The international expert forum on Financial Integrity and Transparency in Sport, commonly known as SIGA FITS Forum, will kick off in New York City Thursday with a broad participation of world leaders, decision-makers, officials and academic experts.
The FITS Forum 2024 is co-hosted by Winston & Strawn LLP and SIGA AMERICA, the continental subsidiary of the Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA), the worlds leading organization for Sport Integrity.
The FITS Forum serves as a crucial and timely event to tackle the most critical Financial Integrity challenges in Sport. Expert insights will be shared by senior representatives from government, international organizations, financial institutions and professional service providers, as well as Sport bodies and the wider sports industry to articulate a path forwards and to help lay the groundwork for much needed reform within the realm of sports.
The Forum's panel sessions will discuss several crucial topics, including key challenges and pressing reforms in the field of financial integrity and transparency in sport, safeguarding sport from money laundering and criminal infiltration, and championing integrity in sport through good governance, transparency, and independent scrutiny.
Commenting on the occasion, SIGA Vice-Chairman Mohammed bin Hanzab said the SIGA FITS Forum reflects the great efforts made by SIGA in the areas of financial transparency, governance and integrity in global sports. These efforts have become a global reference in the international efforts to combat corruption, in line with the State of Qatar's pioneering status among the advanced countries in various fields, including combating corruption and promoting integrity in sports.
The Forum enhances the close strategic cooperation with the United States in the field of sports integrity, bin Hanzab added, hoping that the participants will come out with important recommendations to find the best solutions and practices capable of protecting integrity, enhancing transparency, and combating corruption in the sports.
For his part, CEO of SIGA Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros expressed pleasure at hosting the FITS Forum in New York City, the birthplace of the Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA), in an ambitious step that highlights the expansion of the international organization which was founded by Qatari efforts in 2016, led by the International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) and its President Mohammed bin Hanzab.
The organization of this forum comes at a crucial time to pave the way for much-needed reforms in the areas of integrity, financial transparency and governance in the global sports industry, he added.
The forum will be attended by senior representatives of the largest and most prestigious American financial institutions, most notably Richard Weber, Former Chief Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation at the US Department of the Treasury; Tyler Hatcher, IRS-Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge at the US Department of the Treasury; Kaitlin Farrell, Deputy Chief of General Crimes at the US Attorneys Office; Marlyen Habib from New York Federal Reserve; Mohammed Ahmed, Global Anti-Corruption and Financial Crime Compliance Leader at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, and David D. Chenkin, Chair of Government Investigations at White Collar Defense and Anti-Money Laundering Group, Zeichner, Ellman & Krausse LLP.
