Category: Money Laundering

MONEY LAUNDERING CHARGES are being brought against a private bank in Switzerland which is already in the process of winding down operations. Falcon Private Bank – based in Zurich but with a presence in Luxembourg, London and Dubai – has been charged with money laundering by the Swiss Attorney General. These charges are understood to relate to an instance of organisational deficiencies in relation to a corporate criminal case, Swiss media outlet Handelszeitung reported Thursday. Former Falcon Bank chief executive Eduardo Leemann has also been charged in connection with the case and will appear in court next year. His spokesperson…

Having announced measures to verify the identity of individuals forming UK companies through the Companies House reform bill, it appears the government is now taking money laundering seriously, writes Michael Harris, director of financial crime compliance at LexisNexis Risk Solutions. There is no doubt that the proposed Companies House reform is a positive move, especially given that the National Crime Agency estimates that money laundering costs the UK economy £37bn ($48.2bm) a year – a huge sum that indicates there is still much to do in the fight against financial crime. The new Companies House rules come in amid proposals…

The Treasury Committee says it will examine the effectiveness of anti-money laundering systems and sanctions, listing areas of concerns investigated by ICIJ. Image: Photo by Kirsty O’Connor/PA Images via Getty Images Prompted by the FinCEN Files, a powerful U.K. parliamentary committee has launched a fresh anti-money laundering inquiry 19 months after it outlined findings that the nation’s response to billions of pounds in money-laundering was “fragmented.” In light of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ recent investigation, the U.K. Treasury Committee says it will examine the effectiveness of both anti-money laundering systems and sanctions. The Treasury Committee says the precise scale…

Lack of face-to-face contact is a key reason why criminals graduate towards internet agents, its latest updated AML guidance says. HMRC has updated its AML guidance for sales and lettings agents including a warning that online-only operators are at higher risk than traditional high street firms. It claims that sales and lettings transaction made without face-to-face contact including online, over the phone or via an intermediary reduce an agent’s ability to spot whether money laundering is being attempted. “This is particularly true when dealing with customers in higher-risk overseas jurisdictions,” the guidance says. But leading AML software firm Smartsearch says…

Investigation by North Yorkshire Police after reports of investment scam. After receiving information about a company that was suspected of laundering money from investment scams, North Yorkshire Police identified two business bank accounts which they believed held monies obtained through fraud. Using powers introduced in the Criminal Finances Act 2017, Account Freezing Orders (AFO’s) were obtained on both bank accounts and a frozen funds investigation was commenced. One bank account contained £210,000 and the other £124,000. These AFO’s enabled North Yorkshire Police to investigate and obtain evidence into a large scale money laundering network involving two companies, whilst preventing this…

A network of clothing manufacturers in Leicester are involved in money laundering and VAT fraud, a BBC investigation has found. The companies are based in the city’s garment district where a local MP said such activity was “endemic”. Some of the firms involved have supplied fast fashion brands, including Boohoo. Boohoo told the BBC it would never knowingly conduct business with anyone acting outside of the law. It has now terminated its relationship with one of the firms highlighted by the investigation by BBC Radio 4’s File on 4. Leicester textile firms face enforcement action Clothes factories ‘doubled staff during pandemic’…

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…

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…

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…

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…

U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni in Manhattan said shareholders in the proposed class action failed to sufficiently plead that the bank improperly reported revenue derived from money laundering or downplayed its supervision failures. She also said the plaintiffs, led by four pension funds in New York and Massachusetts, failed to show that Danske acted recklessly or with conscious disregard that its statements were false and misleading. “They allege in a conclusory way that defendants and employees of (Danske) received reports contradicting public statements, and fail to connect any of those reports to specific representations by specific persons,” Caproni wrote. The…

People who are considered politically exposed may pose higher risks because their funds may be the proceeds of corruption or other illicit activities, the banking regulators said in a joint statement. The agencies added, however, that risks associated with politically exposed individuals vary and not all of them are automatically higher risk. The agencies don’t include U.S. public officials in the politically exposed persons category. “The risk depends on facts and circumstances specific to the customer relationship,” said the statement issued Friday by the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the National…

August 21 2020 In January, a draft bill reforming the crime of money laundering in Germany (section 261 of the German Criminal Code (StGB)) was leaked. In a February blog post, we criticised how broad the suggested definition was. Last week, the official draft bill was published by the Federal Ministry of Justice. Much to the surprise of German anti-money laundering (AML) circles, it goes even further. The most important change compared to the unofficial draft and the law in place today is the complete elimination of a catalogue of suitable predicate offences. A ‘predicate offence’ is the underlying crime that…

openDemocracy investigation finds that international money launderers are moving into Britain’s e-money business – with the Financial Conduct Authority’s official seal of approval. Article By David Leask Richard Smith COVID is killing cash. Even as lockdowns loosen, consumers are turning away from notes and coins like never before. A survey in April found four out of five Britons – many forced to do all their shopping online – were considering new digital ways to pay. Some are turning to ‘e-money’, with a raft of new money-handling products aiming to challenge industry leader PayPal. From a health point of view, this…

Westminster magistrates’ court ordered the forfeiture of the cash after detectives submitted evidence that it was being channelled through London in a money-laundering operation.

Westpac is bracing for a potential widening of a blockbuster anti-money laundering lawsuit against it, after it failed to report tens of thousands of large cash transactions to the financial crimes watchdog.

New report shows how Syrian-Russian money laundering network uses anonymous companies in the EU and UK Overseas Territories Read the full report, Assad’s Money Men in Moscow, here. Global Witness reveals today the workings of a Syrian-Russian money laundering network that has helped prop up President Bashar al-Assad’s regime during the ongoing armed conflict. This assistance ranged from helping the regime purchase fuel and banknotes to providing front companies possibly used by its chemical weapons and ballistic missiles programme. Close associates of the network also appear to have helped embargoed North Korean firms evade UN sanctions.  The report, Assad’s Money Men…

Police arrested six people during raids in Samut Prakan and Nonthaburi and seized assets worth about 100 million baht on Wednesday, in an operation aimed at suspects in the laundering of a billion baht of drug traffickers’ money. Six premises were searched in Samut Prakan. The prime location was house 129/72 in the Chaiyapruek housing estate in tambon Bang Muang of Muang district. It belonged to Naruepol Phapphithee and his wife Patthama Buathong, who were named in arrest warrants. Police suspect them of laundering money for several drug gang leaders, including Pannawit Prathum, aka Kokae, and Theppabut Solo, who is…