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Irregularities Found at Pakistan’s Top Bank After U.S. Sanction

A Middle East operation of Pakistan’s largest bank displayed “significant irregularities” in dealings with politically exposed clients and screening some transactions, according to an inspection by the South Asian nation’s central bank that took place more than a year after the lender was shut out of the U.S. financial system. Read More

Bahrain brings charges in vast money laundering case linked to Iranian state-owned banks

Bahrain launched legal proceedings on Thursday against a number of individuals and businesses involved in a vast money laundering scheme linked to state-owned Iranian banks. The operation allowed Iranian organizations, including some sanctioned for terror financing, to secretly move money internationally, the Kingdom’s prosecutors said. Billions of dollars were funneled… Read More

U.S. says Chinese telecom giant Huawei did business with Iran, North Korea

Federal prosecutors have hit Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei with new charges in a superseding indictment unsealed Thursday, which details the company’s alleged illegal behavior in Iran and North Korea. Prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, alleged that Huawei set up a shell company in Iran so that the subsidiary could… Read More

13th February 2020

US gives Iraq sanctions waiver for vital Iranian gas imports

AP — The United States has granted Iraq a 45-day sanctions waiver enabling the country to continue importing vital Iranian gas and electricity supplies. In a statement Wednesday, the U.S. State Department said the waiver “ensures that Iraq is able to meet its short-term energy needs while it takes steps… Read More

13th February 2020

Fugitive Gambling Tycoon Fights for His Vast Trove of Artifacts

Public quarrels between politicians and rich businessmen over alleged links to organized crime are hardly new, especially in a country ranked among the most corrupt in Europe. The case of Vasil Bozhkov in Bulgaria, though, has captured the national imagination because it cuts to the heart of the Balkan country’s heritage. The… Read More

11th February 2020

How a Reality-TV Producer Became Rainmaker to $300 Billion Saudi Fund

Businesses looking for cash from Saudi Arabia’s $300 billion sovereign-wealth fund, one of the world’s most influential investors, have found it helps to enlist a former reality-TV producer from Sarasota, Fla. Carla DiBello, 35, has become a high-profile figure in Saudi Arabia’s investment scene for her connections with the… Read More

10th February 2020

Belgian prince investigated in alleged global tax evasion network probe

An investigation has been opened targetting Belgian Prince Henri De Croÿ’s alleged tax evasion network, which he is accused of using to help funnel millions in funds into tax havens. Finance Minister Alexandre de Croo confirmed that the Special Tax Inspectorate (ISI) was building up files on taxpayers whose names… Read More

7th February 2020

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: the Financial Action Task Force Faces an Iranian Crunch

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is notionally a technical body that sets standards and promotes effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating financial crime threats to the integrity of the international financial system. As well as setting standards it also conducts periodic reviews of countries’… Read More

7th February 2020

Global Survey of Private Sector Reveals Significant Proliferation Finance and North Korea and Iran Sanctions Implementation Gaps

Commissioned and undertaken jointly by the think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and ACAMS in partnership with YouGov, the survey, based on 366 unique responses from across the global financial industry, shows that international banks are leading efforts in counter-proliferation finance, with local and national banks at greater risk… Read More

6th February 2020

Jersey’s Royal Court fines Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank £475,000

A Middle-Eastern bank has been fined £475,000 by Jersey’s Royal Court for failing to abide by money-laundering laws. The Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank Jersey Branch (ADCBJ) pleaded guilty to failing to have appropriate or consistent policies and procedures in place relating to risk management and transaction monitoring. The Court said… Read More

6th February 2020

Britain’s Metro Bank hires lawyers over Cuba and Iran sanctions breaches

Britain’s Metro Bank has hired a law firm to help it investigate payments routed through the bank that breached U.S. sanctions, a regulatory filing showed. One Metro bank customer was subject to U.S. sanctions on Cuba, while another received payments from Iran, the bank said. The Evening Standard newspaper reported… Read More

4th February 2020

Denmark seizes Sanjay Shah’s mansion over £1.5bn fraud claim

Danish police have seized the central London mansion of a multimillionaire British businessman accused of defrauding Danish taxpayers of £1.5 billion. A spokesman for Sanjay Shah, a former hedge fund boss, confirmed that his £14.7 million property near Hyde Park had been expropriated. Mr Shah lives in Dubai. Yesterday… Read More

4th February 2020

EY boss defends treatment of whistleblower after he accused client of Dubai money-laundering

One of EY’s leading executives has denied that he attempted to push a former junior partner out of the audit firm after he blew the whistle on a client in Dubai. Mark Otty was one of four global area managing partners at the firm in 2013 when the claimant, Amjad… Read More

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