Reported by: David Smagalla The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Wall Street’s self-regulator, has for the first time provided guidance to its member broker-dealers on the potential penalties it could impose for violating rules intended to prevent money laundering. The guidelines from Finra, announced Thursday, could signify it plans to step up scrutiny of member firms’ […]
Reported by: Pandaily Authorities in China’s Hunan province have recently busted a criminal group that used cryptocurrency to launder 40 billion yuan ($5.6 billion). The trade of digital currencies was banned in the country last September. Police in Hengyang, a county in China’s southern province of Hunan alleged that the criminal group had been buying cryptocurrencies […]
Reported by: DAVID JOLLY Attorney General Merrick Garland wants to expand the Bank Secrecy Act to non-fungible tokens to deter money laundering. In a report to President Joe Biden earlier this month, the US Justice Department warned that NFT players could be using the digital assets for illicit financing, by “self-laundering, a sequence in which criminals purchase […]
Reported by: Rodrigo Tolotti As part of Operation Colossus executed in conjunction with the Brazilian tax authority, the Federal Police is carrying out 101 ordered the freezing of roughly $238 million in assets and securities held by those under investigation, and they also seized an undisclosed amount of virtual assets held by 28 exchanges under […]
Reported by: Kirstin Ridley and Sinead Cruise The government is likely to introduce a new Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill to parliament on Thursday to tackle problems such as the abuse of UK registered companies by international money laundering networks and fraudsters, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Under the latest planned […]
Opinion by: Hazem Mulhim A recent DIFC Fintech conference provided some interesting insights into the current situation in terms of regulations and cryptocurrencies, including: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recently defined virtual asset service providers to include cryptocurrency exchanges, stable coin issuers, DeFi protocols, and non-fungible tokens (NFT) marketplaces. This definition helps set the tone for […]
Reported by: Ilya Lozovsky, Miranda Patrucic, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Norddeutsche Rundfunk (NDR), and Westdeutsche Rundfunk (WDR) German police this morning launched a raid on properties belonging to sanctioned Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov on the shore of Lake Tegernsee in southern Bavaria. In response to previous reporting by Süddeutsche Zeitung, his spokesman provided a statement denying that […]
Reported by: Helen Parry Senior Regulatory Intelligence Expert / Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) confiscation announcement relating to investment adviser Richard Faithfull, and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announcement concerning David Ames, highlight examples of successful convictions in cases concerning overseas transnational investment fraud. A close examination of the […]
Opinion by: Mark Laurie If crypto did offer a potential loophole, we could expect to see Russia doing its darndest to drive through it. But thus far we have seen no signs of any concerted Russian effort – governmental or non-governmental – to boost crypto liquidity. Instead, Russia President Vladimir Putin seems to be putting […]
Reported by: Bilal Jafar Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recently announced that Vision Financial Markets LLC and Vision Brokerage Services have agreed to pay a fine as part of the settlement with the authority. According to the details shared by FINRA, Vision Financial and Vision Brokerage failed to establish and implement an appropriate anti-money laundering […]
Financial Crime News Briefs 