Archive

Operation Tidal Wave: Seven Charged in $7.1 Million Money Laundering Scheme as Authorities Seize 135 Firearms in Northern District of New York

By the Constantine Cannon Whistleblower Team Federal prosecutors in the Northern District of New York have charged Iziah Cox, Kaya Cox, Sincere Cox, Davion Carrington, Jahmell Manso, Tiffany Banks, and Tamicca Jennings with conspiring to launder $7.1 million in proceeds from a fraud scheme with victims around the world.[1] The charges stem from an ongoing investigation known as Operation Tidal Wave, led by the...

Key Figure in Chinese Money Laundering Network Charged with Laundering Tens of Millions of Dollars in Drug Proceeds

By the Constantine Cannon Whistleblower Team On January 8, California resident Yan Lin, 41, made his initial appearance in Cincinnati federal court on charges of conspiracy to launder tens of millions of dollars obtained from drug trafficking proceeds.[1]

The Indictment

The unsealed indictment reveals that from March 2022 to October 2024, Mexico-based drug traffickers hired Lin to transfer tens of millions of...

Former TD Bank Employee Wilfredo Aquino Pleaded Guilty to Facilitating Money Laundering Network

By the Constantine Cannon Whistleblower Team On January 7, the government announced that New York-based former TD Bank N.A. assistant branch manager, Wilfredo Aquino, 47, pleaded guilty to facilitating a money laundering network to move hundreds of millions of dollars through TD Bank accounts from 2019 through February 2021.[1]

David and His Co-Conspirators’ Scheme

The network’s leader, Da Ying Sze (aka...

FinCEN Imposes $3.5M Fine on Paxful for Enabling Illicit Transactions

By the Constantine Cannon Whistleblower Team On December 9, the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced it imposed a $3.5 million civil penalty on Paxful, Inc. and Paxful USA, Inc. for willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), the key U.S. anti-money laundering law. Paxful, a peer-to-peer convertible virtual currency trading platform, facilitated over $500...

Private Equity Firm Fined $11.4M by OFAC for Violating Russian Sanctions

By the Constantine Cannon Whistleblower Team Chicago-based IPI Partners LLC, a former private equity firm, has agreed to pay over $11.4 million to the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to resolve allegations that it violated Russian sanctions by accepting investments tied to an oligarch.[1]

The Settlement

IPI Partners’ settlement focuses on acquiring, developing, and...

New York Goes After Owner and Office Manager of Medical Transport Company for Alleged Medicaid Fraud and Money Laundering

By the Constantine Cannon Whistleblower Team Two weeks ago (October 24), the New York State Comptroller announced it was charging the owner and office manager of Angel Medical Transportation  in connection with an alleged Medicaid fraud scheme.¹ The State charged Angel Medical owner Mohammad Chaudhry with stealing more than $1.8 million from Medicaid, and office manager Noah Shook with paying kickbacks to...

Florida Broker Fined $650K by FINRA For AML Compliance Lapses

By the Constantine Cannon Whistleblower Team The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) fined Miami-based brokerage firm EFG Capital International $650,000 for alleged deficiencies in the firm's anti-money laundering (AML) compliance program. FINRA found that EFG failed to maintain effective automated systems to detect and review suspicious transactions. ¹

EFG Capital Agreed to Pay Without Admitting...

UPDATE: DOJ Continues Cryptocurrency Fraud Case Despite Memo Signaling Change in Enforcement Priorities – Case Ends with Conviction

By the Constantine Cannon Whistleblower Team Guity Verdict for Former CEO of Crypto and Blockchain Company SafeMoon In an earlier article, we wrote about how federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York reaffirmed their intent to pursue criminal fraud charges against Braden John Karony, the former CEO of the cryptocurrency and blockchain company SafeMoon.  As we previously analyzed, the decision to...

Not OK! Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform OKX Violated U.S. Anti-Money Laundering Laws and Will Pay $504M+ in Penalties

OKX, the largest international cryptocurrency exchange platform, hosts transactions totaling billions of dollars each day where users can place orders for spot trades in over three hundred cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, in addition to ordering derivative products tied to cryptocurrencies’ value. On February 24, the government announced that the Seychelles-based company, Aux Cayes Fintech Co. Ltd,...

Five of the Top AML Enforcement Actions by FinCEN

The Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (“AMLA”) significantly strengthened whistleblower protections and incentives by establishing the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) Whistleblower Program. Before the AMLA, FinCEN could receive tips but lacked the authority to offer financial rewards. The AMLA changed this by allowing whistleblowers to receive rewards amounting to 10-30% of penalties collected...