i-law

Money Laundering Bulletin

32Red and Platinum Gaming fined UK£7.1m for AML and social responsibility failings

Two online gaming firms, both part of Kindred Group plc, are to pay a total UK£7.1 million (US$8.7 million) penalty after the UK Gambling Commission found breaches around anti-money laundering and social responsibility.
Online Published Date:  23 March 2023
Appeared in issue:  303 - 01 May 2023

William Hill fined £19.2m in UK over AML gambling and social responsibility failings

The William Hill Group will pay penalties totalling UK£19.2 million (US$23.6 million) after the UK Gambling Commission found that three of its companies had breached anti-money laundering and social responsibility obligations.
Online Published Date:  28 March 2023
Appeared in issue:  303 - 01 May 2023

MEPs push back against ECJ ruling on beneficial ownership register access

Key European Parliament committees have pushed back against the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling last November [2022] that said the European Union (EU) had allowed excessive access to beneficial ownership registers, breaching EU privacy rights.
Online Published Date:  28 March 2023
Appeared in issue:  303 - 01 May 2023

Big words - Economic Crime Plan 2.0

A million pounds for every mention of a new strategy, performance framework, collaborative working and other project management terms in the second iteration of the UK Economic Crime Plan, covering 2023-26, might well sum to more than the £200 million investment promised by Government to end of the financial year 2024/25 - plus the other £200 million extracted, some might say extorted, from businesses subject to the Money Laundering Regulations, through the Economic Crime Levy. But the fact is, it's not that much - generously, 0.4% of the more than £100 billion which the National Crime Agency says there is a "realistic possibility" is "laundered every year through the UK or through UK corporate structures".
Online Published Date:  30 March 2023
Appeared in issue:  303 - 01 May 2023

Wells Fargo pays US$30m over US sanctions breaches via hosted trade insourcing software

In 2008, Wells Fargo Bank acquired Wachovia Bank and, accordingly, a trade insourcing relationship with an unnamed European bank. Wachovia had customised software to send back transactions involving US-sanctioned entities for processing on a hosted version of its trade insourcing platform.
Online Published Date:  03 April 2023
Appeared in issue:  303 - 01 May 2023

EBA pushes against expedient de-risking of non-profits in trouble zones

The European Banking Authority (EBA) has released formal guidance to European Union (EU) banking regulators on tackling the unfair removal of access by non-profits to financial services over association with a high-risk jurisdiction. EU regulators, said the EBA, should insist local banks carefully assess the ML/TF risk posed by specific non-profits.
Online Published Date:  03 April 2023
Appeared in issue:  303 - 01 May 2023

A fine calculation - what are the chances of being investigated by the FCA?

Section 166 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 gives the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) the power to require a financial services firm to commission an independent report, known as a Skilled Persons Report, to assess a particular aspect of the firm's business. This report can cover areas such as financial crime risk management, compliance, or governance. The FCA supervises around 50,000 firms, and hands out, on average, 60 regulatory investigations (i.e., s.166) per year. Mario Menz discusses the chances of being subject to a s166 review and what firms can do to either increase or decrease the likelihood of being investigated and fined.
Online Published Date:  03 April 2023
Appeared in issue:  303 - 01 May 2023

Uphold HQ, a money remitter, pays US$72,230 over US sanctions violations

California-based Uphold HQ Inc., a money services business, is to pay the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) US$72,230.32 for apparent violations of US sanctions programs.
Online Published Date:  04 April 2023
Appeared in issue:  303 - 01 May 2023

Art, antiquities and AML: FATF focus

The Financial Action Task Force has issued its first report to focus on money laundering and terrorist financing linked to art, antiquities and other cultural objects. Tommaso Di Ruzza provides a high-level overview of its background, main contents and impact for both the public and private stakeholders.
Online Published Date:  05 April 2023
Appeared in issue:  303 - 01 May 2023

Oversight - Free Trade Zones

Not subject to usual customs duties, speed and volume both prioritized, free trade zones are multiplying and expanding. Keith Nuthall wants to know if financial crime controls have kept pace.
Online Published Date:  05 April 2023
Appeared in issue:  303 - 01 May 2023

Out of the shade - Cyprus

Long favoured as a Mediterranean destination for rich Russians and their deposits, Cyprus has in recent years sought to move on from a previously relaxed approach to sources and flows of foreign money. Ioanna Niaoti and Keith Nuthallmark the changes.
Online Published Date:  05 April 2023
Appeared in issue:  303 - 01 May 2023

A plan to inhibit significant money laundering offences through improved enhanced due diligence

Compliance programs and law enforcement investigations that target money laundering are built on knowledge of the parties involved - customers, their beneficial owners and intermediaries. The requirement to collect data on those who utilise financial services has long applied but is variously interpreted and case law almost always references due diligence breaches: with this in mind, Robert Mazur has a pragmatic proposal for deterring criminals at onboarding and aiding their pursuit should they manage to open accounts.
Online Published Date:  17 April 2023
Appeared in issue:  303 - 01 May 2023

European Parliament wants 5% beneficial ownership threshold

Detailed negotiations over the final wording of planned comprehensive reforms to the European Union (EU) AML/CFT regime are about to begin, with the European Parliament setting out changes it wants to see in the legislation.
Online Published Date:  19 April 2023
Appeared in issue:  303 - 01 May 2023

London council adopts AML charter

Westminster City Council, the central London local authority administering some of the world's most expensive postcodes in Belgravia, Knightsbridge and Mayfair, seen as a haven for oligarchs, has adopted a ground-breaking financial crime policy.
Online Published Date:  19 April 2023
Appeared in issue:  303 - 01 May 2023

Where does the money go? - Government AML expenditure

Compliance costs those regulated a mint so it's only reasonable to check if the public sector is at least adequately paying and playing its part: Keith Nuthall reports from Ottawa, Raghavendra Verma is in New Delhi and Sara Lewis in Brussels.
Online Published Date:  20 April 2023
Appeared in issue:  303 - 01 May 2023

Entry points - onboarding angles

Criminal business is to be avoided - on ethical, legal and economic grounds: any short-term profit risks penalties and remediation costs multiples higher. Dealing with the intelligent opponent, set to spend or invest, calls for careful, objective interrogation, as Keith Nuthall discovers in talking to frontline practitioners.
Online Published Date:  20 April 2023
Appeared in issue:  303 - 01 May 2023

UK banks failed to stop "hundreds of millions of pounds" in cash laundering via Post Office channel

The UK Financial Conduct Authority says that prior to 2022 criminals were able to make "multiple deposits of [UK]£20,000 each day to launder large amounts of cash quickly" via Post Office branches due to banks' "limited controls".
Online Published Date:  24 April 2023
Appeared in issue:  303 - 01 May 2023

Making waves - Malta

International pressure on Malta to strengthen its polity and financial crime controls intensified following the murder, in 2017, of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the local investigative journalist who focused on corruption and money laundering allegations. Brenda Dionisi and Keith Nuthalllook at how much has changed.
Online Published Date:  24 April 2023
Appeared in issue:  303 - 01 May 2023

Trive fined €133,148 in Malta after CDD failures on 6,000 acquired customers

Onboarding 6,000 customers from another, overseas financial institution did not prompt Trive Financial Services Malta Limited (formerly AKFX Financial Services Limited) to check on the quality of due diligence performed by the transferor: in the event, the Malta Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) found none had been.
Online Published Date:  24 April 2023
Appeared in issue:  303 - 01 May 2023

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