Month: September 2020

UK financial regulator failed to prosecute half of money-laundering criminal probes

Money Laundering
The UK financial regulator has discontinued half of its criminal investigations into breaches of the money laundering rules since January, and is yet to bring a single prosecution — despite a pledge to make full use of its powers. Figures released under a freedom of information request show that, in the year to date, seven out of 14 criminal investigations into contraventions of the money launderingregulations have been shut down by the Financial Conduct Authority. Five of these were “single track”, or solely criminal, probes, while the other two were “dual track” investigations that could have resulted in either criminal or civil proceedings. As a…

Criminals exploit Covid-19 as fraud moves increasingly online

Fraud
Unauthorised fraud fell by eight per cent to £374.3 million in first half of 2020, as the banking industry prevented £853 million of losses. Criminals are exploiting and adapting to Covid-19 with a rise in online data harvesting and a fall in cheque and contactless card fraud. £207.8 million was lost to Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud, in line with the same period last year. Finance providers were able to return £73.1 million of APP fraud losses to victims, up 86 per cent compared to last year. £47.9 million of losses were reimbursed to victims under APP voluntary Code in first…

COVID-19: Trends in money laundering and terrorism financing

Money Laundering
COMMITTEE OF EXPERTS ON THE EVALUATION OF ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING MEASURES AND THE FINANCING OF TERRORISM (MONEYVAL) STRASBOURG The Council of Europe’s MONEYVAL Committee has issued a report aimed at helping the global community to counter new criminal activities which are exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic, including the sale of counterfeit medicines and cybercrime. The Committee, which specialises in measures to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing, focuses in its new report on threats, vulnerabilities and best practices. The aim is to assist policymakers, practitioners and the private sector in applying a more targeted and effective response to the money laundering and terrorist financing risks in Europe. The report found…

INSIGHT: U.K. Tax Authority Getting Ready to Bite on Evasion

Compliance, Corruption, Fraud, Investigation
The U.K. tax authority is indicating its intention to enforce legislation and investigate corporations for failure to prevent tax evasion. Mukul Chawla QC and Kate Ison of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP review the current status of inquiries and discuss what action organizations need to take to ensure their procedures are robust and compliant. The focus by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) on organizations, under the Criminal Finances Act 2017, for the corporate offense of failure to prevent tax evasion, appears to be making steady progress. The number of investigations and inquiries that HMRC is currently undertaking, and the wide…

What are the repercussions if a financial services firm is found guilty of facilitating tax evasion?

Corruption, Fraud, Investigation
The offence of failure to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion (also known as the Corporate Criminal Offence or CCO) was introduced with great fanfare following the government initiative; ‘No Safe Havens’, which was part of an international initiative to increase tax transparency. As of 31 July 2020, HMRC announced that they had 10 CCO investigations open and a further 22 ‘opportunities under review’, meaning that HMRC are considering whether to open an investigation. Within these 32 investigations or ‘opportunities’, HMRC have disclosed that over a third relate to businesses within the financial sector. Businesses in the financial sector are…

Danske Scandal Reveals Top-Down Culture That Silenced Staff

Corruption
The bank at the center of Europe’s worst ever money laundering scandal has yet to fully address the corporate culture issues that led it astray in the first place. That’s according to the watchdog that oversees Danske Bank A/S. Denmark’s biggest bank spent years locked in a top-down hierarchy that left its management cut off from people further down the organization, according to Jesper Berg, the director general of the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority. “You go from a very hierarchical institution to an institution where staff needs to flag mistakes and speak up more,” he said in a phone intervie “They…

Corporate transparency and register reform

Download
Detail of outcome The government response sets out a range of proposals to improve the reliability and accuracy of information on the Companies Register, including: identity verification: introducing compulsory identity verification for all directors, People with Significant Control and those filing information on behalf of a company reforms to Companies House powers: providing the Registrar of Companies stronger powers to query, seek evidence for, amend or remove information and to share it with law enforcement partners when certain conditions are met protecting personal information: improving the processes for removing personal information from the register company accounts: the response proposes further…

AUSTRAC and Westpac agree to proposed $1.3bn penalty

Corruption, Money Laundering
Westpac and AUSTRAC have today agreed to a 1.3 billion dollar proposed penalty over Westpac’s breaches of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act). Westpac and AUSTRAC have agreed that the proposed penalty reflects the seriousness and magnitude of compliance failings by Westpac. The Federal Court of Australia will now consider the proposed settlement and penalty. If the Federal Court determines the proposed penalty is appropriate, the penalty order made will represent the largest ever civil penalty in Australian history.  In reaching today’s agreement, Westpac has admitted to contravening the AML/CTF Act on over 23 million occasions, exposing Australia’s…

