Financial Crime

21st July 2020

Westpac unveils change programme to fix risk culture

Westpac has unveiled a group-wide plan to strengthen its management of non-financial risk, simplify its business operations, and drive clearer accountability and decision making. The ‘transformation programme’ is based on a reassessment of Westpac’s culture, governance and accountability remediation plan, which it developed in response to findings from a self-assessment… Read More

16th July 2020

Eight UK Overseas Territories See Progress on Public Company Registers

UK officials praised progress by eight British overseas territories to open their company registers to the public by 2023, in a statement Wednesday. The commitments, long-sought by transparency advocates, will permit private citizens to access data on the beneficial owners of companies registered in Anguilla, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands,… Read More

14th July 2020

‘58 foreigners bought Maltese passport without presenting birth certificate’

A total of 58 foreign nationals bought a Maltese passport without presenting their birth certificate in just 18 months, opposition MP Karol Aquilina is claiming. “This is further testament to the fake due diligence of this programme which is tarnishing Malta’s reputation,” he said. Aquilina divulged this “scandal” in parliament… Read More

13th July 2020

‘Magnitsky Act’ will fail while Britain remains money laundering hub, experts warn

By Adam Bychawski, openDemocracy, 10 July 2020 openDemocracy — MPs and anti-corruption campaigners have warned that the British government’s proposed ‘Magnitsky-style’ sanctions regime is not enough to tackle money laundering amid fears that Britain has become a ‘global hub for financial crime’. On Monday, the UK imposed sanctions against 49… Read More

10th July 2020

On the Periphery: Financial Crime Risks in Cryptocurrency Mining

Growth in cryptocurrency adoption in recent years has attracted public interest, investment opportunities and regulatory attention. While cryptocurrency-related headlines are now commonplace, cryptocurrency mining remains an obscure topic to most. Anti-financial crime professionals familiarizing themselves with cryptocurrency risks should be certain to focus on what may appear to be a… Read More

9th July 2020

Report: Dubai Facilitates Global Corruption

By Sandrine Gagné-Acoulon, OCCRP, 8 July 2020 OCCRP — A US think tank claims that poor enforcement has turned Dubai into a hotbed of dodgy dealings by allowing the emirate to serve as a major crossroad for gray networks and international finance. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace released… Read More

8th July 2020

North Korean hackers are now stealing U.S. shoppers’ credit card details

Hackers with suspected ties to the North Korean regime are intercepting and stealing U.S. shoppers’ credit card details during online payments. Cybercriminals with links to a state-sponsored unit known as “Hidden Cobra” have been breaking into the websites of “large U.S retailers” and planting “skimmers” since at least May 2019,… Read More

1st July 2020

Fremantle Ports worker accused of fleecing millions before fleeing overseas

Another major corruption scandal has rocked the West Australian public service, with an arrest warrant issued for a Fremantle Ports worker and his wife who are believed to have fled the country. Police have also arrested and charged the couple’s children over their alleged involvement in a multi-million dollar rort. Read More

29th June 2020

FDIC Considers Scrapping Quarterly Bank Reports

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is moving to boost the way it monitors for risks at thousands of U.S. banks, potentially scrapping quarterly reports that have been a fixture of oversight for more than 150 years yet often contain stale data. The FDIC on Monday is expected to kick off… Read More

29th June 2020

Freezing order on Yorgen Fenech’s massive wealth is relaxed

A court has granted Daphne Caruana Galizia murder suspect Yorgen Fenech access to millions of euros worth of shares and immovable property which he had inherited, ostensibly as they are not the proceeds of crime. This was the subject of a decree issued on June 18 by Magistrate Rachel Montebello… Read More