Month: March 2021

Ireland to enforce AML checks for digital currency firms from April in line with 5AMLD

Digital Currencies, Money Laundering, Terrorism
Ireland will impose anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) requirements for digital currency firms starting April 2021. With the new regulations, the Irish central bank will have more oversight over the industry. Buyers and sellers of digital currencies will no longer be able to transact anonymously, local daily Irish Independent reports. Digital currency firms, also known as virtual asset service providers (VASPs), will now have to complete due diligence on their clients. This is after the European nation adopted the EU’s Fifth Anti Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD). 5AMLD is the EU’s latest legal framework for combating…

Cyprus to lift veil of secrecy with register of company owners

Money Laundering
NICOSIA (Reuters) – Cyprus plans to launch a register in coming months identifying the owners of thousands of companies on the island, lifting a veil of secrecy on opaque and complex corporate structures that campaigners say can help criminals seeking to hide their loot. Details of thousands of companies domiciled on the island, many thought to have Russian links, will be collected from March 16 to be entered in a so-called Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO) register. Supporters say the register, a requirement of European Union anti-money laundering (AML) regulations, could be a game changer for Cyprus, which activists say has…

John McAfee charged with securities fraud for ‘pump and dump’ cryptocurrency scheme

Fraud
John McAfee has been charged with securities fraud over a “pump and dump” cryptocurrency scheme. Federal prosecutors unsealed a case against McAfee and his executive advisor and bodyguard Jimmy Gale Watson Jr., claiming the pair earned nearly $2 million by urging Twitter followers to invest in cryptocurrencies like Reddcoin and Dogecoin, then selling off their own holdings as the price rose. “McAfee and Watson exploited a widely used social media platform and enthusiasm among investors in the emerging cryptocurrency market to make millions through lies and deception,” said US Attorney Audrey Strauss in a statement. “The defendants allegedly used McAfee’s…

Wealthy countries that set global tax rules are biggest enablers of corporate tax abuse

Tax Avoidance
Tax Justice Network ranks OECD members and British overseas territories highest in its 2021 corporate tax haven index, advocating for the UN to set standards instead. The world’s wealthiest countries that help set global tax standards are actually responsible for the majority of corporate tax abuses around the world, a new report has found. The Tax Justice Network’s 2021 Corporate Tax Haven Index, which ranks the countries “most complicit in helping multinational corporations pay less tax than they are expected to,” pegs six jurisdictions that are part of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development — the British Virgin Islands,…

Moscow Court Sentences Banker in ‘Russian Laundromat’ Case

Money Laundering, Prosecutions
A court in Russia sentenced banker Oleg Kuzmin on Monday to nine years in prison and ordered him to pay a one-million-ruble (US$13,574) fine for his part in a major money-laundering operation known as the “Russian Laundromat” or the “Moldovan Scheme,” Kommersant reported. The operation that lasted from 2010 until 2014 may have been the largest of this kind in Eastern Europe, with more than US$20 billion of illicit money transferred from Russia to Moldova and Latvia through a complex series of intermediaries, a 2014 OCCRP investigation revealed. Implicated in it were not just members of organized crime groups, but…

Latest analysis exposes financial underbelly of global wildlife crime

Wildlife Trafficking
The Case Digest- An Initial Analysis of the Financial Flows and Payment Mechanisms Behind Wildlife and Forest Crime, provides a thorough examination of the financial data from more than 40 wildlife crime cases from across the globe, including 11 detailed case studies. The report is a product of years of unprecedented collaboration between participating government agencies, financial intelligence units, non-governmental organisations and other sector experts. Download report (pdf) Key FindingsTRAFFIC, together with its key partner UNODC canvassed the globe for cases, with valuable contributions from leading financial crime partners, to identify examples where financial investigation was conducted to analyse and…

FATF chief suggests criminals are ‘getting away with’ lucrative profits because AML industry doesn’t use its collective power

Money Laundering
FINANCIAL CRIMINALS ARE getting away with the bulk of their profits, even though the FinCrime industry collectively has the power to stop it, the head of the Financial Action Task Force has said. President Dr Marcus Pleyer criticised the gap between theory and reality when it comes to AML, saying that this was a reason why so many criminals continued to succeed in the financial system. Banks, accountants, company formation agents, lawyers and others were all part of this problem, he said in a keynote address to the AMLintelligence Global Action on Money Laundering conference Thursday. “All of them need…

Fourth oil executive sentenced for paying bribes to win a multi-million pound contract in post-occupation Iraq

Bribery, Prosecutions
Paul Bond has today been sentenced to three and half years’ imprisonment for conspiring with others to bribe Iraqi public officials to secure lucrative oil contracts in post-occupation Iraq. Earlier this week, Bond, a former senior sales manager at SBM Offshore (SBM), was found guilty on two counts of conspiracy to give corrupt payments following a retrial of his case at Southwark Crown Court. This was the fourth conviction the SFO secured in its wide-scale Unaoil bribery investigation, which uncovered the payment of over $17m worth of bribes to secure $1.7bn worth of contracts for Unaoil and its clients. In…

HMRC Anti-Money Laundering Supervision annual assessment

HMRC, Money Laundering
1) Summary1.1 Certain types of legitimate business services can be attractive to criminals, who exploit them to launder money or finance terrorism. Life is made easier for criminals when insufficient controls are in place. It is therefore essential that businesses put in place adequate measures to prevent criminals from using their services to launder money and finance terrorism. 1.2 HMRC is one of 25 Anti-Money Laundering (AML) supervisors in the UK. HMRC delivers its supervisory responsibility through its Anti-Money Laundering Supervisory (AMLS) teams. HMRC helps ensure that businesses comply with the current Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds…

