NEWS ARTICLES

US Commission Accuses Switzerland Of Hiding Russian Assets

Sanctions
The Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe, otherwise known as the Helsinki Commission, has issued hard-hitting criticism of Switzerland’s perceived role in hiding Russian assets. “Long known as a destination for war criminals and kleptocrats to stash their plunder, Switzerland is a leading enabler of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and his cronies. After looting Russia, Putin and his oligarchs use Swiss secrecy laws to hide and protect the proceeds of their crimes,” the body stated. The Commission’s hearing on Thursday heard testimony from Pieth, Miranda Patrucic, deputy editor in chief at the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and…

Stricter Controls on Lawyers, Accountants and Other ‘gatekeeper’ Professionals Who Enable Money Laundering

Money Laundering
STRICTER AML regulations and supervision must be placed on the professional “gatekeepers” who enable money laundering, the Council of Europe’s AML body said today. MONEYVAL also said governments need to step up their efforts and coordination to combat money laundering and terrorist financing by adopting stricter regulation and supervision of the crypto and virtual assets sector. The group called out “the specialised ‘gatekeeper’ professions, such as lawyers, accountants and other services providers who often help launderers” as requiring more oversight. MONEYVAL is the Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing body. The emerging virtual assets sector and the increasing…

Strikes at UK Financial Regulator Due to Start This Week

FCA
Unionized staff at the Financial Conduct Authority will mount the first strike in the chief UK financial regulator’s nine-year history this week over a dispute over pay and working conditions. Staff will go on strike on Wednesday and Thursday following a protracted battle with management over restructuring plans that Unite claims would amount to pay cuts for many employees. The industrial action is the first of a series, with further strikes earmarked for June and July, although fewer than 300 of the watchdog’s 4,000 workers are expected to take part this week. Unite disclosed last month that it had 640…

5 U.S. States Order a Metaverse Casino With Alleged Ties to Russia to Halt Sale of NFTs

NFTs, Sanctions
Regulators in five states simultaneously filed emergency orders Wednesday against a virtual casino they say has ties to Russia and that has been operating in the metaverse, a digital world where participants can interact with each other, purchase products and even gamble. State law enforcement officials say Flamingo Casino Club’s operators failed to disclose its Russian ties and claimed it had partnerships with legitimate businesses when it didn’t. The civil filing represents a new and coordinated effort by state regulators to police some of what is going on amid the explosive growth of the metaverse, where innovation and speculation have…

Fraud Scheme of at Least €440m in Italy Halted

Fraud
Italian and Austrian authorities have dismantled a massive fraud scheme set up by a criminal network that used Italian companies to simulate business leases and false tax credits. The perpetrators deprived the Italian authorities of at least EUR 440 million. With the help of Eurojust, approximately 90% of the proceeds have been recovered and 12 suspects have been arrested. The arrested suspects allegedly belong to an organised crime group (OCG) that defrauded the Italian State of at least EUR 440 million. The OCG used Italian companies to sell false tax credits, to simulate business leases in order to obtain COVID-19-related…

Online Financial Attacks up 233%

Fraud
The rate of fraudulent online financial attacks jumped 233% between 2019 and 2021, according to an analysis of 18 billion global banking transactions carried out by Portuguese technology company Feedzai, which specializes in fraud prevention. According to the new Financial Crime Report “The RiskOps Age”, the number of frauds has grown at a faster rate than the rate of legitimate online transactions, reflecting a substantial increase in risk. Low risk, high reward “Living a digital lifestyle brings a world of convenience, but it also offers a low-risk, high-reward environment for fraudsters,” said Jaime Ferreira, vice president of global data science…

New ‘fraud squad’ will crack down on criminals who steal taxpayer money

Fraud, Investigation
A new £25 million central government taskforce that will enlist an elite team of experts to crack-down on fraudsters who attempt to steal taxpayers’ cash will be operational by the summer, the Chancellor will announce today (27 April). The Chancellor has announced that a new fraud squad, recruited from data analytics experts and leading economic crime investigators, will crack down on criminal gangs who rip off the taxpayer. Operational in July and based in the Cabinet Office, the new £25 million “Public Sector Fraud Authority” will double funding for the Government’s central counter fraud capacity. More details of the new…

