Month: April 2026

French Court Blocks Extradition of Late Tunisian Dictator’s Daughter

Money Laundering
A French court has rejected Tunisia’s request to extradite the sanctioned daughter of late President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali over alleged financial crimes, the Paris Court of Appeal confirmed to OCCRP Thursday. Tunisian authorities accuse Halima Ben Ali, the youngest daughter of the late dictator, of several financial crimes. The charges include laundering funds allegedly acquired while her father held power from 1987 to 2011. “The investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal issued a ruling on April 1, 2026, rejecting the extradition request from the Tunisian authorities for Halima Ben Ali, and lifted the judicial supervision to…

Tunisia Jails Former Anti-Corruption Chief in Move Decried as ‘Judicial Harassment’

Corruption
Human rights organizations and civil society groups condemned the detention of Tunisia’s former top anti-corruption official on financial charges as a politically motivated campaign of revenge aimed at silencing defenders of the nation’s fading democratic institutions. Chawki Al-Tabib, 62, the former head of the National Anti-Corruption Authority and a past president of the Tunisian Bar Association, was ordered imprisoned by an investigating judge on charges of money laundering, abuse of office, and the embezzlement of public funds. The judge also ordered a freeze on Al-Tabib’s assets, Tunisia’s state-run news agency, TAP, reported on Tuesday. The official narrative claims the suspected…

Japan Tightens AML & Counter-Terror Financing Expectations with Risk-Based Framework at the Core

Regulation
Key Takeaways Risk-Based Approach Elevated: Financial institutions must continuously identify, assess, and mitigate ML/FT risks as a core operational capability, not a periodic exerciseBoard Accountability Strengthened: Senior leadership is expected to take direct ownership of AML/CFT strategy, governance, and resource allocationFrom Compliance to Effectiveness: Regulators are focusing on whether controls work in practice, not just whether rules are followedData and Technology Centralized: Strong data governance and effective use of monitoring systems are now foundational to AML/CFT programsCross-Border Risk Intensified: Greater scrutiny is placed on international transactions, correspondent banking, and trade finance exposureDeep Dive New guidance from the Japanese Financial Services…

Russia Launches Probe Into $13.31 Billion Fake Invoice Tax Scheme

Tax Evasion
Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case against members of an alleged organized group suspected of running a fake invoice scheme that caused more than one trillion rubles ($13.31 billion) in losses to the country’s budget system. According to the investigators, the group created more than 4,000 shell companies since 2023 and sold fake invoices to nearly 40,000 organizations. The Investigative Committee said the invoices contained false information about the sale of goods, the provision of services, the performance of work, and the transfer of property. The documents were then improperly included in taxpayers’ reporting submitted to the authorities.…

FinCEN Looks to Rewrite AML Rules, Shifting the Focus From Paperwork to What Actually Works

Regulation
Key Takeaways From Volume to Value: FinCEN is proposing a shift away from paperwork-heavy compliance toward measuring how effectively institutions detect and stop illicit finance.Risk-Based Programs Reinforced: Firms would have greater latitude to focus resources on higher-risk areas, rather than spreading efforts thinly across low-risk requirements.Supervisory Clarity: The proposal seeks to reduce subjectivity in exams by distinguishing between design flaws and implementation failures.2024 Proposal Scrapped: The rule replaces FinCEN’s earlier 2024 proposal and aligns with the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020.Deep Dive There has long been an unspoken tension at the heart of anti-money laundering compliance. Banks file more reports,…

French Cement Giant Convicted of Financing Terrorism

Counter Terrorist Financing, Terrorism
A Paris court on Monday convicted French cement giant Lafarge and eight former executives of financing terrorism, ruling they paid jihadist groups millions to keep a Syrian plant running during the country’s civil war. Former CEO Bruno Lafont was sentenced to six years in prison, effective immediately. Seven other former executives received prison terms ranging from 18 months to seven years. The criminal court also fined the company 1.125 million euros ($1.32 million) for the terrorism charge, and levied a joint 4.57 million euros ($5.35 million) customs fine against Lafarge and four executives for violating international financial sanctions. During the…

Moldovan Vladimir Plahotniuc Sentenced to 19 Years for Crimes, Including “Billion Dollar Bank Fraud”

