The 2013 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (“INCSR“) published this month by the U.S. Department of State, particularly volume I on the drug trafficking trade, is more favourable of Canada than the last two years, primarily as a result of the enactment in Canada of the Omnibus Crime Bill C-10, know as the Safe Streets and [...]
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“) [...]
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 [...]
According to the most recent information available, stored value cards (or prepaid access) are often used for money laundering and terrorist financing activities. Stored value cards can be used like currency except that they have certain characteristics that make them attractive to criminals – they are: accepted worldwide; reusable and re-loadable; essentially anonymous; untraceable; instantly [...]
The U.S. Department of the Treasury today announced that it has designated the Lebanese Canadian Bank SAL and its subsidiaries as a “primary money laundering concern” under the U.S. Patriot Act, because it facilitates the laundering of money from drug trafficking and trade-based money laundering. The Bank has an office in Montréal and maintains extensive [...]
Money laundering suspicious activity reports (SARs) filed with FinCEN, the U.S. financial intelligence unit, show a slight increase in mortgage fraud in the U.S. According to FinCEN’s third quarter 2010 mortgage report, “Mortgage Loan Fraud SAR Filings“, 9% of all SARs filed in the 2010 third quarter indicated mortgage loan fraud as a suspected activity, an [...]
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has issued an advisory to U.S. financial institutions to take special precaution when dealing with funds from Tunisian politically exposed persons because of the increased money laundering risk if those funds are from the proceeds of crime (e.g. misappropriated or diverted State assets, proceeds of bribery, public corruption or other [...]
The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is proposing a new rule that would require non-bank residential mortgage lenders (e.g. independent mortgage loan companies and mortgage brokers) in the U.S. to comply with the suspicious activity reporting requirements under the Bank Secrecy Act. The new rule closes a regulatory gap in the reporting requirements. Residential mortgage [...]
FinCEN released its final rule regarding the confidentiality of suspicious activity reports and has determined that financial institutions must keep quiet about investigations of suspicious account activity, even when transactional reports are not required to be filed, the U.S. Treasury Department said Tuesday. The final rule, which takes effect in December, requires compliance departments to [...]
FinCEN has released its latest SAR Activity Review, a compilation of suspicious activity reports (called suspicious transaction reports in Canada) filed by depository institutions, money services businesses, casinos and card clubs and segments of the securities industry and insurance industry. In 2009, the number of SARs filed dropped in all segments except the casinos and [...]