Mexico’s surge in ecommerce fraud attacks calls for cutting-edge response

Fraud
Mexico experienced a 220% increase in attempted ecommerce fraud attacks during its pandemic peak, calling for new strategies from public and private sectors through 2022. Not only have there been more reported instances of online fraud, but the worrying trends are growing in unanticipated ways, causing events such as account takeover and kiosk fraud, a new report finds. The revelations are worrying for online retailers in Mexico who have battled to stay afloat through two years of unprecedented industry pressures. Companies are now steeling themselves to increase online revenues even as web-based fraud attacks increase. Cyber-fraud reached its pandemic peak…

Crypto-crimewave forces police online to pursue ill-gotten assets

Digital Currencies, Fraud
Scams relating to digital ‘coins’ are growing – but data reveals authorities are making record seizures of assets too In July 2021, specialist police officers in Manchester swooped on an international cryptocurrency scam, seizing USB sticks and an online safe containing £16m worth of digital coins, mostly Ethereum. A month earlier, Leicestershire police had confiscated 10 types of cryptocurrency after raiding the home of a drug dealer who used digital assets to buy and sell class A drugs. Both operations pale in comparison to the Metropolitan police’s record crypto haul of the same year, worth £180m. But all three, and…

Report on the State of Effectiveness and the Compliance with the FATF Standards

FATF, Money Laundering, Terrorism
This landmark report gives a comprehensive overview of the state of global efforts to tackle money laundering, terrorist and proliferation financing. The report is based on data from FATF and FSRB mutual evaluation reports since 2013, which assessed the strengths and weaknesses of national frameworks to tackle these crimes. Overall, the report finds that countries have made huge progress in improving technical compliance by establishing and enacting a broad range of laws and regulations to better tackle money laundering, terrorist and proliferation financing. This has created a firm legislative basis for national authorities to ‘follow the money’ that fuels crime…

In Istanbul and Dubai, Russians Pile into Property to Shelter From Sanctions

Sanctions
Wealthy Russians are pouring money into real estate in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, seeking a financial haven in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and Western sanctions, according to many property companies. “We sell seven to eight units to Russians every day,” said Gul Gul, co-founder of the Golden Sign real estate company in Istanbul. “They buy in cash, they open bank accounts in Turkey or they bring gold.” In Dubai, Thiago Caldas, CEO of the Modern Living property firm, has hired three Russian-speaking agents to meet Russian interest, which he says has leapt tenfold. Sanctions imposed…

Navalny’s Foundation Lists Putin’s 6,000 Bribe Takers and Warmongers

Bribery, Corruption
In another act of defiance against the Kremlin, the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) published Tuesday a list of over 6,000 bribe takers and warmongers who it says enabled Russian President Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. Founded by Russian activist Alexei Navalny, FBK is a non-profit organization that investigates acts of corruption by high-ranking Russian government officials. Leonid Volkov, FBK’s Chief of Staff, posted on Twitter that the publication unmasks “The ones who started the war. Those who helped Putin usurp power. Those who financed the war. The ones who stole,” and “those who repressed the dissenters” against the Kremlin. Over…

What are Wash Trading and Money Laundering in NFTs

Digital Currencies, Money Laundering
What is wash trading crypto? Wash trading occurs when a trader or investor buys and sells the same securities multiple times in a short period to deceive other market participants about an asset’s price or liquidity. As mentioned, wash trading involves an act in which the same asset is sold and purchased within a short time. To influence an asset’s trading activity and price, traders use wash trading as a market manipulation technique. Typically, one or more colluding agents undertake a series of trades without considering market risks, resulting in no change in the antagonistic agents’ original position. In October…

EU Crypto Firms Protest ‘Alarming’ Anti-Money Laundering Laws

Digital Currencies, Money Laundering, Regulation
The companies are joining forces to try to limit the impact of new proposals to identify crypto users and regulate stablecoins. The crypto sector has written to European Union finance ministers and lawmakers to urge a rethinking of anti-money laundering rules the industry regards as “burdensome” and “alarming.” The letter, seen by CoinDesk and signed by academics, lobby groups and senior executives from companies such as Ledger, Aave and Blockchain.com, says current proposals to identify crypto users, known as the travel rule, endanger privacy and innovation in the EU. “The proposals from the European Parliament, by leading to the public…

