John Al Saddy is a director at K2 Integrity, where he advises clients on the full spectrum of financial integrity issues. John assists clients in developing and implementing effective and comprehensive anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) frameworks, including by enhancing the understanding and mitigation of all manner of financial crime risks, such as money laundering, terrorism financing, corruption, and bribery. John assists clients in implementing national requirements, global standards, and international best practices.
Prior to joining K2 Integrity, John worked for the U.S. Congress as a legal expert and the first-ever legal research fellow of the Law Library of Congress’s Global Legal Research Directorate. A trained attorney, John provided nonpartisan legal and policy analysis and guidance concerning foreign, comparative, and international legal and regulatory issues, with focus on Arab and Islamic countries’ laws and regulations. John has contributed to legal reports and published articles on financial integrity issues, including FATF global AML/CFT standards, anti-bribery and corruption global standards, and U.S. and international jurisdictions’ financial crimes laws and regulations.
Before his tenure at the Law Library of Congress, John was a research assistant to Judge Gregory Maggs, Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. He also worked as an associate with a Los Angeles law firm. In these roles John provided legal and policy consultations on issues concerning international law, Islamic (Shari’a) law, anticorruption, international human rights, governance, extremism, economic sanctions, and AML/CFT standards. He also spent time at the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) working on international law issues.
John received an LL.M. in national security and U.S.-foreign relations law from George Washington University Law School and an LL.B. (J.D. equivalent) from Damascus University Law School. John is fluent in Arabic and English and has a working knowledge of French. He is a Certified Risk Management Specialist–Global Sanctions (CRMS-GS), is a Certified Financial Crime Specialist (CFCS), and has an FCPA Expert Certification.
