Financial Crime

12th April 2021

Gardai expand investigation into fraud at Irish charity Bothar

Gardai investigating the alleged misappropriation of funds from the charity Bothar by its former chief executive are examining claims that other people might have been involved in fraud. Bothar secured a High Court order last week freezing the assets of David Moloney, its former boss, who quit in February after… Read More

8th April 2021

FinCEN Begins Making Rules For Corporate Transparency Act

By Sadie Brown, OCCRP, 7 April 2021 OCCRP — The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) asked last week for the public to comment on a series of questions about the new beneficial ownership reporting requirements of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), according to an… Read More

6th April 2021

UAE central bank issues best practice rules for financial products

The Central Bank of UAE released new regulations for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) aimed at promoting “best practices among licenced financial institutions when engaging with SMEs”. The purpose of the regulation was to improve SMEs’ access to financial products and services, following the launch of its new regulatory framework… Read More

1st April 2021

UK Crypto Companies Now Have to Submit Financial Crime Reports

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a new policy statement Wednesday that includes crypto companies on the list of businesses required to submit a financial crime report. Businesses that are required to submit financial crime reporting are referred to by the FCA as “REP-CRIM”, which crypto asset… Read More

29th March 2021

Malta heading towards ‘all-clear’ from Moneyval

Malta’s anti-money laundering regime has been given the thumbs up by Moneyval ahead of a final vote set for next month. The decision means Malta could avoid measures which would have had major repercussions on the country’s financial services sector. A Council of Europe anti-money laundering expert committee, known as… Read More

26th March 2021

Getting Serious? Illicit Finance Is Finally a UK Foreign Policy Issue

The focus of most commentators on the UK government’s Integrated Review (IR) of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy was inevitably the headline items: raising the cap on the UK’s nuclear warhead stockpile; the ‘tilt’ to the Indo-Pacific; the threat from Russia; adapting to China; cyber power; and growing… Read More

26th March 2021

Fraudsters steal record £479m from phone and text scam victims in UK

Fraudsters used the coronavirus pandemic to steal a record £479m from almost 150,000 victims in 2020. Criminals used fake texts, phone calls and other ruses to steal 5pc more cash through so-called authorised push payment scams than in 2019, according to figures from banking trade body UK Finance. The number… Read More

25th March 2021

Brexit is a ‘massive opportunity’ for criminals, conference hears

Brexit is a “massive opportunity” for criminals, a webinar on serious and organised crime in the UK and Ireland was told on Wednesday. Professor Gloria Laycock, of University College London, made the remark when saying she believed the UK leaving the EU was among the issues that those concerned… Read More

19th March 2021

Stop the Illegal Wildlife Trade: Report reveals dark financial underbelly of global wildlife crime

A major global analysis of the means by which money from the illegal wildlife trade flows round the world highlights how criminals routinely use common financial mechanisms and basic fraud to profit from illicit animal and plant products. Using more than 40 wildlife crime cases from… Read More

18th March 2021

Danske Faces Long Road Back as Fine From Probes Seen Hitting $1 Billion

It will be years before Danske Bank A/S is fully rehabilitated from the shock of one of Europe’s most spectacular money-laundering scandals, according to its chairman, Karsten Dybvad. Since admitting in late 2018 that a large part of the 200 billion euros ($238 billion) in non-resident cash that flowed… Read More