Tweet Florida businessman Nevin Shapiro pleaded guilty to running a US$880 million Ponzi scheme. Shapiro was the founder and president of Capitol Investments USA, Inc. (Capitol), a grocery distribution business. He surrendered to the FBI and was arraigned in federal court in New Jersey in April of this year. He was charged with securities fraud […]
Tweet South Carolina tax lawyer, John O’Connor, pleaded guilty today to a charge of money laundering in connection with his involvement in a conspiracy to liquidate and conceal money stolen by a former client. The former client, William Trier, embezzled approximately US$5 million over a ten year period from his employer by creating phoney invoices […]
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 […]
Tweet Canada needs to improve its anti-money laundering efforts in several areas, according to the 2010 Money Laundering Report published by the U.S. Department of State. Canada was among 61 countries identified as major money laundering countries in 2009. Others include Afghanistan, Austria, Brazil, Cayman Islands, China, Greece, India, Iran, Italy, Lebanon, Lichtenstein, Mexico, Pakistan, […]
Tweet Steven Rondos, a Brooklyn lawyer who admitted stealing US$4 million from the trust accounts of 23 disabled or incapacitated clients, was sentenced to 15 years in prison today in New York. Rondos was the court-appointed legal guardian in charge of supervising the guardianship accounts of clients who were incapacitated. He used some of the […]
Tweet The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced today that an Australian foreign national, Daniel Tzvetkoff, was arrested in Las Vegas on charges that he assisted illegal Internet gambling companies process about US$500 million in transactions for American gamblers. An indictment against Tzvetkoff was unsealed in Manhattan federal court today. It alleges that Tzvetkoff operated a payment […]
Tweet Oksana Yang, a Vancouver resident, was convicted this week of attempting to leave Canada with more than $10,000 cash and not reporting it. The Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act requires that every person report when they import to Canada or export from Canada cash (or other monetary instrument) equal to […]
Tweet Pamrapo Savings Bank, a subsidiary of Pamrapo Bancorp Inc., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Trenton, New Jersey, to conspiracy to violate the Bank Secrecy Act for failing to file currency transaction reports and suspicious activity reports, and willfully failing to maintain adequate anti-money laundering programs. The failures to file reports were in […]
Tweet The RCMP have charged four people from Alberta with fraud and money laundering in connection with a $60 million Ponzi scheme in which about 1,000 investors from Canada and the U.S. were allegedly defrauded. Garth Bailey, Murray Stark and Robert Fly were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering. A fourth person, […]
Tweet Wachovia Corp. has agreed to pay a US$160 million settlement with the Department of Justice in the U.S. over allegations that it failed to implement anti-money laundering controls that enabled drug traffickers to launder money by transferring funds from Mexican currency exchange houses, known as casas de cambio, to Wachovia. Prosecutors said the bank […]