Comply together – Community banks given the ok to pool “some” AML resources At ACAMs in Las Vegas last week, a live survey taken by over 1000 attendees listed “resource allocation” as the greatest challenge facing the US anti-money laundering…
Environmental crime and threat finance
An inconvenient truth – environmental crime and threat finance Environmental crimes are the most important stream of revenue in conflict finance today. This is the stark finding of the “World Atlas of Illicit Flows” which was released last week by…
Sanctions and fines
Summer is over – Sanctions and fines Societe Generale announced this week they have set aside $1.27 billion to finally settle an allegation by US authorities that they violated sanctions. The case, which has been ongoing for over a year involves…
The role of professional money launderers
Swiss bankers, Maltese FIs and Venezuelan elite – a recipe to embezzle $1.2 billion Between 2014 and 2015 Venezuela’s now President, Nicolas Maduro and his three stepsons alledgly embezzled over $1.2 billion from Venezuela’s state oil and gas company, PDVSA. The…
Sanctions Policy in 2018
When in doubt, apply sanctions – one week of sanctions policy in 2018 Sanctions grabbed a lot of headlines last week. Here is a summary of the key events that kept twitter feeds alight: The US announced that it would…
US sanctions on Iran
Here we go again – US sanctions on Iran On August 6th it will be 90 days since President Trump pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran. This means that the first set of Iran…
FinCEN’s Final Rule on CDD comes into force
FinCEN’s Final Rule comes into force Today marks the implementation date of FinCEN’s final rule on Customer Due Diligence (CDD). Announced two years ago, the rule creates a four-step regime for what FinCEN will view as sufficient CDD on the…
How will Russia retaliate to US sanctions?
How will Russia retaliate – sanctions, tax havens or cyberattacks? Russia was dealt a considerable blow last week as its stock market and currency tumbled following fresh sanctions from the US. The measures, which predominantly affected the country’s commodities industry…
The US releases new sanctions on Russia
The US releases new sanctions on Russia On Friday, the US released wide-reaching sanctions on 24 Russian people and entities in response to 2016 election meddling and other “malign activity”. The actions targeted oligarchs, government officials, companies and a Russian…
The policy that came in from the cold
The policy that came in from the cold – A UBO register for foreign buyers As Russian diplomats across Europe get ready to leave their embassies, the repercussions of the poisoning of Sergei Skipal and his daughter in Salisbury are…
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