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Andrew Hood
Partner·Fieldfisher
Andrew heads up Fieldfisher LLP's London trade team, advising Governments, businesses and industry bodies on international trade and supply chain issues. Prior to joining private practice, Andrew spent over 13 years as a lawyer and negotiator for the UK Government, including at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, as Head of International and EU Law at the Attorney General’s Office and as General Counsel in 10 Downing Street, advising the UK Prime Minister (David Cameron).
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Bilal Sabbagh
Director – Investigations and Disputes at K2 Integrity·K2 Integrity
Bilal Sabbagh is a director in K2 Integrity’s Investigations and Disputes practice, based in London. He conducts investigative research on individuals, organizations, and other entities across multiple jurisdictions, with a strong focus on the Middle East and North Africa. Working for a variety of clients, including both public bodies and international corporations, he performs long-term, complex investigations looking into corruption, fraud, and other forms of malpractice.
Prior to joining K2 Integrity, Bilal worked for three years on the Middle East and North Africa desk at S-RM, a London-headquartered risk management consultancy. At S-RM, he conducted a wide variety of reputational and regulatory due diligence projects and investigations for large corporate clients, as well as multiple international intergovernmental organizations.
Bilal holds an M.Phil. in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies from the University of Oxford, an M.A. in Middle Eastern history from the School of Oriental and African Studies, and a B.A. in history from University College London. In addition to English, he speaks Arabic and French and has a strong working knowledge of Persian.
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Sabrine Hassen
Senior managing director – Investigations and Disputes·K2 Integrity
Sabrine Hassen is a senior managing director in K2 Integrity’s Investigations and Disputes practice in London.
Sabrine has 23 years of professional services, advisory, and industry experience, helping businesses, international organizations, and governments to identify and respond to allegations or instances of fraud, corruption, bribery, counter-terrorism financing, money laundering, and other acts of wrongdoing and misconduct in the Middle East and North Africa. Sabrine has spent significant time living and working in the MENA region and has led complex cross-border investigations in several of those jurisdictions.
Before joining K2 Integrity, Sabrine was a senior manager in the forensic services practice at PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC). During her tenure at PwC, Sabrine played a key role on a global investigation involving more than 1,000 service providers across 140 countries with an estimated $1.4 billion in potential fraudulent charges against the Libyan government.
She also served on the Independent External Examiner (IEE) team of the Libyan National Transitional Council’s (NTC) Temporary Financing Mechanism (TFM), where she assessed payments, scrutinized financial records, evaluated controls, and interviewed stakeholders to assure funds from foreign donors and unfrozen Libyan assets were used as intended.
Prior to her time at PwC, Sabrine was a senior director in Kroll International’s London office, where she worked mainly on self-due diligences and asset tracing for international law firms representing individuals and institutions from the Arabian Peninsula, and assisted several Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds with litigation support.
Sabrine received her M.A. in Middle Eastern studies and geopolitics from Jean Moulin University in Lyon, France. She is fluent in English, French, and Arabic.
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Ahmed Al Barwani
Partner and head of office - Oman·Al Tamimi & Company
Ahmed Al Barwani is the Partner and Head of the Oman Office. Ahmed is also a member of the Projects, Banking, Litigation, Rail and Hotel & Leisure sector groups.
Ahmed is admitted before Oman courts and has right of audience before Court of Appeal. Ahmed worked mainly in two jurisdictions, the United Kingdom and Oman, and was involved in substantial local and cross border transactions that have both civil and common law elements.
Ahmed’s particular expertise is in inward investment, corporate restructuring, corporate governance and mergers and acquisitions. Ahmed’s experience extends to other practice areas including arbitration in construction disputes, litigation, competition, tax and customs matters, banking, real estate and hospitality, banking and employment. Ahmed represented Oman government negotiating Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreements, Free Trade Agreement with USA and other Construction and Development Agreements of Infrastructure Projects in Oman.
In addition, Ahmed has developed solid regulatory experience on regulatory aspects that include formalities for registration of the transactions and type of permits and licenses required for different projects.
Ahmed’s language capabilities and in depth understanding of local administrative culture enabled him to gain wide experience on regulatory aspects and participate in drafting number of Oman laws, e.g. Issuance of Sukuk Regulation, Consumer Protection Law, Anti-Trust Law, amendments to Implementing Regulation of Telecommunication Act, Dispute Resolution Regulation and Public Consultation Regulation.
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Marc Armas
Counsel·Walden Macht & Haran
Marc is an experienced litigator, trial lawyer, and investigator whose practice focuses on white collar criminal and regulatory defense, crisis management, and internal investigations. He has handled a wide range of business crimes and investigations-related matters, including violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), False Claims Act (FCA), and Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), along with allegations of insider trading, digital currency theft, money laundering, sanctions violations, financial fraud, and market manipulation. Marc has also led the transaction review of an independent monitorship of a major financial institution, pursuant to a consent order of the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS), and has extensive experience representing individuals in various federal and state criminal matters.
Marc previously served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey (DNJ) and as an Assistant District Attorney in the Queens County District Attorney’s Office. During law school, Marc worked with several governmental agencies, including the U. S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), the New York County District Attorney’s Office, the New York City Police Department, and the Office of the Counselor to Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Before law school, Marc served on active duty as an officer in the United States Coast Guard, where he was stationed aboard a High Endurance Cutter and as part of a maritime counter-terrorism response team. During his time in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserves, Marc also was designated as a Reserves Judge Advocate General (JAG) officer.
Marc is the co-author of “Financial Institutions: Are You Ready for Your Cyber-Exam?” in the New York Law Journal, (June 15, 2017) and “DOJ Launches COVID-19-Related Fraud and Price Gouging Cases” in the New York Law Journal, (May 14, 2020).
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