Russian national who provided money laundering as a service, pleads guilty in US

Tweet A Russian national, Maksim Boiko, who was accused of operating a money laundering as a service (“MLaaS“) business, pleaded guilty in Pittsburg today, to one count of conspiracy to launder money. In this case, the MLaaS involved opening personal and company bank accounts to receive and then move money for criminals and opening Bitcoin […]

US indicts 12 Russian nationals for money laundering and hacking

Tweet The US has indicted 12 Russian foreign nationals for hacking, conspiracy and money laundering for allegedly interfering with the 2016 US presidential election. According to the indictment, Russia operated an intelligence agency called GRU which obtained confidential documents from the Clinton campaign systems by hacking and systematically released them to sway public opinion. According […]

US continues its take down of Bitcoin entities with indictment of foreign Bitcoin exchange that “banked” many global cyberattackers and processed $9B in payments

Tweet The US continued its take down of Bitcoin companies this week with the unsealing of an indictment against BTC-e and Alex Vinnik, and his arrest in Greece. The Indictment against Vinnik and BTC-e was obtained in January 2017, and was sealed until now so that he could be located internationally and arrangements made to […]

G7 to focus on transnational criminal organizations, aviation infrastructure security, terrorist financing

Tweet The G7 released a special statement on financial crime, promising to re-double its efforts from the last 12 months on ending financial crime, in particular terrorist financing and international money laundering involving transnational criminal organizations. Every year there is a commitment to these goals but this time, the G7 has promised to turn their statements […]

2017 Worldwide threat assessment – the rule of law is at risk

Tweet The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released its annual Worldwide Threat Assessment on May 11, 2017, from the US Intelligence Community and compared to last year, there are many more international threats to world security. The Threat Assessment from the US is a summary of all of the threats facing the US, […]

American Banker – Why banks should be concerned about hackers taking on counter terrorist financing

Tweet In case you missed it, our article in American Banker‘s Bank Think entitled “We Shouldn’t Be Relying on Hackers to Stop Terrorism Financing” can be read here. The article discusses the recent phenomena of hackers in #OpISIS taking down the websites of the Islamic State and their stated promise to go after banks engaged […]

Canada’s New Anti-Terrorism Act, 2015 – Bill C51

Tweet 1. New Anti-Terrorism Act, 2015 The Government of Canada introduced its anticipated anti-terrorism legislation in Parliament. Bill C-51, entitled “An Act to Enact the Security of Canada Information Sharing Act and the Secure Air Travel Act” (the “Anti-Terrorism Act, 2015“) which is intended to arm the government with broader powers to address the increasing threat of […]

Sanctions world first ~ US imposes sanctions against North Koreans for private sector and over cyberhack incident

Tweet Economic sanctions ordered Today, the US announced it is imposing economic sanctions against certain individuals  and entities in North Korea over the Sony cyberhack. The so-called Sony sanctions appears to represent the first time in history that sanctions have been imposed (a) solely in response for, or over a, private sector dispute / issue; […]

Potential liability over terrorist attacks on critical infrastructure for private and government participants

Tweet Terrorists will target critical infrastructure Study after study makes one thing clear – the West remains ill-prepared to defend against a terrorist attack to critical infrastructure. That makes it obviously vulnerable, but it also exposes government agencies and the private sector (who own or manage upwards of 80% of critical infrastructure in some areas), […]