A new wave of reporting by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) indicates that bad actors have been able to channel vast sums of cryptocurrency through exchanges, brokers, and off-ramp services, with similar laundering behaviors recurring even as several platforms operated under U.S. sanctions, plea agreements, or the oversight of court-appointed monitors. ICIJ’s project, titled “The Coin Laundry,” highlights a widening gap between the data permane

A prolonged pattern of failures in anti-money-laundering controls has led the ACPR to impose a €250,000 penalty and issue a public reprimand against Banque Chaabi du Maroc, also operating under the name Banque Populaire du Maroc. Inspectors found entrenched deficiencies throughout the bank’s risk-management setup, customer oversight, alert treatment, and internal supervision. The case illustrates how long-standing AML shortcomings, left uncorrected despite warnings and multip

Across the FATF network, the evaluation machinery has shifted into a noticeably higher tempo, with the fifth round of assessments now running parallel to the final stretch of the fourth. Countries are navigating a denser landscape of expectations that spans technical compliance, effectiveness, follow up obligations and potential ICRG escalation. What were once background procedural documents have effectively become operational blueprints, guiding how supervisors structure ins

The sweeping international action that dismantled more than a thousand servers linked to the Rhadamanthys infostealer, the VenomRAT remote-access malware, and the Elysium botnet uncovered far more than a vast malware ecosystem. Beneath the surface of these interconnected tools lay an extensive financial crime infrastructure that quietly pushed illicit proceeds through anonymized transfers, shell entities, and digital asset mixers. The cross-border coordination behind the take

In Southeast Asia, a sophisticated financial crime ecosystem has taken shape, where armed groups, organized criminal networks, and cyber-fraud operations intersect to exploit victims worldwide and launder illicit proceeds. A recent U.S. enforcement action highlights the scale and complexity of this threat, illustrating how money laundering can underpin both human trafficking and cyber-enabled fraud in conflict zones. The investigation focuses on the Democratic Karen Benevolen

UK authorities have stepped up their campaign against criminal organizations using everyday retail businesses to launder illicit funds. A sweeping national operation has targeted thousands of high street premises suspected of concealing criminal revenue, exposing the scale at which cash-intensive shops serve as gateways for money laundering. The latest enforcement action revealed how small, seemingly ordinary stores can evolve into major laundering channels. Investigators unc

The $456 million reserve shortfall that prompted Justin Sun to bail out holders of the TrueUSD stablecoin is now the subject of a global freezing order upheld by Dubai’s Digital Economy Court. The dispute revolves around whether funds from TrueUSD’s reserves were improperly directed to Aria Commodities DMCC, a Dubai-based trade-finance firm involved in financing commodity shipments, mining projects, and other illiquid ventures across emerging markets, according to counsel for

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

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

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

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

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

The European Banking Authority (EBA) has released its final draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) this week, introducing a detailed framework to define how financial institutions should assess the materiality of Credit Valuation Adjustment (CVA) risk exposures arising from fair-valued securities financing transactions (SFTs). The newly published draft RTS lay out the specific conditions and criteria that banks and other financial institutions must apply to determine whet

The global campaign against money laundering has entered a transformative phase with the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) 2025 revision of Recommendation 16, a sweeping update that marks the most significant overhaul of payment transparency rules in more than a decade. The restructured standard directly addresses the challenges brought by technological innovation across the financial system—ranging from instant payments and digital wallets to cross-border cash withdrawals

Across Europe, regulators now expect financial institutions to prove that their own analysis can reveal the true money laundering and terrorism financing risks across every business line, channel, customer group, product, and geography. What was once a box-ticking compliance exercise has evolved into the backbone of the risk-based approach—deeply embedded in supervisory reviews, governance discussions, and strategic investment decisions for data, systems, and personnel. A mat

The global campaign against money laundering has entered a transformative phase with the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) 2025 revision of Recommendation 16, a sweeping reform that marks the most consequential shift in payment transparency standards in more than a decade. This new framework responds directly to rapid technological advances across the financial ecosystem, acknowledging how instant payments, digital wallets, cross-border cash withdrawals, and virtual assets

A recent federal conviction in New York has exposed how seemingly modest cryptocurrency donations can evolve into a sophisticated terrorist-financing laundering operation. The case of Abdullah At Taqi and Mohamad David Hashimi demonstrates that even limited transfers disguised as charitable aid can sustain violent organisations when paired with modern digital tools and weak oversight. It also underscores how anti-money-laundering frameworks are adapting to trace cross-platfor

FinCEN’s 2024 financial trend analysis has revealed an intricate web of shadow banking transactions worth approximately $9 billion linked to Iran, which managed to infiltrate the U.S. financial system through correspondent accounts and a network of global front companies. The disclosure exposed one of the most complex and globally dispersed money laundering operations currently active, demonstrating how Iranian exchange houses, offshore entities, and front companies construct

Latvia’s security authorities have intensified one of the country’s most politically charged financial crime cases, moving closer to criminal prosecution against two former managers of the defunct “Moscow House.” The pair are accused of generating income from a sanctioned Russian-owned property, in defiance of European Union asset-freeze measures. This unfolding prosecution highlights both the intricacies of sanctions enforcement across Europe and the ease with which immobili

Canada and the United Kingdom are undertaking major transformations in how financial crime is detected, policed, and prevented — reshaping the regulatory landscape for compliance professionals across both nations. Canada has unveiled a new national strategy to combat fraud alongside the creation of a federal body devoted to complex financial crime, marking a decisive move toward stronger institutional capability. The United Kingdom, by contrast, is centralising anti–money lau