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UK launches freeports consultation with aim to open first next year

The government has launched a consultation on creating up to 10 freeports with special tariff and duty status – an idea ministers argue will fuel growth but critics say could encourage money laundering and other crimes. The government said it was firmly committed to announcing locations this year so that… Read More

Olympic Losses: How a failed Cyprus-based insurer was seized by alleged Bulgarian gangsters

Cypriot police are nearing the end of their probe into the allegedly fraudulent recapitalization of an insurance company that collapsed in 2018, leaving more than 200,000 drivers mainly in Bulgaria without coverage, and unpaid claims of 44.8 million euros. But an investigation by OCCRP and its Bulgarian member center, Bivol,… Read More

Latvian anti-money laundering efforts get crucial recognition

A year-long crackdown on Latvian banks’ reputation for money laundering and sanctions dodging appeared to have paid dividends January 22 with official recognition of its success from an important international organization. The Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism – MONEYVAL is a… Read More

9th January 2020

Explainer: HSBC, Spark Alliance and the law behind the latest fury in Hong Kong protests

HSBC Holdings, which traces its origin in Hong Kong to March 1865, is the latest institution to be embroiled in the city’s worst political crisis. What appears to be a routine regulatory decision to close a client’s corporate banking account has triggered an ugly backlash as its outlets became the… Read More

8th January 2020

Australia’s prudential regulator lashes banks over risk failures

The prudential regulator has described the risk and compliance functions of the nation’s largest financial institutions as in need of urgent overhaul, as it completes a deep dive of the systems that permitted banks to break money laundering laws millions of times and wrongly charge customers billions in fees. Early… Read More

8th January 2020

Higher cost to implement Malaysia’s new compliance rulings

Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) reporting institutions, especially insurance operators, Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH) and money services, will incur higher operating cost to comply with the central bank’s money laundering rulings. The central bank recently released comprehensive guidelines on anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) to stem illegal transfers. Read More

6th January 2020

Chinese Regulator Tightens Scrutiny of AML/CTF Programmes at Banks, Insurers

The CBIRC (China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission) has issued a new circular on improving the effectiveness of AML/CTF programmes in the banking and insurance sectors. The circular applies to all banks (including foreign banks), financial asset management companies, insurance companies and insurance asset management companies. According to the circular, the… Read More

12th December 2019

Art Forgery Is Easier Than Ever, and It’s a Great Way to Launder Money

John Myatt felt like his life was in free-fall. It was the mid-1980s and at 41, he was a working painter who never made a splash—or a profit—in the London gallery scene. His wife left him, and he struggled to provide for his two young children. So, he began… Read More

28th November 2019

Malta: Yorgen Fenech’s 61 connected companies under scrutiny

The Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) has launched a massive hunt for information regarding any possible financial transactions made by former Tumas Group CEO Yorgen Fenech or any of the 61 companies connected to him over the past years. In “strictly confidential” correspondence sent to all financial practitioners and financial… Read More

8th November 2019

NCA Cites Record Number of SAR Filings, Far Fewer Investigations

UK financial institutions and other firms filed a record number of suspicious activity reports (SARs) between April 2018 and March of this year, but only a third of the reports citing potential money laundering prompted criminal investigations. In an annual report published Tuesday, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said… Read More

7th November 2019

Malta: Financial services sector exposed to flows of funds from higher risk jurisdictions

Malta’s financial services sector is exposed to flows of funds from higher risk jurisdictions and customers, the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) has indicated in a report. This is mainly due to the exposure to flows of funds from higher-risk jurisdictions and customers, Malta’s economic policy, as well as the… Read More

23rd October 2019

Whistle-Blowers Are the Last Defense Against Global Corruption

If anyone at Deutsche Bank—or at any of Europe’s other financial institutions, accounting firms, or tax offices—has evidence of wrongdoing by Donald Trump, now would be a good time to share it. Deutsche Bank, for example, has insisted that it doesn’t have copies of Trump’s tax returns. But employees of… Read More

22nd October 2019

A criminal asked to design our anti-money laundering laws would probably keep the ones we’ve got

By Ronald F Pol, La Trobe University Money laundering rarely gets as literal as the case in Thailand last week, where police raided homes of a ring suspected of laundering a billion baht (about A$48 million) of drug proceeds and found millions stashed in a washing machine. Stories… Read More

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Ukraine: Unpunished Bank Fraud

The emperor has no clothes: the scams and swindles driving up art prices