Selected Case Studies

How I solve critical risk, controls & compliance problems — with technology, lateral thinking and a bias for outcomes.

Five problems. Five unconventional solutions. Each case below reflects work I led personally, described by sector and scale rather than by name. Figures are indicative. Together they show a consistent operating style: treat assurance as a data problem, borrow the best idea from an adjacent discipline, and turn a one-off fix into a reusable capability.

Putting a ₹1,000-Crore Money Machine Under a Microscope — in Near Real Time

Indian skill-gaming arm of a NYSE- and LSE-listed global gaming & entertainment group · ~120 million registered players · ~half a billion gameplay and payment transactions a month.

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When the Rules Changed Overnight: a Clean Wind-Down, Then a Blueprint to Come Back

The Indian skill-gaming arm of a NYSE-/LSE-listed global gaming group · ~120 million users · in the immediate aftermath of India’s 2025 PROG Act, which banned real-money online gaming.

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warning THE CHALLENGE

A new law abruptly outlawed the company’s core real-money business. Within a compressed window I had to wind it down cleanly — switch off every money game and bonus, ensure no cash-game surface stayed live anywhere on the platform, and return several million dollars of player balances accurately and verifiably — all under intense regulatory and reputational scrutiny. Then the harder question: was there a responsible, lawful way back?

architecture THE APPROACH

I ran the shutdown as a controlled, evidence-grade programme, money games and bonuses disabled, open cash-game pages closed, and player funds reconciled and returned without defect. In parallel I shifted from defence to design. With the policy team, I became chief architect for a proposal of government-controlled regulatory sandbox to reopen skill-based gaming inside strict guardrails: a multi-ministry framework spanning technology, home affairs and finance, the central bank and the financial-intelligence unit, and national technical-standards bodies, with mandatory KYC and live selfie-matching, escrow-segregated player funds, deposit limits and irrevocable self-exclusion, a common national registry of vulnerable and debarred players, AML/CFT transaction monitoring, mule-account detection via the central bank’s AI, and AI-enabled advertising-compliance checks. I also built and then productised a capability to monitor illegal offshore gambling platforms operating in India: their acquisition tactics, payment rails (UPI handles, ‘mule-as-a-service’, side-loaded apps) and the crypto and tax-credit laundering routes through which money leaves the country, packaging the modus operandi and impact for multiple ministries to act on.

bolt THE IMPACT

A legally fraught shutdown was executed with zero player-fund defects and no residual exposure; player money was returned in full. The sandbox blueprint gave government a concrete, controllable path to reclaim tax revenue and consumer protection from offshore operators, and the offshore-monitoring product turned scattered intelligence into an evidentiary tool for enforcement. Risk leadership at its most consequential — protecting consumers and the exchequer while keeping a lawful industry alive.

CAPABILITIES DEMONSTRATED

Crisis wind-down & player-fund return AML/CFT & financial-crime intelligence Multi-regulator engagement Policy architecture Productisation

Teaching a Billion-Transaction Payments Engine to Trust Its Own Alarms

India’s largest digital payments platform · ~20 million merchants · 1 billion+ transactions a month · in the run-up to a ~$2.5 billion IPO.

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A Customer Trust Score, Built on Common Sense — Years Before the AI Boom

A listed consumer-finance NBFC running one of India’s largest Buy-Now-Pay-Later books · ~6 million subscribers · ~$200 million loan book · ~$500 million annual disbursals.

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Borrowing a Bank’s Discipline to Fix a Service Business - the Operational-Risk Reboot

One of India’s largest third-party ITeS/BPM enterprises · ~$2.5 billion revenue · delivering F&A, customer service and IT services across 10+ countries (later extended to technology, healthcare and consumer-goods units).

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Note: Specific entities are intentionally unnamed and are described by sector and scale. Details reflect work led personally and are shared at a level appropriate for public reference. Each case can be discussed in greater depth on request.

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Connect on LinkedIn ca.aayushgupta@gmail.com

Chartered Accountant (2010) MSc IT ISACA — Cybersecurity Audit New Delhi, India