i-law

Money Laundering Bulletin

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

Vantage – FATF executive secretary viewpoint

Interview by Keith Nuthall.
Online Published Date:  14 November 2019
Appeared in issue:  269 - 25 October 2019

Rocky territory – Canada [Video]

Five percent of the rise in residential property prices in Vancouver in 2018 was attributable to money laundering, according to a panel headed by a past deputy attorney general for British Columbia. Peter German, a former Royal Canadian Mounted..
Online Published Date:  19 November 2019
Appeared in issue:  265 - 30 May 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

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

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