The beleaguered law firm at the center of the international Panama Papers scandal – Mossack Fonseca – has announced that it is closing its doors. It offered no apologies....more
The British Virgin Islands (“BVI”) is a small chain of islands in the Caribbean situated between Puerto Rico and St. Maarten. The BVI has been a top sailing destination since the days of Sir Francis Drake. The BVI is a...more
Sometimes it takes a scandal to advance a policy or law enforcement cause. The Panama Papers scandal has given new life to financial regulators around the world who seek to impose customer due diligence requirements on banks...more
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), collaborating with German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, in spring 2016 began leaking approximately 11 million internal documents obtained without permission...more
In the wake of the "Panama Papers" – the unprecedented leak of 11.5 million files from a Panamanian law firm that revealed thousands of names and addresses linked to offshore companies – the White House has announced several...more
On May 10, 2016, the Treasury Department issued proposed regulations that, if approved, will require business entities formed in the United States that are owned by a single foreign person to obtain an employer identification...more
In a news conference May 6, President Obama addressed recently announced rules and proposed regulations intended to help the U.S. fight tax evasion and other crimes connected to anonymous offshore companies and accounts. The...more
On May 11, 2016, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued the final version of its long-awaited “Customer Due Diligence Rules” under the Bank Secrecy Act. The final rules impose a new requirement on...more
The idea that a “fifth pillar” of Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”) compliance – customer due diligence requiring U.S. banks, broker-dealers, mutual funds, commodity futures merchants, and introducing brokers (“covered financial...more
When Senator Levin, the Democrat from Michigan, announced his retirement from the Senate in 2014, you could hear a collective sigh of relief from the corporate business community. Senator Levin had dedicated himself to...more
Big news out of the online lending space, as Lending Club’s chair and CEO—Renaud Laplanche—has resigned after an internal review “showed a violation of the company’s business practices” related to sales of $22 million in...more
When a scandal hits the media like the Panama Papers leak of 11.5 million confidential legal records, we all know what to expect. Criminal investigations, regulatory responses, and of course, congressional hearings of some...more
In a recent news conference President Obama addressed rules and proposed regulations announced Thursday intended to help the U.S. fight tax evasion and other crimes connected to anonymous offshore companies and accounts. The...more
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) announced that on May 9, it will release selected data purported to be leaked or stolen from the internal records of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca....more
Dealbook’s White Collar Watch gives us a legal take on the many challenges, regulatory and otherwise, facing Elizabeth Holmes’ Theranos – NYTimes... The international financial scandal du jour (the Panama Papers) is...more
On April 3, 2016, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (“ICIJ”) published more than 11.5 million documents connected to Mossack Fonseca, a Panama law firm that helped establish offshore financial...more
The media loves a scandal. In the banking and compliance world, the latest scandal to hit the media was the Panama Papers. The Panama Papers is surprising in scope – Panama has become the favorite financial haven for money...more
Overview - It is an understatement to say that the state of affairs in the offshore landscape is in flux. The fallout from the recent scandal in Panama remains to be seen. The fall of the rich and famous may end up...more
In late 2014, an anonymous source secretly leaked to a German newspaper reporter nearly four decades of confidential and proprietary data about shell companies registered by the multinational Panamian based law firm Mossack...more
The “Panama Papers” story hit the international press this week. An anonymous source leaked 11.5 million documents from Mossack Fonseca, the Panamanian firm believed to be the world’s fourth largest provider of offshore legal...more