations and EU Commission, and the UK and other international partners to build and enforce the modern financial and secondary sanctions regime. Her advisory work included complex enforcement matters, such as U.S.-EU negotiations on GDPR-compliant data transfer for counterterrorism purposes, international tax harmonization, defense of sanctions in closed procedures in the UK and EU, tariff and trade fraud detection and enforcement and strategies to combat state sponsors of WMD/proliferation and terrorism.

Catherine and her teams have won numerous commendations, including the FinCEN Law Enforcement (LEAP) Award (2023), the FBI Director’s Commendation (2023), the Council of the Inspectors General for Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) Award (2022), the U.S. Attorney’s Law Enforcement Award (2018), and selected as Top 10 IRS Case of the Year (2022). She also received the U.S. Treasury Department’s Special Act Award for Exceptional Service (2007, 2009), the DNI Community Award (2008), Mission Manager Award (2010), the Meritorious Unit Citation (2009, 2011). She was selected as one of the British LGBTQ+ Award’s Top 12 Most Inspirational LGBTQ+ Leaders (2024). Her work has been featured in international and national media, including Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times, the true crime documentary series American Greed and podcasts.

Catherine holds a B.S. (business), B.A. (political science) and a J.D. (law) from the University of California, Berkeley and a MPA (quantitative track, domestic policy) from Princeton University. She is a certified information privacy professional (U.S. and Europe), ACAMS certified AML specialist and a member of British Computing Society (BCS). She also serves as a board member at Stiles Hall (Berkeley) and is a Patron of Queer Britain.