FATF Releases Updated Virtual Assets Red Flag Indicators of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Report

Money Laundering
The Financial Action Task Force(FATF), an intergovernmental organization that develops policies to combat money laundering and terrorism financing, has released an updated report, titled, Virtual Assets Red Flag Indicators of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing. Published on September 14, 2020, the report notes that virtual or digital assets have been using innovative technology to quickly transfer value, globally, and may offer certain benefits, such as making digital payments faster and at more competitive rates. However, the FATF cautions that the anonymity associated with virtual assets can “attract criminals, who have used [them] to launder proceeds from a range of offenses such as…

The intensity of regulatory scrutiny of AML and crypto-assets

Compliance
As envisaged in its 2019/20 Business Plan, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is consulting on proposals to extend its financial crime reporting obligation to additional firms irrespective of their total annual revenue. The proposed extension would cover all crypto-asset exchange and custodian wallet providers, as well as all electronic money institutions, Multilateral Trading Facilities (MTFs) and Organised Trading Facilities (OTFs). Under the proposed requirements each firm must provide information to the FCA on the location of its customers, the jurisdictions in which it has business and which of those jurisdictions it considers high risk. In addition, firms must disclose the resources it…

2020 Half year fraud report

Download
Whether it’s elaborate scams and attempts by criminals to con innocent victims into handing over their money or providing access to data which can then be used to gain illicit funds, stories of those impacted by fraud are becoming increasingly common. In particular, Covid-19 has seen criminal gangs focus on taking advantage of people’s fears and uncertainties around the virus, sometimes to devastating effect.  This is demonstrated by a sharp rise in the number of impersonation scams, which nearly doubled in the first six months of the year, with almost 15,000 cases reported. Such scams occur when the victim is…

How Anonymous Companies Are Used to Launder Money in U.S. Real Estate

Money Laundering
Alongside the world’s worst COVID-19 death rates, the United States is facing an impending economic recession following the first wave of the pandemic. But, while millions of Americans struggle to stay afloat amid record job losses, there is a sector that seems strangely unaffected by the post-pandemic economic fallout: Real estate purchases. Alarmingly, in the U.S., there are few regulations and checks of who is purchasing homes. As a result, housing remains a key vehicle for criminals looking to stash cash, launder money, and buy up homes in a tight market. In the wake of the 2008 recession, the U.S. real estate…

Virtual Assets Red Flag Indicators of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing

Money Laundering, Organised Crime
Download the PDF Here. Paris, 14 September 2020 – Virtual assets use innovative technology to swiftly transfer value around the world and have many potential benefits, including making payments faster and cheaper. But the anonymity associated with them also attracts criminals, who have used virtual assets to launder proceeds from a range of offences such as the drugs trade, illegal arms smuggling, fraud, tax evasion, cyber attacks, sanctions evasion, child exploitation and human trafficking. In response, the FATF Report Virtual Assets – Red Flag Indiciators of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing will help national authorities detect whether virtual assets are being used for…

What the FinCEN files tell us about the UK’s role as an enabler of corruption & money laundering – and what needs to change.

Money Laundering
The FinCEN files, more than 2,500 documents relating to $2tn (£1.56tn) of transactions, have once again highlighted the vast amount of illicit wealth that flows through the global economy.  This is a great piece of journalism that paints a vivid picture of the dirty money being handled by the financial sector. Nothing about this story, however, should come as a surprise. The UK Government has stated that roughly £100 billion of illicit wealth impacts the economy every year. And that’s just the UK. It’s not a surprise that the leak shows how UK banks continually failed to address suspicious activity and instead…

Statement by FinCEN Regarding Unlawfully Disclosed Suspicious Activity Reports

Compliance
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is aware that various media outlets intend to publish a series of articles based on unlawfully disclosed Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), as well as other sensitive government documents, from several years ago. As FinCEN has stated previously, the unauthorized disclosure of SARs is a crime that can impact the national security of the United States, compromise law enforcement investigations, and threaten the safety and security of the institutions and individuals who file such reports. FinCEN has referred this matter to the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of…

Thousands of secrets suspicious activity reposted offer never-before-seen picot of corruption and complicity – and how the government lets it flourish.

Money Laundering
This is part of the FinCEN Files investigation. A huge trove of secret government documents reveals for the first time how the giants of Western banking move trillions of dollars in suspicious transactions, enriching themselves and their shareholders while facilitating the work of terrorists, kleptocrats, and drug kingpins. And the US government, despite its vast powers, fails to stop it. Today, the FinCEN Files — thousands of “suspicious activity reports” and other US government documents — offer an unprecedented view of global financial corruption, the banks enabling it, and the government agencies that watch as it flourishes. BuzzFeed News has shared…