The U.S. Department of Treasury has issued the 2020 National Strategy for Combating Terrorist and Other Illicit Financing. This strategy guides the public and private sectors in addressing current illicit finance challenges. Some of the key illicit finance threats identified include; drug trafficking, terrorist financing, organized crime, human trafficking, and…

Jamal El-Hindi spoke at the 20th annual Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Financial Crimes Conference in New York earlier this month. El-Hindi is the FinCEN Deputy Director and covered some of the AML compliance challenges and trends. One of the focuses was on Section 314(b) information sharing, which permits financial institutions…

In October 2019, Halkbank was charged with money laundering, bank fraud, and sanctions offenses by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. The state-owned Turkish bank is suspected of evading Iran sanctions restrictions enforced by the U.S. in a multibillion-dollar scheme. The court issued a summons directing…

It seems that every year, more anti-money laundering penalties are handed down by regulators. However it may seem, the numbers prove that regulators almost doubled the value amount of penalties being handed out from 2018 to 2019. In 2018, 29 fines valued at $4.27 billion were handed out.  Last year,…

Last week, 7 individuals were arrested from the result of a anti-money laundering (AML) investigation in Northern Ireland. This international AML investigation involved Europol, Interpol, the Republic of Ireland, and Great Britain and culminated in eight searches performed by the Police Service of Northern Ireland. This was the second biggest…

The richest woman in Africa, Isabel dos Santos, has come under a lot of scrutiny lately. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has been reporting on leaked documents that suggest that dos Santos' companies have been committing some serious financial crime. Anyone with political influence is considered to be at…

On January 10th, the European Union's 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD) went into effect. Not only does this directive affect arts and antiquities, but it also applies to cryptocurrency companies. Cryptocurrency AML and KYC regulations have been a talking point globally. How can regulators control a market with digital currency?…

Despite Brexit, it seems the United Kingdom will be following the EU's 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive. The new rules titled "The Money Laundering and Terrorist Finance Amendments Regulations 2019" passed over the holidays. They require the act of due diligence for the art market in the UK, meaning that this…

Moxipay Corporation has been charged as acting as an unregistered money service business facilitating the transfer of funds for unlicensed cannabis dispensaries. This online money laundering process allowed eight online dispensaries to collect funds from consumers and supply illegal cannabis. Moxipay is based out of Edmonton, Alberta where recreational cannabis…

Ten banks in the Philippines are involved in a inquiry by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). The reason for the inquiry is to assess the banks and their relations with Australia's Westpac. Westpac was recently fined for about 23 million breaches in anti-money laundering(AML) regulations. Many of these breaches…