HMRC Should be Tougher on Letting Agency AML Checks

HMRC, Money Laundering
A technology platform claims that as many as a third of lettings agencies that should be compliant with anti-money laundering regulations are in fact non-compliant. From October last year, letting agents who deal in rental properties worth more than €10,000 or £8,300 a month must be registered for AML purposes with HM Revenue and Customs. Now Credas Technologies has surveyed 1,000 property professionals and claims the vast majority would like to see HMRC act more proactively to deter money laundering, as almost a third believe their own AML compliance procedures would fail. In the survey, when asked about the importance…

U.S. Sanctions Guatemalan Gang Leaders with Links to Mexican Drug Cartels

Drug Trafficking, Sanctions
The United States sanctioned seven suspected high-ranking members of the Los Huistas, Guatemala’s prominent criminal gang, accusing them of global illicit drug trade and cooperation with Mexico’s deadly Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels, the U.S. Department of the Treasury said. The sanctions mean that U.S. citizens and companies are now prohibited from doing business with them, and their U.S. assets will be frozen. The move came after Operation Guerrilla Unit, a long-term U.S. investigation that targeted several high-ranking Guatemalan drug traffickers and their suppliers operating out of northwest Guatemala. It is one of the “most significant, comprehensive and large-scale drug trafficking…

OFAC Sanctions Hydra Following Law Enforcement Shutdown of the Darknet Market

Digital Currencies, OFAC, Sanctions
Today is a big day in the fight against crypto crime. Following a joint operation involving several U.S. law enforcement agencies, Germany’s federal police shut down the Russia-based Hydra Market, the world’s largest darknet market by revenue. Later in the day, the Justice Department followed up by indicting one of Hydra’s key operators, and the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Hydra, adding more than 100 of its cryptocurrency addresses to the SDN list as identifiers. Concurrently, OFAC also sanctioned a Russian cryptocurrency exchange Chainalysis has previously investigated for its role in money laundering: Garantex. All of…

Sanctioned Russian Oligarchs Linked to £800m Worth of U.K. Property

Bribery, Corruption
A dozen sanctioned Russians are linked to an estimated £800m worth of property in the UK, analysis by the BBC reveals. Multi-million pound country manors in the south of England and luxury flats in London’s most expensive areas are among the homes which have been snapped up by figures linked to Vladimir Putin. Some of the individuals deny ownership of the mansions, which may mean they are beyond the reach of the sanctions. To get to the bottom of who owns what, we carried out a detailed trawl of leaked offshore documents, the Land Registry and court papers – as…

Financial Crime Investigators Granted More Time

Investigation, Money Laundering
Law enforcement agencies probing suspected financial crimes have the right to additional time when necessary to properly investigate, a Scottish court has ruled. The landmark decision handed down by the Sheriff Appeal Court underlines the emphasis placed by courts on “allowing law enforcement the time and space to complete their inquiries”. It comes after the Appeal Court unanimously held that Italian chef Cristian Picco had been validly excluded from a hearing on whether his bank account should remain frozen while investigators probed suspected money laundering. The court heard that Picco first had his TSB account frozen in April 2019 after…

Sanctions Against Ireland’s Top Drug Trafficker May end “Super Cartel’ Allegations

Sanctions
Recent sanctions imposed by the United States on the Kinahan Clan, arguably Ireland’s most powerful organized crime group, have brought to the fore this group’s role in cocaine trafficking between South America, the United States, Europe and beyond. On April 11, the US Treasury Department designated Irish national Daniel Kinahan and six of his associates for smuggling cocaine from South America to Europe as part of the powerful drug trafficking syndicate known as the “Kinahan Clan,” among other things. “Daniel Kinahan, who sources large quantities of cocaine from South America, plays an integral part in organizing the supply of drugs…

