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BitMEX founders, convicted of BSA violations, pardoned by Trump
The three co-founders of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, who pled guilty to violating the US Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) in 2022, have been pardoned by the US President.
Online Published Date:
01 April 2025
Appeared in issue:
323 - 01 May 2023
Refused DAMLs up, assets denied down - UK FIU annual report
In the year to March 2024, the UK financial intelligence unit (UKFIU) refused consent to go ahead with a transaction following a defence against money laundering (DAML) report, where there was no previous law enforcement investigation, 61% more times than in the previous 12 months.
Online Published Date:
02 April 2025
Appeared in issue:
323 - 01 May 2023
More zing - Zambia
Moves, of late, to strengthen Zambia's justice system are positive but big gaps in anti-money laundering requirements need filling and enforcement is underpowered, find Daniel Tonga, in Lusaka, and Keith Nuthall.
Online Published Date:
02 April 2025
Appeared in issue:
323 - 01 May 2023
OKCoin Europe fined €1.05m in Malta for CDD, monitoring, reporting breaches
Virtual asset service provider OKCoin Europe Ltd has been ordered to pay €1,054,269 (US$1,153,845) by Malta's Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) following an onsite inspection, in April 2023, which discovered non-compliance with the Prevention of Money Laundering and Funding of Terrorism Regulations (PMLFTR).
Online Published Date:
07 April 2025
Appeared in issue:
323 - 01 May 2023
35 years of 40 Recommendations: why, in 2025, effective AML demands more than FATF compliance
Many, if not all, financial professionals have encountered the term 'FATF Recommendations' at some point in their careers, writes Mikhail Karataev. These Recommendations, which form the foundation of the global anti-money laundering/counter financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) framework, were first adopted in April 1990, less than a year after the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was established at the G7 Summit in July 1989 as a collective response to the growing threat of drug-related money laundering. In April 2025, the FATF standards mark their 35th anniversary - a timely and important opportunity to critically assess the tangible outcomes, gaps and evolving challenges in the global fight against financial crime.
Online Published Date:
07 April 2025
Appeared in issue:
323 - 01 May 2023
Zigzag - new money in Zimbabwe
A currency reset is an expression of hope but brings uncertainty in the transition and so openings for the unscrupulous. Tendai Sahondo, in Harare & Keith Nuthall review the launch of Zimbabwe Gold (ZIG).
Online Published Date:
08 April 2025
Appeared in issue:
323 - 01 May 2023
In plain sight - influencers
Going online is easy, but building a following for your content is hard and sustaining those viewing figures harder still so it is unsurprising that some influencers may be tempted to create or come to rely on 'alternative' revenue streams. Paul Cochrane & Keith Nuthall explore an unregulated channel for criminal finance.
Online Published Date:
08 April 2025
Appeared in issue:
323 - 01 May 2023
Revolut fined €3.5m in Lithuania over monitoring failings
The Bank of Lithuania has levied a €3.5m penalty on UK fintech Revolut's European bank after it found "violations and shortcomings in the monitoring of business relationships and [transactions]".
Online Published Date:
08 April 2025
Appeared in issue:
323 - 01 May 2023
US Justice Department rows back crypto enforcement
In a memo to staff, sent on 7 April, Todd Blanche, deputy US attorney-general, said the Department of Justice (DoJ) would stop pursuing cryptocurrency exchanges, mixers, tumblers and wallets "for the acts of their end users or unwitting violations of regulations".
Online Published Date:
09 April 2025
Appeared in issue:
323 - 01 May 2023
Trio of financial services firms fined in South Africa for holed AML
Adams Chrambanis & Associates, ID Capital (Pty) Ltd, and Henk Kolver Investment Management Services have all been given civil financial penalties by South Africa's Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) for breaching the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA).
Online Published Date:
09 April 2025
Appeared in issue:
323 - 01 May 2023
UK lawyer suspended after client used firm as bank
William Osmond, owner of Osmond Solicitors Ltd, is not allowed to practise as a solicitor for 12 months, from 25 February, after admitting that between 12 May 2014 and 3 October 2017, he had allowed the firm's client account to be "used as a banking facility for no other reason than the convenience of a client".
Online Published Date:
09 April 2025
Appeared in issue:
323 - 01 May 2023
Ex-Russian minister sentenced to 40 months in jail for UK sanctions breaches
Dmitrii Ovsiannikov, governor of Sevastapol in illegally-annexed Crimea from 2017, has been sentenced to 40 months in jail after he was found guilty in a London court of breaching UK sanctions and money laundering. His is the first conviction under the Russian Regulations 2019.