Fraud, Prosecutions
A Moldovan court on Wednesday found businessman Vladimir Plahotniuc guilty of participating in the country’s ‘Billion Dollar Bank Fraud,’ sentenced him to 19 years in prison, and ordered the seizure of more than 1.1 billion Moldovan lei (roughly $64 million) in assets. The verdict by a panel of judges at the Chișinău Court said Plahotniuc “created and managed a criminal organization that committed several crimes, including fraud and money laundering, in particular the theft of financial means from the banking system of the Republic of Moldova with their subsequent laundering.” A former member of parliament, deputy speaker and leader of…

AMLA Moves to Standardize AML Risk Assessments Across Non-Financial Sector, Invites Early Industry Input

Regulation
Key Takeaways Unified AML Risk Framework: The Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism is developing a common methodology for assessing money laundering and terrorist financing risks across the EU non-financial sector.Supervisory Alignment: The framework is intended to help national supervisors focus on higher-risk areas and guide decisions on the frequency and intensity of both on-site and off-site inspections.Early Industry Engagement: AMLA is hosting an online roundtable on 4 May 2026 to gather stakeholder input before launching a formal consultation on the methodology.Targeted Participation: Invitations have been extended to EU-level trade associations and representative bodies covering non-financial…

US Congressional Committee Chips Away at Corporate Transparency Act

Regulation
A Republican-led House committee voted on Tuesday to effectively dismantle a landmark anti-corruption law, advancing legislation that would exempt American business owners from a federal requirement to disclose their true identities to the government. The House Financial Services Committee voted 26 to 25 to repeal the Corporate Transparency Act, a bipartisan measure enacted in December 2020. In its place, the panel advanced the Repealing Big Brother Overreach Act, a bill with strong Republican backing and 191 co-sponsors that would significantly narrow the scope of federal financial disclosures. Under the proposed replacement, foreign nationals would still be required to report their…

EU Greenlights New Law to Standardize Anti-Corruption Penalties

Corruption
The European Council on Tuesday adopted a landmark directive aimed at aligning the prosecution of corruption across the bloc and ensuring that maximum penalties for such offenses are “not set too low.” According to the Council’s statement, the new directive will standardize the EU’s legal framework by replacing two decades-old legislations, a 2003 law on private-sector corruption and a 1997 convention regarding corruption involving EU and member-state officials. First proposed in May 2023, the directive is set to unify the legal definition of corruption among member states and “establishes a common level of penalties to sanction such offenses.” The new…

Canada to create powerful financial crimes agency as US weakens its approach

Regulation
Canada is to establish a new and powerful law enforcement agency to investigate financial crime, in stark contrast to the US, where weakened federal investigators have struggled to pursue fraudsters and the White House has pardoned convicted money launderers. A bill to create the Financial Crimes Agency (FCA) completed its first reading in parliament this week. The legislation was introduced by the governing Liberals and with their parliamentary majority, the party is likely to move it through both levels of government quickly. The new agency, tasked with investigating and prosecuting financial crimes, is the result of a public inquiry that…

Crime and Policing Act 2026: corporate criminal liability unbound

Legislation
The Crime and Policing Act received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026, further expanding the circumstances when organisations may be criminally prosecuted for wrongdoing by senior staff. The Act now applies the less restrictive model of corporate criminal liability, first seen in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 in relation to certain economic crime, to all offences — a development that is likely to broaden legal, compliance and governance risk across all industry sectors. What the law said before Section 196 of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (“ECCTA”) created an expanded route to prosecute organisations…

Will changes to the UK’s money laundering rules help or hinder crooks and kleptocrats?

Legislation, Money Laundering
The UK government has unveiled significant changes to the rules for how UK firms mitigate and manage money laundering risks. Some tweaks tightening up the rules are welcome but without robust supervision others could make the UK more vulnerable to dirty money. So what are the main changes and what is their likely impact? Undue diligence? UK anti-money laundering rules require many businesses – such as law firms, accountants, and banks – to do proper checks on the money they handle. These ‘due diligence’ checks require them to look into who they are dealing with and what’s behind their business…

SFO launch appeal into suspected home heating & insulation fraud

Fraud
The SFO is investigating allegations of fraud by three UK companies in relation to Energy Company Obligation 4 (ECO4), a UK government energy efficiency scheme designed to tackle fuel poverty and help reduce carbon emissions. At the heart of the investigation are allegations that Warmfront Team Ltd, JJ Crump and South Coast Insulation Services were involved in a sophisticated conspiracy across the country to undermine a government scheme by submitting claims where little or no work was undertaken. It is suspected that energy companies were defrauded of at least £44 million in this way. Working with the National Crime Agency,…