Tweet More scrutiny in US for real estate The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced that it is expanding its program to identify persons who may be hiding assets in residential properties in the US. The expansion adds additional cities to what are called the area for Geographic Targeting Orders (GTO). Title insurance agents in GTO […]
Tweet Panama Papers Driven Changes The US Treasury has announced several amendments, and proposed legislative amendments, to its anti-money laundering (“AML“) legislation in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal to tackle the disclosure of what is called “beneficial ownership.” Beneficial ownership means the beneficial, as opposed to the legal, owner of shares of a […]
Tweet Jihad Express Gaziantep, Turkey appears to have emerged as a city of choice for terrorist financing and human trafficking for the Islamic State (“ISIS“) in the past twelve months. Gaziantep is a city close to the Syrian border and is considered one of the key “porous” border towns, where people and goods illegally sold […]
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 The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN“) has fined a former manger of a US casino over anti-money laundering compliance violations. According to the Wall Street Journal, George Que, a former manger of VIP services at Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino, assisted high rollers at the casino to gamble outside of the Bank Secrecy Act […]
Tweet De-risking that results in unbankable businesses By Christine Duhaime, B.A., J.D., Financial Crime and Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist Follow @cduhaime In a speech delivered to the anti-money laundering legal and law enforcement community, the Director of FinCEN, Jennifer Shasky Calvery, made some interesting and compelling comments that touch on the economic costs of anti-money laundering (“AML“) […]
Tweet One of Bitcoin’s earliest enthusiasts, Charlie Shrem who ran BitInstant, a New York based Bitcoin exchange, was arrested today and charged with money laundering conspiracy, operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and failure to file suspicious activity reports to FinCEN. The complaint was filed by U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, […]
Tweet Anti-money laundering investigation Caesars Entertainment Corp. said today that FinCEN is investigating it for potential violations of the Bank Secrecy Act over anti-money laundering compliance issues. The statement was made in its filings with the Securities Exchange Commission. According to the statement, FinCEN is considering whether to assess a civil penalty or take enforcement […]
Tweet The US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN“) has issued its interpretive guidance on the applicability of digital (or virtual) currencies, the most popular of which is Bitcoin, to the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA“). Pursuant to the Guidance, a person or entity that: (1) exchanges; or (2) administers digital currency or Bitcoin, is a money […]
Tweet Money laundering suspicious activity reports (SARs) filed with FinCEN, the U.S. financial intelligence unit, show a slight increase in mortgage fraud in the U.S. According to FinCEN’s third quarter 2010 mortgage report, “Mortgage Loan Fraud SAR Filings“, 9% of all SARs filed in the 2010 third quarter indicated mortgage loan fraud as a suspected […]