Ferhan Patel

Ferhan Patel's Note: Clinkle has always been a mystery to me.  It was in stealth mode for the longest time and when it launched, it left a lot to be desired.  The full story by Alyson Shontell The week after Thanksgiving, 40 Clinkle employees gathered in the kitchen of their San Francisco office. It was the second time in two days they’d been called together for an all-hands meeting. One day prior, Duplan had proudly announced a new hire, Chi-Chao Chang. A former Yahoo and xAd executive, Chang was Clinkle’s new vice president of engineering. It was a position recruiters had been trying to fill for months, and Chang had come highly recommended by former Yahoo CEO, Carol Bartz. The soft-spoken engineer had stood up and shared a few words about his background. He said he was excited to be joining Clinkle. Now, just 24 hours later, Chang was nowhere to be seen. Duplan cleared his throat, nervously shifting his weight. “Chi-Chao has left Clinkle,” he annou...

Money laundering is one of the crimes that can be hard to put a face to. Everybody is at least familiar with the term, but because it’s often associated with fancy accounting work rather than actual harmful illegal activities, people tend to think of it as a victimless crime. That is a grave mistake. Money laundering is the bread-and-butter of large, international crime rings, from cybercrime to drug trafficking to organized crime. That’s why we should never underestimate the importance of AML compliance. Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance is a set of laws, regulations and procedures that have been put in place to prevent the generation of income through illegal actions. For example, businesses in the payment card industry (PCI) must undergo a series of due-diligence procedures to prove that they are not facilitating, intentionally or unintentionally, money-laundering activities. What Is Money Laundering? At its most basic level, to launder money simply means disg...