Reported by Evelina Youcefi (Excerpt shared below. To read full report, go to: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-15/danske-bank-says-doj-probation-over-estonia-scandal-has-ended) Danske Bank A/S said its corporate probation with the U.S. Department of Justice has ended, marking the final step in resolving one of Europe’s biggest money-laundering scandals. The scandal has “profoundly shaped our organization and transformed our culture,” Danske Chief Executive Officer Carsten Egeriis […]

Reported by Tara Siegel Bernard (Summary shared below. To read full report, go to: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/business/tech-support-scam-bank-fraud.html) What began as a routine attempt to fix an iPad spiraled into a devastating financial loss for David Welles, an 87-year-old retired lawyer. Searching Google for Microsoft tech support, he instead reached a sophisticated scammer who persuaded him to install […]

Reported by Danny Park (Excerpt shared below. To read full report, go to: https://www.theblock.co/amp/post/381820/22-year-old-guilty-crypto-syndicate. To read indictment, go to: https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/media/1420391/dl) The U.S. Justice Department announced today that a key figure in a $263 million social engineering scheme has pleaded guilty to charges. Before U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, California resident Evan Tangeman, 22, admitted guilt to […]

Reported by U.S. Department of the Treasury (Excerpt shared below. To read entire remarks, go to: https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0276) I am also optimistic about AML/CFT reform.  In my meetings with community bankers, they list CTR filings, structuring SARs, and process-focused examinations among their top concerns. Today, FinCEN released FAQs to address pain points on some of these […]

Reported by Reuters (Excerpt shared below. To read full report, go to: https://www.reuters.com/business/us-treasury-proposes-taking-more-central-role-enforcing-anti-money-laundering-2025-12-10/) The U.S. Treasury Department has proposed taking a more central role in the enforcement of anti-money-laundering rules in a bid to overhaul a system for catching illicit transactions by drug traffickers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The proposal could give […]

Reported by SHEKARI PHILEMON (Excerpt shared below. To read full report, go to: https://rollingout.com/2025/12/09/73-pulls-off-shocking-30m-scam/) Look, we’ve all embellished our resumes a bit. Maybe you claimed to be “proficient” in Excel when you really just know how to make a pivot table. But allegedly pretending to be an heiress with access to an $80 million trust […]

Reported by Julia Yansura & Helen Taylor (Excerpt shared below. To read full report, go to: https://thefactcoalition.org/uk-illicit-finance-summit-puts-dirty-gold-in-the-spotlight-real-reforms-must-follow/) Ahead of International Anti-Corruption Day on December 9th, the UK’s Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper unveiled plans for the upcoming Illicit Finance Summit to be hosted by the UK on 23-24 June 2026. Bringing together leaders from a broad coalition of countries, the […]

Reported by Simone Martin (Summary shared below. To read full report, go to: https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/posts/government/tokenization-vs-kyc/) Tokenization is transforming how value moves, especially in real estate, where everything from penthouses to mountain villas can be fractionalized and traded like digital shares. This shift promises unprecedented access and efficiency — but it also opens the door to criminals […]

Reported by Maria Abi-Habib (Excerpt shared below. To read full report, go to: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/world/americas/ecuador-cocaine-trafficking.html) The U.S.’s shift in focus from cocaine to fentanyl has helped cocaine traffickers to thrive in Latin America. Since President Trump took office in 2017 and through the Biden administration, the United States focused on battling fentanyl, leaving room for the […]

Reported by Aaron Krolik (Summary shared below. To read full report, go to: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/technology/how-a-cryptocurrency-helps-criminals-launder-money-and-evade-sanctions.html) Stablecoins — digital tokens pegged to the U.S. dollar — have rapidly replaced gold, diamonds and art as the laundering vehicle of choice for smugglers, sanctioned actors and global crime syndicates. A New York Times investigation shows how these crypto-dollars can […]