UK Art Dealers Are Misusing the Law to Avoid New Money-Laundering Regulations. Compliance Experts Say It Will Backfire

Money Laundering
Art businesses should not be fooled into thinking they can use “reliance” as a loophole, experts say. The UK’s art market has been subject to stringent new regulations since an anti-money laundering directive came into force in January 2020. While the new requirements to conduct identity checks and other due diligence on art buyers initially came as a shock to an industry that has for centuries operated on handshakes, much of the market is now accustomed to these processes. But experts say that some art businesses may have misunderstood a key part of the regulations, and could be unwittingly breaking…

EBA publishes guidelines on money laundering and terrorist financing risk factors

Money Laundering, Terrorism
The EBA has published its final revised Guidelines on money laundering and terrorist financing risk factors.The revisions consider changes to the EU Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing (AML/CFT) legal framework and address new ML/TF risks, including those identified by the EBA’s implementation reviews. In addition to strengthening financial institutions’ risk-based approaches to AML/CFT, the revision supports the development of more effective and consistent supervisory approaches where evidence suggested that divergent approaches continue to exist. The Guidelines are central to the EBA’s work to lead, coordinate, and monitor the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. The Guidelines are…

Money launderers ‘prey on generation Covid’

Fraud, Money Laundering
Criminals are seizing on young people’s Covid-related financial troubles to hire them to unwittingly launder money, experts say. More than four in 10 cases of money mules involved victims aged 21 to 30, with the numbers rising last year, fraud prevention service Cifas said. Banks said criminals posted fake job adverts on social media, targeting “generation Covid” struggling for work. It is part of a wider trend of fraudsters exploiting the crisis. ‘Fake job adverts’ Criminals want to move money through accounts to make it look less suspicious to banks. Money mules are given a cut for allowing their account…

Accountants are on the frontline in the war on economic crime

Financial Crime
Why do we need to talk about global perspectives on economic crime right now? IFAC, the global organisation for the accountancy profession, explains.“The root of the problem is that the economic incentive is always going to drive criminals to innovate and take risks,” says Scott Hanson, Director, Public Policy & Regulation at IFAC. “They’re always got that motivation to stay two steps ahead.” Add to that the accelerated pace of technological change, and the challenge is augmented exponentially. “The unfortunate news is that for every door that policymakers, law enforcement, and their professional allies, like accountants, close, technology opens new…

North Korea is the most isolated country on the planet, but it still finds ways to steal billions of dollars

Financial Crime, Sanctions
The Department of Justice said last month that North Korea has used cyberattacks to steal over $1 billion since 2015 to fund its nuclear weapons program. Heavy sanctions, imposed by both the US and the UN, prevent North Korea from participating in the formal global economy. The regime often circumvents these sanctions, mostly through secretive ship-to-ship transfers of luxury goods, chemicals, and coal, which is North Korea’s primary export. North Korea’s nuclear program is essential to the Kim regime, and it devotes all the resources it can to increasing and improving its arsenal. The rise of digital currencies has created…

AFME calls for regulatory certainty on the treatment of crypto assets

Digital Currencies, Money Laundering, Terrorism
The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) has called for UK authorities to provide regulatory certainty on the treatment of crypto assets in its response to HM Treasury’s consultation on the UK approach to crypto assets and stable coins. AFME has also pushed for a review of existing financial services legislation to identify and address obstacles to distributed ledger technology (DLT) innovation. The association has recommended a more “granular crypto-asset taxonomy” to clarify the treatment of existing use cases that will support the UK approach to fulfil regulatory objectives and encourage innovation. This will support greater certainty on which…

ING acknowledges decision by French financial regulator

Money Laundering
ING has acknowledged the decision published today by the financial regulator in France, the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR), on ING in France, following its inspection in 2018, for shortcomings in its anti-money laundering (AML) and anti-terrorist financing framework. Based on the ACPR findings, ING in France has put in place all the necessary corrective measures to strengthen its processes and management of compliance risks. Based on the inspection, the ACPR has reprimanded ING in France and imposed a sanction of €3 million. In the context of significantly increased attention on the prevention of financial economic crime…

Albanian Government Made No Significant Progress Against Money Laundering and Financial Crime in 2020

Financial Crime, Money Laundering
Albania is a source country of cannabis and a home base for organized crime groups moving narcotics from source countries into European markets. Albanian nationals are heavily involved in trafficking illicit narcotics throughout Europe but the government needs to do more, according to a new US State Department report. The International Narcotics Control Strategy Report provides a country-by-country analysis of crime including drug trafficking, money laundering, and the government’s response. It found that Albanian cannabis is sent to Turkey and exchanged for heroin and cocaine which is then smuggled across Europe by Albanian nationals. Furthermore, the illicit profits of these…

Financial Crime Surges in 2020 Following Shift to Digital Banking and Commerce

Financial Crime
A huge rise in financial crime was recorded last year, driven by the rapid shift to digital banking and commerce following COVID-19 lockdowns. This is according to Feedzai’s Financial Crime Report Q1 – 2021, which compared the volume of financial fraud and crime in Q4 and Q1 2020, with the latter quarter mainly unaffected by the pandemic. The study found there was a 650% surge in account takeover (ATO) in Q4 compared to Q1, with malicious actors taking advantage of the growth in online accounts during the crisis. The authors noted that the expansion of online banking and real-time payment…