How Procurement at Coca-Cola Enterprises Unearthed a £1.5m Bribery Scam

Bribery, Corruption, Prosecutions
An investigation initiated by the procurement team at Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd (CCE) led to the discovery of a nine-year contracts-for-bribes scam. Noel Corry – who was on £62,500 in his role as electrical and automation manager at CCE – took bribes of £1.5m in exchange for confidential information to help favoured bidders win contracts, Southwark Crown Court was told. Corry has pleaded guilty to five counts of corruption and was due to be sentenced yesterday (13 April). He ensured large volumes of work at CCE went to Boulting Group Limited (now known as WABGS), Tritec Systems Limited, and Electron Systems…

Police Raid Trade Union Headquarters as Part of Bribery and Fraud Investigation

Bribery, Fraud, Investigation, Money Laundering
Police have raided the headquarters of Unite, one of the UK’s largest and most powerful trade unions, as part of a bribery, fraud and money laundering investigation. Sky News understands 15 to 20 officers attended the search yesterday at the union’s central London headquarters and left the building with boxes of files, paper and a computer. A Unite spokesman confirmed to Sky News: “A Unite employee is subject to a criminal investigation by the police. “On Wednesday 6th April, the employee’s office at Unite HQ, in Holborn, London, was accessed and searched by the police under warrant.” The raid was…

Trio Jailed for Trying to Launder Crime Gang Cash

Money Laundering, Prosecutions
THREE people who came to Jersey to try to launder thousands of pounds of criminal cash have been jailed for a combined total of ten years. The Royal Court heard yesterday that Muhiddin Umurzokov (50), Anvarjon Eshonkulov (49) and Batsukh Bataa (52) came to the Island in October in an attempt to spend or exchange money that they knew had come from crime. They admitted 22 separate charges of laundering or attempting to launder money. Umurzokov was jailed for four years and Eshonkulov and Bataa were jailed for three years each. They changed some of the money into US dollars…

Taxman Ramps up Asset Confiscation Amid Covid-19 Fraud Boom

Fraud, HMRC
HMRC has confiscated assets worth £39m in around a year – a more than 700 per cent increase from 2020. The confiscations, made via account forfeiture orders over the past 11 months, dwarf that of the £4.8m the taxman snagged a year prior, according to law firm RPC. It comes as HMRC ramps up its efforts in tackling fraud, after the crime soared during the pandemic. Senior associate at RPC, Alice Kemp, said: “HMRC has shown a real willingness to freeze and forfeit the assets of individuals they suspect of fraud. These measures are by no means reserved for organised…

London Lawyer Denies Charges of Tipping Off Client of Money Laundering Probe

Money Laundering, Prosecutions, Tipping Off
A City of London solicitor, accused of forging a legal letter and tipping off a client about a money laundering investigation, is set to stand on trial after denying both counts. William Osmond, founder of City of London law firm Osmond Solicitors, entered not guilty pleas on one count of forgery and one count of disclosing an investigation into possible breaches of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. The London lawyer is now set to face trial in March 2023 after being accused of informing his client of the Serious Fraud Office’s (SFO’s) plans for a money laundering probe The…

Deutsche Bank HQ in Frankfurt Raided Over Suspected Money Laundering

Investigation, Money Laundering
German authorities have raided Deutsche Bank’s headquarters in Frankfurt over suspected money laundering at the country’s largest lender. Officers from the financial regulator BaFin, the federal police, and the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office launched a raid on the bank’s glass-panelled offices – known locally as the “twin towers” – on Friday morning after securing a search warrant from the local court. Deutsche Bank said the issue had been self-reported and it was “fully cooperating” with police and prosecutors who launched the raid on its offices at 10am. “This is an investigative measure by the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office in connection…

Ex-Goldman Banker Convicted of Bribery, Money Laundering Conspiracy Charges in 1MDB Case

Bribery, Corruption, Prosecutions
NEW YORK, April 8(Reuters) – Former Goldman Sachs (GS.N) banker Roger Ng was convicted by a U.S. jury on Friday of corruption charges related to his role in helping loot hundreds of millions of dollars from Malaysia’s 1MDB development fund. The charges stemmed from one of the biggest financial scandals in history. Prosecutors charged Ng, Goldman’s former top investment banker for Malaysia, for conspiring to violate an anti-corruption law and launder money. They said he helped his former boss Tim Leissner embezzle money from the fund, launder the proceeds and bribe officials to win business for Goldman. Ng, 49, had…

