Category: Money Laundering

Having reclassified fraud as a national security threat, the government’s resolve against financial crime – particularly money-laundering – is hardening. But will the new legislative measures it’s considering go far enough? The City of London Corporation’s website boasts of the UK’s status as “the world’s most global financial centre”, but what it doesn’t mention is that this country is also a magnet for international financial crime. The problem has grown to such a scale that the government announced last month that it was classifying fraud as a national security threat – a move that UK Finance, the trade body representing…

The U.S. is a magnet for the world’s dirty money, financial crime experts say, as they weigh in on how vulnerabilities in America’s anti-money laundering laws counter the country’s efforts to aid Ukraine in its defense against the Russian invasion. Illicit proceeds equal an estimated two percent of U.S. gross domestic product, according to findings in the Treasury’s 2022 Strategic Action Plan. Russian oligarchs, experts note, contribute to this problem by funneling their ill-gotten gains through industries that are exempt from rigorous anti-money laundering checks. And that’s a lot of money. The combined illicit wealth of just three Russian oligarchs…

The world’s largest art markets lack robust anti-money laundering supervision. This exacerbates their appeal as a destination for illicit finance. In late February, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) published a report on Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing in the Art and Antiquities Market. The report highlights a series of risk factors that make it appealing to criminals, including widespread secrecy surrounding beneficial owners and transactions, the subjectivity and wide-ranging values of artwork, and the size and global nature of the art market. There is often a legitimate reason for many of these oddities: anonymity prevents bias in the bidding…

POLICE have arrested 20 suspected money launderers and drug traffickers and seized more than €5.5M in assets, it’s been announced. The operation was led by the Spanish Guardia Civil, with support from the Italian Central Directorate for Anti-Drugs Services (Direzione Centrale Servizi Antidroga), and resulted in the assets and more than 2 tons of drugs. Based in the South of Spain, the criminal network was composed of Albanian, Italian, Spanish and Moroccan nationals, and was led by Italian nationals who evaded capture using forged identity documents. The criminal network used a variety of money laundering methods to obfuscate their drug…

Lawyers, accountants and real estate agents can face little scrutiny and there is as yet no action from government to increase regulation. Raids earlier this month by the Australian federal police provided a rare window into the shady world of international money laundering. Australia is far from a model global citizen when it comes to cracking down on money laundering – and property has become a favoured vehicle for organised crime to hide and transfer dirty money. The AFP arrested nine people, including the alleged head of the money-laundering organisation, Stephen Xin, at his Vaucluse home. They have now been…

Authorities have not brought charges against the company, which has faced intense scrutiny following competitor FTX’s collapse, the Washington Post reported. Federal prosecutors are investigating the relationship between Binance and U.S.-based hedge funds as part of a broader investigation into the cryptocurrency exchange’s possible skirting of money-laundering guardrails, according to a report by the Washington Post. Heading the investigation is the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington in Seattle, which, in recent months, has sent subpoenas to firms requesting records of their dealings with Binance, the Post reported, citing two people who had reviewed one of the…

On 22 September 2022, the U.K. government introduced the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2022. The new bill is currently navigating its way through the U.K. Parliament and is likely to receive royal assent in 2023. The bill seeks to build on the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 (ECA 2022), which took effect on 15 March 2022. (See our 26 April 2022 client alert “New UK Economic Crime and Transparency Laws Take Effect” to review the key provisions of the ECA 2022.) Since that update, the “Register of Overseas Entities” requirements came into force on 1 August…

Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) said on Saturday it had arrested a “wealthy Russian businessman” on suspicion of money laundering and other offences as part of a crackdown on corrupt oligarchs. The NCA said the 58-year-old was among three men arrested by officers from the Combatting Kleptocracy Cell (CKC) on Thursday at a “multi-million pound residence” in London. The Russian embassy in London has demanded information from Britain’s Foreign Office on the reasons and circumstances of the detention of the unidentified businessman and the conditions in which he was being held, Russian news agencies said. The man was detained on…

Dutch co-operative bank Rabobank (RABO.UL) on Wednesday said it is under investigation by public prosecutors in the Netherlands for suspected violations of national money laundering laws. The bank in a statement said it was cooperating with the investigation. The disclosure follows a 2021 warning by the bank that it had been instructed by the Dutch central bank (DNB) to fix its customer due diligence practices and that it was facing a “punitive enforcement procedure.” Rabobank is one of the Netherlands’ three largest banks. Competitors ING Group and ABN Amro incurred massive fines in similar situations, with ING docked $900 million…

Dozens of estate agents have been fined more than £500,000 for breaching anti-money laundering requirements, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has announced today (11 October 2022). HMRC named the 68 estate agents that have been fined a total of £519,645 for not complying with rules designed to stop criminals laundering money from illegal activity. The fines followed the first prosecution of an estate agent for trading despite not registering with HMRC, to ensure compliance with money laundering regulations. Felix Uwuigbe, Director of Century House Estates Ltd in London, was sentenced to 120 hours of unpaid community service and banned from…

When we talk about crime, and the harm it causes to communities and individuals, money laundering is rarely more than an afterthought. It shouldn’t be; money laundering is key to organised crime. Without the ability to wash dirty money, criminals would struggle to further their operations and hide their assets. Money laundering underpins and enables organised crime. What are professional money launderers?Professional money launderers – or PMLs – are people who, for a fee, provide services to organised crime groups (OCGs) by laundering the proceeds of their crimes. PMLs launder for multiple OCGs and don’t concern themselves with how the…