Grace Haidar, Legal Counsel, Trafigura Trading LLC
Grace Haidar is Legal Counsel at Trafigura Trading LLC, based in Houston, TX. She held a previous in-house role at Aramco Americas, and was a Litigation and International Arbitration Associate at the law firms of Jones Day and K&L Gates LLP. Grace specialized in international arbitrations in the energy industry while in private practice, and has expanded her practice in-house, to include M&A, energy and infrastructure projects, and now global energy commodities transactions.  
 

Jasper Helder, Partner, Akin
Advises multinational companies on economic sanctions, export controls, national security (including European Union (EU) and United Kingdom investment review), trade regulation, anticorruption and anti-money laundering compliance.

Recognised authority on regulatory matters involving Russia, the Middle East and China.

Guides clients in high-stakes sectors and markets, including energy, semiconductors and hi-tech, telecommunications, aerospace & defence, commodity trading, investment funds and private equity, through complex multijurisdictional sanctions and trade compliance challenges.

Jasper helps clients in highly regulated sectors and global markets in complex international trade, national security and regulatory matters.

Joshua Larocca, Managing Director - Investigations, Diligence and Compliance, Kroll
Joshua J. Larocca is a Managing Director in the Investigations, Diligence and Compliance practice, based in New York. He has extensive experience leading teams of investigators, digital forensic examiners, data scientists, forensic accountants and research analysts across a wide range of complex financial crime, incident response, due diligence and corporate misconduct investigations on behalf of corporations, law firms and financial institutions.

Josh’s diverse practice includes CFIUS advisory work as both a third-party auditor and monitor; consulting on money laundering and sanctions matters pursuant to compliance monitorships; and leading incident response teams investigating a broad array of data breach and ransomware matters.

Previously, Josh served as both a local and federal prosecutor, first as an Assistant District Attorney (ADA) in New York County and later as Trial Attorney in the Counterterrorism Section of the National Security Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. As an ADA, he presented numerous cases to the grand jury and conducted felony and misdemeanor trials across a broad array of violent crime, domestic violence and identity theft cases. At Main Justice, Josh was responsible for investigating and prosecuting international and domestic terrorism cases, including matters involving terrorist financing, material support, money laundering and economic sanctions. In addition to his government service, Josh has worked as an Associate at an international law firm and at Citibank Russia, first as Chief of Staff to the CEO, and later as a Relationship Manager.

Prior to joining Kroll, Josh was a longtime business and practice leader at a leading cybersecurity and investigations firm.

Josh holds an A.B., cum laude, in Slavic languages and literatures from Princeton University, a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law and an M.Sc. in international relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Michael Wain, Senior Policy Advisor, Akin
Michael is a senior policy advisor in the firm’s international trade practice advising clients in various international trade, enforcement, and compliance issues related to U.S. economic sanctions and export controls, with a focus on the maritime, energy, and financial sectors, including digital assets and securities. At Akin, he draws on his deep experience developing and implementing U.S. economic sanctions and engaging with industry, foreign governments, and Capitol Hill to assist clients on matters involving sanctions as well as international trade policy and anti-money laundering, including through analysis of legislation.

Michael previously served as Deputy Assistant Director for Policy at OFAC, where he managed over a dozen economic sanctions programs related to the Middle East, Asia, and global topics such as cyber threats, and designed complex sanctions options and represented the agency to advance strategy toward sensitive national security and economic issues related to China. He also previously served as a Senior Sanctions Policy Advisor where he implemented sanctions in response to Russia’s war against Ukraine, novel and complex investment restrictions on Chinese military companies, and other initiatives such as developing Hong Kong-related sanctions and enhancing sanctions with respect to North Korea and global human rights abuse and corruption.

Earlier in his career, he served as a Deputy Team Chief and Senior Advisor in the U.S. State Department’s nonproliferation bureau, overseeing the launch of technical programs to improve international sanctions implementation and new agreements to pursue bilateral and regional cooperation to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction. His experience in sensitive international and economic policy and national security issues and legislative affairs make him a trusted advisor to clients navigating the U.S. sanctions and export control arena.