British Virgin Islands: Premier Andrew Fahie Arrested in U.S. Drug Sting

Investigation, Money Laundering
The leader of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) has been arrested for alleged drug smuggling and money laundering in the US. Premier Andrew Fahie was detained in Miami by US agents posing as cocaine traffickers from a Mexican drug cartel. He agreed a $700,000 (£560,000) payment to allow traffickers to use BVI ports with an undercover informant, charges filed in the US said. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said she was “appalled” by the allegations. Mr Fahie, the elected head of government of the British overseas territory, was arrested by US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) officials in Florida, alongside senior…

U.S. Citizen Who Conspired in Evading Sanctions Sentenced to Over Five Years and Fined $100,000

Prosecutions, Sanctions
A U.S. citizen who conspired to provide services to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea), including technical advice on using cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to evade sanctions, was sentenced to 63 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). According to court documents, Virgil Griffith, 39, began formulating plans as early as 2018 to provide services to individuals in the DPRK by developing and funding cryptocurrency infrastructure there, including to mine cryptocurrency. Griffith knew that the DPRK could use these services to evade and avoid U.S. sanctions,…

Brazil Charges President with Illicit Enrichment Ahead of Elections

Prosecutions, Sanctions
Prosecutors charged Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro with illicit enrichment, in a case related to his former maid in Rio de Janeiro who allegedly received a salary as a government employee while he served as a lawmaker in Brasilia. At the same time, the Brazilian Superior Court ordered a former prosecutor to pay the equivalent of some US$15,000 to Bolsonaro’s political rival, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, for alleged “moral damages” he caused when he portrayed during a press conference Lula as the leader of a criminal network. The moves come at a sensitive time when Lula is expected…

Swiss Banker Who Paid for Strip Clubs on Expenses Sentenced to Almost Four Years for Fraud

Fraud, Prosecutions
Former banker of the year in Switzerland, Pierin Vincenz, will spend almost four years in jail, after he was sentenced at the culmination of a high-profile case in the country. The ex chief executive of Raiffeisen bank’s trial was moved to concert hall because the public interest was so high, as the court heard how he made millions through shady deals, according to prosecutors. According to the Times, Vincenz, 65, said his £163,460 bill for strip club visits was business-related, and a tinder app date was a job interview. Judge Sebastian Aeppli said his expenses claimed “clearly went too far”…

Honduras to Extradite ex-President Suspected of Drug Trafficking to U.S.

Drug Trafficking, Prosecutions
About a month after his arrest, the Honduras Supreme Court ratified the extradition of former President Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado to the United States where he could face a life sentence if convicted on drug trafficking and firearms charges. Fifteen associate justices of Honduras top court rejected on Monday a final appeal filed by Hernández’s legal team, and determined that he must be extradited. The court declared the appeal inadmissible. According to U.S. authorities, Hernández oversaw a violent drug trafficking network that functioned out of Central American countries, especially Honduras. His network is believed to have transported more than 500,000…

Financial Crimes See Former Nicaragua Presidential Candidate Held for Eight Years

Money Laundering, Prosecutions
A former presidential candidate, Chamorro was found guilty of activities related to money laundering and misuse of funds, in a trial that opposition of the Nicaraguan government say was politically motivated. Chamorro may have to see out her sentence in house arrest, or in jail, depending on a forthcoming decision coming from the Nicaraguan judiciary. The children of ex-president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, Cristiana and her brother were found guilty of their financial crimes earlier this month. Their father was victorious against the central American nation’s current premier, Danial Ortega, in elections in 1990 – an event which brought Ortega’s…

