As reported in The Province today, anti-money laundering (“AML“) expert and former RCMP officer, Garry Clement was in Vancouver to help launch a Vancouver chapter of the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (“ACAMS“). ACAMS is the largest international membership organization dedicated to enhancing the knowledge and expertise of AML and counter terrorist-financing (“CTF“) financial crime [...]
The US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN“) has issued its interpretive guidance on the applicability of virtual currencies (the most popular of which is bitcoin) to the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA“). Pursuant to the Guidance, a person or entity that: (1) exchanges; or (2) administers virtual currency or bitcoin, is a money services business (“MSB“) [...]
Global Financial Integrity has released an interesting study detailing the illicit flow of funds from Russia to other countries. The highlights of the study entitled “Russia: Illicit Financial Flows and the Role of the Underground Economy”, available here, are that: From 1994 – 2011, Russia lost US$211 billion in illicit cash outflow; Most of the [...]
The shares of Beijing-based Soho China, a premier commercial development company, fell 11% this week after allegations surfaced in China that the company may be involved in money laundering associated with the sale of 41 Soho China properties to Shanxi banking official Gong Aiai for approximately HK$1 billion. Ms. Gong was arrested in China for [...]
The European Commission formally proposed today that amendments to anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing laws include measures to capture online gambling activities. Up until now, AML legislation has only included land-based casinos. The proposals would be implemented if approved by all 27 member states. Online gambling sites are unregulated for money laundering and terrorist financing [...]
The New York Court of Appeals ruled this week that the use of a New York bank account by a listed entity (an entity identified as a terrorist one) is sufficient to establish jurisdiction for American victims of the listed entity’s terrorist activities to claim compensation. The bank in question is a Beirut bank with [...]
In a much anticipated move, Kim Rothstein, the so-called “free-spending” wife of Scott Rothstein, the Florida lawyer convicted of money laundering for running a Ponzi scheme through his now-defunct law firm, has been charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering. Kim Rothstein’s lawyer, Scott Saidel and her close friend, Stacie Weisman, were also charged with [...]
According to Bloomberg News, the AG for Switzerland opened a criminal probe of UBS AG on August 29 as a result of a complaint filed by Bruno Manser Fund, a rain-forest advocacy group, that alleged that UBS AG allowed its bank to be used to launder proceeds of crime from Musa Aman, Chief Minister of [...]
The U.S. Permanent Senate Subcommittee on Investigations has found that HSBC Holdings PLC allowed drug traffickers, terrorists and rogue states to launder billions of dollars in the U.S. as a result of poor anti-money laundering (“AML”) and counter terrorist financing (“CTF”) controls. The Subcommittee found that HSBC serviced high-risk clients in drug-trafficking countries with weak AML [...]
Colin Dines, a retired British judge and former criminal law lawyer, is being extradited from London to Rome to face charges by an Italian magistrate that he was part of a transnational criminal organization complicit in laundering £344 million at the behest of the mafia. In 2010, an European Arrest Warrant (“EAW”) was issued against [...]