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Burner phones and banking apps: Meet the Chinese ‘brokers’ laundering Mexican drug money

Early next year, a Chinese businessman named Gan Xianbing will be sentenced in a Chicago courtroom for laundering just over $530,000 in Mexican cartel drug money. Gan, 50, was convicted in February of money laundering and operating an unlicensed money-transfer business that whisked cartel cash from U.S. drug sales offshore. Read More

Energy Trader Vitol Paying $163 Million to Settle Corruption, Manipulation Charges

Swiss-based energy firm Vitol agreed to pay $163 million to settle criminal and civil charges that its employees paid bribes to gain an advantage when bidding for oil in Brazil, Mexico and Ecuador. Vitol’s deal with the Justice Department, announced Thursday in Brooklyn federal court, is the first in what… Read More

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: The Limits of New Standards on Assessing WMD Financing Risk

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – the global standard-setter on combating financial crime – first added requirements to counter the financing of the proliferation of WMDs to the standards it asks countries to comply with in 2012. The focus was set strictly on the implementation by countries of targeted… Read More

9th November 2020

New Juan Carlos investigation widens to Jersey bank account

Juan Carlos, Spain’s exiled king, has been linked to an investigation into the transfer of millions of euros from an offshore account, part of a third corruption inquiry into his finances. Attempts to transfer funds from an active account registered in Jersey, a tax haven, were recently detected by Spain’s… Read More

20th October 2020

The AML System: A Failure of Statecraft?

Consider the current state of anti-money laundering efforts across the globe. Around 2% of global GDP is laundered annually, amounting to between $800B – $2T. Banks spend around $8B annually fighting it but affect only 0.1% of criminal finance. What we know then is that the ROI of… Read More

6th October 2020

HSBC Ignored Jersey Fraud Warnings

A leak of data detailing alleged illegality at a Jersey trust company has revealed how corporate giants HSBC and Liberty Global appear to have failed to adequately investigate concerns over a major fraud after an heiress accused her businessman father of draining millions from trust funds set up to support… Read More

1st October 2020

‘Significant’ threat of overseas financial crime in Jersey

The threat of financial crime in Jersey by overseas criminals is “significant”, a government report has found. The National Risk Assessment of Money Laundering is the first study of its kind and has been made public by the Government of Jersey. It found there was “no clear expression” on… Read More

28th September 2020

‘Bowler Hat Englishman’: hunt for alleged mastermind of Australia’s largest tax evasion scheme

According to an Interpol Red Notice, Philip Egglishaw is 67 years old, 1.75m tall, with a moustache and receding hairline. The “international fraudster”, as he was once dubbed, is wanted by Australian authorities for his role as the alleged mastermind of one of the country’s largest tax evasion and money-laundering… 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 May 2020

US Repatriates to Nigeria over $300m Stolen by its Ex-Dictator

By Eli Moskowitz, OCCRP, 5 May 2020 OCCRP — The United States transferred US$ 311.8 million to the government of Nigeria, the Department of Justice confirmed on Monday, as part of a previous agreement to repatriate assets that traced back to the kleptocratic regime of former dictator Sani Abacha. Read More

1st May 2020

Nigeria could have to ‘replace’ $300 mln Abacha loot if mis-used – US

Nigeria must use money repatriated from funds looted by former military ruler General Sani Abacha on agreed public projects or be forced to “replace” it, the U.S. Justice Department said. The United States and the British dependency of Jersey agreed with the Nigerian government in Febuary to return $300 million… Read More

29th April 2020

Bank closes Jersey branch after £475,000 AML fine

In February, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC Jersey Branch admitted failing to comply with counter-terror and anti-money-laundering regulations relating to two customers who withdrew huge sums of cash at a branch in the United Arab Emirates. It was fined £475,000 and ordered to pay costs of £25,000, after the Royal… Read More

7th April 2020

U.K. Toes U.S. Line to Block Looted Funds for Nigeria Governor

The U.K. has joined the U.S. in resisting a plan by the Nigerian government to hand nearly $110 million of funds the American authorities say was stolen by late dictator Sani Abacha to a top ruling party official. The three governments are involved in a dispute over investment portfolios worth… Read More

Must Read

Burner phones and banking apps: Meet the Chinese ‘brokers’ laundering Mexican drug money

Energy Trader Vitol Paying $163 Million to Settle Corruption, Manipulation Charges

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: The Limits of New Standards on Assessing WMD Financing Risk

EU budget deadlock will hamper crime fight, EPPO warns

Pope Francis’s Plan to Fix the Vatican’s Finances Meets Internal Resistance