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 […]

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 […]

Predictive money laundering and damming orders – what are they?

Tweet WMD Last week, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions against a bank in China for allegedly providing financial services to North Korean companies and said it was rolling out more sanctions in the weeks to come. The bank, the Bank of Dandong, is alleged to have facilitated money laundering by allowing its bank to […]

The CIA on terrorism and tech

Tweet On June 16, 2016, the Director of the CIA testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in respect of the Islamic State (ISIS), terrorism and technology generally. Here is an executive summary: The CIA said there there has never been a time when there is such a “dizzying” array of national security issues […]

‘Twitter terrorist’ a danger, says panel at ACAMS Conference

Tweet The Lawyers Weekly has a good story covering the ACAMS Conference in Toronto’s panel on terrorist financing in which we participated with FINTRAC, Standard Chartered and the OPP to discuss the risks and issues of terrorism threats in Canada. The article, available here, discusses Ontario and security concerns, as well as how FINTRAC deals […]

Canada makes its first corporate prosecution for economic sanctions violations

Tweet Although Canadian economic sanctions have been in place for years, until now Canada has never prosecuted any company for sanctions violations. That changed earlier this month when Lee Specialities Ltd., a Calgary based company, was charged with violating Canadian (and UN) economic sanctions by exporting goods to Iran that could be used for nuclear devices. […]