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‘Leaks and rumours’: UK regulator flags perils of bankers working from home

Bankers working from their kitchens or bedrooms may raise new risks around handling sensitive information, meaning financial firms must check if their surveillance systems can spot suspicious transactions, British regulators said on Wednesday. Since mid-March, many stock and bond traders have been working from home or back-up sites due to… Read More

U.S. to Stop Allowing Foreign Companies to Facilitate Iran’s Civil Nuclear Program

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. would stop allowing foreign companies to facilitate Iran’s civil nuclear activities, a core provision of the 2015 international nuclear agreement. Tehran has “continued its nuclear brinkmanship by expanding proliferation sensitive activities,” Mr. Pompeo said Wednesday in a statement announcing his decision. The Trump… Read More

Sweden’s Money Laundering Affair Brings Bankers Closer to Police

The bank at the center of Sweden’s biggest money-laundering scandal says illegal transactions are probably still flowing through the financial system, because existing tools to stop them aren’t good enough. Swedbank AB, which was fined over $400 million in March for failing to halt suspicious flows, has now… Read More

28th May 2020

House Passes Uighur Bill in Rebuke to China, Sends It to Trump

The U.S. House voted Wednesday to authorize sanctions against Chinese officials for human rights abuses against Muslim minorities, as Congress and the White House ratchet up pressure on the government in Beijing amid rising tensions between the world’s two biggest economies. The 413-1 vote comes on the same day the… Read More

28th May 2020

Ex-Congressman Rivera paid millions to Venezuelan businessman close to Maduro regime

Criticized as a hypocrite, former Miami Congressman David Rivera claims his $50 million consulting contract with an oil company owned by Venezuela’s government wasn’t meant to defend embattled President Nicolás Maduro but rather to remove him from power. However, the Miami Herald has learned that Rivera used some of his… Read More

28th May 2020

Central Bank of Kenya orders banks to look for dirty money in safe deposit boxes

The days of individuals hiding their ill-gotten wealth or cash in banks’ safe deposit boxes are numbered. This is after the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) gave banks until the end of this year to ensure that safe boxes and lockers are free of any dirty cash and illegal items… Read More

28th May 2020

U.S. sanctions advisory raises hurdles for global maritime industry

Ship owners and insurers say it may be impossible for the maritime industry to fully comply with the Trump administration’s new guidelines on how to avoid sanctions penalties related to Iran, North Korea and Syria, raising the risk of disruptions in a sector already struggling with the fallout of the… Read More

28th May 2020

French political power couple lose appeal against money-laundering conviction

The Paris Court of Appeal on Wednesday found veteran right-wing politicians Patrick and Isabelle Balkany guilty of money-laundering and sentenced them both to jail, sealing the power couple’s fall from grace after a protracted legal battle. The Balkany couple, who for years governed the chic Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret,… Read More

28th May 2020

Does the U.S. Justice Department Need a Dedicated Compliance Expert?

The Justice Department in recent years has issued a series of policies designed to incentivize companies to invest in programs that ensure employees don’t violate the law. Few have been as central to those efforts as Andrew Weissmann, who was chief of the department’s criminal fraud section from 2015… Read More

28th May 2020

UK Could Face Tougher Dirty Money Fight Post-Brexit: FT

The UK is at risk of becoming more vulnerable to illicit funds if it doesn’t closely cooperate with EU authorities on a post-Brexit deal, City of London lawyers told the Financial Times. The concerns follow recently announced plans by the European Union to strengthen its anti-money laundering controls by empowering… Read More

27th May 2020

Vancouver model for money laundering unprecedented in Canada, B.C. inquiry hears

The so-called Vancouver model is an outlier in the history of Canadian crime, a criminologist told B.C.’s public inquiry on money laundering Tuesday. Stephen Schneider told the Cullen Commission of Inquiry into Money Laundering that this system for laundering illegal funds from China and revenue from drug trafficking is exceptional. “I’ve… Read More

27th May 2020

Poland investigates money laundering at state bank -media

Polish prosecutors have started an investigation into suspected money laundering at a small state-controlled lender BOS Bank, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna daily said on Tuesday, quoting an unnamed source. The regional prosecutor’s office in Katowice in southern Poland said in an emailed statement to Reuters: “An investigation has been initiated in… Read More

27th May 2020

HMRC Sharply Increased Use of Account Freeze Orders in Latest Tax Year: FT

The UK’s HM Revenue & Customs significantly ramped up its use of a new authority to freeze dirty money during the tax year that ended in March, the Financial Times reported Wednesday. During the 12-month period, the tax agency invoked account freezing orders (AFOs) to target 166 bank and building society… Read More

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The Art of the SAR

Author Tom Mueller on Financial Crime in the ‘Age of the Whistleblower’

Are Sanctions Cruel?

Nordic Noir: Understanding the Swedbank Saga