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A five-year prison sentence linked to a scheme that laundered 1.2 million dollars has concluded a complex cross-border investigation that involved extradition and a guilty plea. The case centered on a laundering network that funneled drug-derived proceeds through bulk cash pickups across multiple U.S. cities before channeling the funds through accounts registered under unrelated names. Prosecutors detailed how the operation moved money rapidly between the United States and Co

Ukraine has sharply escalated its campaign against unauthorized grain transfers from occupied territories by imposing sanctions on dozens of vessels identified as part of the maritime infrastructure supporting these movements.   Officials describe the decision as a deliberate strike at the shipping and financial networks that facilitate the extraction and sale of grain controlled by Russian forces, asserting that the proceeds are funneled into opaque structures beyond the rea

Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have brought a wire fraud charge against 53-year-old Derek Wachob, the chief executive of Sapulpa, Oklahoma-based steel pipe manufacturer Paragon Industries, alleging his involvement in a 66 million dollar scheme.   An indictment unsealed on November 18 claims that between October 2022 and August 2024, Wachob directed a fraudulent operation that targeted individual investors, a bank, an investment firm, and at least two

A high-stakes money-laundering dispute has surfaced through a federal lawsuit in North Dakota, where plaintiffs contend that Binance and its former leadership permitted extensive financial movements that allegedly aided Hamas both prior to and following the October 2023 attacks. The complaint argues that the exchange’s structural and governance choices made it possible for crypto assets to circulate covertly in ways that would have faced major barriers in fully regulated fina

Jersey’s long-standing engagement with Roman Abramovich now sits at the crossroads of sanctions policy, offshore wealth management, and data protection law. For years, the island presented itself as a sophisticated hub for high-net-worth individuals, including the Russian billionaire, whose trusts and companies shifted vast assets to Jersey. Since 2022, however, this relationship has morphed into a complex mix of criminal investigations, asset restraints, and litigation over

US regulators are examining claims that TD Bank’s anti-money-laundering remediation disproportionately targeted employees of Chinese descent, raising questions about whether corrective compliance processes evolved into patterns of internal bias. As the bank intensified investigative measures in response to major AML failures, internal reviews reportedly focused most heavily on Chinese and Chinese American staff, particularly those working in branches serving New York City’s C

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