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U.S. sanctions Latvian oligarch charged with corruption

The United States on Monday sanctioned Aivars Lembergs, the suspended mayor of Latvia’s seaport city of Ventspils and an oligarch with substantial influence in the country’s politics, over alleged corruption, the U.S. Treasury said in a statement. According to the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Lembergs controls “entities… Read More

EU to consider tougher tax haven listing

A group of European Union countries is calling for the bloc to cast a wider net when listing tax havens and to consider imposing stricter sanctions for countries facilitating tax avoidance, according to an EU document and an EU official. The document, prepared by the Danish government and seen by… Read More

Vatican investments linked to global money laundering investigations

A fund in which the Vatican’s Secretariat of State has invested tens of millions of euros has links to two Swiss banks investigated or implicated in bribery and money laundering scandals involving more than one billion dollars. The fund is under investigation by Vatican authorities. The fund, Centurion Global Fund,… Read More

9th December 2019

EU agrees steps toward tighter money-laundering supervision

European Union finance ministers on Thursday backed plans for greater powers to combat money laundering after a series of revelations about large amounts of dirty money flowing through European banks. The EU last year experienced its largest money-laundering scandal when it emerged that 200 billion euros ($220 billion) in suspicious… Read More

6th December 2019

Credit Suisse Blocks Prosecutor Using Critical Finma Report

Credit Suisse Group AG has acted to block Geneva prosecutors from using details of a critical report by the country’s financial regulator into the bank’s failure to prevent fraud at its wealth management unit. The bank asked Geneva prosecutor Yves Bertossa to seal the report, which he is legally… Read More

6th December 2019

€131m worth of suspicious transactions at Satabank

Over 300 reports of suspicious transactions at Satabank worth in excess of €130 million have been flagged by global services firm EY since it was entrusted to administer the bank’s assets by the financial regulator. The move had followed the suspension of the bank’s licence by the Malta Financial Services… Read More

5th December 2019

Trump Moves Toward Labeling Mexican Cartels as Terrorist Groups

The Trump administration is moving forward on calls to classify Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations after the killing of nine U.S. citizens in Mexico, with top officials seeking to reach a decision this week, according to three people familiar with the matter. President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet… Read More

5th December 2019

Remittance-dependent Tajikistan blocks Russian wire transfer service

A Russian wire transfer service popular among Tajik migrant labourers has been cut off from the Central Asian nation’s banking system, it said on Wednesday, after Dushanbe rerouted all remittances into a new processing centre. More than a million Tajiks work in Russia, sending home about $2.6 billion a year… Read More

4th December 2019

U.S. Bank Examiners Need Clarity on Money Transmitter Accounts: GAO

U.S. financial regulators need to issue additional guidance for bank examiners charged with reviewing how lenders monitor accounts held for money transmitting businesses, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Tuesday. In a 79-page report on why banks have shed accounts for the firms in recent years, the GAO concluded… Read More

4th December 2019

U.S. Banks No Longer Required to Report Hemp Growers as Suspicious, Regulators Say

Banks are no longer required to file suspicious activity reports on customers who cultivate hemp, industry regulators said. A group of financial regulators on Tuesday clarified the compliance requirements for banks whose customers produce hemp, a variety of the cannabis plant that is often used for its fiber… Read More

4th December 2019

Europe’s Finance Chiefs to Call for Anti-Money Laundering Agency

Europe’s finance chiefs are to confront a wave of money-laundering scandals within the banking industry by recommending that a regional agency be formed to prevent such crimes. Officials will call on the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, to further consider and make a proposal for setting up a common… Read More

3rd December 2019

EU pressures Malta over Bank of Valletta ‘golden passport’ clients

The European Commission has asked Malta to clarify how it intends to address Bank of Valletta’s shortcomings over its monitoring of foreign customers who applied to buy Maltese citizenship under a so-called “golden passport” scheme. Malta, with a population of only 420,000, has sought to attract foreign capital with schemes… Read More

3rd December 2019

Dutch Crypto Startups Brawl With Regulators Over Scope of EU Money Laundering Rule

Dutch crypto startups are crying foul as regulators in the Netherlands look to implement the European Union’s 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD5) ahead of a Jan. 10 deadline. The firms, which include exchanges and software developers, say authorities are subverting the democratic process and trying to right past wrongs that… Read More

Must Read

Swedbank revamps management after money laundering probe

Money Laundering Battle Drives Japan Banks to JPMorgan’s Payments Network

U.S. sanctions Latvian oligarch charged with corruption

Greed drove former SNC-Lavalin exec’s alleged fraud, corruption scheme: Crown

Belgian lawyer guilty in ‘Catch Me if You Can’ Swiss money-laundering case