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Money Laundering

This archive displays posts tagged as relevant to money laundering. You may also be interested in the following pages:

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Banamex USA Agrees to Forfeit $97 Million in Connection with Bank Secrecy Act Violations

Posted  05/23/17
By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team As reported in today's New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and other news outlets On Monday, Citigroup agreed to pay $97.4 million in a settlement after a long federal investigation into Banamex USA. In exchange, the Justice Department will not file criminal charges against the bank in connection with inadequate oversight of Banamex USA, which is based in California. Even as...

Spanish Court to Question Former HSBC Executives in Tax Probe Triggered by Whistleblower

Posted  05/5/17
By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Spain's High Court is to question seven former executives from HSBC's Swiss private bank as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering and tax fraud triggered by tax information leaks from former employee turned whistleblower Herve Falciani. The court said in a ruling that it had decided to widen the investigation to study the flow of funds from HSBC's Swiss...

January 25, 2017

The SEC announced administrative proceedings against New York-based brokerage firm Windsor Street Capital and its former anti-money laundering officer John D. Telfer.  The SEC alleges that the firm, formerly Meyers Associates L.P. failed to file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) for $24.8 million in suspicious transactions, including those occurring in accounts controlled by microcap stock financiers Raymond H. Barton and William G. Goode who were separately charged by the SEC with conducting a pump-and-dump scheme.  The SEC alleges that Windsor and Telfer should have known about the suspicious circumstances behind many transactions occurring in customer accounts.  Customers like Barton and Goode allegedly deposited large blocks of penny stocks, liquidated them typically amid substantial promotional activity, and then transferred the proceeds away from the firm.  The SEC further alleges that the shares deposited by Barton and Goode could not be sold legally because no registration statement was in effect and no registration exemption was available.  Rather than conduct a reasonable inquiry into the deposits, Windsor allegedly accepted claims of exemption at face value.  The SEC separately filed a complaint in federal court against Barton and Goode along with Matthew C. Briggs, Kenneth Manzo, and Justin Sindelman.  The complaint alleges that they participated in a pump-and-dump scheme that acquired shares of dormant shell companies supposedly in the dietary supplement business, falsely touted news and products stemming from those companies, and dumped the shares on the market for investors to purchase at inflated prices.  Barton, Goode, Briggs, and Manzo will pay almost $8.8 million collectively to settle the charges brought against them.  SEC

January 19, 2017

Colorado-based global money services business Western Union Company agreed to forfeit $586 million and enter into agreements with DOJ, FTC, and the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, the Central District of California, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the Southern District of Florida to settle criminal violations relating to the company's failure to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program and aiding and abetting wire fraud. According to company admissions, Western Union violated the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and anti-fraud statutes by processing hundreds of thousands of transactions for Western Union agents and others involved in an international consumer fraud scheme. As part of the scheme, fraudsters contacted victims in the U.S. and falsely posed as family members in need or promised prizes or job opportunities. The fraudsters directed the victims to send money through Western Union to help their relative or claim their prize. Various Western Union agents were complicit in these fraud schemes, often processing the fraud payments for the fraudsters in return for a cut of the fraud proceeds. The company also agreed to pay a $586 million judgement to settle related FTC charges. DOJ

ɃA££$¥ ฿RIɃ€$: Don’t Cry for José López, Argentina

Posted  08/3/16
By Max Voldman Former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s public works secretary, José López, was arrested last week after he was spotted throwing sacks of cash over a nunnery wall in the middle of the night. Observing the strange scene, a concerned neighbor, fearing for the nuns’ safety, called the police. When police arrived, Mr. López was with the nuns, claimed to be a church official,...

In Their Own Words — May

Posted  04/25/16

-- "The laundering of proceeds of crime through UK institutions is not only a financial crime, it fuels political instability around the world, supports terrorists and extremism and poses a direct and immediate threat to our domestic security and our overseas interests."

UK Home Secretary Theresa May on proposed new anti-money laundering law. Click here for more.

European Union Begins Looking at Comprehensive Regulation of Virtual Currencies

Posted  03/2/16
A View from Constantine Cannon’s London Office By Yulia Tosheva, Richard Pike and James Ashe-Taylor The European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (“ECON”) took a tentative first step toward the regulation of virtual currencies regulation of virtual currencies last week with the issuance of a draft report on virtual currencies. The regulation of virtual currencies is already...

DOJ Catch Of The Week -- VimpelCom

Posted  02/22/16
By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team This week's Department of Justice "Catch of the Week" goes to Amsterdam-based telecommunications company VimpelCom Limited.  Yesterday, the company and its wholly owned Uzbek subsidiary, Unitel LLC, agreed to pay roughly $795 million under settlements with the DOJ, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Prosecution Service of the Netherlands (Openbaar...

February 4, 2016

Miami-based brokerage firm E.S. Financial Services, now known as Brickell Global Markets, will pay a $1 million penalty to settle charges that it violated anti-money laundering rules by allowing foreign entities to buy and sell securities without verifying the identities of non-U.S. citizens who beneficially owned them.  Federal law requires all financial institutions to maintain an adequate customer identification program to ensure they know their customers and do not become a conduit for money laundering or terrorist financing.  But during SEC examinations, the firm twice failed to provide required books and records identifying certain foreign customers whom they were soliciting directly and to whom they were providing investment advice.  An ensuing investigation found that the firm’s customer identification program failed to obtain and maintain documentation to verify the identities of 23 non-U.S. citizens, the beneficial owners of 13 non-U.S. corporate entities, who executed more than $23 million in securities transactions through a brokerage account opened by a Central American bank affiliated with the firm.  SEC

January 29, 2016

Arthur Budovsky, founder of Liberty Reserve, which billed itself as the Internet’s "largest payment processor and money transfer system," pleaded guilty to running a massive money laundering enterprise used by cybercriminals around the world to launder the proceeds of their illegal activity.  Budovsky specifically designed Liberty Reserve to help users conduct anonymous and untraceable illegal transactions and launder the proceeds of their crimes.  Before the government shut it down in May 2013, Liberty Reserve had more than 5 million user accounts worldwide and had processed millions of transactions.  Budovsky admitted to laundering more than $250 million in criminal proceeds.  DOJ
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