8 questions you may have had about the movie “The Laundromat” and yes, there are British Columbia connections

Tweet Part 1 – Background Skip this Part 1 if you know about Mossack Fonseca and shell and shelf companies. The movie The Laundromat is about lawyers and big law firms and the system that fuels offshore money movements, often involving the proceeds of crime. The movie is about a big law firm called Mossack Fonseca that […]

US indicts two Chinese foreign nationals for operating criminal enterprise, international money laundering and selling fentanyl

Tweet The US Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, announced the unsealing of a 43-count indictment against two foreign nationals from China for allegedly manufacturing, advertising, selling and shipping fentanyl, carfentanil and other deadly drugs to several countries including the US and Canada, which resulted in the deaths of American citizens. They are also charged with operating […]

“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 […]

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 […]

France calls for stronger counter-terrorist financing laws

Tweet Consensus on Supranational Risk Assessment  As part of the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive approval process in the European Union (the “4th AMLD“), the Council of the European Union’s President yesterday issued declarations and proposals for the regulation of anonymous financial transactions that are transacted on new fintech products. The communication from the President included […]

Aligning FATCA with the AML compliance regime

Tweet It has been noted by US officials that the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA“), 26 USC Ch. 4, is not only one of the most significant pieces of US legislation for financial institutions, asset managers and foreign residents, it is also one of the most legally complex and technical that “will spawn significant enforcement activity […]

Wealthy immigration programs like EB-5 from China to US just got a lot less attractive with FATCA

Tweet According to this article in the Wall Street Journal, the IRS and the government of China are negotiating an agreement whereby the US would provide financial information to the government of China on Chinese foreign nationals living in the US. The information provided to China will likely include asset, financial, corporate and personal information […]

Primer on correspondent banking relationships and offshore tax havens

Tweet How correspondent banking relationships are used to launder funds My favorite resource for correspond banking is the US Senate Report on Correspondent Banking published several years ago. Despite its age, it remains timely because it deals specifically with how the US financial system is used by correspondent banks in, mainly offshore tax havens to, […]