Financial Crime

30th March 2020

PayPal Australia warns external audit into financial crime could hurt results

PayPal Australia has warned the company could take a financial hit after the completion of an external audit into the company’s compliance with financial crime laws. “The company cannot estimate the potential impact, if any, on our business or financial statements at this time,” the company said in the reporting… Read More

30th March 2020

The Northern Irish ghost companies that mask crime worldwide

By David Leask, Peter Geoghegan and Richard Smith openDemocracy — Nikolai Sukhanov is used to flags of convenience. The flags of many nations flutter from the stern of ships on the docks and quays of Nakhodka in Russia’s far east. Owners often register their vessels thousands of miles from home, in countries… Read More

26th March 2020

How Covid-19 is Changing the Organised Crime Threat

It happened: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the strictest curbs on life in the UK during peacetime. This followed the adoption of emergency legislation which, most controversially and among others, gives law enforcement agencies the right to detain people on public health grounds and place them in isolation. Meanwhile, shops have experienced… Read More

25th March 2020

Banks, regulators move to protect customers from wave of coronavirus scams in UK, U.S.

UK banks are stepping up fraud prevention measures to protect customers from scammers eager to exploit the coronavirus pandemic with a whole range of new tricks, including fake sales of medical supplies and bogus government relief schemes. With British households effectively on lockdown, some banks said customers had already been… Read More

23rd March 2020

Coronavirus and Financial Institutions—How Compliance Programs Should Respond

Like any industry, financial services anticipates disruption from the new coronavirus. Government agencies and economists expect most everything—from employment to GDP to inflation—will be affected. As organizations large and small tighten purse strings to brace for impact, how can financial services institutions ensure services are not disrupted—or, even more concerning,… Read More

18th March 2020

Another Kind of Outbreak: COVID-19 as Financial Crime Threat

When the World Health Organization (WHO) designated COVID-19 a ‘pandemic’ earlier this month, it understandably left out another concern linked to the outbreak: how financial crooks might exploit it. Whether it is this virus or another in the future, the significant attention and panic that comes with such outbreaks can… Read More

5th March 2020

The Financial Crime Compliance Pathway is Clear in 2020

2019 was the year of clarifying guidance from law enforcement, regulators, and anti-financial crime organizations, even if the effects of new expectations haven’t quite appeared in the form of increased enforcement actions. Nonetheless, it is quite likely that the punitive tail of non-compliance may start to manifest in 2020 and… Read More

4th March 2020

Illicit finance hidden in trade numbers fed $9tn loss for developing nations: GFI

Trade-based money laundering (TBML) and tax evasion contributed to a nearly $9-trillion loss for developing countries between 2008 and 2017, according to a report published on Tuesday. Washington, DC-based Global Financial Integrity (GFI) analysed inconsistencies in import and export values between a developing economy and its developed economic partner. Adding… Read More

2nd March 2020

World’s richest pay millions in ‘mansion tax’ to protect their privacy

Some of the world’s wealthiest individuals are spending millions to hide their ownership of Britain’s most exclusive properties, it has been revealed. Property acquired through a company allows the true owner to keep their name off Land Registry records. But there is growing concern this mechanism is being abused, sometimes… Read More

25th February 2020

Beyond Deutsche: U.S. Banks Also Implicated in Dubious Partnerships Abroad

Evgeny, a retiree from the Russian city of Vladimir, always believed that the U.S. financial system had integrity. In particular Citibank, to him, was no Deutsche Bank, a bank known for getting in bed with dubious investors. And that belief, Evgeny says, may have led to his financial ruin. The… Read More