BVI Premier arrested for conspiracy to import cocaine for Mexican cartel

Tweet The Premier of the British Virgin Islands, Andrew Alturo Fahie, and BVI port authority head Oleanvine Maynard (“Maynard“), were arrested on drug trafficking and money laundering charges in Miami yesterday, shortly after looking at $700,000 in cash in a private jet that was earmarked for them. The cash, they were told, was a payment […]

Offshore advisory firm that once advised Crocodile Dundee star pleads guilty to helping wealthy clients hide money in tax havens

Tweet Strachans SA Last month, Strachans SA, pleaded guilty in the US to hiding income and assets in offshore bank accounts, and in various corporate entities from tax authorities for its clients. Strachans SA was an accounting and financial services firm based in Jersey and Switzerland. In 2013, it became news-worthy when it and/or one […]

Accountant who worked with law firm in Panama Papers scandal faces ID theft, as well as money laundering charges

Tweet Accountant Richard Gaffey, who was charged with money laundering offences, among others, in connection with the Panama Papers scandal must face charges of identity theft at his trial in connection with working with the law firm Mossack Fonseca, a judge ruled last week in New York. Gaffey had applied to have the ID theft […]

France & Spain go after Syrian PEP, the Butcher of Hama’s $1 billion in unexplained wealth

Tweet Rifaat al-Assad, the uncle of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, is facing permanent asset forfeiture in France in connection with unexplained wealth and asset accumulation in France. He was charged in France last month with corruption, money laundering and embezzlement of state assets from Syria. He was ordered to remain in France. He is a politically […]

“How to” text book by accountant on using offshore tax havens to avoid money laundering detection

Tweet One of the most curious text books one can find in law libraries is a “how to” series of legal text books on how to select the best international tax haven for clients to hide their money. It’s curious because one would have thought that helping clients hide money is not what lawyers are […]

G20 adopts a “zero tolerance” against corruption and agree to close all loopholes and join forces for asset recovery of proceeds of crime on an urgent basis

Tweet The G20 agrees to cooperate over asset recovery and tracking down wanted foreign nationals implicated in financial crimes The G20 released its statement on September 5, 2016, and a large part of it indicates that the leaders of the world are becoming concerned with financial crime, including money laundering, terrorist financing and tax evasion. […]

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 […]

US amends anti-money laundering law for beneficial ownership after Panama Papers, including to detect purchases of expensive real estate with illicit money

Tweet Panama Papers Driven Changes The US Treasury has announced several amendments, and proposed legislative amendments, to its anti-money laundering (“AML“) legislation in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal to tackle the disclosure of what is called “beneficial ownership.” Beneficial ownership means the beneficial, as opposed to the legal, owner of shares of a […]

UN Chief charged in money laundering bribery scheme for allegedly accepting millions in cash from Chinese casino billionaire

Tweet Former UN President Charged The former United Nations (“UN”) President of the UN General Assembly, John Ashe, the UN Deputy Ambassador, Francis Lorenzo, a Chinese foreign national billionaire, Ng Lap Seng (also known as David Ng) and two of his associates were charged in New York with various offenses over an alleged bribery scheme. Two […]