Online Published Date:
10 April 2025
Appeared in issue:
323 - 01 May 2023
Block fined US$40m in New York for BSA failings, SARs backlog
Block, Inc, formerly Square, must pay a US$40 million civil penalty to the New York Department of Financial Services over Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) violations in operating its Cash App peer-to-peer money transfer service.
Online Published Date:
11 April 2025
Appeared in issue:
323 - 01 May 2023
Peru past president receives 15 years' jail for money laundering
Ollanta Humala, Peru's president from 2011 to 2016, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, on 15 April, for laundering over US$3 million received from Odebrecht, the Brazilian construction company, and the Venezuelan regime of the late Hugo Chavez.
Online Published Date:
17 April 2025
Appeared in issue:
323 - 01 May 2023
Passports for sale - Dominica
A significant contributor to the nation's finances, Dominica's citizenship by investment programme is set for scrutiny in the High Court amid claims that receipts have gone astray. Gemma Handy, in St John's, Antigua, and Keith Nuthall report on the case and look at the checks and balances in place to keep out bad characters.
Online Published Date:
17 April 2025
Appeared in issue:
323 - 01 May 2023
Sanctions - measured effect
Less nuclear strike, more grinding offensive, sanctions at scale aim to drive the other side to negotiate, but they can only ever be as effective as their weakest enforcer. Where realpolitik - my enemy's enemy is my friend - and national economic interests combine their efficacy is starkly in question. Keith Nuthall, Paul Cochrane & Dylan Carter explore the impact of sustained programmes targeted at Russia and Iran.
Online Published Date:
17 April 2025
Appeared in issue:
323 - 01 May 2023
More than money - effective punishment for AML failure
If multi-million/billion dollar fines have not banished flagrant compliance breaches - after all, they are only paid by a financial institution's owners... - there must surely be alternative, more persuasive sanctions. Keith Nuthall, Sara Lewis & Andreia Nogueira look for creative ways to keep firms on the straight and narrow.
Online Published Date:
18 April 2025
Appeared in issue:
323 - 01 May 2023
In search of synergy - FRAML
'Better together', the saying goes, but anti-money laundering and counter-fraud are distinct disciplines, with their own specific objectives and drivers, so is the business of combating financial crime truly best served by integration? Sarah Gibbons talks gain and pain with those who have been there.
Online Published Date:
18 April 2025
Appeared in issue:
323 - 01 May 2023
Trump card
No need to repeal law that doesn't fit the programme, simply tell the justice department not to enforce it: so simple, it's brilliant! Actually, no, it speaks imperial rather than presidential authority and arguably is a dereliction under the US constitution: Article II, section 3 says "he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed". The separation of powers is also dissolved: when the leader can weaponise/disarm prosecutors at will, is it any longer democracy? Either way, it's the world in which financial crime professionals now find themselves, along with everyone else.
Online Published Date:
21 April 2025
Appeared in issue:
323 - 01 May 2023
New UK Companies House verification process: what does it mean for compliance teams?
When it comes to financial crime, knowing who you're doing business with is everything, says Ted Datta of Moody's. Unmasking an entity's true ownership and control structure is essential to due diligence for financial services and other companies.
Online Published Date:
23 April 2025
Appeared in issue:
324 - 01 June 2025
Forgotten threat to frontline risk: TBML
U.S. tariffs, forcing rapid rethinking and redirection by trading partners, at national and business level, spell opportunity for bad actors, always seeking news ways to move value cross-border. Banks can no longer look away, says Mikhail Karataev.
Online Published Date:
29 April 2025
Appeared in issue:
324 - 01 June 2025
MGM Resorts International fined US$8.5m over illegal bookmaker clients and AML failings
Gambling operator MGM Resorts International, which owns the MGM Grand Casino and the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, will pay a US8.5 million fine after the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) found two illegal bookmakers had been placing bets, without the filing of any suspicious activity reports.
Online Published Date:
29 April 2025
Appeared in issue:
324 - 01 June 2025
TradeUP and US Tiger Securities pay UK$950,000 over omnibus account AML fails
Affiliated and FINRA-regulated TradeUP Securities, Inc and Tiger Securities, Inc have accepted fines of US$700,000 and US$250,000, respectively, for ineffective anti-money laundering (AML) controls around foreign financial institution omnibus accounts that transacted mainly in thinly traded, low-priced securities.
Online Published Date:
29 April 2025
Appeared in issue:
324 - 01 June 2025