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Arizona Court Upholds Seizures of Western Union Funds Tied to Human Smuggling
By Matt Squire
printArizona investigators are free to seize Western Union money transfers believed to be tied to human smuggling operations, even when the transfers originated from other states, a state court said. The decision follows the granting of a September 2006 warrant that allowed investigators to seize Western Union money transfers from 29 states to money transfer agents in Mexico. The Arizona Superior Court quashed the warrant in January 2007, stating that law enforcement agents did not have the jurisdiction to seize funds neither sent from nor received in Arizona. But on July 1, the Arizona Court of Appeals said that the...
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The world's largest remitter has agreed to pay $586 million for transferring hundreds of millions of dollars over a period of several years for human smugglers, drug traffickers and fraudsters in the United States and abroad, U.S. officials said Thursday.
U.S. investigators are asking some of the nation's largest banks to tighten their policies on accepting cash deposits in an effort to choke off the financial channels of human smugglers.
When imagining how dirty money is moved around the country, "think of FedEx," says Joseph Burke, chief of the National Bulk Cash Smuggling Center in Vermont. The center is tasked with tracing the sometimes elaborate path of drug proceeds from point-of-sale to the bank teller's window.
Money launderers working on behalf of Mexican cartels have moved southward after a deferred prosecution agreement between Western Union and Arizona gave investigators unprecedented access to remittance data in Northern Mexico, according to Vince Piano.
For the second time this year, the nation's largest money transmitter has asked Arizona for additional time to upgrade its anti-money laundering program, according to sources familiar with the matter.
One of the world's largest money services businesses is in danger of criminal indictment for failing to meet the terms of a 2010 settlement with the state of Arizona, say sources.
The New Mexico Attorney General's Office has expanded its team of anti-money laundering investigators as a result of a 2010 settlement between the state of Arizona and Western Union, according to the state's top prosecutor.
Unscrupulous financial institutions, legislative delays and a lack of quick action by U.S. federal officials are allowing drug cartels to wash money in the United States "right before our eyes," according to Terry Goddard, the former Attorney General of Arizona.
The implementation of U.S. dollar deposit limits at Mexican financial institutions has sparked an influx of cash deposits into U.S. banks, who are failing to properly scrutinize the funds, according to Cameron Holmes, a senior litigation counsel in the Arizona Attorney General's office.
Arizona's Supreme Court struck down a ruling Wednesday that would have allowed the attorney general to order freezes on wire transfers from 28 other states to locations in northern Mexico.
Human trafficking profits are estimated to be between 10 and 40 billion dollars annually, but few people are taking the time to root out the related money laundering transactions, Dr. Louise Shelley told reporter Larissa Bernardes.
The case points to the difficulties that large money service businesses face in detecting compliance violations at associated stores, compliance consultants say.