TOP STORY

May

Amsterdam Reporter’s Notebook

EU-wide anti-money laundering reforms, the growing threat of organized crime, sanctions against Russia and the interplay between data privacy and AML requirements emerged as frequent topics of discussion at the latest ACAMS-hosted annual conference in Europe.

More News

Midweek Roundup: Detained Binance Compliance Chief Flagged Bribery Demand, Ex-Casino Exec Gets Probation, and More

AML breaches land futures trader in prison, former Maltese prime minister charged with money laundering, and more, in the midweek roundup.

May 8, 2024

US Bribery Allegations Raise Questions Over Bank’s Transaction-Monitoring Systems

By Fred Williams

News that insiders at TD Bank may have helped launder hundreds of millions of dollars from a range of crimes does not explain how the lender appears not to have noticed and flagged the transactions tied to the scheme more promptly, analysts told ACAMS moneylaundering.com.

May 8, 2024

Germany Faces Dilemma: Attorney Bank Accounts or Attorney-Client Privilege?

By Gabriel Vedrenne

Amid the growing tendency of banks in Germany to reduce their exposure to financial crime-related risk by ditching law firms as clients, the federal government wants to subject the accounts that the former provides to the latter to stronger anti-money laundering supervision.

May 8, 2024

German, EU Officials Discuss Sweeping AML Reforms

By Koos Couvée

A German official said Tuesday that his agency is "already investing" resources into helping the Anti-Money Laundering Authority, the EU's impending, bloc-wide AML regulator, begin facilitating regular exchanges of financial intelligence upon launching next year.

May 7, 2024

US Cryptocurrency Cases Expose Divide Between FinCEN, Justice Department

By Fred Williams

A pair of federal indictments against cryptocurrency executives in Manhattan that appear to define the act of "mixing" cryptocurrency as a form of money transmission could be read to outlaw routine blockchain functions, critics of the cases told ACAMS moneylaundering.com.

May 6, 2024

Enforcement Actions

SRA Fines William Bailey Solicitors £5,224 for Violating MLRs

The Solicitor Regulation Authority entered into a regulatory settlement agreement with the London, U.K.-based firm that requires it to pay a £5,224 fine and investigation costs of £600 for breaches of the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017.

May 9, 2024

FINTRAC Penalizes Binance Holdings Limited CA$6,002,000 for AML/CTF Violations

The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada administered a monetary penalty against the money services business for failure to comply with the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act, and relevant regulations.

May 7, 2024

Legs & Regs

OFAC Extends General License on Safety, Wind Down Transactions Involving Certain Venezuelan Entities

The Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Treasury Department issued General License No. 8N under the Venezuela Sanctions Regulations, which extends the authorization of certain transactions involving Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. until Nov. 15, 2024.

May 10, 2024

OSCE Launches CTF Training Program for Montenegro

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime conducted a counterterrorist financing training course for experts from Montenegro.

May 9, 2024

US-UK Strategic Sanctions Dialogue Held in London

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the State Department issued a joint statement at the conclusion of the second U.S.-U.K. Strategic Sanctions Dialogue, which was held in London on May 8, 2024.

May 9, 2024

US Extends National Emergency with Respect to Syria

The White House shared a signed notice by U.S. President Joseph R. Biden Jr., which details his decision to continue the national emergency declared with respect to Syria.

May 8, 2024

Financial Crime Matters: Ex-OCC Official Discusses Recent FinCEN Rulemaking

March 25, 2024

In this episode of Financial Crime Matters, Kieran Beer, editor in chief of ACAMS moneylaundering.com, and Daniel Stipano, former deputy chief council for the OCC, discuss the Corporate Transparency Act and FinCEN’s creation of a national database of beneficial owners.

Edmund Fitton-Brown on Yemen and the Houthis

March 11, 2024

In the latest episode of Sanctions Space, Justine is joined by Edmund Fitton-Brown, senior advisor at the Counter Extremism Project and former U.K. ambassador to Yemen. They discuss the ongoing tensions in the Red Sea, the political situation in Yemen and the origin and aspirations of the Houthi group, as well as sanctions actions taken by the U.S. and others against the Houthis.

Money laundering-related red flags associated with virtual assets and virtual asset service providers include:

A. The use of the same IP-address for a large number of seemingly unrelated virtual asset wallets.
B. Depositing virtual assets and then immediately withdrawing them.
C. Both A and B.
D. None of the above.