Tweet The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA“) announced today that it filed a  Complaint against Wedbush Securities Inc. for alleged egregious and systemic anti-money laundering compliance infractions. According to the Wall Street Journal’s Risk & Compliance Journal, FINRA has made enforcement of securities anti-money laundering a priority. According to securities firms in Toronto, so have […]
Tweet Today, the CEO of a Swiss trust company, Josef Dorig, pleaded guilty to defrauding the IRS for his role in helping US clients set up sham foundations and trusts and keep money in Switzerland for the purpose of tax evasion. He faces a term of incarceration in a US federal prison of five years. […]
Tweet International tax lawyer and former fund manager from Quebec indicted after IRS sting The arrest of two Canadians from Quebec, Eric St-Cyr, an investment fund manager, and Patrick Poulin, a lawyer, in the US over money laundering charges hit the news today when their cases were transferred to Florida for prosecution. St-Cyr and Poulin […]
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 Response to FATF blacklisting Following years of pressure, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has implemented anti-money laundering legislation which took effect on Friday. The move was in response to the blacklisting of Vietnam in June by the Financial Action Task Force (“FATF“) for lax anti-money laundering (“AML“) and counter terrorist financing (“CTF“) controls. 14 […]
Tweet Several of the people named in today’s nationwide crackdown in the U.S. known as “Operation Broken Trust” have been charged, and in some cases already convicted, of money laundering. Operation Broken Trust is the first national effort in the U.S. aimed at cracking down on investment fraud schemes. It involved enforcement actions against 343 […]