Yaya Fanusie Keynote Speaker

Yaya Fanusie is a former Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), where his research focused on the national security implications of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. He is currently Global Head of Policy at Aleo Network Foundation, where he leads global policy engagement and regulatory strategy.

Yaya spent seven years as both an economic and counterterrorism analyst in the CIA, where he regularly briefed federal law enforcement, U.S. military personnel, and White House-level policy makers—including President George W. Bush, whom he personally briefed on terrorism threats. In 2009, he spent three months in Afghanistan providing analytic support to senior military officials.

After leaving government service, Yaya worked for a small consulting firm focused on financial asset recovery cases involving global corruption. Later, as director of analysis at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance, Yaya led research on sanctions evasion, terrorist financing, and Bitcoin money laundering. Yaya has testified before Congress multiple times on illicit financing issues. He has appeared on CNN and Fox News, and has been quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

Yaya is founder of Cryptocurrency AML Strategies, an advisory firm that helps financial institutions and technology firms address money laundering and terrorist financing risks associated with digital assets. In 2018, he developed and taught an Introduction to Blockchain Technology course at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

Yaya received an MA in International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a BA in Economics from UC Berkeley.