UAE suspends 32 gold refineries for 256 violations in crackdown on money laundering, terrorist financing

Reported by Ernest Hoffman The government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has suspended the operations of 32 gold refineries – representing 5% of the total market – in a crackdown on money laundering and terrorist financing activities in the precious metals sector, according to an announcement from the Economy Ministry. “The Ministry of Economy has affirmed […]

‘Operation Cash Back’: Multiple arrests made in complex bank fraud scheme investigation led by Mont Belvieu police

Reported by Christian Terry Multiple arrests have been made in connection to a bank fraud investigation led by the Mont Belvieu Police Department. The department said the investigation into a series of seemingly unrelated financial fraud cases started in June 2024, where victims reported funds stolen from their bank accounts via unauthorized wire transactions. The […]

Taylor Swift cancels Vienna concerts after terror attack threat—affecting over 170,000 attendees

Reported by AFP The Vienna leg of a tour by American mega-star Taylor Swift has been cancelled after Austria arrested an Islamic State sympathiser in connection with an attack plot, the organisers said Wednesday. Authorities had earlier confirmed the arrest of a 19-year-old sympathiser of the armed group for allegedly planning an attack in the […]

How is Generative AI impacting the KYC process?

Reported by FinTech Global Ever since its launch in November 2022, Generative AI has been the topic of discussion on everyone’s lips when it comes to discussing transformational technology. In the area of KYC, could we expect Generative AI to have significant long term impacts? In the view of Ted Datta, senior director, head of […]

The Failure of Credit Suisse Should Be Causing Sleepless Nights

Reported by Mark Dittli Paul Tucker warns against dismissing the end of CS as an isolated incident that cannot happen again. It was the first major global systemically important bank to go under since the global financial crisis of 2008, and its fall has important lessons to teach: for Switzerland in its dealings with UBS, […]

How Dubai became a heaven for the Neapolitan mafia

Reported by Edoardo Anziano It all starts in Spain in August 2006. Inside a villa in the Andalusian city of Marabella, on the Costa del Sol, the brothers-in-law Raffaele Amato and CesarePagano meet up. Pagano lives in the rented villa along with the rest of his family. Amato and Pagano are the bosses of the Scissionisti Camorra clan — they are […]

UN admits nine UNRWA staffers ‘may have been involved’ in Oct. 7 attack on Israel

Reported by Ronny Reyes The United Nations admitted Monday that nine employees of its controversial agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, “may have been involved” in Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel.  The UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services said its probe into 19 UNRWA staffers accused of aiding in the massacre found that nearly half of […]

Secret deal: Biden offered normal relations with Venezuela if Maduro agreed to elections

Reported by NORA GÁMEZ TORRES and ANTONIO DELGADO The Biden administration had agreed to lift sanctions on Venezuela and promised the return of normal relations if the opposition could participate in competitive presidential elections, according to a deal secretly signed in Qatar last year that leader Nicolas Maduro made public on social media. Maduro published the […]