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UK must clean up its AML act or risk becoming rogue jurisdiction offshore Europe – TI report
By Keith Nuthall
Online Published Date:
25 October 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
FATF advises multi-source checks on beneficial ownership of shell companies
By Keith Nuthall
Online Published Date:
26 October 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
BNP Paribas fined US$15m for not screening penny stock wire transfers
By
Keith Nuthall
Online Published Date:
26 October 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
Former EY auditor says he lost job in wake of Dubai gold laundering claims
By Keith Nuthall
Online Published Date:
04 November 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
Fifth of law firms in England & Wales reviewed fail on ML risk assessment
Onein five law firms in England and Wales reviewed by the regulator lacked a money
laundering risk assessment. The Solicitors Regulation Authority
(SRA) wrote, in March [2019], to 400 firms asking for their risk assessments;
all responded but 83..
Online Published Date:
04 November 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
AI-washing: is it machine learning… or worse?
Dr Bimal Roy Bhanu (bimal.bhanu@auditxprt.com) is CEO of AiXPRT.
Online Published Date:
05 November 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
UK SARs rise but so does FIU headcount
The volume of suspicious activity reports (SARs) filed with the UK Financial Intelligence Unit, in the National Crime Agency, hit a new high in 2018/19, reaching 478,437, a rise of 3.13% on 2017/18.Staffing at the UKFIU has also grown, from 80 at..
Online Published Date:
07 November 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
EU major states strengthen call for single AML supervisor
Leading European Union countries have come out in support of a new authority to supervise anti-money laundering (AML) in the bloc, Reuters reports.In a joint statement [1], Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Latvia said that “[W]here..
Online Published Date:
11 November 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
Greece law change unfreezes assets if ML trial deadline passed
The Greek government has pushed through a law that enables suspects in fraud and money laundering cases to recover frozen assets if their cases are not tried within 18 months.The Financial Times reports [on 14/11/19] that such cases in Greece..
Online Published Date:
14 November 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
Cyprus admits its golden visa scheme was misused
By Sara Lewis
Online Published Date:
14 November 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
Vantage – FATF executive secretary viewpoint
Interview by Keith Nuthall.
Online Published Date:
14 November 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
Held to account – regulation of cryptocurrency exchange [Video]
Virtual currencies pose a serious money laundering risk as long as they can be exchanged anonymously. Jurisdictions and the Financial Action Task Force, meanwhile, are working on perimeter controls to force disclosure of wallet/account-holders, as..
Online Published Date:
19 November 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
AUSTRAC accuses Westpac of filing & correspondent banking breaches; says monitoring flaws leave child exploitation risk off radar
Westpac Banking Corporation, Australia’s second largest bank by assets, faces allegations that “systemic failures” in its controls led to over 23 million breaches of the country’s Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006...
Online Published Date:
20 November 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
Bank of Valletta fined €57,500 over source of wealth scrutiny
The Bank of Valletta has been fined a total of €57,500 by Malta’s Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) for source of wealth check failings in two cases.In the first, the bank did not investigate “significant deposits”, in variable amounts of..
Online Published Date:
20 November 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
ECB revokes Austrian bank licence amidst ML concerns
By Sara Lewis
Online Published Date:
23 November 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
Reset
The Financial Action Task Force has a problem, and it knows it.The Forty Recommendations are comprehensive, broadly up to date and technology-neutral, and in a first for a global standard setter, it now tests for effectiveness of implementation, not..
Online Published Date:
27 November 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
Opening up, slowly – beneficial ownership registers, a tour
The need to discover who is behindcomplex corporate structures enabling serious crimes from tax evasion to
terrorism is not disputed but progress towards greater transparency through
public beneficial ownership registers has proved fitful, at best...
Online Published Date:
28 November 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
Israel – at the cutting edge of counter terrorist financing
Ever since its foundation the State of Israelhas faced security threats, sometimes existential, with terrorism always on the
agenda. Joe Charlaff, in Jerusalem, reports on how the authorities
collaborate to identify and disrupt lethal funding..
Online Published Date:
28 November 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
Fungibility, ring-fencing and one degree of separation
JonathanFisher QC (+44 (0) 20 3709 9470, jf@brightlinelaw.co.uk)is lead counsel at Bright line Law (www.brightlinelaw.co.uk).
Online Published Date:
28 November 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
Goldilocks and the three MERs
Susan Grossey may be
contacted on +44 (0)1223 563636, susan@thinkingaboutcrime.com,
www.thinkingaboutcrime.com
Online Published Date:
28 November 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
Russian influence – the Baltics
Suspected Russian criminal money floodingthrough Estonia has sent policy makers in the Baltic states racing back to
statute and rule books to work out where legal loopholes can be closed and
controls tightened. Monika Hanley, in Riga, checks on..
