Financial Crime

8th February 2021

Hedge Funds Risk Biden-Era End to Money-Laundering Loophole

Private-equity and hedge funds face an increased risk that the U.S. will close a longstanding money-laundering loophole for assets they manage. All it would take is the Biden administration to quickly revive a rule that was developed during Barack Obama’s term but left unused by Donald Trump. The U.S. has… Read More

8th February 2021

Malta: Plans to set up financial crime agency are scrapped

Plans to set up an agency dedicated to fighting organised crime have been scrapped. A spokesman for the Finance Ministry confirmed when questioned by Times of Malta that the plans had been shelved. “The current work which is being done by the authorities is sufficient so there is no need… Read More

4th February 2021

Migration firm investigated over ads promising Vanuatu passports

An international migration firm is being investigated for allegedly promoting access to the Vanuatu’s passports without the government’s authority, in the latest controversy to hit the country’s “citizenship-for-sale” program. Vanuatu’s citizenship commissioner, Ronald Warsal, has placed Global-Migrate under investigation after access to the scheme was promoted by its Dubai office… Read More

3rd February 2021

Banks fear Afterpay increases money laundering risks

Banks fear that buy now, pay later operators such as Afterpay, which operate outside traditional banking rules, have increased the risk they will be ensnared in more anti-money laundering dramas. Banks say they cannot see where money is being spent because the new players are standing in between banks and… Read More

3rd February 2021

Japan gets details on 2 mil. offshore accounts to combat tax evasion

Japan’s National Tax Agency said Tuesday it received details on around 2.06 million offshore accounts held by Japanese individuals and corporations in 86 countries and regions in the year to June 2020, under an internationally agreed standard to prevent tax evasion. It also released for the first time the total… Read More

22nd January 2021

Former Vatican Banker Convicted of Money Laundering and Embezzlement

A Vatican court on Thursday convicted a former senior official at the Vatican bank and his lawyer of embezzlement and money laundering, sending a strong signal that the church was determined to get its financial house in order. The defendants — Angelo Caloia, the president of the Vatican bank for… Read More

5th January 2021

French Bank to Pay $8.6 Million to Settle Syria Sanctions Case

The U.S. Treasury Department imposed an $8.6 million fine on a French bank that officials said processed payments for blacklisted Syrian financial institutions. Union de Banques Arabes et Françaises SA, a Paris-based bank that facilitates trade finance between Europe and the Middle East, Africa and Asia, agreed to pay the… Read More

5th January 2021

Philippines: Child porn transactions hit P113 million in 6 months

Suspicious transactions worth P113.1 million related to child pornography were reported in the first half of last year, almost double the P65.8 million booked in 2019 as the government stepped up its campaign against the sexual abuse of children, the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) revealed. In a public bulletin titled… Read More

5th January 2021

Malta on track to avoid grey listing – Robert Abela

Malta is on track to make it through a crucial evaluation of its anti-money laundering regime, Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Sunday. In a brief phone-in interview on the Labour Party’s ONE radio, Abela said the government had put a lot of work into addressing shortcomings that had been… Read More

4th January 2021

Defense-Bill Override Paves Way for Overhaul of U.S. Anti-Money-Laundering Rules

New rules intended to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism—including measures to make company ownership more transparent—will go into effect now that the National Defense Authorization Act has been approved, advancing a yearslong effort by anticorruption advocates. Provisions in the annual defense-policy legislation would require many U.S. Read More