Strengthening Compliance: Lessons From the OCC's Consent Order With Patriot Bank — Payments Pros – The Payments Law Podcast
Recent Developments in Anti-Money Laundering - The Consumer Finance Podcast
Investment Management Update – Exit Strategies
On October 10, 2024, the financial services community was stunned by the $3.1 billion settlement between the federal government and TD Bank over Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and anti-money laundering (AML) violations. TD Bank’s...more
Last week, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York unsealed an indictment against global cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin and two of its founders, Chun Gan and Ke Tang, for allegedly conspiring...more
The rising incidence of financial crime continues to haunt financial institutions globally. As per a recent industry report, more SARs (suspicious activity reports) were filed by ~80% of the firms in 2021. COVID-19 pandemic...more
Garcia Case Highlights Necessity of Knowing Your Customer and Listening to Internal Fraud Watchdogs. The SEC’s recent Order against a broker-dealer (the “Firm”) imposed a $750,000 financial penalty for the Firm’s failure...more
On October 19, 2021, FinCEN, the U.S. Government’s lead AML regulator, exercised its regulatory relief authority to allow casinos and card clubs to employ “non-documentary means” to verify patrons’ identity. The original...more
Cryptocurrency, and its most-noted asset Bitcoin, has been breaking into the mainstream press. While most lawyers have heard terms like “blockchain” and probably even know a few people who have been deeply interested in the...more
The Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (the “AMLA”), which became law January 2, 2021 with Congress’ override of then President Trump’s veto of the Defense Appropriations Act of 2021 included provisions bringing dealers in...more
Human trafficking is a global crisis that has an impact on lives around the globe. Over time, there have been many initiatives taken by governments and nonprofits to identify and help victims while promoting enhanced...more
The CFTC recently joined the host of other federal and state regulators who enforce anti-money laundering laws, by bringing three cases finding violations of CFTC Regulation 42.2. Regulation 42.2 requires futures commission...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
Incorporating in the Seychelles but Allegedly Operating in the U.S. Spells Trouble for Company and its Founders - The Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange, or BitMEX, is a large and well-known online trading platform dealing in...more
On October 8, 2020, Attorney General William Barr announced the release of a Cryptocurrency Enforcement Framework produced by the Department of Justice (DOJ) Cyber-Digital Task Force. The 83-page framework is intended to help...more
A recent report by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (headlined by Chairman Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, and Ranking Member Tom Carper, Democrat of Delaware) has drawn widespread attention...more
As we previously discussed, FINRA issued guidance to member firms and their associated persons in April 2020 to remain “vigilant in their surveillance against cyber threats and take steps to reduce the risk of cyber events.”...more
Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer departments at financial institutions are on the front lines of human trafficking. Not only does enhanced transaction monitoring help law enforcement identify trafficking...more
AMA Details Components of a Strong AML/BSA Program - Earlier this month, the American Gaming Association (“AGA”) released an updated Best Practices for Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”) Compliance (“Best Practices Guidance”)...more
The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, both recently issued reports addressing worrisome trends in technology-assisted financial fraud. The reports to engage the financial services...more
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is the U.S. Treasury Department bureau charged with monitoring financial transactions in order to combat domestic and international money laundering, terrorist financing and...more
Last week, the Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”) issued a report concluding that Mexico needs to “step up efforts in pursuing money launderers.” ...more
On August 25, 2015, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (“NPRM”) that would impose certain anti-money laundering (“AML”) requirements on...more