On November 28, 2022, Europol reported that a “super cartel” of drugs traffickers controlling around one third of Europe’s cocaine trade had been busted in a series of coordinated raids. Codenamed Operation Desert Light, 49 suspects were arrested, including six […]
On November 21, 2022, Delaware drug trafficker, Omar Morales Colon, was sentenced to 45 years in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and multiple other drug and money laundering offenses. Described by the court as […]
INTERPOL’s latest police operation to tackle online fraud has seen 975 arrests and the seizure of virtual assets worth almost $130 million. Codenamed Operation HAECHI-III, the 5-month-long joint task force targeted a specific range of cyber-enabled financial crimes, including voice […]
The Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes at the US Treasury, Elizabeth Rosenberg, has addressed the need for additional regulatory clarity and more public-private engagement between the government and the virtual assets industry. Rosenberg’s remarks follow the end […]
On November 15, 2022, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) released its annual report to Congress. Among the report’s concluding recommendations, the committee proposed creating a cross-agency body tasked with drafting sanctions against China in the event of […]
On October 27, 2022, the European Commission issued its Supranational Risk Assessment Report (SNRA) to the European Parliament and Counsel regarding the “risk of money laundering (ML) and terrorist financing (TF) affecting the internal market and relating to cross-border activities.” […]
On November 9, 2022, the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) proposed amendments to its Part 500 Cybersecurity Rules in response to increasingly sophisticated technologies and threats to financial institutions. Building on draft amendments released in July, the formally announced […]
In a coordinated operation led by Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) and the Merchant Risk Council, 59 scammers have been arrested for using stolen credit card numbers to purchase luxury items. The operation, called e-Commerce Action 2022 (eComm 2022), took […]
German officials have searched UBS bank branches in Munich and Frankfurt as part of a money laundering investigation into Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov. On November 8, 2022, a spokesman for the Frankfurt prosecutor’s office said Usmanov is accused of arranging […]
Nicole Rose, CEO of the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), has expressed further concern over “gatekeeper professions” not being subject to the country’s anti-money laundering (AML) regime. Rose argues that a failure to regulate these professions, also known […]
On November 7, 2022, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had seized over 50,676 unlawfully obtained Bitcoin from defendant James Zhong. According to the press release, the defendant pled guilty to committing wire […]
On October 28, the Wolfsberg Group issued updated guidelines and best practices for financial institutions (FIs) involved in correspondent banking. The guidance replaces the Group’s 2014 edition and widens its scope to address entities other than banks, such as non-bank […]
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