Tweet It has been noted by US officials that the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA“), 26 USC Ch. 4, is not only one of the most significant pieces of US legislation for financial institutions, asset managers and foreign residents, it is also one of the most legally complex and technical that “will spawn significant enforcement activity […]
Tweet Sanctions likely to seriously impede Canadian-Russian financial transactions and therefore significant trade By Christine Duhaime, B.A., J.D., Financial Crime and Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist Follow @cduhaime The Canadian government has announced the imposition of sanctions against the Bank of Moscow, the Russian National Commercial Bank and other Russian and Ukrainian-controlled businesses and financial institutions, as […]
Tweet Canada a Major Money Laundering Country but A Lot Less So The 2014 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) published this month by the U.S. Department of State identifies Canada as a major money laundering country along with, among others, Afghanistan, Brazil, Cambodia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Guernsey, Jersey, Hong Kong, Libya, Mexico, Macau and […]
Tweet Money laundering For junket operators Bloomberg has a great story on the rise and fall of Carson Yeung Ka-shing, the Hong Kong businessman and owner of the Birmingham City football club, convicted earlier this week of laundering $93 million through, inter alia, junket operators and casinos in Macau. Mr. Yeung was arrested in June […]
Tweet Ukrainian Crisis Late last week, the Swiss announced investigations into funds allegedly held in their banks by former President Viktor Yanukovych and his son Oleksandr Yanukovych, and have frozen those assets while they determine if any of the assets are proceeds of crime derived from corruption, misappropriated state assets, or derived from other predicate offenses […]
Tweet Update: The MintChip was cancelled on the day in which its AML consultant and I were scheduled to talk about it at a Bitcoin Conference in New York City and on the local news in New York. My speech was as below, that it was inconsistent for Canada to launch a MintChip when the […]
Tweet Private jets of cash According to an article in La Presse, Martin Grenier, a Canadian from Repentigny, Quebec, was arrested in Detroit and charged on February 13, 2014, with money laundering along with two Americans, including a lawyer. Grenier is alleged to have facilitated the laundering of so much cash, that private jets were used to […]
Tweet According to a 2013 Financial Crime survey, 2014 is expected to be an expensive one for regulatory compliance , with more than 20% more being spent for each of anti-money laundering compliance and compliance with the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA“), for a total of a 40% increase. Cybersecurity The financial crime […]
Tweet After more than a year, the Securities and Exchange Commission has released draft crowdfunding equity rules (the “Rules“) for comment under the U.S. Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (the “JOBS Act“). The JOBS Act was brought into force in 2012 in an effort to facilitate the injection of capital in growing companies and start-ups. With respect to crowdfunding, its […]
Tweet The Office of Foreign Asset Control (“OFAC“) has assessed a penalty of $1.5 million against Alma Investment LLC, a foreign investment firm and fund, for violating U.S. sanctions by sending electronic wires totaling $103,283 through U.S. financial institutions for the benefit of persons in Iran. The electronic wires are a prohibited export to Iran […]