Tweet HSBC investigation The U.S. Permanent Senate Subcommittee on Investigations has found that HSBC Holdings PLC allowed drug traffickers, terrorists and rogue states to launder billions of dollars in the U.S. as a result of poor anti-money laundering (“AML“) and counter terrorist financing (“CTF“) controls. The Subcommittee found that HSBC serviced high-risk clients in drug-trafficking […]
Tweet Surprising Decision Today, the Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal gave its reasons for judgment in the case of HKSAR and Yan Suiling. The Court quashed the conviction of Yan Suiling for money laundering in Hong Kong even though the Appellant, Yan admitted she engaged in illegal currency exchanges and accepted proceeds of crime […]
Tweet Canada was listed as a jurisdiction of money laundering concern by the U.S. Department of State in its annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, available here. Other jurisdictions of concerns include Columbia, Brazil, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Mexico Russia and Somalia. The findings are similar to those reported by the U.S. Department of State in its […]
Tweet The U.S. Attorney has filed a money laundering complaint commencing an in rem forfeiture action against the Lebanese Canadian Bank and others, seeking penalties of US$446 million in connection with what it says was a money laundering scheme operated by the Bank. As part of the alleged scheme, funds were transferred from Lebanon to the […]
Tweet The US Department of the Treasury today announced that it has designated the Lebanese Canadian Bank SAL and its subsidiaries as a “primary money laundering concern” under the Patriot Act, because it facilitates the laundering of money from drug trafficking and trade-based money laundering. The bank has an office in Montreal and maintains extensive correspondent […]
Tweet The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has issued an advisory to U.S. financial institutions to take special precaution when dealing with funds from Tunisian politically exposed persons because of the increased money laundering risk if those funds are from the proceeds of crime (e.g., misappropriated or diverted State assets, proceeds of bribery, public corruption or […]
Tweet Holocaust survivors from the former Yugoslavia have requested that the European Commission start an inquiry to determine if their assets were laundered by financial institutions associated with the Vatican City State, according to this report in Bloomberg. The request to the EC is based on a 1997 U.S. State Department report that allegedly claimed […]
Tweet HSBC Bank USA, N.A. has been ordered to improve its compliance with U.S. anti-money laundering laws. Under a Consent Order entered into with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Reserve, HSBC must correct anti-money laundering problems identified by the OCC and bring itself into compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) […]
Tweet Italian authorities announced today that they have impounded US$30 million from the Institute for the Works of Religion, or as many call it, the “Vatican Bank”, and placed its top two officers, president Ettore Gotti Tedeschi and director general Paolo Cipriani, under investigation in connection with a money laundering inquiry. The 2005 Directive 2005/60/EC […]
Tweet The Royal Bank of Scotland has been fined £5.6 million by the UK regulatory agency for failing to implement key anti-money laundering requirements. The fine is the largest ever levied by the Financial Services Regulator. The Bank failed to adequately screen its customers and their transactions to ensure there were no ties to listed […]