“The Lady Oil” – How an Italian singer went on Facebook to partner with the Mafia to build a billion-dollar illegal oil trafficking business

Tweet The petrol mafia case was first police case of ‘Ndrangheta and Camorra convergence across Italy A Deal with the Mafia Here’s a question – what do you do to revive a failed oil business you inherited if you have no business skills and no money? You might make friends with a Mafia associate on […]

Malta businessman allegedly laundered $500 billion for ‘Ndrangheta and other Mafia; was preparing to launder $136 billion more

Tweet According to prosecutors in Italy, a businessman in Malta and alleged IT specialist, Roberto Recordare, is under investigation for allegedly having laundered $500 billion in proceeds of crime for the ‘Ndrangheta, Cosa Nostra and Camorra Mafia groups and for planning to launder $136 billion more. Approximately $36 billion of the amount laundered was allegedly […]

Murder, violence and bombs – how the Mafia extorts a whole city

Tweet Controlling a whole city It can sometimes be hard to grasp the extent to which the Mafia operates its extortion racket against businesses, and the extent to which it controls so many businesses with threats of bombs, violence and death. An Italian investigating Judge, Francesco Agnino, came across Mafia extortion activities that were so […]

Spanish police seize €9 million in Bitcoin as part of money laundering Bitcoin ATM ring

Tweet The Spanish Guardia Civil has arrested eight people and seized over €9 million, luxury cars, cannabis plants and jewellery in connection with an alleged money laundering operation in Spain that involved the use of Bitcoin ATMs and digital currency exchanges to launder proceeds of crime and avoid the filing of suspicious transaction reports. According […]

A guy stole $2M in Bitcoin mining equipment, escaped from prison, jumped on a plane with the Prime Minister of Iceland and no one stopped him

Tweet Sindri Por Stefansson was recently sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison in Iceland for masterminding the theft of $2M worth of Bitcoin mining machines. Mr. Stefansson was arrested in February 2018 in Iceland with several others, and ordered held in connection with computer theft, for over $2M worth of mining equipment. He was […]

Nigeria gets ex parte asset recovery order for $153,000,000 in proceeds of corruption from PEP parked in banks

Tweet The government of Nigeria will be able to recover $153 million in proceeds of corruption from Diezani Allison-Madueke, its former Minister of Petroleum, who was and remains a politically exposed person under anti-money laundering law. The funds were alleged to have been stolen from the Nigerian National Oil Company when it was under her control […]

UK’s sweeping new law targeting bankers, lawyers, advisors, offshore professional directors, nominees with fines

Tweet Wide, Wide Net for Enablers Starting today, parts of the UK’s Finance Bill 2016 came into effect which allows the HMRC to go after so-called “enablers” who help UK tax payers avoid taxes using offshore schemes, services or arrangements, such as bank accounts, investment or broker accounts, trusts, companies, directors / officers or nominees. The amendments […]

A banker’s update on terrorist financing and money laundering from the US Committee on Homeland Security

Tweet Summary of the Updates The US House Committee on Homeland Security released a number of updates and received testimony on the status of terrorist financing, terrorism and money laundering in the last few weeks with some interesting developments relevant to banks in terms of changes in terrorist financing typologies that should be added to […]

A difficult issue facing the refugee crisis – the fake Syrian refugee

Tweet Complicated Growing Use of Fake Syrian Passports According to several recent news reports, many refugees and migrants entering, or who have entered, the EU are doing so with false Syrian passports, creating what may be the biggest mass fraud of our time by sheer volume. There are terrorism risks that threaten international security because […]

Europol says organized crime is quickly changing to virtual methods

Tweet In a report released yesterday on serious organized crime called “Exploring Tomorrow’s Organized Crime” (the “Report“), Europol found that organized crime is now becoming a virtual activity over the Internet and as a result, transnational criminal organizations (“TCO“) are migrating towards virtual payment methods to conduct commercial affairs, including digital payments. According to Europol, […]