The International Institute of Finance (IIF) stated that one of the major factors hindering anti-money laundering for banks is a lack of information-sharing.  However, stringent data privacy regulations have been introduced which make it difficult for any organization to share information. The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) helps…

In 2017, Apple Inc. discovered that they had inadvertently paid a developer that was present on U.S. sanction lists. The sanctions and OFAC screening tool Apple used failed to identify the developer as a blacklisted entity. Apple reported this error and the investigation has been completed, with the result of…

From December 2010 to February 2014, three General Electric Company (GE) subsidiaries violated sanctions regulations on 289 occasions. These violations resulted in a $2.7 million civil penalty by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). OFAC sanction screening is required to be in place to prevent businesses…

The Australian anti-money laundering regulator (AUSTRAC) is imposing penalties on Westpac bank for know your customer in banking failure. AUSTRAC claims that Westpac failed to adequately monitor transactions that could potentially be linked to child exploitation in Asia.  Australia’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing act requires entities, like banks, to…

The "travel rule" requires that firms engaged in money service businesses to share information about their customers and verify identities of customers. First issued in 1996, the travel rule (a know-your-customer (KYC) regulation) was expanded by FinCEN to apply to cryptocurrency in May of this year. FATF released guidelines in…

The German Parliament has passed new regulations onto the upper house of Parliament, the Bundesrat. Rules involving anti-money laundering for auction houses, notaries, gold merchants, real estate agents, and more are planned to bring Germany in line with EU directives. Last year, Germany's government Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) found a…

Housing prices have been raising in Canada and the government believes that dirty money is to blame. British Columbia plans to fight back by introducing legislation that would bring a single regulator to real estate markets. Premier John Horgan has reported that more than $7 billion was washed through the…

On November 6th, Hugh Haney pled guilty to laundering more than $19 million through cyptocurrency. Anti-money laundering regulations have been working to enforce legislation on the possible malicious use of cryptocurrency almost since it's use became popular. Cryptocurrency anti-money laundering cases have recently included an individual charged for illegal use…

Valve, the developer of the popular video game Counterstrike, has taken steps to prevent money laundering in it's latest update to the game. Players of the multiplayer game Counterstrike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) can earn loot boxes containing cosmetic items for the game. These loot boxes would be "locked" against the…