NEW YORK (Nov. 3, 2026) — BioCatch, which prevents fraud and financial crime by recognizing patterns in human behavior, today announced the creation of a new public-private advisory board to help governments around the world combat tax, welfare, and other forms of fraud involving government payments deposited directly into the bank accounts of their citizens. Former IRS Criminal Investigation Chief Guy Ficco, former Australian Taxation Office Deputy Commissioner John Ford, and former Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority Director-General Dr. Shlomit Wagman have joined the board as its founding members.
“In an industry where trust is constantly under attack, BioCatch gives institutions a real edge,” Ficco said. “Getting to join the team as an advisor and contribute to that kind of impact is something I don't take for granted.”
“Fraud against tax and welfare systems diverts resources from those who need them most and undermines confidence in government programs,” Ford said. “I'm pleased to work alongside Guy, Shlomit, Gadi, and the BioCatch team to help governments leverage BioCatch’s unique behavioral intelligence and network insights to identify risk earlier, strengthen program integrity, and better protect public funds.”
“Fraud has become the dominant form of financial crime, and AI is accelerating its growth, scale, and sophistication,” Wagman said. “Governments need new capabilities to tackle this rapidly evolving threat, moving from investigating fraud to preventing it in real time. By combining advanced technology with effective intelligence sharing across financial institutions, governments, and borders, we can help governments build smarter, faster, and more effective fraud prevention systems. I’m excited to help BioCatch drive this transformation.”
Ficco, Ford, and Wagman will seek to establish partnerships with governments and law enforcement agencies around the world. With those relationships in place, BioCatch and its customers will collaborate to alert government offices of high-risk payments before those offices transfer tax, unemployment, pension, and other disbursements to accountholders who might not be legally entitled to them.
“Research from the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) shows public bodies can lose up to 5% of their annual spending to fraud and related losses,” BioCatch CEO Gadi Mazor said. “Globally, that might represent trillions of dollars lost every year. We believe we can help the governments of the world reduce those losses, ensuring that money ends up or stays where it belongs. We’re delighted to welcome Guy, John, and Shlomit to the team to help us execute on that goal.”
The U.S. Government Accountability Office estimates the U.S. federal government alone loses between $233 and $521 billion to fraud every year.
First launched in Australia in 2024, BioCatch Trust™ enables member banks to share account intelligence in real time, granting visibility into the trustworthiness of accounts at other banks. By forming this public-private advisory board, BioCatch seeks to build upon that collaboration, creating data-sharing frameworks across verticals to prevent fraud in ecosystems that extend beyond banking.
In his capacity as chief and deputy chief of the IRS’s criminal investigation arm (IRS-CI), Ficco oversaw a global workforce of 3,500 tax officers across 34 different offices and managed an annual budget of more than $1 billion. In his career, he’s directed major operations involving tax evasion, money laundering, sanctions violations, cybercrime, and cryptocurrency-related offenses. He also co-chaired the Treasury Department’s Fentanyl Strike Force, led IRS-CI’s involvement in the Kleptocapture Task Force, and served internationally as chair of the OECD Tax Crimes Enforcement Network (TCEN).
In addition to his role as deputy commissioner of the Australian Taxation Office, Ford also served as chief of Australia’s Serious Financial Crime Taskforce and as a Joint Chief of the J5, the international alliance of tax enforcement agencies. He’s led major national and international initiatives to combat tax fraud, money laundering, and organized financial crime, and is recognized for advancing intelligence-led and technology-enabled approaches to protecting public revenue and disrupting sophisticated criminal networks.
As Director-General of Israel’s Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority, Wagman led major operations against international criminal networks and transformed the agency into one of the world’s leading financial intelligence units. She also chaired the Risk Working Group at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global watchdog that sets standards to protect the integrity of the financial system across 200 jurisdictions. Wagman regularly advises governments and financial institutions and has testified before numerous parliaments, including the U.S. Senate.
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About BioCatch:
BioCatch prevents fraud and financial crime by recognizing patterns in human behavior, continuously collecting more than 3,000 anonymized data points — keystroke and mouse activity, touch screen behavior, AI agent usage, jailbroken devices, and more — as people interact with their digital banking platforms. With these inputs, BioCatch’s AI and machine-learning models continuously assess both user intent and any signs of coercion or manipulation throughout every second of every digital banking session, allowing banks to distinguish the criminal from the legitimate in real time. Insights drawn from across the entire network of BioCatch institutions further amplify the power and accuracy of that real-time risk-scoring. As of the end of Q3 2026, more than 400 financial institutions deploy BioCatch solutions, analyzing 20 billion user sessions per month and protecting more than 760 million users on more than 1.8 billion devices around the world from fraud and financial crime.
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PR contact:
Mac King
BioCatch director of global marketing communications
Mac.King@BioCatch.com