Tagged: money laundering

February 23, 2025 @ 5:18 pm By Michael Wong  |  

The Philippines has been removed from the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey list after more than three years, following significant progress in strengthening its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) framework, the global financial watchdog said. The FATF, which monitors global efforts to combat… Read More

January 29, 2025 @ 7:50 am By Omar Faridi  |  

A London-based financial services startup, Stenn Group, has reportedly entered administration, leaving creditors facing losses of over £100 million. The company, which specialized in invoice finance, had been under investigation by HSBC, its lender, following allegations of links to a Russian money laundering case. As… Read More

January 28, 2025 @ 11:09 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Danielle Sassoon, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that PEKEN GLOBAL LIMITED, a Seychelles-based entity that, since at least September 2019, has operated KuCoin, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, pled guilty to “one count of operating an unlicensed… Read More

December 17, 2024 @ 12:42 pm By JD Alois  |  

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has announced sanctions against two individuals and a single entity regarding money laundering to the benefit of North Korea. OFAC says that Lu Huaying and Zhang Jian, working out of the UAE and… Read More

November 26, 2024 @ 11:25 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

This year has seen a number of seemingly positive developments for the cryptocurrency ecosystem, according to an update from Chainalysis. Chainalysis noted in a blog post that in many ways, crypto has continued to gain mainstream acceptance, following the approval of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum… Read More

August 28, 2024 @ 7:27 am By Omar Faridi  |  

New figures published today from KPMG UK’s mid-year Fraud Barometer show that money laundering has been the most common fraud type by value in the last six months. Nine cases have been heard in UK Crown Courts collectively “worth £128.2 million so far this year.”… Read More

August 20, 2024 @ 10:43 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Unit21, a global risk and compliance leader that proactively mitigates risks tied to fraud, money laundering, and other financial crimes, announced a new bundle of features for Automated Clearing House (ACH) transactions. These features use Generative AI (GenAI) and machine learning (ML) to “help banks,… Read More

July 25, 2024 @ 12:38 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) has released a “Dear CEO” letter outlining the results emanating from a thematic review focused on Money Laundering Reporting Officers (MLROs) operating within Company Service Providers (CSPs) set up as corporate entities. As highlighted in the latest rendition of… Read More

July 19, 2024 @ 9:28 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has recently shared New Zealand’s progress in its efforts focused on “strengthening measures to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing.” FATF noted in a blog post that since the 2021 assessment of New Zealand’s measures to tackle money laundering… Read More

July 13, 2024 @ 11:06 am By Omar Faridi  |  

While public blockchains are inherently transparent and traceable, illicit actors turn to cryptocurrencies “to launder ill-gotten gains for the same reasons people use them for legitimate purposes: they are cross-border, virtually instant, and generally inexpensive to transact,” the team at Chainalysis noted in a blog… Read More

June 3, 2024 @ 11:41 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Singapore recently released the Environmental Crimes Money Laundering (ML) National Risk Assessment (NRA) which identifies the key threats and vulnerabilities in environmental crimes ML that Singapore “is exposed to, and outlines mitigation measures which government agencies, financial institutions (FIs) and Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professionals… Read More

May 17, 2024 @ 1:43 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Countries need to urgently step up their efforts to target the huge illicit profits generated by transnational organized crime that facilitate conflicts, fund terrorism, and negatively impact vulnerable populations, according to an update shared by FATF. This was the unprecedented call to action from the… Read More

May 16, 2024 @ 11:36 am By Omar Faridi  |  

A US Department of Justice (DOJ) indictment was unsealed, charging Anton Peraire-Bueno, 24, of Boston, and James Pepaire-Bueno, 28, of New York, with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The charges in the indictment arise “from an alleged… Read More

May 6, 2024 @ 8:57 pm By Michael Wong  |  

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the central bank of the Philippines, has issued new regulations mandating that banks and other financial institutions report significant incidents related to money laundering, terrorism financing, and proliferation financing within 24 hours. The directive, outlined in a circular signed… Read More

April 1, 2024 @ 11:33 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has launched COSMIC, the first centralized digital platform to facilitate sharing of customer information among financial institutions (FIs) to combat money laundering (ML), terrorism financing (TF) and proliferation financing (PF) globally. The Financial Services and Markets (Amendment) Act 2023… Read More

March 18, 2024 @ 1:23 am By Omar Faridi  |  

AML (Anti-money Laundering) systems are a rapidly evolving area of technology, which has to compensate for the constant increase in volume and complexity of online financial crime, according to an extensive update shared by Juniper Research. Juniper Research defines anti-money laundering systems as “a set… Read More

February 15, 2024 @ 10:45 am By JD Alois  |  

Money laundering facilitated by crypto and the platforms that enable digital asset transactions exp[experienced a notable decline in 203 when compared to the year prior. According to a report by Chainalysis, in 2023, $22.2 billion was laundered in contrast to $31.5 billion laundered in 2022…. Read More

December 12, 2023 @ 5:38 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Policymakers need a “fuller view” of consequences of illicit flows, including tallies of the fiscal, monetary, financial, and structural costs, according to an update from the IMF. The fight against financial crime isn’t lost, but the world “needs to do more to limit the economic… Read More

November 10, 2023 @ 8:25 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Germany’s Finance Minister Christian Lindner on Thursday (November 9, 2023) called on European Union nations to choose Frankfurt as the seat of the bloc’s anti-money laundering authority (AMLA). Lindner stated that a decision to locate AMLA in Frankfurt is a key move in order to… Read More

November 4, 2023 @ 2:10 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

On November 3, 2023, the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Russian national Ekaterina Zhdanova for using cryptocurrency “to launder money on behalf of Russian elites, ransomware groups, and other bad actors.” Chainalysis has examined the three Bitcoin… Read More