- Home/Publications/Money Laundering Bulletin
Recovery phase - Lebanon
As if it didn't have enough to contend with - financial sector meltdown and armed conflict between Hezbollah and Israel - Lebanon has also recently joined the Financial Action Task Force's list of jurisdictions with serious anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism deficiencies. Paul Cochrane looks at the challenges the country faces to secure removal.
Online Published Date:
16 January 2025
Appeared in issue:
320 - 01 February 2025
US$14m SEC arrow twangs Robin Hood's SAR outlaw ways
Robin Hood Financial LLC and Robin Hood Securities LLC (together 'Robin Hood'), broker-dealers registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), are to pay a US$45 million penalty for wide-ranging rule breaches, from mismarking short sales in fractional shares as long through to failure to prevent access by a third party who was able to download "information related to millions of individuals": US$13.5million is attributable to failings to "timely file SARs [suspicious activity reports]" as required under the Exchange Act Section 17(a) and Exchange Act Rule 17a-8.
Online Published Date:
16 January 2025
Appeared in issue:
320 - 01 February 2025
Greentube Alderney to pay UK£1m over gambling AML control breaches
Online gaming operator Greentube Alderney Limited, which trades as Admiral Casino, will pay UK£1 million (US$1.22 million) after the UK Gambling Commission discovered anti-money laundering/counter financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) compliance failings, between September 2022 and June 2023, and weaknesses in its implementation of social harm prevention controls.
Online Published Date:
16 January 2025
Appeared in issue:
320 - 01 February 2025
BitMEX fined US$100m for wilful lack of AML controls
Cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX was sentenced, on 15 January, to pay a US$100 million criminal fine for "wilfully failing to establish, implement and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) program"; it had filed a guilty plea to violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) in July 2024.
Online Published Date:
16 January 2025
Appeared in issue:
320 - 01 February 2025
Block, Inc pays US$80m to US state regulators for AML flaws
US fintech Block, Inc., which operates 'Cash App', a mobile payment service, for 50 million customers, has agreed to pay US$80 million to settle claims by 48 state financial regulators that it violated Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)/anti-money laundering (AML) rules: no details of the breaches were provided in the enforcement notice published by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS).
Online Published Date:
16 January 2025
Appeared in issue:
320 - 01 February 2025
LPL Financial pays SEC US$18m over defective CDD
Investment adviser and broker-dealer LPL Financial LLC has agreed to settle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over findings that it failed to comply with its own customer information program (CIP) and ongoing customer due diligence (CDD) obligations between May 2019 and December 2023.
Online Published Date:
18 January 2025
Appeared in issue:
320 - 01 February 2025
A safe speed?
If you're an entrepreneur in banking and payments with whizzy new fintech, ready to revolutionise money deposits and flows, what will you prioritise?
Online Published Date:
20 January 2025
Appeared in issue:
320 - 01 February 2025
Rebuilding trust in Lebanon's financial sector - beyond compliance and towards sustainable reform
The recent grey-listing of Lebanon by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is not just a technical setback, writes Mohammad Ibrahim Fheili; it is a damning indictment of the decades-long failures, corruption, and irresponsibility that have plagued the nation's financial and political systems.
Online Published Date:
21 January 2025
Appeared in issue:
320 - 01 February 2025
UK regulator finds gaps in wholesale broker AML controls
Senior managers in some UK wholesale brokers could not articulate the financial crime risks their firms face when questioned by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Online Published Date:
23 January 2025
Appeared in issue:
321 - 01 March 2025
Money mule details not shared in nearly two thirds of cases - UK research
Nearly 200,000 money mule accounts were closed by 25 UK-regulated firms between January 2022 and September 2023, says the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), but only 37% were reported to the National Fraud Database (NFD), and so accessible to other financial services businesses, telcos and public bodies comprising over 750 members of Cifas, the voluntary anti-fraud service, which maintains it.
Online Published Date:
24 January 2025
Appeared in issue:
321 - 01 March 2025
Balancing risk management and financial inclusion: a global imperative... with an eye on Lebanon
De-risking, potentially rational in a narrow, short-term sense to address perceived regulatory exposure, has severely damaging implications for categories of business, people, even countries. Mohammad Ibrahim Fheili insists there are viable alternatives to wholesale off-boarding.
Online Published Date:
24 January 2025
Appeared in issue:
321 - 01 March 2025
Egypt - a political context
Egypt recently updated its anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism legislation but Paul Cochrane finds that lack of an independent judiciary and financial intelligence unit puts a question mark over effective enforcement.
Online Published Date:
27 January 2025
Appeared in issue:
321 - 01 March 2025
Navy Capital Green pays US$150,000 to SEC over AML assertions and undocumented controls
Navy Capital Green Management LLC, a US investment adviser, has agreed to accept a US$150,000 civil penalty from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to settle charges that it misrepresented its voluntary conduct of anti-money laundering due diligence, and, when registered with the Commission, failed to institute adequate written compliance policies and procedures.
Online Published Date:
28 January 2025
Appeared in issue:
321 - 01 March 2025
Volksbank fined €5m in Netherlands for transaction monitoring failures
Dutch lender de Volksbank's flawed transaction monitoring system and poor, including no, response to alerts generated, leading to major backlogs, has brought down a €5 million penalty from the De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB).
Online Published Date:
31 January 2025
Appeared in issue:
321 - 01 March 2025
EU law enforcement breaks professional money laundering group run from Cyprus
A Cyprus-based money laundering service has been taken down by a coalition of European law enforcement authorities, including the EU police and judicial agencies (Europol and Eurojust), following a year-long operation, codenamed Yuzuk.
Online Published Date:
31 January 2025
Appeared in issue:
321 - 01 March 2025
Interpol launches 'Silver Notice' asset recovery pilot
Global police agency Interpol has tested a new approach to asset recovery, issuing its first 'Silver Notice', designed to help trace and take back criminal property, to combat transnational organised crime and boost international police cooperation.
Online Published Date:
31 January 2025
Appeared in issue:
321 - 01 March 2025