Financial Crime

12th August 2020

Ex-Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto Accused of Corruption by Former State-Oil Chief

The former head of Mexico’s state-oil company Petróleos Mexicanos accused former president Enrique Peña Nieto and his former finance minister of instructing him to funnel millions of dollars in bribes to the 2012 presidential campaign, part of Mexico’s highest-profile corruption probe in decades, the country’s Attorney General said Tuesday. Emilio… Read More

12th August 2020

Trump oversees all-time low in white collar crime enforcement

Donald Trump calls himself the “law and order” president, but when it comes to white collar crime, he has overseen a significant decline in enforcement. The prosecution of securities fraud, antitrust violations and other such crimes has hit a record low as the pandemic slows the courts, according to one… Read More

10th August 2020

Payments fraudsters spy Covid-19 opportunity in strained supply chains

In March, Interpol revealed details of a criminal scheme involving compromised emails, advance-payment fraud and money laundering across Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands. The case involved two sales companies in Zurich and Hamburg, contracted by German health authorities to procure face masks, that were duped into making payments to what… Read More

7th August 2020

Company ownership registers: ‘Don’t dismiss the racial bias claims in Bermuda’

Deputy Kirsten Morel, who chairs the Economic Affairs Scrutiny Panel, recently addressed comments made in Bermuda newspaper The Royal Gazette in an article discussing the territory’s move to introduce legislation for full transparency on company ownership by January 2023. In 2018, the UK parliament passed laws requiring the Overseas Territories… Read More

6th August 2020

Game of Laws: Compliance in the Age of Regulatory Proliferation

Even if the pace at which regulations are drafted seems to be slowing down, at least at the EU-level, regulations in general are still trending toward bullish proliferation. In the financial-crime field alone, around 1,300 binding pieces of legislation have been brought to light in the span of 20 years… Read More

5th August 2020

Russia-born tycoon behind UK energy project was granted Companies House exemption

A secretive Russian-born tycoon whose company has donated almost £250,000 to the Conservative Party can be identified today by The Times. Viktor Fedotov, 73, is the ultimate owner of Aquind, which is seeking ministerial approval for plans to build a £1.2 billion undersea electricity interconnector between Britain and France. The… Read More

4th August 2020

Warning over Monzo financial crime review

Monzo is reviewing the quality of its financial crime controls and warned that the outcome could have a significant impact on its finances. The troubled digital bank, which issued a warning on Thursday over its ability to remain in business, began an investigation of its “financial crime control framework”… Read More

29th July 2020

Estonia: Tax board wants to widen money laundering due diligence on key state posts

The Tax and Customs Board (MTA) wants to extend the list of key national security positions requiring due diligence measures in the fight against money laundering. “We propose extending the list … to the post of Chief of the Intelligence Center (kaitseväe luurekeskus), Deputy Director General of the Internal Security… Read More

24th July 2020

JPMorgan banked millions for Ghislaine Maxwell, as it had for Epstein

Prosecutors who are probing accused sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell haven’t identified the banks that helped her manage tens of millions of dollars. One of them was JPMorgan Chase & Co., according to people familiar with the matter. That’s another tie that Maxwell shares with Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted… Read More

24th July 2020

Lockstitch to Lockdown: Labour exploitation and financial crime in the textile industry

When the rest of England emerged from it’s Coronavirus-related lockdown on 4th July 2020, one city that remained locked down was Leicester and it was the only one to do so. The city was said to be experiencing an unexpectedly higher number of infections, purportedly originating from workers in… Read More