We are seeking a Partner-grade Financial Crime and Compliance Investigations practitioner to join our client in Hong Kong. The ideal candidate will hold senior financial-crime credentials with at least 15 years of relevant experience, the most recent 3+ years at Partner, Managing Director or equivalent practice-leadership level, a market reputation as a financial-crime investigations and AML / sanctions authority on bilingual fact patterns, and Mandarin and Cantonese working fluency at Partner-grade authority level. The successful candidate will have a portable book of senior client and law-firm-partner relationships, a sustained personally-originated financial-crime revenue track record, and the brand presence to lead a financial-crime-investigations practice in the Hong Kong market. They will be responsible for taking signed-off Partner positions on the most complex bank-monitorship and post-enforcement matters, leading the highest-profile HK-Mainland-cross-jurisdictional investigations end to end, originating and growing Partner-instructed mandates, and setting practice strategy on bilingual investigations, hiring, pricing and methodology.

Confidential Client. Applying to this position means that you are interested to have an initial confidential discussion about how we can help you to identify and join a new financial crime and compliance investigations practice at Partner level. With your authorisation we will exclusively run the entire application and recruitment process for you, keeping you apprised at every step. With over 30 years' combined experience of helping the most talented financial-crime practitioners to make safe exits to launch rewarding new careers, we have the experience, network and ability to help you.

Key Responsibilities:

• Take signed-off Partner positions on the most complex financial-crime investigations - high-stakes, often privileged, often regulator-and-class-action-facing engagements running USD 1.5m - 12m+ in fees - frequently with HK-Mainland-Singapore-elsewhere-APAC overlay, with full P&L responsibility for the financial-crime engagement portfolio.
• Originate, win and grow Partner-instructed financial-crime mandates by carrying a portable book of senior relationships at General Counsel, Head of Financial Crime, MLRO, Chief Compliance Officer and Audit Committee Chair level, and at relevant law firm partner level in Hong Kong and Greater China.
• Convert reactive case work into multi-year retainer engagements covering managed-investigations, ongoing-look-back-retainer, outsourced-MLRO, transaction-monitoring-tuning, sanctions-screening-validation, virtual-asset investigations and crypto-tracing work; build the practice's standing-monitor book - particularly where PIPL / CSL / DSL data-export risk shapes design.
• Take Partner-level signed-off positions on independent compliance monitor reports for AML / sanctions / VASP matters, DPA-induced annual attestations, transaction-monitoring tuning validation and ongoing investigations attestations; serve as Partner before HKMA, SFC, ICAC, JFIU, HK Police CCB and (where seated) the HK Court of First Instance.
• Lead the most complex multi-jurisdictional financial-crime investigations - notably 1MDB-pattern, China-investment-fund-pattern and HK-VASP-related matters, sanctions-evasion case work touching PRC SOE counterparties under PIPL / CSL / DSL, and cross-border market-abuse investigations linking HK Stock Connect, SG, the LSE and NASDAQ / NYSE.
• Set the practice's strategy on tooling adoption (such as NICE Actimize / Quantexa / Featurespace / Chainalysis stacks and the AI-assisted-monitoring frontier), hiring, pricing and market positioning; shape the firm's signed-off attestation doctrine and bilingual investigations capability.
• Build the practice's external IP and brand presence on financial-crime themes through published thought leadership and conference-level speaking engagements in HK / PRC publications and forums; pursue and maintain ACAMS / ICA / Wolfsberg Group / FATF expert positioning where applicable.
• Hire, develop, mentor and advocate for the practice staff - Senior Directors, Directors, Senior Managers and the wider bench - championing advancement at firm-wide promotion rounds, sponsoring sustained bilingual upskilling on emerging methodology and AI tooling, and shaping their external profile-building. Contribute to firm strategy beyond the financial-crime sub-practice.

Required Qualifications and Skills:

