Veli Kaplan is a senior director within K2 Integrity’s Financial Crimes Compliance practice, based in Abu Dhabi. With over 17 years of extensive experience conducting complex investigations within the legal and regulatory frameworks of both the Middle East and Europe, Veli provides counsel to global financial institutions and governments on matters pertaining to anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT). He aids clients in designing, establishing, and maintaining robust and efficient Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs). His role encompasses assisting clients in evaluating and fortifying their existing AML/CFT policies and procedures in alignment with international standards, as well as spearheading the implementation of new initiatives to ensure compliance and efficacy.
Prior to joining K2 Integrity, Veli was a director at HSBC in Turkey, where he served as head of financial crime threat mitigation. Overseeing a team of more than 50 professionals, Veli managed both external and internal investigations into financial crimes including money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud, sanctions breaches, bribery, and market abuse. He facilitated seamless coordination with regulatory and law enforcement bodies, while taking charge of transaction monitoring and name screening systems. Veli’s proactive approach extended to the implementation of sophisticated big data analytics investigations and diverse data analytics tools within the compliance structure.
Before his tenure at HSBC, Veli dedicated 12 years of his career to the Turkish National Police, where he held the position of chief inspector. He specialized in investigating complex financial crimes, organized crime, and asset recovery remediation related to illicit proceeds. He led cross-border investigations and collaborated with law enforcement agencies from various jurisdictions, as well as international bodies. Furthermore, Veli contributed his expertise to the University of Groningen Law School in the Netherlands as a doctoral researcher, focusing on the effective investigation of cyber crime and transnational crimes.
Veli received an M.A. in law from the University of Leeds Law School, an LL.M. from the University of Exeter School of Law, an M.Sc. in economics from the University of Exeter Business School, and a B.A. (Hons.) in political science from Ankara University. He also received a first-class honors degree in law and criminology from the Turkish National Police Academy. He is a certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and has professional certifications from ICA (Financial Crime Risk; Digital Compliance), UNODC (Advanced Anti-Corruption: Prevention of Corruption; Combating Smuggling and Organized Crime [with the Turkish National Police]), ACFE (Fraud Investigations; Internal Investigations), Europol (Freedom and Security in the Cyber Investigation) and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Digital Forensics Investigation). A native Turkish speaker, he is fluent in English and speaks German at an intermediate level.
