Tweet A Romanian man has pleaded guilty for his role in a cyberlaundering scam that took in about US$2.7 million from users of online marketplaces such as eBay, Craigslist and AutoTrader. Adrian Ghighina, 33, of Bucharest, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, bank fraud and money laundering in U.S. District Court for the District of Illinois. Ghighina […]
Tweet The Swiss government has announced that it has frozen several bank accounts that it suspects belong to departed Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, his family and close associates, until the source of funds can be verified. Mubarak’s wealth is estimated to be $51 billion; a large portion of it is said to be held in […]
Tweet According to this article in the Vancouver Sun, one of the Tamil migrants who arrived in Canada last August aboard the MV Sun Sea, has admitted that he worked for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a mechanic and helped them dig bunkers in Sri Lanka. The LTTE is a designated terrorist […]
Tweet The US Department of the Treasury today announced that it has designated the Lebanese Canadian Bank SAL and its subsidiaries as a “primary money laundering concern” under the Patriot Act, because it facilitates the laundering of money from drug trafficking and trade-based money laundering. The bank has an office in Montreal and maintains extensive correspondent […]
Tweet Money laundering suspicious activity reports (SARs) filed with FinCEN, the U.S. financial intelligence unit, show a slight increase in mortgage fraud in the U.S. According to FinCEN’s third quarter 2010 mortgage report, “Mortgage Loan Fraud SAR Filings“, 9% of all SARs filed in the 2010 third quarter indicated mortgage loan fraud as a suspected […]
Tweet A former bank official with the Chase Bank was convicted of disclosing the existence of a suspicious activity report to a bank customer. Frank Mendoza, who worked as a loss mitigation specialist for Chase Bank, conducted an investigation of a delinquent borrower on mortgage loans made in relation to seven properties in California. In […]
Tweet The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has issued an advisory to U.S. financial institutions to take special precaution when dealing with funds from Tunisian politically exposed persons because of the increased money laundering risk if those funds are from the proceeds of crime (e.g., misappropriated or diverted State assets, proceeds of bribery, public corruption or […]
Tweet According to this article in the Toronto Star, FINTRAC is working with the FATF to evaluate money laundering and terrorist financing risks associated with prepaid cards, mobile payment services and Internet based payment services. The FATF will be collating information from cases where mobile and Internet based payment services were used to launder funds or […]
Tweet HSBC Bank USA, N.A. has been ordered to improve its compliance with U.S. anti-money laundering laws. Under a Consent Order entered into with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Reserve, HSBC must correct anti-money laundering problems identified by the OCC and bring itself into compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) […]
Tweet The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), has published proposed regulations that would require banks and money services businesses to report cross-border electronic transfers of funds (called CBETFs). Banks would have to report all CBETFs of any amount to FinCEN within five days. Money services businesses would be required to report amounts of US$1,000 […]