Episode 302 -- Matt Stankiewicz on DOJ's Massive Criminal Settlement with Cryptocurrency Exchange Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao
Polsinelli Podcast - An International Trade Issue That May Impact Your Business
To keep you informed of recent activities, below are several of the most significant federal and state events that have influenced the Consumer Financial Services industry over the past week...more
AML Developments - What You Need to Know - On November 21, 2023, the U.S. Justice Department unsealed charges against cryptocurrency exchange Binance and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao for violating anti-money laundering...more
Earlier this month, John Can Unsalan, the president of a steel-making company with ties to Russian oligarchs, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, based on financial transactions committed with...more
Russia - Former Special Agent in Charge of the FBI New York Counterintelligence Division Charged with Violating U.S. Sanctions on Russia (DOJ) Those involved. Charles McGonigal, former Special Agent in Charge of the FBI...more
Last Friday, a federal Magistrate Judge in Washington, D.C. wrote an opinion, in a still sealed case, explaining why he approved a DOJ criminal complaint against an American citizen accused of transmitting more than $10...more
Case Highlights the Role of Correspondent Bank Accounts and Circumvention of AML Programs - Court Order Describes Seizure as a “Reckoning” for Atrocities in the Ukraine...more
In connection with recent Russia-related sanctions issued by the US government, organizations face a variety of issues when navigating the questions of who and what transactions may be subject to the reach of these sanctions....more
The Financial Action Task Force ("FATF"), the international standard-setting body for national anti-financial crimes regimes, recently issued new obligations for governments and, by extension, financial institutions ("FI"),...more
Court Rejects Halkbank’s Claim That the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act Shields the Bank From Prosecution - A motion to dismiss an indictment accusing Turkey’s majority state-owned Halkbank of money laundering, bank...more
On October 1, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued an advisory to highlight the sanctions risks associated with ransomware payments related to malicious cyber-enabled...more
October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) and Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) kicked off the month by issuing two...more
On October 1, 2020, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued an “Advisory on Potential Sanctions Risks for Facilitating Ransomware Payments.” The Advisory, which does not carry the...more
President Trump signs law authorizing sanctions on individuals and financial institutions and ends U.S. preferential treatment for Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Autonomy Act authorizes sanctions on foreign financial...more
Court Rejects Attempt by Halkbank to Enter “Special Appearance” Contesting Jurisdiction - Turkish state-owned bank Halkbank’s efforts to avoid appearing in U.S. federal court for arraignment were squashed recently in a...more
International companies are signaling growing concern about the U.S. sanctions laws. These laws impose restrictions on entering business transactions with certain targeted countries, companies and even individual persons...more
On January 28, 2019, the United States imposed blocking sanctions on Petróleos de Venezuela SA (“PdVSA”), the Venezuelan state-owned oil company. The measures follow President Trump’s recent decision to recognize Juan Guaidó,...more
ANTICORRUPTION DEVELOPMENTS - Mega International Commercial Bank Co. Ltd. Fined $29 Million - On January 17, 2018, the U.S. Federal Reserve Board assessed Taiwan based bank Mega International Commercial Bank Co. Ltd. a...more
ANTICORRUPTION DEVELOPMENTS - Mega International Commercial Bank Co. Ltd. Fined $29 Million - On January 17, 2018, the U.S. Federal Reserve Board assessed Taiwan based bank Mega International Commercial Bank Co. Ltd....more
ANTICORRUPTION DEVELOPMENTS – Global Compliance Overhaul for SAP as DOJ and SEC Investigate Payments Allegedly Related to South African Government Contracts – On October 26, 2017, German software company SAP SE...more
The federal courts continued in 2016 to produce a stream of cases pertaining to money laundering. We focus on three below because they involve analysis of basic issues that frequently arise in money laundering litigation....more
Increased anti-money laundering (AML) regulation enforcement by federal and state agencies in recent months should have financial institutions across the country reviewing and strengthening their in-house AML policies and...more
With the imposition of billion-dollar fines against large financial institutions, the U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") is focusing on banks for not only failing to comply with federal laws, but also for willfully violating...more