Tweet Law Commission notes violent methods of gambling debt collection According to a Consultation Paper prepared by the Law Reform Commission of Hong Kong, debt collection in Hong Kong is a significant and violent problem, mostly arising from gambling debts incurred locally and in Macau. Loan sharks in Macau and Hong Kong account for 21.4% […]
Tweet Human trafficking – a serious and growing problem According to a report by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the revenues of human traffickers is estimated to range from $5 billion to $9 billion annually. And according to a US State Department report published in 2011, approximately 12 million people, primarily women and […]
Tweet A former bank official with the Chase Bank was convicted of disclosing the existence of a suspicious activity report to a bank customer. Frank Mendoza, who worked as a loss mitigation specialist for Chase Bank, conducted an investigation of a delinquent borrower on mortgage loans made in relation to seven properties in California. In […]
Tweet Do Criminals Launder Money at Casinos? Media and enforcement agencies are awash with statistics intended to describe the extent of money laundering at casinos in Canada and elsewhere around the world. Due to the ubiquitous nature of the activity, it is nearly impossible to produce accurate statistics on the extent in which this activity […]
Tweet FinCEN released its final rule regarding the confidentiality of suspicious activity reports and has determined that financial institutions must keep quiet about investigations of suspicious account activity, even when transactional reports are not required to be filed, the U.S. Treasury Department said Tuesday. The final rule, which takes effect in December, requires compliance departments […]
Tweet FINTRAC issued its 2010 Annual Report to Parliament today and among the highlights in this year’s report are the following: FINTRAC made 579 disclosures of information that it suspected may be relevant for investigating threats to Canada’s national security, terrorist financing or money laundering; Approximately 63% of the disclosures of information were made to […]
Tweet FinCEN has released its latest SAR Activity Review, a compilation of suspicious activity reports (called suspicious transaction reports in Canada) filed by depository institutions, money services businesses, casinos and card clubs and segments of the securities industry and insurance industry. In 2009, the number of SARs filed dropped in all segments except the casinos […]
Tweet Ran Prostitution Service Disguised as Escort Service A Washington woman was sentenced today to two years in prison after pleading guilty to laundering the proceeds of crime derived from running an organized prostitution service disguised as an escort service at a tribal casino. Cheryl Larson pleaded guilty to prostitution, money laundering and possession of […]
Tweet $485 Million Laundered to Vancouver and Elsewhere In a fascinating series of judgments from Hong Kong, six wealthy immigrants to Vancouver from China, who laundered over US$485 million through casinos in Macau and Las Vegas, and banks in Canada and Hong Kong, were ordered to repay stolen funds to the Bank of China. The […]