Reported by Andy Verity and Joseph Lee (Excerpt shared below. To read full report, go to: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgk57lg7566o#google_vignette) A WhatsApp group chat was used to launder hundreds of millions of euros in cash around the world, funding organised crime and extremism with no paper trail, an investigation by European broadcasters has found. The 532-member group chat, […]

Reported by Fox News (Excerpt shared below. To read full report, go to: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-admin-blocks-1-6b-potentially-improper-medicare-lab-payments-agency-says.amp) Federal officials and the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud have blocked or clawed back more than $1.6 billion in potentially improper Medicare laboratory payments since President Donald Trump returned to office, including $732 million tied to 157 lab providers booted […]

Reported by Patricia A. Smith  (Excerpt shared below. To read full report, go to: https://natlawreview.com/article/fincen-alert-bsa-compliance-implications-related-mexican-cartels-fiscal-fuel-scheme?amp) Background: How Cartels Smuggle and Commercialize U.S. Fuel in Mexico Mexico’s regulatory and economic programs have led to an expensive and concentrated market for fuel products. Cartels are taking advantage of rising costs by smuggling fuel across the southern border […]

CRIME DOESN’T PAY. APPARENTLY, THE MEMES DO. Penn State University’s alleged drug-ring scandal has already become internet folklore, spawning nicknames for 24-year-old Agostino Abbatiello like “Pablo Pledgescobar,” “Austin Powders,” “Nostrildamus” and “Kirk Cocaine.” Now somebody has figured out how to turn the chaos into a cash register. The merch is here: Is it tasteless? Maybe. […]

Reported by Samuel Oakford, Samantha Schmidt, Anthony Faiola and Karen DeYoung (Excerpt shared below. To read full report, go to: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/08/27/us-intervened-criminal-probe-venezuelan-oilman-alejandro-betancourt/) Senior U.S. officials intervened in an international criminal investigation into a Venezuelan businessman who was enlisted by the Trump administration to help assert control over Venezuela’s government and oil industries, according to two people familiar with the matter.  […]

Reported by JAMIE BENNET (Summary featured below. To read full report, go to: https://www.executivegov.com/articles/doj-national-fraud-detection-center) The U.S. Department of Justice has launched the National Fraud Detection Center (NFDC), a new interagency effort designed to identify and prosecute large-scale fraud against federal programs. The center is intended to bring prosecutors, investigators and inspectors general into a coordinated […]

Reported by Jon Elvin (Summary shared below. To read full report, go to: https://saifr.ai/blog/the-future-of-compliance-isnt-continuous-kyc.-its-continuous-risk-awareness) The future of AML/KYC may not be continuous KYC so much as continuous risk awareness. That is the central argument of Saifr Strategic Risk Advisor Jon Elvin, who says traditional compliance programs were built around scheduled activity: onboarding checks, periodic reviews […]

Reported by Kamal Sultan (Summary version shown below. For full report, go to: https://nypost.com/2026/08/25/us-news/inside-the-penn-state-frat-house-drug-ring-coke-and-molly-parties-secret-dealing-rooms-and-hazing/) A major drug investigation at Penn State has exposed an alleged cocaine and MDMA operation centered on the Sigma Chi and Delta Upsilon fraternities. According to prosecutors and sources cited by the New York Post, 13 fraternity members were arrested in […]

Reported by by Laurence Hamilton (Excerpt shared below. To read full report, go to: https://consilient.com/illegal-gold-mining-money-laundering-fatf-unodc) I sat through FATF’s launch of its 2026-2028 agenda earlier this month. $1 trillion is the number FATF opened with. That’s what scams cost globally in a single year. That’s what they want to change, and they name cross-border data sharing as one […]

Reported by Robin Wigglesworth (Excerpt shared below. To read full report, go to: https://www.ft.com/content/38d95298-8b9b-486a-96d3-0c6616972abb) Despite now having been around for almost two decades, bitcoin is still struggling with use cases beyond money laundering, sex trafficking, drug selling, ransomware and number-go-up, as Jamie Dimon has acerbically noted. But at least the blockchain allows us a peek at […]