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.
An individually-owned and operated money services business in Michigan will pay $12,000 and cease operations for failing to properly screen thousands of wire transfers to Yemen, U.S. regulators said Friday.
One of the world's largest money services businesses will pay nearly $10 million and share transactional data with U.S. states and Mexico as part of an extension to a 2010 settlement.
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.
The nation's largest money services business has begun imposing new anti-money laundering checks on subagents in Mexico in an effort to comply with its March 2010 agreement with Arizona prosecutors, say sources.
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.
Mexican cartels are increasingly moving operatives into the U.S. to expand money laundering operations, firms in the United Kingdom have paid over one billion pounds in fines to settle fraud charges since 2007, and more, in the midweek roundup.
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.
One of the country's top lobbying groups for money services businesses will ask lawmakers in February to streamline how the companies obtain licenses to operate in the United States.
State and federal measures designed to combat international human trafficking and child labor will obligate financial institutions to apply tougher due diligence standards to corporate accounts, a federal judge said Monday.
The terms of a $100 million settlement disclosed Friday by MoneyGram for anti-money laundering lapses will cost the Dallas-based money remitter nearly $200 million once completed, regulatory documents show.
A 2008 investigation of Colombian cash couriers by customs officials and the U.S. Justice Department that made headlines for its ties to European cocaine sales had a lesser known result: Bank Secrecy Act regulations.
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.
An agreement by one the nation's largest money transmitters to better share transactional data with investigators has resulted in greater scrutiny, both for the business and its chief competitor.
Dozens of small banks and credit unions have begun courting money services businesses over the past year, offering financial services to the high-risk clients in exchange for compliance-related fees.
Money services businesses have been slow to respond to an April request by the U.S. Treasury Department to provide more data on their individual agents, say compliance professionals.
Suspicious transaction reports are among the biggest leads for investigators into the money laundering operations of human trafficking and smuggling operations, an intergovernmental group said Wednesday.
The U.S. Treasury Department is in the final stages of levying a $12,000 civil money penalty against a New Jersey-based money remitter for failing to register as a money services business.
Western Union will pay $94 million to resolve claims by the Arizona Attorney General's office that the company wasn't doing enough to combat Mexican money launderers and human traffickers.