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Lebanese banks to reopen as withdrawal limits made official

AP — Lebanon’s bank staff union announced Monday it’s ending a week-long strike after increased security and new regulations that officially limited withdrawal and dollar transfers. The union said banks will reopen Tuesday. Banks have been at the center of anti-government protests, as demonstrators accused them… Read More

Trump’s Embrace of Sanctions Irks Allies and Prompts Efforts to Evade Measures

President Trump’s increasing reliance on economic sanctions to solve foreign policy problems is fueling concern that the United States is abusing its financial power and prompting some governments to seek ways to evade American measures. In recent months, the United States has increased pressure on Iran and Venezuela, dangled the… Read More

European concerns raise prospect of renewed U.N. sanctions on Iran

Europe’s threat to trigger a mechanism that could reimpose United Nations sanctions on Iran marks a significant breakdown in diplomacy to try to save the 2015 nuclear deal and could presage its death knell, diplomats say. Britain, France and Germany have sought to salvage the pact, under which Iran undertook… Read More

13th November 2019

U.S. Software Company Discloses Potential Sanctions Violations

Altair Engineering Inc. may have violated U.S. economic sanctions and export control regulations, the company said in a regulatory filing. The Troy, Mich.-based engineering software company said it discovered the possible violations in May and disclosed them to regulators, according to the company’s latest quarterly financial report, which was… Read More

12th November 2019

Jho Low of Cyprus: 1MDB fugitive’s passports keep police guessing

The revelation last week that fugitive Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, holds a Cypriot passport has sparked a fresh flurry of speculation over his whereabouts, as authorities attempt to track him down for alleged financial crimes linked to defunct state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad. The… Read More

11th November 2019

To Circumvent Western Sanctions, Syria’s Assad Looked to a Moscow Skyscraper: FT

Family members of Bashar al-Assad have purchased at least 20 Moscow apartments worth an aggregate $40 million over the past six years, despite EU and US sanctions targeting the Syrian leader, the Financial Times reported Monday. The real estate deals, including the purchase of 18 luxury apartments in Moscow’s… Read More

11th November 2019

INVESTIGATION: Dubai real estate links point to hidden Abacha loot

Twenty years after the controversial demise of one of Nigeria’s last military leaders, Sani Abacha, one sore thumb still aching local and international financial crime investigators is the full extent of his legacy of corruption. In the years since 2002, when the first insight into the depth of corruption during… Read More

8th November 2019

Terrorism Financing Charge Upheld Against French Company Lafarge

A French court on Thursday upheld preliminary criminal charges against one of France’s biggest companies over allegations that it financed the Islamic State and other armed groups in Syria, while putting the lives of its employees there in danger. In its ruling, the Court of Appeal in Paris also said… Read More

7th November 2019

Kuwait: New facts unfold in money-laundering case involving local firms’ contracts with US army

New facts unfolded in the case of suspicion of money laundering involving local companies with contracts with the US military, in a story which was published by Al-Qabas last October, where investigations conducted by the security services in cooperation with the US Contracts show the involvement of seven new companies… Read More

6th November 2019

Halkbank Wants U.S. to Toss Case It Won’t Recognize

A lawyer for a Turkish bank accused by the U.S. of aiding an Iranian scheme to evade economic sanctions appeared in a New York courtroom for the first time on Tuesday and said the bank continued to dispute the U.S.’s legal authority over it and planned to seek dismissal of… Read More

5th November 2019

U.S. targets Iranian top leader’s inner circle with new sanctions

The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on nine people close to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, including his chief of staff, one of his sons and the head of the judiciary. Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of Iran’s seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, the U.S. Treasury… Read More

4th November 2019

Court thwarts bid to stop Satabank €1.5m release to ‘dirty oil’ suspect

Malta’s financial regulator has lost a bid to stop the shuttered Satabank from releasing funds from the bank account of an offshore company belonging to ‘Dirty Oil’ suspect Gordon Debono. Debono is facing criminal charges related to a €30 million oil-smuggling ring in Catania, Sicily, together with conspirators Darren Debono,… Read More

4th November 2019

Malaysia rejects Goldman Sachs offer of $2bn damages over 1MDB scandal

Malaysia has rejected an offer from Goldman Sachs of less than US$2bn in compensation over the 1MDB scandal, in contrast to the country’s publicly stated demand of US$7.5bn. Malaysia has charged Goldman and 17 current and former directors of its units for allegedly misleading investors over bond sales totalling… Read More

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