Tweet 1. New Anti-Terrorism Act, 2015 The Government of Canada introduced its anticipated anti-terrorism legislation in Parliament. Bill C-51, entitled “An Act to Enact the Security of Canada Information Sharing Act and the Secure Air Travel Act†(the “Anti-Terrorism Act, 2015“) which is intended to arm the government with broader powers to address the increasing threat of […]
Tweet Consensus on Supranational Risk Assessment As part of the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive approval process in the European Union (the “4th AMLD“), the Council of the European Union’s President yesterday issued declarations and proposals for the regulation of anonymous financial transactions that are transacted on new fintech products. The communication from the President included […]
Tweet The UK’s tough and controversial new counter-terrorism legislation is slated to be reviewed by the House of Lords on Monday before being given Royal Assent in an expedited fashion. The Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill (HC 127) is intended to address a number of pressing terrorism and security issues facing the UK, in particular: (a) home-grown Islamic State […]
Tweet Economic sanctions ordered Today, the US announced it is imposing economic sanctions against certain individuals  and entities in North Korea over the Sony cyberhack. The so-called Sony sanctions appears to represent the first time in history that sanctions have been imposed (a) solely in response for, or over a, private sector dispute / issue; […]
Tweet Diamond smuggling into Vancouver The Ming Pao Saturday Magazine has an interesting story on the arrest of two men from Hong Kong who attempted to smuggle $120 million worth of diamonds into Canada. The diamonds were strapped to their legs and are believed to be proceeds of crime. The story discusses the issue of […]
Tweet Ransom payments The UK government’s proposed Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill 127 (the “Counter-Terrorism & Security Act“), now at Second Reading in the UK Parliament, will prohibit insurance companies from making ransom payments to terrorists and terrorist organizations. The provision would amend §17, the counter-terrorism financing part of the UK Terrorism Act 2000, to make it […]
Tweet The question every credit union has been asking for the past five years – namely, do we have anti-money laundering law obligations over the financial transactions of business clients that are money services businesses (“MSB“) – was just answered by FinCEN with a $300,000 fine. Last week, FinCEN assessed the fine against the North […]
Tweet Money Laundering Bulletin in the UK has a good article out today on the anti-corruption drive in China and its impact on the casinos in Macau, which explores the anti-money laundering lapses and lack of legislation in the gambling industry in Macau, and the corresponding increase of trade-based money laundering in China. Trade-based money laundering […]
Tweet Fourth banks closes remittances businesses Another bank in Australia, the Westpac Bank, has announced it will close its remittance business division next week over the difficulty of complying with counter-terrorism laws. By de-risking and closing its remittance division, the Bank is terminating the bank accounts of all of its business customers who operate money […]
Tweet We’re pleased to announce that Christine Duhaime is giving a presentation on the issue of “How the ATM Network Globally is Unwittingly Used for Terrorist Financing & Ways to Prevent it” at the 2015 Interac Conference in Ottawa. After a spouse of a member of the Islamic State Tweeted to the world from ar-Raqqah, […]