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Law & Lawyers Ltd & MLCO fined UK£25,000 each over client money and risk check breaches
London solicitors Law & Lawyers Limited (L&L) and Francis Mathew, a director at the firm, have each been fined UK£25,000 (US$31,000) and ordered, jointly, to pay costs of UK£38,000 (US$47,125) after a hearing before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT).
Online Published Date:
01 February 2025
Appeared in issue:
321 - 01 March 2025
Brink's Global Services USA fined US$37m for bulk cash shipments absent effective AML
Not registering as a money service business (MSB) between around 7 October 2018 and 22 October 2020; instead, wilfully erroneously relying on an exemption from FinCEN's anti-money laundering requirement for currency transporters, such as armoured car companies, that applies to "wholly domestic" physical cash movements from/to a "currency originator" to/from their account at a financial institution, has cost Brink's Global Services USA, Inc a US$37 million civil money penalty from the US Department of the Treasury: US$20 million is offset against a US$50.4m forfeiture, imposed for failing to register as an MSB under a non-prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice.
Online Published Date:
08 February 2025
Appeared in issue:
321 - 01 March 2025
FinCrime Curator - February 2025
If geopolitics are markedly unstable as the new year proceeds - with ongoing conflict in Europe, a fragile ceasefire in the Middle East, and continual guesswork needed over President Trump's next topic du jour, to pick just three code red elements - there is always the constant of economic crime, albeit constantly dynamic; a challenge for which, fortunately, there is expert help and insight available online if you know where to look. MLB has compiled some of the best broadcast content.
Online Published Date:
10 February 2025
Appeared in issue:
321 - 01 March 2025
Tunisia - power play
Laws against money laundering and terrorist financing come with potent and intrusive regulations and investigative tools - useful, in the wrong hands, for suppressing dissent. Keith Nuthall, Paul Cochrane and Imen Bliwa find that recent prosecutions of leading political opposition figures in Tunisia are raising just such concern.
Online Published Date:
12 February 2025
Appeared in issue:
321 - 01 March 2025
Russian jailed in US for crypto-laundering conspiracy to fly home in prisoner swap
A Russian convicted in the USA of conspiracy to commit money laundering will be released home to Russia in exchange for Marc Fogel, an American teacher jailed there for alleged drug trafficking, and three Belarus detainees, including a Radio Liberty journalist.
Online Published Date:
13 February 2025
Appeared in issue:
321 - 01 March 2025
Barclays investigated in UK over AML controls
Notes to the 2024 annual report for Barclays plc reveal that the UK banking group is the subject of a civil enforcement probe by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) over its compliance with the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 and the regulator's own ML and financial crime rules.
Online Published Date:
14 February 2025
Appeared in issue:
321 - 01 March 2025
UK lawyer with "cavalier approach" to ML Regulations fined UK£45,000
A lawyer who insisted that he genuinely believed he had complied with the UK Money Laundering Regulations, but when investigated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) acknowledged he had not, has been fined UK£45,000 (US$56,730), and ordered to pay costs of UK£60,000 (US$75,640), by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT).
Online Published Date:
14 February 2025
Appeared in issue:
321 - 01 March 2025
Pipe down? - whistleblowing in the US
Protection and incentives for whistleblowers under United States law are strong, and influential overseas, but with a President now in the White House who is not known for brooking dissent and demands loyalty above all, they may face challenge. Keith Nuthall looks at the prospects for those who would discreetly speak truth to power.
Online Published Date:
16 February 2025
Appeared in issue:
321 - 01 March 2025
Power up - OSINT
The criminals are always in front... Well, maybe, but white hats are now on the front foot as open-source intelligence (OSINT) - data points already expanding exponentially and mined ever faster - sets to turbo with the arrival of generative AI. Keith Nuthall straps in for a thrilling tour of the best tools available to AML professionals.
Online Published Date:
16 February 2025
Appeared in issue:
321 - 01 March 2025
'Likely' not all suspected sanctions breaches reported - UK government
Some UK financial services firms are 'likely' (55-75% probability) not self-disclosing all suspected breaches of UK sanctions programmes, according to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation's (OFSI) threat assessment for the sector, published in February.