• Multiple senior financial-crime credentials, such as CAMS plus CFE plus CGSS plus ICA Diploma, or qualified-lawyer status with regulatory specialisation plus CAMS-FCI plus CCFI - the recognised stacking pattern at Partner level.
• At least 15 years of relevant experience in financial-crime investigations, AML / CFT remediation, sanctions case work, market-abuse investigations or qualified-legal practice, with the most recent 3+ years at Partner, Managing Director or equivalent practice-leadership level.
• Mandarin and Cantonese working fluency at depth sufficient to lead bilingual practice direction, regulator engagement and senior-stakeholder communication.
• Demonstrable track record of leading the most complex regional financial-crime matters with full P&L accountability and signed-off Partner-level attestations under regulator and class-action review on bilingual evidence populations.
• Demonstrable, sustained, personally-originated financial-crime revenue track record. Hong Kong market guide: USD 1.5m - 3m+ annually originated on financial-crime investigations and managed-monitorship work, calibrated to the engaging firm.
• Portable senior client relationships at General Counsel, Head of Financial Crime, MLRO, Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Risk Officer and Audit Committee Chair level, and at relevant law firm partner level (financial-services regulatory, regulatory enforcement, white-collar crime, internal-investigations and class-action / privacy-litigation practices) who refer and instruct financial-crime investigations work - credibly portable subject to non-compete and non-solicit posture; named accounts with multi-year history are the strongest evidence.
• Experience running a financial-crime sub-practice or country-team P&L: revenue, utilisation, gross margin, partner-time leverage, hire-and-promote responsibility, monitor-panel positioning.
• Authority on the Hong Kong financial-crime framework: AMLO (and 2024 virtual-asset amendments), the HKMA Guideline on AML / CFT, the SFC AML Code of Conduct, the Drug Trafficking (Recovery of Proceeds) Ordinance, OSCO, POBO, SFO market-misconduct framework, the Stablecoins Bill perimeter, and the 2024 Mainland Judicial Mutual Assistance arrangements including PIPL / CSL / DSL implications for transaction-data export.
• Cross-border fluency on FATF, EU 4AMLD / 5AMLD / 6AMLD, US BSA / FinCEN / OFAC / DOJ enforcement pattern, UK MLRs 2017 / POCA 2002, Singapore CDSA / MAS Notices, Australia AML/CTF Act 2006 / Tranche-2-extension, PRC Anti-Money Laundering Law and the Wolfsberg Group standards.
• Familiarity with industry-standard financial-crime tooling at Partner-policy depth, including transaction-monitoring (NICE Actimize, SAS AML, Oracle Mantas, Featurespace ARIC, Quantexa), screening (Refinitiv World-Check One, Dow Jones Risk Center, LexisNexis Bridger), KYC / CLM (Fenergo, Pega CLM), trade-surveillance (NICE Actimize, NASDAQ SMARTS, Eventus Validus), and crypto-tracing (Chainalysis, TRM Labs, Elliptic).
• Realistic engagement on notice periods and non-compete / non-solicit obligations given the senior nature of the move and the relationship-led nature of the practice.

Preferred Experience:

• Prior regulator alumni status at HKMA, SFC, ICAC, JFIU, or international peers (FCA / SEC / DOJ / FinCEN / OFAC / SFO, PRC CSRC).
• Independent-monitor or outsourced-MLRO appointment track record at Partner level.
• FATF Mutual Evaluation expert participation or Wolfsberg Group working-group positioning.
• Postgraduate qualification: Master's in finance, law, public policy, governance, MBA, or LLM with regulatory / compliance / criminal-justice relevance.
• Visible market profile in the Hong Kong / Greater China / APAC financial-crime community: published author in HK / PRC publications, conference speaker in bilingual settings, recognised authority on AML, sanctions, market-abuse or crypto-asset themes, named in legal and compliance directories.
• Track record of testifying or signed-off declaration on financial-crime issues in arbitration, court or regulator proceedings.
• Demonstrable conversion of one-off engagements into multi-year monitorship and standing-retainer work.
• Visible thought leadership on the AI developments reshaping financial-crime investigations and a documented growth-mindset operating posture: candidates who set the practice direction on tooling adoption (such as Quantexa contextual decisioning, Featurespace ARIC adaptive behavioural analytics, AI-driven sanctions-screening enrichment under HK and PRC sanctions overlays, or ML typology detection on TBML populations across HK-Mainland trade routes), advocate for and develop their practice staff on emerging methodologies, and have a track record of upskilling-programme delivery within the sub-practice.

Compensation:

Partner-level package commensurate with origination, portable book and seniority. Includes base, profit-share / partnership-distribution, equity participation and long-term incentive arrangements.

Next Steps:

This opportunity is open to Hong Kong permanent residents and qualified candidates with relevant Hong Kong work-rights status who match the above criteria. Please apply to receive prompt confidential contact from an experienced and specialist financial crime and compliance investigations recruitment Partner.

Search & Counsel is a trading style of Feltan Associates Pte Ltd; an international Executive Search, Recruitment and Consulting business based in Singapore, licensed and regulated by the Singapore Ministry of Manpower to conduct recruitment services for clients. UEN: 202225620G. EA Licence 23S1672. All rights reserved.