The U.S. House of Representatives passed a measure Wednesday clearing the way for financial sanctions against Venezuelan officials implicated in the country's violent crackdown on antigovernment demonstrators.
With its next presidential election less than a week away, Venezuela has more than an unplanned transition in leadership to sort out. It has, once again, a growing problem with capital flight.
U.S. lawmakers Thursday questioned how a blacklisted Lebanese terrorist organization works with political leaders and narco-traffickers in Latin America.
Congressional leaders called for the U.S. State Department to deem Venezuela a State Sponsor of Terrorism Friday for allegedly supporting Iran's nuclear weapons efforts and a blacklisted South American separatist group.
Crackdowns on currency exchange and bond swap businesses in Mexico and Venezuela are prompting some U.S. banks to turn away secondary market businesses in Latin America even when they operate legitimately, say consultants.
Italian authorities freeze $31 million at the Vatican Bank, MENAFATF criticizes Lebanon's AML regime and laundered art is returned to Brazil, in this week's news roundup.
A Swiss official warns that the United States plans legal action if a deal to hand over UBS account data is blocked, China announces that it has tweaked its counterterrorism laws and Ecuador says it will be off of FATF's blacklist by June, in this week's news roundup.
At least a dozen U.S. and foreign financial institutions are considering limiting operations in Venezuela or leaving the country entirely in the wake of threats to nationalize banks.
Brian Stoeckert, president of Los Angeles-based Stoeckert Consulting, Inc. spoke with reporter Larissa Bernardes about risks associated with a Venezuelan bond swap.
Bolivia's decision to oust the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration from the country will likely open the way for increase in regional drug trafficking and organized crime, say analysts.
A Venezuelan securities exchange market has raised concerns among U.S. Treasury Department representatives, who say that the process lacks transparency and may be ripe for abuse, according to Luis Rivases, president of the Venezuelan Capital Markets Compliance Officers Association.
The U.S. Treasury Department blacklisted a Colombian money exchange house over its alleged ties to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a group identified as a terrorist organization by the United States since 1997.
Iran is considering purchasing at least one of three Venezuelan banks to circumvent international sanctions requiring many of the world's banks to freeze the funds of five Iranian financial institutions, according to anti-money laundering consultants and Iranian news reports cited by the BBC.
The Bush administration may blacklist Venezuela as a state sponsor of terror, a move that could restrict business between the South American country and U.S. companies, according to a news report.
Nine Republican lawmakers introduced a resolution to the U.S. House of Representatives Friday calling on the Bush administration to sanction Venezuela over its ties to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Banco del Alba, launched Jan. 26 by Venezuela President Hugo Chavez and three of his allies as an alternative to the World Bank and a U.S.-backed free trade pact, includes among its members Bolivia, Nicaragua and Cuba, a country that has long been the subject of U.S. sanctions.
Two Venezuelan businessmen accused by U.S. prosecutors of acting as clandestine agents for Hugo Chavez's government have dropped a lawsuit against American Express Bank International related to $25 million the men had placed with the bank.
But the bad news continued this week for the company as its American Express Bank Ltd. unit reached an agreement on Tuesday with the New York State Banking Department to improve its AML regime.
The bill would prohibit using more than $10,000 in funds "legitimate or otherwise" to facilitate so-called specified unlawful activities, crimes used to establish money laundering cases.
The bank, which has not yet developed any AML regime, plans to set its official agenda in a meeting later this month, bank representatives said.