All Things Investigations: Episode 30 - The Convergence of ABC, AML and Export Controls with Mike Huneke and Jan Dunin-Wasowicz
BSA, OFAC, KYC, and CIP – What do they mean to me? [More with McGlinchey, Ep. 29]
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that initiates the process of designating certain drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. The executive order is primarily focused on...more
As Russia continues its war against Ukraine and Ukraine has itself recently opened a new front by capturing Russian territory in its Kursk region, the United States announced on August 23 its latest tranche of sanctions...more
On July 3, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) announced that it had amended entries for a multitude of entities sanctioned under the Treasury’s Russian Harmful Foreign...more
The concept of the shadow financial system rose to international prominence in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In an interview with a Pakistani newspaper a month later, Osama bin Laden stated that Al Qaeda were...more
There is a growing acknowledgement that money laundering and terrorist financing is borderless and legal entity-agnostic, just as it is already known that cybercriminals and the means to commit cybercrimes continuously attack...more
In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. government has deployed a whole-of-government approach to impose sanctions and tighter export controls on Russia. ...more
The first quarter of 2024 saw numerous developments on the export control front. This report summarizes the key developments and provides links to the relevant Federal Register notices and/or agency announcements....more
New Tri-Seal Compliance Note highlights sanctions and export control compliance expectations for non-U.S. persons. Three agencies overseeing U.S. trade law compliance provided an overview of where U.S. sanctions and export...more
Teradyne, a Massachusetts-based supplier of semiconductor testing equipment, has reportedly pulled $1 billion of manufacturing equipment out of China in 2023 following export controls on advanced computing materials and...more
On December 13, 2023, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) announced an enforcement action against CoinList Markets LLC (“CoinList”) for violations of the Ukraine-/Russia-Related...more
OFAC continues its enforcement push. At the same time, OFAC is managing a complex, global set of sanctions against Russia. DOJ has promised to increase prosecution of global banks for sanctions violations....more
Crypto Asset Company Settles Sanctions Violations for $7.5 million- On May 1, the U.S. Department of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced a $7.5 million settlement with crypto asset company Poloniex LLC for 65,942 apparent...more
The cryptocurrency industry has a target on its back – and perhaps justifiably so. The SEC, CFTC and OFAC have been bringing a number of regulatory enforcement actions, including against Bittrex, Inc. ($24,280,829.20 in...more
On May 1, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced a roughly $7.6 million settlement with a Massachusetts-based online trading and settlement platform to resolve potential civil...more
Silicon Valley Bank, Santa Clara, California, was closed on March 10 by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (CDFPI). On March 12, the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS)...more
Companies are increasingly choosing not to pay ransom for ransomware and extortionware due to the growing associated risks. In fact, a recent report by crypto-crime analyst firm Chainalysis found that payments to threat...more
With the ever-increasing use of sanctions as a foreign policy tool (or weapon), sanctions compliance has taken on greater importance than ever. Moreover, as countries increase extraterritorial applications of their sanctions,...more
On January 4, 2023, the New York State Department of Financial Services (“DFS”) announced that Coinbase, Inc., a major U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, will pay a $50 million penalty and invest an additional $50 million in its...more
With the Russian-Ukraine war’s ever-expanding sanctions landscape, the supply chain is even more complex than it already was, and enforcement risk is even higher given the broader array of U.S. federal and international...more
“Know your customer” is a bed rock principle of anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance programs, but it’s not always easy, particularly as more sophisticated and aggressive players have taken the field in recent...more
Two recent guilty pleas involving a cryptocurrency exchange serve as a reminder to all money services businesses (“MSBs”)—including those ostensibly located outside the United States but that conduct business there—of the...more
With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last week, we saw a swift response by the U.S. beginning with President Biden’s Executive Order 14024 (“The EO”) and followed quickly by the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (“OFAC”) severe...more
Back in July, we took a look at the enforcement actions for the first half of 2021 issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Today’s post – the second half of our OFAC 2021 Year...more
During the first half of 2021, 68 different ransomware attacks extracted approximately $600 million from victims across the United States. The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) says that the...more