Tweet According to this article in the Wall Street Journal, the level to which a bank is AML compliant, or not, is now a key factor used to determine its credit rating, and is more material than any other non-financial factor. The new report cites the fact that bank supervisors and federal regulators around the […]
Tweet The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) published a framework for sanctions compliance yesterday which describes the sanctions compliance program standards for US legal and natural persons and for US-origin goods or services. The framework mirrors the requirements for a competence AML program and includes: commitment from the top down […]
Tweet The DOJ from the Southern District of New York, unsealed a grand jury superseding indictment against two people today for allegedly providing payment processing services to digital currency exchanges without being licensed and under circumstances where they allegedly lied to obtain bank accounts. They are charged with bank fraud. According to the indictment, Reginald […]
Tweet Two Bitcoin-related alleged drug traffickers living large In the last few months, the Australian Federal Police have arrested two well-known Bitcoin guys suspected of leading secret lives as international drug traffickers. Both alleged to the public that they had real jobs, one operating a digital currency exchange and the other an IT business, but […]
Tweet Agents from NCIS have charged several prisoners, who used social media and online dating sites, with extortion and money laundering for blackmailing members of the military for money. The scheme cost 442 service members from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps from across the United States more than $560,000 in financial losses. […]
Tweet Canada once again a Major Money Laundering country The 2019 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) published on Friday by the U.S. Department of State identifies Canada once again as a major money laundering country along with a host of risky countries for financial crime. A major money laundering country is one whose banks […]
Tweet RCMP Investigation According to court filings in Canada, Kevin Hobbs and Lisa Chang, the two co-founders of an ICO called EtherParty FUEL and an associated company, Vanbex, based in Vancouver, are allegedly under investigation by the Federal and Serious Organized Crime Division of the RCMP for, inter alia, fraud and are also allegedly under […]
Tweet Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates announced yesterday in Abu Dhabi that they have created and launched a joint new bi-national digital currency. The name of the coin has not been released, not the type, not the amount issued, nor its price per coin. According to the governments of both nations, the new […]
Tweet Arrest of FinCEN employee for SARs disclosure The US government has arrested an employee of FinCEN for providing copies of suspicious activity reports (“SARâ€)  to the media. SARs disclosure is illegal SARs are required to be filed and submitted by certain reporting entities, such as banks, to FinCEN when the bank or its employees, […]
Tweet According to this interview with FBI’s Financial Crimes Section Chief on CNBC, the FBI is seeing an increase in the number of complaints and cases opened involving digital currencies and crime. In particular, the FBI said that it is mostly ICOs and associated investment fraud schemes involving Bitcoin that are on the raise for […]