AML

26th November 2019

Two bankers who worked at Coutts private bank in Zurich were fined by the Swiss authorities for failing to report suspicious transactions linked to the sovereign wealth fund 1MDB scandal, it was reported on Sunday. The Sonntag Zeitung and Le Matin Dimanche newspapers reported on Sunday that two Coutts bankers who… Read More

26th November 2019

Westpac Issues Response Plan to Address AML/CTF Failings

Westpac has released its response plan to the AML/CTF issues raised by AUSTRAC last week as it launched civil penalty proceedings against the bank. According to AUSTRAC’s statement of claim, Westpac contravened the AML/CTF laws on 23 million instances between 2013 to and 2019. Among the bank’s failures, AUSTRAC… Read More

26th November 2019

How to hide $53m: Mogul used mother and son’s finance firm

An Auckland finance firm and its mother and son owners can now be revealed as the company and pair who failed to report $53.4 million of suspicious transactions from a Chinese-Canadian mogul accused of running a $200m pyramid scheme. Jiaxin Finance Limited, Fuqin Che and her son Qiang Fu, also… Read More

26th November 2019

Trump Ordered Review of U.S. Sanctions on Turkey’s Halkbank

President Donald Trump told the Treasury Department and Justice Department to look into the impact of U.S. sanctions on a Turkish state-owned bank after being lobbied by Turkey’s president, a Treasury official acknowledged in a letter last week to a top Democratic senator. The letter, sent in response to… Read More

25th November 2019

Westpac board could be disqualified over alleged breaches, Josh Frydenberg says

The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, says the banking regulator is looking at disqualifying the Westpac board for accountability failings which may have helped facilitate child exploitation. The financial intelligence agency, Austrac, announced it had begun legal action against Westpac last week, levelling accusations the bank had more than 23m… Read More

25th November 2019

We Need to Accelerate Regtech Transition in AML Work: HKMA

We need to enable a wider application of technology to AML work in the sector, deputy chief Arthur Yuen said at the HKMA’s its first AML/CFT RegTech Forum on Friday. The HKMA (Hong Kong Monetary Authority) on Friday (22 November) hosted its first AML/CFT RegTech Forum. The Forum was an… Read More

25th November 2019

Petrofac accused of keeping fake accounts to disguise bribes

A multinational energy firm accused by prosecutors of maintaining a fake set of accounts to disguise the payment of bribes to foreign government officials has been identified by the Guardian as the UK-based company Petrofac. Petrofac, which is headed by a major Tory donor, has been under investigation by… Read More

25th November 2019

Leading OneCoin backers linked to Irish cryptocurrency MingoCoin

Two senior members of the discredited OneCoin cryptocurrency sales network are listed as shareholders of a fledgling Irish cryptocurrency. Peter Shaw and Pehr Karlsson are shareholders in Funlz, which is seeking to develop MingoCoin, a cryptocurrency linked to a new messaging aggregator app. Funlz founder Joe Arthur said that the… Read More

22nd November 2019

Swerving SWIFT: the story behind Westpac’s money-laundering calamity

The Australian anti-money laundering (AML) regulator’s case against Westpac for more than 23 million alleged reporting breaches will shine an international spotlight on SWIFT data reporting avoidance. Anti-money laundering experts have said the case will provide an unprecedented view into the processes that banks put in place to circumvent the… Read More

22nd November 2019

ABN Amro failed to screen 5 million customers after 2010 Fortis merger: report

When merging with Fortis in 2010, ABN Amro failed to screen the over 5 million Fortis customers individually, according to NRC. All 5 million of them were automatically labeled as “reliable” – the lowest risk category – meaning that ABN Amro considers them relatively harmless and unlikely to commit financial… Read More