News in brief – September 2020

Many businesses have been subjected to scrutiny for overlooking their vulnerabilities related to financial crime and more recently, these investigations have resulted in the form of exorbitant penalties from regulators. With such significant financial retribution and social impact, it is difficult to understand why businesses do not do more to reduce their vulnerabilities to financial crime.

AML/CTF laws and compliance obligations exist to help protect businesses shield themselves from criminal activity such as money laundering and terrorist financing. It is important to remember the gravity of these crimes as they contribute to catastrophic and systemic issues on the global economy.

Here is some of the latest financial crime news around the world.

Africa

• ESAAMLG Task Force and Plenary meetings, Kampala, Uganda August – September 2020

APAC

• Proposed law change may put ASX stockbrokers at risk of inadvertently laundering money for criminals
• 2 Melbourne residents have been sentenced over Melbourne drug syndicate. Details from the Australian Federal Police have been reported here
• Infringement notice issued to State Street by AUSTRAC for failing to report money coming into Australia on 99 occasions
• Department of Internal Affairs New Zealand (DIA NZ) the enhanced customer due diligence (enhanced CDD) guideline. You can read more here
• 58 year old Singapore national sentenced for money laundering offences after accepting and transferring illicit funds from boyfriend

EU

• FCA scraps half its criminal probes into money-laundering breaches
• The Banking Protocol scheme launched in the UK 3 years ago has witnessed 3,250 calls with 100 arrests in the first half of 2020 preventing fraud worth £19.3 million

United States

• Leading US-based consultancy Computer Services Inc. (CSI) risk management services arm is now powered by Arctic Intelligence
• FinCEN release statement regarding leaked files disclosing suspicious activity which were disregarded. The 2,500+ compromised SARs documents (suspicious activity reports) date back from 2000 to 2017 approximately worth US $2 trillion exposing a number of banks and illegal activity

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