All Articles

The Bank of England (BoE) has unveiled a consultation paper detailing its plans to regulate systemic stablecoins, digital currencies designed to maintain a stable value against the pound sterling. The proposals, published on November 10, aim to ensure that stablecoins are sufficiently secure for everyday payments while protecting the broader UK economy. Systemic stablecoins are digital tokens whose value is linked to traditional money, such as the pound, or to assets like gov

Lebanon faces an intricate financial crime landscape shaped by overlapping sanctions pressure, a fragile economy, and a deep-seated reliance on informal cash transactions. Authorities have pledged to restrict illicit flows linked to Hezbollah, a group sanctioned by several Western governments and accused of managing foreign-sourced funds through opaque channels. Officials maintain that the country is enforcing robust anti-money laundering measures and insist that “financial c

Norsk Rikstoto has come under intense regulatory scrutiny after Norway’s Gambling Commission and the national financial supervisory authority identified severe breaches of anti-money laundering (AML) requirements across the operator’s activities.   The findings point to a systematic breakdown of compliance, where key controls were missing, legal duties ignored, and decisions left undocumented—seriously impairing the company’s capacity to detect and report suspicious behavior.

One of the largest anti-money laundering (AML) supervision failures in Europe’s virtual asset sector has come to light, as the Bank of Ireland imposed a €21.4 million fine on Coinbase Europe after regulators discovered that more than 30 million crypto transactions escaped detection entirely.   The incident has exposed deep flaws in the company’s transaction monitoring systems—ranging from design and governance weaknesses to delayed disclosure, vendor oversight lapses, and a b

A newly revealed £33.7 million mansion in one of London’s most exclusive neighborhoods has ignited sharp concern within anti–financial crime and sanctions enforcement circles.   The property has been traced to a sanctioned Iranian banker, accused of channeling funds through high-risk financial networks and using luxury real estate as a shield to safeguard wealth from regulatory oversight. The case underscores how high-value property can become a covert financial vehicle, desi

Thailand’s government is preparing to launch a dedicated task force aimed at tracing suspicious financial transactions connected to online gambling, scam operations, and other illicit activities believed to be influencing the baht’s unusual strength.   Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas announced on Wednesday that the new “data bureau” will integrate and synchronize information across multiple government departments and financial institutions to improve oversight and iden

The Swedish Gambling Authority, Spelinspektionen, has officially prohibited CGG Entertainment Ltd from offering games in Sweden after determining that the company was targeting Swedish players without the required licence. CGG Entertainment Ltd, a Cyprus-registered company operating the website cases.gg , allows users to participate in lotteries for goods and purchase so-called ‘mystery boxes,’ where players risk their stake for a chance to win a prize. According to Spelinspe

The European Commission is preparing a sweeping overhaul of financial market oversight that would bring stock exchanges, cryptocurrency trading platforms, and clearing houses under central EU supervision. The initiative aims to address fragmentation across Europe’s financial landscape and strengthen the bloc’s competitiveness against the United States. Currently, dozens of national and regional regulators oversee hundreds of trading and post-trade institutions across the EU —

JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) disclosed in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that it is cooperating with inquiries from government agencies and other entities concerning its internal policies and procedures, as the Trump administration intensifies its focus on alleged “debanking” of specific industries or clients. The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued new guidance in September designed to discourage banks from closing customer accounts based on political or re

Revolut has officially selected Cyprus as the central base for its European digital asset operations, following the company’s acquisition of a Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) licence from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) through its local entity, Revolut Digital Assets Europe Ltd. This newly granted authorization signals the beginning of a significant new chapter for both Revolut and Cyprus, as the MiCA regulation introduces a comprehensive European frame

A major regulatory development in South Korea underscores the increasingly complex intersection between financial fraud and money laundering. The government’s recent approval of an amendment to the Enforcement Decree under the Financial Services Commission (FSC) marks a significant policy shift, requiring specialised credit finance entities and consumer credit firms to apply stringent customer-due-diligence (CDD) measures when managing loan services. While this reform is pres

A vast $3 billion laundering operation run by North Korea has been unveiled by the United States, marking one of the most sophisticated state-backed financial crime networks ever identified. The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has issued a new round of sanctions that reveal an intricate structure of digital theft, shell banking, and cross-border money laundering. Beneath the technical mechanisms lies a deliberate state strategy: Pyong

A recent law enforcement operation at Manchester Airport has shed light on how portable wealth can serve as a vehicle for concealing illicit funds. Officers intercepted a suspicious vehicle near the terminal late on 30 October and discovered seven gold bars valued at approximately £700,000. Follow-up investigations led to the arrest of two men, aged 49 and 45, who arrived days later on an inbound flight. Their luggage contained additional gold and jewellery worth about £1 mil

Online gambling operators have long been under regulatory scrutiny for anti-money laundering (AML) compliance, but the recent £650,000 settlement involving NetBet Enterprises Limited has exposed how even reputable and established firms can fall short in protecting their platforms from criminal misuse. The enforcement action serves as a clear reminder of how weak risk assessments, inadequate transaction monitoring, and operational complacency can transform a legitimate busines

On October 23, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) released a Financial Trend Analysis (“FTA”) identifying approximately $9 billion of potential Iranian shadow banking activity in 2024, derived from reports submitted by U.S. financial institutions. FinCEN issues FTAs periodically to provide threat pattern and trend information based on Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) filings, pursuant to section 6206 of the Anti-Money Laundering

The abrupt suspension of the operating licence held by VGC Leeds Limited, which operates the Victoria Gate Casino in Leeds, by the Gambling Commission on 31 October 2025 has cast a sharp spotlight on the vulnerability of the gambling sector to money-laundering risk. The regulator’s use of section 116 of the Gambling Act 2005, alongside references to “effective anti-money laundering policies, procedures and controls,” underscores that even prominent bricks-and-mortar casino op

The Singapore Police Force has unveiled one of the most intricate transnational money-laundering operations in recent memory, targeting the Prince Holding Group led by Chen Zhi and his associates. The investigation exposed a sprawling financial network spanning multiple jurisdictions, with illicit proceeds traced from scam operations and forced-labor schemes into luxury assets and corporate holdings. Authorities describe the case as a benchmark for Singapore’s commitment to m

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has released its latest Anti-Money Laundering Annual Report at a pivotal moment for the United Kingdom’s financial crime framework. As the government moves to consolidate all professional body supervisors under the Financial Conduct Authority, the SRA has produced one of its most comprehensive accounts to date of the legal sector’s exposure to financial crime and its own regulatory responses. The 2024–25 report details the scale of th

The ongoing trial of Lafarge SA has emerged as one of the most consequential corporate terrorism-financing cases in recent European legal history. The French cement producer, now part of Holcim, is accused of paying several million euros to armed groups in Syria between 2012 and 2014 to maintain operations at its plant in Jalabiya. Prosecutors allege that these payments financed extremist organisations, including the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, converting routine busin

On the 4th of November, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has released new guidance and best practices designed to accelerate international efforts to trace, seize, and recover criminal assets. The initiative comes in response to concerning figures from Interpol and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which reveal that only a small fraction of illicit funds are ever confiscated. According to FATF assessments, over 80% of jurisdictions are currently perf