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 […]

Drug kingpin Caesar Emilio Peralta (Caesar el Abusador) arrested in Colombia on anniversary of Escobar’s death

Tweet Caesar Emilio Peralta, also known as Caesar the abuser, an OFAC designated drug kingpin from the Dominican Republic, was arrested in a rented condo in a hotel in the upscale Bocagrande District of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. Police say he was getting ready to flee to Panama. Peralta is wanted on charges of international […]

Bitcoin advisor arrested for allegedly providing technical education on Blockchain to North Korea

Tweet Unsealed criminal complaint The US Attorney for the SDNY, together with the FBI yesterday announced the arrest of Virgil Griffith, a cryptocurrency advisor, in connection with technical services he allegedly provided to educate the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (“North Korea”) on sanctions avoidance and money laundering. Griffith was the subject of a criminal […]

Canadian digital currency exchange helps you buy a sanctions-avoidance virtual currency created by a Russian on a sanctions list, with ties to a $100M Ponzi scheme

Tweet Russian on OFAC list launches a coin The Kharon Brief has an interesting article here about Aleksei Muratov, also spelled Aleksey Muratov, a Ukrainian on the OFAC sanctions list here, who founded, launched and owns an initial coin offering called PRIZM. Donetsk People’s Republic Muratov lives in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. According to […]

Partner of alleged international human trafficker and money launderer arrested in Dominican Republic

Tweet Marisol Franco, the common law spouse of Caesar Peralta who is known as “Caesar the Abuser”, was arrested in the Dominican Republic yesterday in connection with charges against her spouse of alleged money laundering. Peralta was designated as a drug kingpin last week by the US Treasury and is being sought by the US […]

US Treasury designates what may be first Canadian company as part of a significant money laundering organization and drug trafficking organization

Tweet Canada now has its first official drug kingpin and its a company in Ontario. The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control yesterday designated a Canadian company as part of a significant foreign money laundering organization and drug trafficking organization. The Kingpin Act is used for the most serious of designations and […]

US seeks money laundering forfeiture of a large cargo ship citing sanctions and correspondent banking violations

Tweet The US government unsealed a federal forfeiture complaint this week, seeking in rem forfeiture of a cargo ship that was used for sanctions avoidance to benefit North Korea which used US correspondent banks to engage in sanctions avoidance. The case has no tie to the US except for the use of correspondent banks and […]

$15 million in heroin seized from Iranian truckers entering Bulgaria

Tweet The Bulgarian police have seized a transport truck from Iran attempting to cross the Bulgarian – Turkey border with 288 kilos of pure heroin, with a street value of $15 million at the low end. The heroin was dry-walled, meaning each brick of heroin was covered individually with drywalling material. According to the US […]

Iranian charged in $6 billion case with disrupting Iran’s economy by moving money for sanctions avoidance, immigrated to Canada

Tweet Updated 2019-04-14 Another Iranian in Canada alleged to owe millions to Iran Marjan Sheikholeslami, an Iranian foreign national, now living in Toronto, Canada, is alleged to have played a major part of a financial crime case with an Iranian petroleum executive, Reza Hamzehlou, and is on trial in absentia in Iran for disrupting Iran’s […]