News
E-Gold Executives Admit to Laundering Money, Shirking AML Duties in Plea Deal
By Brian Monroe
printOnline digital currency business E-Gold and its three principal directors admitted late Monday to laundering money and operating as an unlicensed money transmitting business. The move by E-gold and its affiliate, Gold & Silver Reserve Inc., is a reversal of course for Chief Executive Dr. Douglas Jackson, who vowed last year to fight the U.S. Department of Justice and prove his company, and similar gold-backed businesses, should not be classified as money transmitters or subject to anti-money laundering laws. Jackson, a former oncologist who left his practice to start E-Gold in the late 1990s, faces up to 20 years in...
TO READ THE FULL STORY
Subscribe
Learn More
Related News
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.
Arizona has granted the nation's largest money transmitter an additional three months to improve its anti-money laundering compliance program and avoid criminal prosecution.
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.
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.
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.
The U.S. Justice Department will begin this year refunding customers of a defunct digital currency company that paid nearly $3.3 million to settle sanctions and anti-money laundering violations.
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.
An emerging virtual currency intended to be used in lieu of cash could also be a vehicle for criminals seeking to make international transactions anonymously, according to investigators.
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.
A U.S. Treasury Department plan to increase reporting on cross-border transactions would allow federal regulators and investigators to more easily detect unregistered money remitters - if they can sift through the data.
The Internal Revenue Service's anti-money laundering division is in the process of revamping how it examines tens of thousands of money services businesses, according to a former U.S. Treasury Department official.
Money services businesses and sellers of stored value cards will know this summer whether final rules by the U.S. Treasury Department will increase their anti-money laundering compliance duties and costs.
A report by an intergovernmental watchdog highlighting the anti-money laundering weaknesses of more than two dozen countries is prompting non-bank financial institutions to drop customers and avoid risky markets.
The Internal Revenue Service is ill-equipped to examine money services businesses for federal compliance, industry leaders and lawmakers told a congressional subcommittee Wednesday.
A digital currency company has incurred a nearly $3 million penalty for sanctions violations less than a year after its directors agreed to pay $300,000 to settle anti-money laundering deficiencies.
A federal judge sentenced a digital currency company and its directors to three years of probation and a joint $300,000 fine after a plea deal on charges that the company had helped criminals launder money.
A recent U.S. federal court ruling that an electronic currency company qualifies as a money service business and is subject to the Bank Secrecy Act could expand the due diligence responsibilities of banks that work with similar businesses.
If online payments system e-gold, Ltd. is convicted on charges of operating as an unlicensed money services business and other crimes, significant changes could be in store for similar digital currency businesses and the banks that service them.