Tweet Diamond smuggling into Vancouver The Ming Pao Saturday Magazine has an interesting story on the arrest of two men from Hong Kong who attempted to smuggle $120 million worth of diamonds into Canada. The diamonds were strapped to their legs and are believed to be proceeds of crime. The story discusses the issue of […]
Tweet Ukrainian Crisis Late last week, the Swiss announced investigations into funds allegedly held in their banks by former President Viktor Yanukovych and his son Oleksandr Yanukovych, and have frozen those assets while they determine if any of the assets are proceeds of crime derived from corruption, misappropriated state assets, or derived from other predicate offenses […]
Tweet Canada is among a handful of countries where the diamond industry is being used for money laundering and terrorist financing, according to a report by a global financial crime body. The report by the Financial Action Task Force, a Paris-based global body that sets standards to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, says that […]
Tweet Increased pressure on Macau’s casinos Macau is facing a delicate balancing act – how to satisfy mounting international demands to crack down on money laundering and other criminal activities in its $38 billion gambling industry, without killing the goose that lays the golden egg. Finding a way of regulating the junket operators, which bring […]
Tweet 2013 Annual Report In its 2013 Annual Report, a U.S. Congressional Executive Commission has urged Macau to develop law enforcement mechanisms to combat money laundering at its casinos. The Congressional members found that the gambling industry in Macau was reportedly tied to widespread corruption and the laundering of large amounts of money out of […]
Tweet Delegates from the Financial Action Task Force (“FATF“) and the G20 Working Group on Anti-Corruption (“G20 ACWG“) met in Paris today to discuss ways in which both groups could liaise to further initiatives to enforce anti-money laundering (“AML“) and anti-corruption legislation worldwide. Pursuant to the meeting, the delegates determined that the following areas in […]
Tweet Crackdown on foreign nationals with unverified funds The G20 leaders have endorsed a sweeping plan proposed by its Anti-Corruption Working Group (“ACWG“) in 2012 to tackle the illicit movement of proceeds of crime internationally by corrupt foreign nationals to other countries (usually done as part of an immigration process). The change is part of […]
Tweet In preparation for the 4th round of mutual evaluations, the FATF is reviewing the standards with which it performs its evaluations and has released a consultation paper for public input on the following topics: risk based approaches; tax crimes as a predicate offence for money laundering; customer due diligence mechanisms; politically exposed persons; and […]
Tweet The Institute for Works of Religion, commonly known as the Vatican Bank, has pledged to implement anti-money laundering legislation based on the FAFT Recommendations that would require it to report suspicious transactions, ascertain the identity of their clients, report large transactions and establish an anti-money laundering compliance regime. The Vatican Bank has also agreed to […]
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 […]