Category: 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…

Star’s former top boss and its legal counsel both breached their director’s duties during the casino’s scandalous Chinese money laundering era, the Federal Court has found. In a seething judgement, Justice Michael Lee found only partly in favour of the corporate regulator ASIC, which bought the case against a group of Star executives and directors in 2022. ASIC’s case was filed after news of the explosive money laundering scandal broke at Australia’s second biggest casino. The culture of senior management was “dysfunctional” and “unethical”, Justice Lee noted in his remarks. He added that it fell to investigative journalism and a…

Following investigations into a criminal group suspected of laundering at least EUR 306 million of illicit profits from drug trafficking and other crimes, 13 people have been arrested in France and Romania. Investigations coordinated through a joint investigation team at Eurojust revealed that the group had been operating in France and Romania between 2018 and 2024. Consisting of dozens of members operating from Romania and France, the criminal group is suspected of having laundered illicit profits from crimes such as drug trafficking. They set up a sophisticated international operation involving multiple legal entities in France, which they took over and…

Eight African countries are under ‘increased monitoring’ by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), known as the grey list.Grey listing does not impose sanctions but signals to global financial institutions that enhanced scrutiny is required.Each grey-listed country, including Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, DRC, Kenya, Namibia, and South Sudan, is undertaking specific reforms to strengthen regulatory frameworks.For emerging African economies, exiting the grey list is seen as a significant milestone signaling stronger regulation. When it places a country under increased monitoring, it means the jurisdiction has identified strategic weaknesses in its financial crime prevention systems and has formally committed to…

The Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering body, MONEYVAL, has published a report urging Guernsey to improve the investigation, prosecution and conviction of money laundering offences whilst also highlighting Guernsey’s good understanding of the risks of money laundering/terrorist financing and its highly effective application of targeted financial sanctions. The report commended Guernsey’s Financial Intelligence Unit for producing high-quality analytical products and strategic analysis, while acknowledging the limited extent to which they are used by law enforcement authorities to initiate investigations. The quality of suspicious activity reports also remains a concern. Guernsey is expected to report back to MONEYVAL, under MONEYVAL’s regular…

For years, investigative journalists have salivated over that old heuristic “follow the money”. Deep Throat’s instruction to Robert Redford’s Bob Woodward in All the President’s Men, delivered in a shadowy car park, has become the North Star for uncovering financial crime and corruption. In his alarming new book, Everybody Loves Our Dollars, Oliver Bullough makes a compelling case that we’ve been looking in the wrong direction. To truly understand the global money-laundering industry, he argues, you need to think a lot bigger. Criminals today have sophisticated ways of making money disappear, “like a wizard in the Harry Potter books” –…

Key Takeaways Freezing Criminal Funds, Faster: KoFIU wants the authority to freeze accounts tied to serious livelihood crimes without waiting for court orders, aiming to cut off criminal proceeds before they disappear.Cross-Border Crime Moves to Center Stage: International criminal groups would be added to prohibited transaction lists, alongside deeper coordination with foreign counterparts and FATF-led initiatives.Crypto Oversight Tightens Again: The travel rule would extend to lower-value transactions, with closer scrutiny of transfers involving personal wallets and overseas exchanges.AML Accountability Shifts Upward: Financial institutions would need to place clear AML responsibility on a senior executive, backed by mandatory evaluations and clearer…

Nepal’s Supreme Court has ordered the government to explain its decision to withdraw money laundering and organized crime charges against Rabi Lamichhane, the country’s former Home Minister. On Tuesday, a single bench of Justice Abdul Aziz Musalman issued a “show cause” order, granting the Attorney General’s Office 15 days to provide a written justification for dropping the high-profile charges. The court also directed Lamichhane to submit a response, either in person or through a legal representative. “The Attorney General’s Office has been ordered to send a response to the writ petition filed within 15 days,” Nirajan Pandey, the Supreme Court’s…

The Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (Korea Financial Intelligence Unit) recently held the first meeting of a new taskforce tasked with revisiting the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information. While the meeting itself was procedural, the mandate behind it is anything but. The taskforce is meant to modernize Korea’s AML framework, sharpen responses to cross-border crime and large-scale financial fraud, and prepare the ground for South Korea’s next mutual evaluation by the Financial Action Task Force in 2028. Officials used the kickoff session to take stock. Taskforce members reviewed which parts of the existing regime no longer reflect…

German prosecutors searched Deutsche Bank offices in Frankfurt and Berlin as part of a probe into suspected money laundering linked to past transactions, adding to a series of high-profile investigations involving the lender. Banner: Boris Roessler/dpa/dpa Picture-Alliance via AFPRelated Articles Saudi Arabia Arrests 127 in Ongoing Anti-Corruption Campaign Design Firm That Donated £200,000 to Reform UK Owed £218,000 in TaxAuthorities threatened to close down Interior Architecture Landscape due to unpaid taxes. The design firm still managed to make a major donation to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party. The firm said the donations complied with U.K. electoral law. Montenegro Shaken as…

More than 20 humanitarian workers are set to stand trial in Greece on migrant-smuggling and money-laundering charges, seven years after authorities arrested them for their work rescuing migrants and refugees at sea. If convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison. The Mytilene Court of Appeals on the Greek island of Lesvos is expected to hear the case on December 4, bringing 24 human rights defenders before judges on felony charges of “membership of a criminal organization,” “facilitation of the entry of third-country nationals into the country” and “money laundering.” Human rights groups have unanimously denounced the accusations as…

Eurojust and Europol said Monday that, together with German and Swiss law enforcement, they dismantled “Cryptomixer,” a cryptocurrency‑mixing service used to launder proceeds from drug and weapons trafficking, ransomware attacks, payment card fraud and other crimes. Officials said the takedown, carried out between November  24 and 28 in Switzerland, resulted in the seizure of more than 25 million euros ($29.1 million) in cryptocurrency, three servers, the service’s domain and over 12 terabytes of data. Since its creation in 2016, Cryptomixer has allegedly processed over 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in Bitcoin, helping criminals obscure the origin of illicit funds. Investigators…

Key TakeawaysDirect EU Supervision Begins in 2028: AMLA will take over supervision of 40 high-risk financial institutions or groups.Single Risk Lens Across the EU: National supervisors and AMLA will apply the same data points and criteria when assessing AML and CFT risks.Binding Standards Pending Approval: Once approved by the European Commission, the rules will apply directly in all Member States.Consultation Now Open: Stakeholders can comment on cooperation standards until 27 January 2026.Testing Phase Planned for 2026: AMLA will trial the methodology and selection process before supervision goes live.Deep DiveEurope’s new anti-money laundering authority is beginning to move from blueprint to…

Key TakeawaysData at Scale: FinCEN is using advanced analytics drawn from more than one million transaction reports to drive enforcement.Border Focus: Over 100 MSBs along the southwest border are under review for potential Bank Secrecy Act failures.Global Networks in Scope: Treasury is simultaneously targeting Chinese money laundering networks linked to $7.1 billion in suspected activity.Public-Private Pressure: Banks and non-bank financial firms are being pulled closer into real-time coordination with regulators and law enforcement.Deep DiveThe U.S. Treasury is leaning harder into data, technology, and coordination as it steps up efforts to disrupt money laundering tied to organized crime and cross-border networks.…

Belgian authorities charged former Belgian Deputy Prime Minister—who also served as the EU Commissioner for Justice—Didier Reynders with money laundering, involving around one million euros in liquid cash found in his bank account. According to reports by Le Soir and Dutch investigative news outlet Follow The Money, Reynders was interrogated on October 16 in connection with unexplained cash deposits totaling approximately 700,000 euros ($803,098), which authorities allege he made into an ING Bank account between 2008 and 2018. His wife, Bernadette Prignon, was also reportedly questioned but has not been charged. Reynders’ lawyer, André Renette, confirmed in a statement seen…

