Defense attorneys are hoping to overturn convictions against their clients in dozens of money laundering, drug and other cases that they say may have been based on undisclosed national security data.
Ongoing negotiations between the United States and European Union on a broad data-sharing arrangement will likely be complicated following the leaked disclosure this month of a transnational American surveillance program.
U.S. officials will soon ask an influential intergovernmental group to call on its members to relax laws preventing bank affiliates from sharing data on suspected financial crimes, say sources.
A U.K.-based financial transparency advocacy group is set to publish a list next month of the 60 most abusive tax havens that will include U.S. states and British cities and territories.
Government data mining programs are failing to find terrorists and often lead to unproductive false leads, said a U.S. government-sponsored study released on Tuesday.
Compliance officers may do well by borrowing from the pages of law enforcement agents and private investigators in performing due diligence on clients with offshore holdings, according to consultants.
The Justice Department, following high-profile failures in terrorism-related cases is prosecuting suspected terrorists on lesser, white collar charges. That may resonate in the financial world as institutions find themselves under greater scrutiny for AML and counter-terrorism financing compliance.
Because data protection laws in Europe and elsewhere make it difficult for a multinational financial institution to share data among all of its branches, the laws "will be the biggest impediment to protection from terrorism," the officials said.