Category: Investigation

Firm to clawback $174m from executives Goldman Sachs International (GSI) has been fined £96.6m by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) for risk management failures in connection with 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). In a statement, the FCA and PRA said GSI had “failed to assess and manage risk to the standard that was required given the high risk profile of the 1MDB transactions, and failed to assess risk factors on a sufficiently holistic basis”, and that GSI had also “failed to address allegations of bribery in 2013 and failed to manage allegations of misconduct in connection…

Image Credit: Credit Suisse in Zurich. © Plaza Financiera, Flickr Commons The federal prosecutor’s office in Brussels has opened a criminal investigation into the Swiss bank Credit Suisse, in particular the dealings of 2,600 Belgian clients suspected of using Swiss bank accounts to evade taxes.  “A criminal investigation has been opened against Credit Suisse for money laundering and unlawfully acting as a financial intermediary, as well as against Belgian customers who have not yet undergone tax regularisation.” On several occasions, the tax authorities in Belgium have offered a partial amnesty to anyone wishing to repatriate money hidden in accounts abroad,…

Since the devastating explosion of a store of ammonium nitrate in Beirut’s port on August 4, Lebanese citizens have taken to the streets in shock, outrage, and grief. Beirut’s Grain Silo Was One Man’s Refuge Through Years of War. On August 4, It Was Where He Died Read the story of one family’s loss from our partner Daraj.com. Above all, they have demanded answers: Where did the nearly 3,000 tons of explosive chemicals come from, and who owned it? Why did the rickety ship that brought the hazardous material to Lebanon end up stranded in the city’s port in late 2013?…

“Meaningful sentences must be given… to forewarn others of the consequences for engaging in multi-year tax fraud,” prosecutors argue. By Will Fitzgibbon July 31, 2020 The first people to plead guilty following the United States government’s response to the Panama Papers investigation should spend “significant” time in jail, prosecutors say. U.S. officials last week recommended prison for Harald von der Goltz and his accountant Richard Gaffey. Both men pleaded guilty to financial crimes earlier this year and are at home on bail. “For decades, von der Goltz orchestrated a complex fraudulent scheme for the purpose of evading tax payments that he owed to the United…

It is not every day that one criminal law enforcement authority raids another. However, that is just what happened when, on 14 July 2020, state prosecutors entered the German Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) armed with a search warrant.

Germany’s top financial supervisor received detailed warnings about deceptive financial practices at Wirecard AG starting in 2008 but repeatedly declined to investigate the allegations, turning instead against the accusers. Over more than a decade, investors, U.S. authorities, journalists and people close to the company warned of possible fraudulent accounting or money laundering, practices that are now at the heart of a criminal investigation into the disgraced fintech giant. But as the red flags piled up, Germany’s equivalent of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission played down the allegations, kicked the ball to other agencies and delayed examining the company’s accounts, according to previously unpublished documents,…

NCA and police smash thousands of criminal conspiracies after infiltration of encrypted communication platform in UK’s biggest ever law enforcement operation  Operation Venetic Entire organised crime groups dismantled during Operation Venetic with 746 arrests, and £54m criminal cash, 77 firearms and over two tonnes of drugs seized so far. UK law enforcement has made a massive breakthrough in the fight against serious and organised crime after the takedown of a bespoke encrypted global communication service used exclusively by criminals. EncroChat was one of the largest providers of encrypted communications and offered a secure mobile phone instant messaging service, but an…

In connection with Bank’s relationship with Jeffery Epstein and correspondent relationships with Danske Estonia and FBME Bank (Department of Financial Services) First Enforcement Action by a Regulator Against a Financial Institution for Dealings with Jeffrey Epstein  Superintendent of Financial Services Linda A. Lacewell announced today that Deutsche Bank AG, its New York branch, and Deutsche Bank Trust Company America (collectively “Deutsche Bank” or the “Bank”) have agreed to pay $150 million in penalties as part of a Consent Order entered into with the New York State Department of Financial Services (“DFS” or the “Department”) for significant compliance failures in connection…

WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took action against four steel, aluminum, and iron companies operating within Iran’s metals sector, including one subsidiary of Mobarakeh Steel Company — Iran’s largest steel manufacturer. Treasury is also designating one Germany-based and three United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based sales agents for being owned or controlled by Mobarakeh Steel Company. Mobarakeh Steel Company was designated in 2018 pursuant to counterterrorism authorities for providing support to Iran’s Mehr Eqtesad Iranian Investment Company, an entity designated for being owned or controlled by the IRGC-affiliated Bonyad Taavon Basij. Mobarakeh Steel Company was…

An international crime gang that ransacked ancient sites in Bulgaria and trafficked stolen archaeological goods whose total worth exceeds several millions of euros has been broken up as a result of an international police operation coordinated by Europol. 8 individuals were arrested and some 4,600 archaeological items were recovered as a result of this sting.  Nicknamed Operation MEDICUS, this effort was led by the General Directorate for the Fight against Organised Crime of the Bulgarian Ministry of Internal Affairs (Главна дирекция “Борба с организираната престъпност” при Министерството на вътрешните работи на Република България) together with the British Metropolitan Police and…

German payment and financial services provider, Wirecard, announced on Thursday that it would file for insolvency just days after its former CEO surrendered to authorities following an arrest warrant they issued against him over a missing 1.9 billion euros (US$ 2.13 billion) the firm claimed probably “do not exist.” According to German prosecutors in Munich, former CEO Dr. Markus Braun, possibly in collaboration with other individuals, managed to artificially inflate the company’s assets and sales in order to make it more appealing to both investors and customers. He was released from jail on Tuesday after posting five million euros ($5.6 million) in…