Tom Burgis

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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