The FIFA scandal and why banks may be facing regulatory issues over KYC failures

Tweet FIFA Indictment against PEPs The 47-count Indictment against 14 persons employed or engaged by FIFA by the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York (“EDNY“), and their arrest may do more than shake up international soccer – it also has the potential to result in significant fines against many global banks who […]

The Jihad Express –> Gaziantep Turkey still ISIS’ conduit city of choice

Tweet Jihad Express Gaziantep, Turkey appears to have emerged as a city of choice for terrorist financing and human trafficking for the Islamic State (“ISIS“) in the past twelve months. Gaziantep is a city close to the Syrian border and is considered one of the key “porous” border towns, where people and goods illegally sold […]

Six Indicted in US for Funding ISIS Using Money Services Businesses that Routed Funds to Conduit Countries

Tweet Terrorist Financing for ISIS using online Payment Processors and MSBs from US Routed to Turkey and Saudi Arabia The USDOJ indicted six people this week for terrorist financing who are alleged to have used money services businesses to finance the Islamic State (“ISIS“) and to supply war-related goods to members of ISIS. According to […]

Is the ATM Global Network Unwittingly Used for Terrorist Financing?

Tweet We’re pleased to announce that Christine Duhaime is giving a presentation on the issue of “How the ATM Network Globally is Unwittingly Used for Terrorist Financing & Ways to Prevent it” at the 2015 Interac Conference in Ottawa. After a spouse of a member of the Islamic State Tweeted to the world from ar-Raqqah, […]

US veterans file billion dollar claims against global banks over terrorist financing and sanctions avoidance and claim that the conduct continues today

Tweet Anti-Terrorism Act filing against global banks Yesterday, symbolically the day before Remembrance Day, several plaintiffs filed suit against a number of global foreign banks based in the United States under the Anti-Terrorism Act (the “ATA“), including HSBC Holdings Plc, Barclays, Standard Chartered Bank and the Royal Bank of Scotland. The plaintiffs are seeking damages that could […]

Islamic State – ISIS funded by sales of oil, captured women and taxes Christians must pay to stay alive; and how banks are used to finance terrorism

Tweet Terrorist groups are not a financial island This article has been updated and replaced with the White Paper on ISIS’ Terrorist Financing available here.

PwC settles with New York bank regulator over anti-money laundering and sanctions advice

Tweet The New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS“) has announced that it has entered into a settlement with the advisory firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers Regulatory Advisory Services (“PwC“) over anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance advice it provided to the Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi (“Bank of Tokyo“). PwC is suspended for two years from accepting consulting […]

Standard Chartered Plc completing massive “look back” program

Tweet Months of Look Backs Required By Christine Duhaime, B.A., J.D., Financial Crime and Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist Follow @cduhaime According to this article in Reuters, as a result of non-functioning anti-money laundering software, Standard Chartered Plc will be undertaking the monumental task of reviewing millions of processed transactions to determine if such transactions should have […]

Thoughts on FinCEN Director’s speech on bank de-risking and the refusal of banking services to MSBs (and by implication, Bitcoin)

Tweet De-risking that results in unbankable businesses  By Christine Duhaime, B.A., J.D., Financial Crime and Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist Follow @cduhaime In a speech delivered to the anti-money laundering legal and law enforcement community, the Director of FinCEN, Jennifer Shasky Calvery, made some interesting and compelling comments that touch on the economic costs of anti-money laundering (“AML“) […]

Germany state-owned bank and several corporate offices raided over wind energy investigation into alleged mafia money laundering

Tweet The EU investigation into the use of wind farms to launder proceeds of crime widened today with several police raids in Austria and Germany, including a raid on the offices of the state-owned bank, HSH Nordbank. The Nordbank financed several wind farms, including one in Calabria, Italy, alleged to have been erected and operated […]