Jordanian Businessman, the King’s Uncle, Sentenced for Corruption

Corruption, Prosecutions
A Jordanian businessman related to the royal family was sentenced on Wednesday to 18 years of hard labor and fined 191 million Jordanian dinars (US$269 million) for corruption and abuse of office, the country’s Integrity and Anti-Corruption Commission said in a statement. The charges against Walid Al-Kurdi, married to Jordan’s King Abdullah II’s aunt Princess Basma Bint Talal, relate to his work as head of the state-owned mining company Jordan Phosphate Mines (JPMC). As its former CEO and chairman for six years, Al-Kurdi abused his position and engaged in corruption in relation to six investment contracts in the Shidiya mine…

The Economic Crime Act – A Starting Point Not an End

Regulation
New economic crime legislation is welcome, but without bolder systemic reforms it will have little impact on the UK’s dirty money problem. ‘Just get with it. All money is good money, particularly if it helps build our schools and hospitals’. So went the argument from an unnamed UK government minister back in 2005, when questioned by a journalist about the flow of dubious Russian money into the UK. This view – while not express government policy – largely prevailed in the following 17 years, with successive governments failing to fully understand the implications of turning a blind eye to the…

Economic Crime Act Has Loopholes

Sanctions
A new UK government act designed to target the assets of Russian oligarchs and other money launderers comes with loopholes, according to an economic crime expert from the University of Portsmouth. Paul Gilmour, from the University’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice is a leading expert on financial transparency, and publishes a new paper today in the Journal of Financial Crime. In it, he says that authorities need to fundamentally adapt their approach to combating money laundering, and strengthen measures to further enhance beneficial ownership transparency. Gilmour is concerned that new measures within the Economic Crime Act, which was recently…

Corporate Governance Snapshot: The Transformation Of Companies House

Companies House, Regulation
Following initial consultation in 2019, and follow-up consultations in 2020, the Government has now published its final position on the reform of Companies House ahead of introducing legislation to effect the changes. This snapshot summarises the key proposals. ENHANCED ROLE AND GREATER POWERS FOR THE REGISTRAR Registrar will have power to: query any filings (including company names) that appear erroneous, anomalous or suspicious, and which may impact integrity of the register/wider business environment. Additional power to reject filings where the Registrar has queried the information provided. Information already on the register in scope; remove material from the register more swiftly…

INTERPOL Introduces New Center to Fight Financial Crimes

Financial Crime, INTERPOL
INTERPOL said that it has launched a Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Center (IFCACC) in order to fight the exponential growth in sophisticated transnational financial crime. The IFCACC is intended to prevent financial criminals from “undermining global financial systems, impeding economic growth and causing huge losses to businesses and individuals worldwide,” the world police body said in a statement Tuesday. The new crime center will expand and streamline the existing initiatives in tackling financial crimes, illicit money flows and asset recovery by “centralizing the international response to transnational financial crime and corruption,” INTERPOL Secretary General, Jürgen Stock, said. The Lyon-based organization…

Foreign Secretary Announces Historic Round of Sanctions on Russia

Sanctions
Liz Truss announces historic round of sanctions, taking the overall number of UK sanctions on Russia to more than 1,000 since the invasion of Ukraine. Foreign Secretary announces more than 370 new sanctions now possible thanks to new urgent Economic Crime Act powers after today the UK will have designated over 1,000 individuals and entities under the Russia sanctions regime since the invasion today’s designations also include Putin’s key political allies, regime spokespeople and Kremlin-backed disinformation agencies Foreign Secretary Liz Truss announces over 370 more Russian and Belarussian sanctions today (Tuesday 15 March), which means by the end of today…

Russia Considers New Anti-Transparency Measure to Shield Civil Servants From Sanctions

Regulation, Sanctions
On Mar. 5, 2022, a veteran Russian parliamentarian introduced an amendment to shield Russian civil servants from sanctions “by unfriendly states,” the latest in a series of moves by the Russian government to limit transparency. Sanctioned Parliamentarian Introduces Anti-Transparency Amendment Vladislav Reznik, a deputy since 1999 in the Russian Federation’s State Duma, introduced the proposed amendment to Russia’s Federal Law No. 273-FZ of December 25, 2008, according to Russian news agency Interfax and state media outlet TASS. The proposed amendment would prohibit Russian government entities at all levels (federal, federal subjects, and local) as well as state companies and public…