Online Published Date:
17 February 2025
Appeared in issue:
321 - 01 March 2025
Against the odds - Somalia
For a country without a government for well over a decade, till 2006, which is still struggling to contain the Al-Shabaab terrorist threat, Somalia has made considerable progress in constructing a legislative and institutional framework to combat illicit finance. Ramadhan Rajab and Keith Nuthall cover the hard journey and way ahead.
Online Published Date:
18 February 2025
Appeared in issue:
321 - 01 March 2025
Shock and awe
Socrates said it right - I know that I know nothing: who, after all, can guess where the US President might go next with his unique take on politics?
Online Published Date:
20 February 2025
Appeared in issue:
321 - 01 March 2025
Russian laundering ring broken in Spanish-led operation
A professional money laundering network, mainly comprising Russian nationals, focused on cleaning drug trafficking proceeds, has been taken down by Spanish and Portuguese police.
Online Published Date:
20 February 2025
Appeared in issue:
321 - 01 March 2025
EU tightens sanctions on Russia, even as USA talks with Kremlin
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has welcomed the agreement in principle of a 16th package of European Union (EU) sanctions against Russia, designed to further restrict trade, especially in oil and aluminium. The US, meanwhile, has opened talks with Moscow.
Online Published Date:
20 February 2025
Appeared in issue:
321 - 01 March 2025
Better over more - the SARs challenge
Disclosure of potentially criminal activity is anti-money laundering's primary product: are the reports useful, actionable and how could they be improved are seemingly straightforward yet recurrent questions. Paul Cochrane goes in search of answers.
Online Published Date:
21 February 2025
Appeared in issue:
321 - 01 March 2025
FATF backs changing risk-based approach to boost financial inclusion - plenary outcomes
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has amended its key Recommendation 1 on the risk-based approach to reduce the threat of anti-money laundering/counter financing of terrorism/counter financing of proliferation (AML/CFT/CFP) policies blocking public access to bank and other financial service accounts.
Online Published Date:
22 February 2025
Appeared in issue:
321 - 01 March 2025
Carrot or stick? How to incentivise compliance
'What gets measured gets done': by that reckoning, rewards to/for AML compliance should increase confidence that the business will run clear of rule breaches and potentially massive penalties, so protecting, arguably benefiting, the bottom line. Paul Cochrane looks at 'compliance payback' models and how they stack up against coercive enforcement in improving behaviour.
Online Published Date:
27 February 2025
Appeared in issue:
322 - 01 April 2025
WGS Solicitors and partners fined for breaches of UK ML Regulations
London law firm WGS Solicitors and two of its partners, Richard Gerber and Bridget Miller, have been ordered to pay UK£25,258 (US$31,900), UK£20,000 (US$25,260) and UK£3,500 (US$4,420), respectively, plus costs, following an investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) prompted by reports the firm had filed on two former clients.
Online Published Date:
27 February 2025
Appeared in issue:
322 - 01 April 2025
OKX pays US$505m after guilty plea for unlicensed money transmission
Aux Cayes Fintech Co Ltd, a Seychelles-based company, better known by its trading name OKX, a leading global cryptocurrency exchange, has pled guilty in New York to one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. OKX will criminally forfeit US$420.3 million and pay a criminal fine of US$84.4 million.
Online Published Date:
27 February 2025
Appeared in issue:
322 - 01 April 2025
UK launches expanded Russia sanctions on third anniversary of invasion
The British government launched its largest ever sanctions package against Russia, marking the third anniversary of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, on 24 February.
Online Published Date:
27 February 2025
Appeared in issue:
322 - 01 April 2025
Morgan Stanley (Switzerland) fined CHF1m after AML missed Greek bribery proceeds
The Swiss arm of US bank Morgan Stanley has accepted a CHF1 million (US$1,107,735) financial penalty over its failure to detect suspicious activity and conduct adequate due diligence on source of funds deposited into accounts of a cousin of former Greek defence minister Apostolos-Athanasios Tsochatzopoulos, in 2010.
Online Published Date:
28 February 2025
Appeared in issue:
322 - 01 April 2025