Is Edward Snowden a Whistleblower?
Summary of What Has Happened and What Is Yet to Come - On 19 October 2023, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM), pursuant to...more
A proposed rule would increase Treasury’s insight into non-US crypto mixing transactions to combat illicit activities by malicious actors. On October 19, 2023, the US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes...more
On October 19, 2023, The US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) taking aim at convertible virtual currency (CVC) mixing transactions,...more
On January 17, 2023, U.S. law enforcement authorities in Miami arrested Anatoly Legkodymov, a Russian national and the founder and majority owner of Hong Kong-based virtual currency exchange Bitzlato Ltd., on charges of money...more
In 1970, Congress passed the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act, commonly known as the “Bank Secrecy Act” (BSA). The BSA is often referred to as an “anti-money laundering” (AML) law or jointly as “BSA/AML.” The...more
This coming Saturday is the 20th anniversary of the attacks upon America on September 11, 2001. Like most Americans, this was the seminal event in the history of our country. I have been thinking a lot about that date and the...more
Anti-money laundering (“AML”) issues have been a focus of regulators and law enforcement for the past decade and will likely continue to be a priority issue area for the Biden Administration. The AML landscape is shifting...more
2020 was a most significant year in anti-corruption enforcement; from Airbus to Goldman Sachs and numerous matters in between. Further there were two significant pieces of information from the US government in the form of the...more
Section 314 of the USA PATRIOT Act (Sec 314) was drafted by Congress in 2001 to allow financial institutions to work with law enforcement agencies and with each other to support the common goal of deterring money laundering...more
Financial institutions with anti-money laundering responsibilities under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) take note: there’s a new sheriff in town. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently finished its fiscal year with...more
On May 1, 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued an intelligence bulletin warning, reported on in late July by several members of the media, concerning the use by threat actors of the “private placement of funds,...more
On October 25, 2019, FinCEN issued a final rule imposing the Fifth Special Measure against the Islamic Republic of Iran as a “jurisdiction of primary money laundering concern” (“Final Rule”) under Section 311 of the USA...more
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a press release yesterday, entitled “New FinCEN Division Focuses on Identifying Primary Foreign Money Laundering Threats.”...more
On August 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia kept in place $50,000-per-day fines on three Chinese banks—whose identities are redacted—for refusing to comply with subpoenas issued by the Department of...more
Financial firms play an integral role in preventing, identifying, investigating and reporting criminal activity, including terrorist financing, money laundering, and many other finance-related crimes. It is a critical role...more
Fulfilling today’s requirements for anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing/sanctions compliance is no easy task for financial institutions. ...more
Alleged Illicit Activity Included Transactions Promoting North Korea’s Missile Program and an Institutional Commitment to Laundering Money - On February 13, 2018, FinCEN announced that it had proposed a special measure...more
As we blogged earlier this week, Congress is considering a new draft bill, the Counter Terrorism and Illicit Finance Act (“CTIFA”), in committee in the Senate. The CTIFA proposes the most substantial overhaul to the Bank...more
FinCEN recently announced the launching of the “FinCEN Exchange” to enhance information sharing with financial institutions. We previously have blogged about the potential benefits of a public-private partnership between law...more
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) hit a Texas bank with a $2 million Assessment of Civil Money Penalty for Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering (BSA/AML) violations of Section 312 of the USA PATRIOT Act...more
Non-financial institution companies operating in the global marketplace face ever-increasing risks of money laundering. Sophisticated criminal organizations have developed their own mechanisms and strategies to skirt money...more
As we recently blogged, the Royal United Services Institute (“RUSI”) for Defence and Security Studies — a U.K. think tank – has released a study: The Role of Financial Information-Sharing Partnerships in the Disruption of...more
As widely reported, the Spanish police raided last year the Madrid offices of the Chinese state-run Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (“ICBC”), the world’s biggest bank by assets. In the nearly 18 months following that...more
On May 23, the federal court of appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected an appeal by the majority shareholders in Banca Privada d’Andorra S.A. (“BPA”) regarding claims that FinCEN violated the Administrative...more
Late last week, Congressional intelligence committees reportedly received some information from the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) related to investigations into Russia’s attack on the 2016 U.S....more