Online Published Date:
28 November 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
Law Commission misses generational opportunity to improve the law on suspicion
Jonathan
Fisher QC (+44 (0) 20 3709 9470, jf@brightlinelaw.co.uk)
is lead counsel at Bright line Law (www.brightlinelaw.co.uk).
Online Published Date:
28 November 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
Off the pace? - Poland
Poland may be eastern Europe’s mostreliable economy – with uninterrupted growth since 1992 – but the European
Commission has accused it of being far too slow to update its anti-money
laundering legislation in line with the latest Directives. William..
Online Published Date:
28 November 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
Brazil’s Supreme Court ruling on information sharing reactivates ML investigations
Brazilian law enforcement and prosecutors are once again able to access tax and financial data from other authorities in connection with criminal money laundering investigations following a Supreme Court ruling on 28 November [2019].On 15 Julythis..
Online Published Date:
29 November 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
Pakistan property magnate agrees UK£190m civil settlement with National Crime Agency
A civil investigation into potential proceeds of crime has yielded UK£190 million in assets after the National Crime Agency agreed a settlement with Malik Riaz Hussain, a leading property developer in Pakistan, and his family. There was no finding..
Online Published Date:
05 December 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
EU ministers greenlight Commission to draft law creating new EU AML authority
By Keith Nuthall
Online Published Date:
06 December 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
Deutsche Bank pays €15m for AML failings; German prosecutors close investigations
DeutscheBank will pay €15 million in penalties to German authorities for failures
around reporting of suspicious transfers by German clients to offshore accounts
between 2015 and 2018.Frankfurt prosecutors have closed connected investigations
into..
Online Published Date:
09 December 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
Baltic International Bank fined €1.56m in Latvia for AML control breaches
Latvia’sFinancial and Capital Market Commission (FCMC) announced a €1.56m penalty against Baltic International Bank
on 6 December [2019] for customer due diligence and monitoring failings. [1]The regulator said that in some cases the bank had not..
Online Published Date:
09 December 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
HSBC pays US$192.4m to draw line under US tax evasion assistance by Swiss unit
HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) SA will pay US$192.4m to end a US criminal investigation into its part in helping customers evade US taxes by use of undeclared Swiss bank accounts. [1]Under a deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice,..
Online Published Date:
11 December 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
Do deepfakes threaten the future of identity verification?
Rebecca Angus (+44 (0) 1235 375 000, marketing@northrow.com), Marketing Manager at NorthRow (www.northrow.com).
Online Published Date:
12 December 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
Turkish FIU role questioned in FATF evaluation report
By Keith Nuthall
Online Published Date:
16 December 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
Russia should focus on complex ML cases & keep fighting law enforcement corruption – FATF report
By Keith Nuthall
Online Published Date:
17 December 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
Magnitsky sanctions and Brexit: a toxic combination?
John Binns (+44 (0)20 7430 2277, jbinns@bcl.com) is a partner at BCL Solicitors LLP, specialising in financial crime, money laundering, and sanctions.
Online Published Date:
18 December 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
S-Pankki Oy fined €980,000 in Finland for KYC breaches
Finnish bank S-Pankki Oy has been fined €980,000 for know your customer failings.The Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority said on 18 December [2019] that it had also found flaws in the bank’s IT systems and processes but no evidence of money..
Online Published Date:
20 December 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
Five banks in South Africa fined or warned over AML deficiencies
The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has imposed administrative penalties on five banks, and told them to take corrective action, after finding money laundering control failings during routine inspections under the Financial Intelligence Centre..
Online Published Date:
23 December 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
SEB pays €1.8m penalty in Latvia for AML and sanctions breaches
SEB Latvia, subsidiary of the Swedish banking group, wasfined €1.8mon 20 December [2019] for anti-money laundering and sanctions failings.In the course of an inspection during 2017, the Financialand Capital Market Commission (FCMC) found that “on..
Online Published Date:
23 December 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019
AB Šiaulių bankas fined €880,000 in Lithuania over ML/TF risk assessments
ABank of Lithuania inspection of AB Šiaulių bankas has revealed shortcomings inmoney laundering and terrorist financing risk assessment both in respect to theinstitution’s activities and the rating of individual clients. Examiners found instances..
Online Published Date:
31 December 2019
Appeared in issue:
269 - 25 October 2019