Kyckr, a British and Australian Know Your Business (KYB) vendor, sacked its chief executive officer and chief technology officer after they identified technical issues with its UBO Verify product that caused a 72% failure rate. These caused inaccurate results that could “give rise to regulatory breach, refund exposure, and reputational risk”, according to an unfair dismissal claim filed with the Fair Work Commission in Australia.Chief executive Kathleen Phelan and chief technology officer Rebecca Glover, who identified and investigated these issues, were dismissed in June. Glover filed the unfair dismissal claim in the Federal Court of Australia on September 22. Kyckr,…

The new EU Money Laundering Regulation (EU 2024/1624) explicitly defines financial secrecy as a geographical risk factor that obliged entities must take into account when applying their customer due diligence obligations to customers from third countries in the future. According to the regulation, financial secrecy arises, for example, when countries hinder the exchange of information, do not maintain registers of beneficial owners or have strict banking secrecy. These factors overlap with the indicators of the Financial Secrecy Index, thus opening up the possibility of assessing geographical risks in money laundering prevention in a more evidence-based and less politically biased manner.…

Licence Condition 12.1.1(3) of the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP), requires operators to keep up-to-date with emerging risks information published by the Gambling Commission. This emerging risks publication is a trigger for operators to review their money laundering and terrorist financing risk assessments and related policies, procedures and controls to ensure that they remain appropriate and effective. Pre-paid payment methods Risk information The emerging risks bulletins published in April 2020 and February 2022, highlighted the money laundering and terrorist financing (MLTF) risks associated with pre-paid cards. The Commission’s 2023 MLTF risk assessment also classified pre-paid cards as high-risk…

A man has been put behind bars after being involved in laundering over £5.3million in cash.Gurmeet Handa, from Little Aston, has been jailed after a complex joint investigation led officers to uncovering a sophisticated international money laundering operation orchestrated by Handa.Gurmeet Singh Handa.jpgGurmeet HandaThe investigation began in 2016 following the seizure of £30,000 in cash in Alum Rock, Birmingham, which kickstarted an incredibly detailed money laundering investigation.As a result, officers from the Regional Economic Crime Unit alongside teams from West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit and HMRC all joined forces and uncovered over £5.3million had been laundered in cash between…

The Georgian Prosecutor’s Office  on Tuesday announced the arrest of a local currency exchange owner accused of laundering more than $660 million, calling it the country’s largest money-laundering scheme to date. A court ordered Kakha Kotorashvili, 49, head of the currency firm Fin, held in pre-trial detention on money-laundering charges. If convicted, he faces up to 12 years in prison. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the investigation—conducted together with the State Security Service—found that between 2022 and 2024, Kotorashvili organized an “illegal network for collecting money of unsubstantiated origin, disguising its source through conversion, and placing it into legal circulation.” While the Prosecutor’s Office did not…

A partner at a London law firm “dishonestly assisted” in misappropriating a company’s funds by turning a blind eye to money laundering issues raised by three property transactions, the High Court has ruled. Deputy High Court Judge Saira Salimi ruled that Daniel Broughton “repeatedly failed to obtain documentary evidence of funds and their source, and to follow up on inquiries he had made”. As a result, £2.4m of funds misappropriated from the claimant, Grosvenor Property Developers Ltd, passed through Portner & Co’s client account. She continued: “The repeated explanation for these lapses is an acknowledgement that he was ‘sloppy’ or…

HSBC Holdings Plc’s Swiss private bank is ending relationships with wealthy Middle Eastern clients, including many with assets exceeding $100 million, as the bank seeks to lower its exposure to individuals it deems high-risk, according to people familiar with the matter.More than 1,000 clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar and Egypt are among those being told they can no longer bank with HSBC’s Swiss wealth management business, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing an ongoing process. Some clients have already started to be informed and over the next few months will receive closing letters advising them they…