FinCEN chief quits to join Citigroup in latest regulator-to-bank move
The head of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has been hired away by one of the world’s largest banks — the latest in a trend of regulators joining entities they formerly regulated.
Andrea Gacki will become Citigroup’s global head of sanctions on October 1, and will join the bank’s independent risk management leadership team, according to an internal announcement shared with OCCRP.
Her jump to the private sector was shared with Citi employees after markets closed on Thursday by Tom Anderson, the bank’s chief compliance officer.
“Andrea’s deep geopolitical experience coupled with her national security and policy expertise will benefit Citi as we support our clients and businesses across the globe in navigating the increasingly complex sanctions landscape,” Anderson said in a note to colleagues.
Gacki has served as head of FinCEN since September 2023. Prior to that she was the director of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces U.S. government sanctions on both individuals and corporate entities.
Gacki and Treasury officials declined to comment on the move, which came less than a week after she endured a bipartisan grilling by members of the House Financial Services Committee.
Gacki testified about countering fraud and updating financial institutions’ reporting requirements under the Bank Secrecy Act. She faced hostile questions on a range of issues, from banking regulation to the finances of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Warren Davidson, a Republican from Ohio who chairs the House subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions, accused FinCEN of running a “bloated surveillance apparatus, demanding endless reports without delivering proportional results.”
At issue were Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) filed by banks if they detect questionable activity by one of their clients. These reports are supposed to help the Treasury Department catch money launderers and financial criminals, but a leak of SARs to journalists in 2020 revealed that FinCEN rarely took action to investigate the information it received.
Congress members also took issue with FinCEN’s implementation of the Corporate Transparency Act, a law that required anonymous shell companies registered in the U.S. to disclose their ownership to the government. The Trump administration has overseen a major rollback of the law.
In both cases, Gacki supported lowering the reporting burdens on banks and companies.
“We want to ensure that financial institutions are not spending their time and money reporting activity of little to no value to law enforcement,” she said during the hearing.
Gacki’s departure is the second time in the last five years Citibank has poached a former FinCEN director. In 2021, then FinCEN head Kenneth Blanco became chief compliance officer of Citi’s Financial Crimes Unit.
Several other former FinCEN officials have also left the agency to work for the banking industry they regulate. In 2016, soon after stepping down as FinCEN director, Jennifer Calvery joined HSBC as part of its financial crime risk and compliance division.
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