US considering two anti-money laundering bills to force disclosure of shareholders of private companies

Tweet In what will be the most significant change to anti-money laundering law in the US since the Bank Secrecy Act, the US is considering two separate bills that, if passed, would require disclosure of the shareholders of private companies – the ILLICIT CASH Act and the Corporate Transparency Act, H.R. 2513. ILLICIT Cash Act […]

Reporting suspicious transactions – when do you have reasonable grounds to suspect in law?

Tweet Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act Under Part 1 of the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (PCMLTFA),[1] each person or entity subject to the PCMLTFA is required to report to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) every financial transaction that occurs and every financial transaction that is attempted […]

US Treasury files civil claim against foreign Bitcoin exchange and its owner / officer to enforce penalties of $100M for AML failures

Tweet The US Attorney for the Northern District of California, on behalf of the US Treasury, has filed a civil complaint against the Bitcoin exchange known as BTC-e and one of its alleged owners / officers, Alexander Vinnik, to enforce over $100 million in monetary penalties for a series of anti-money laundering law violations. BTC-e […]

The Canadian: “[D]ude, we’re criminal drug dealers – what line shouldn’t we cross?” Explaining the Silk Road Money Laundering Case

Tweet 4th Anniversary of Silk Road founder’s Sentencing The end of May marked the 4th Anniversary of the sentencing of Ross Ulbricht, aka Dread Pirate Roberts, the founder of the now-defunct darknet marketplace website based in California, called Silk Road that operated on TOR, which brokered sales of illegal goods and services, including narcotics like […]

Brazil arrests 2 bank employees for AML compliance failures that allowed $249 million to be laundered

Tweet Two bank employees arrested over AML failures Brazil’s chief prosecutor, Eduardo El Hage, who is in charge of Operation Car Wash, obtained an order from Brazil’s federal court for the arrest of two bank employees with Banco Bradesco SA this week, arguing that they were lax on applying anti-money laundering law. Their alleged AML […]

Study in China identifies areas in China where most money launderers originate and finds that the number of suspicious activity reports filed does not improve effectiveness

Tweet According to money laundering law empirical research from China, a person from Fujian (the well-known Triad land) is most likely to be a money launderer, and the study also found that the filing of voluminous numbers of suspicious activity reports (SAR), does not lead to improved anti-money laundering results across any sector or in […]

FATF to finalize interpretation of virtual assets, digital currency exchanges and ICOs to require they be FIU-registered and supervised for AML compliance

Tweet In furtherance of the US approach to responsible innovation, the Financial Action Task Force (“FATF“)’s private sector consultation in Vienna two weeks ago, will help drive changes to FATF Recommendation 15 to bring digital currencies, ICOs, and digital currency exchanges more fully into the AML requirements in June 2019. The Vienna change will take […]

Former Head of Financial Crime Regulator and Director of Danske Bank Charged with Money Laundering Failures

Tweet According to the Danish press, Henrik Ramlau-Hansen, the former head of the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority, Denmark’s bank regulator, who was a director of Danske Bank, has been criminally charged and his house raided in connection with a €200 billion money laundering scandal involving Danske Bank. The charges are pursuant to Denmark’s anti-money laundering legislation and […]