Author Archives: Brian Monroe
UK banking group reveals top ten Covid-19 frauds, including impersonating government agencies, dating app romance scams
The Skinny: The United Kingdom’s top financial services sector lobbying body, U.K. Finance, has released what it considers the top 10 scams attempting to take advantage of the coronavirus pandemic, including impersonating government finance and health agencies, teasing stimulus relief funds and even infiltrating dating apps. The influential group stated that institutions have noticed a […]
Special contributor report: Golden passports, gilded gatekeepers and oily oligarchs – Key takeaways for anti-financial crime professionals from the UK ISC report on Russia
The Skinny: In this special contributor piece, longtime fincrime compliance thought leader Dev Odedra tackles a new report by a top government intelligence body on the overarching risks Russia poses to the United Kingdom. While not focusing singularly on financial crime, the report by the United Kingdom’s Intelligence and Security Committee (UK ISC) published this […]
ACFCS Member Spotlight: Ability to quickly react, adapt to shifting typologies, proactively empower banks, investigators, critical to countering soaring scourge of human trafficking, says ATII head Aaron Kahler
The Skinny: In this ACFCS Member Spotlight, a longtime compliance professional and thought leader shares his journey over the past 15 years from fighting fraud as an intern to spearheading the creation of a non-profit to fight human trafficking. August 2020 will be the one-year anniversary that Aaron Kahler became the Founder and Chief Executive […]
After multiple legal setbacks, hefty legal bill, UK forced to rethink power, promise of UWOs to take down McMafia criminals
The Skinny: The United Kingdom’s top counter-crime investigative body, the National Crime Agency (NCA) is redoubling its efforts to finally unsheathe what was hailed as an innovative, powerful tool to fight money laundering, corruption and other complex financial crime “McMafia” cases. In all, the unexplained wealth order (UWO), was supposed to be an explosive arrow […]
Special ACFCS Video Financial Crimecast: NICE Actimize’s Stephen Taylor discusses pandemic transaction trends, potential of AI, power of consortium-based analytics
The Skinny: Stephen Taylor, the General Manager of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) for compliance technology heavyweight NICE Actimize, discusses pandemic transaction trends, the potential of AI, the power of consortium-based analytics and more in a special video version of the ACFCS Financial Crimecast. Taylor noted that, at least initially, some banks and securities firms faced alert […]
Special ACFCS/GFI Webinar Series: Inside the Illicit Gold Trade – Using Financial Tools and Public Policy to Fight Money Laundering
The Skinny: ACFCS and trade and transparency watchdog Global Financial Integrity (GFI) are presenting a special webinar series on the Illicit Gold Trade. This two-part series taking place this month, July 8 and July 21 at 1 p.m., will explore using financial tools and public policy to fight money laundering using gold, itself a part […]
Lawmakers, banking, trade, transparency groups push for sweeping AML bill to be included in NDAA
The Skinny: A coalition of powerful lawmakers, investigators, regulators, and influential banking and corporate transparency groups are lobbying to get a sweeping piece of legislation that would reform, refine and retool the country’s financial crime compliance defenses tacked on to a quickly encroaching defense spending bill. These groups are pinning their hopes on the passage […]
On heels of record penalty against Swedbank, Swedish financial watchdog fines SEB $107 million for longstanding AML gaps, oversight of risky non-resident customers
The Skinny: The still-rumbling aftershocks of the Danske Bank money laundering scandal, which embroiled several Nordic and Baltic banks and regulators, took an expensive turn this week, with Sweden’s financial watchdog bringing another statement-making penalty. The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority Thursday penalized one of the country’s largest banks, SEB, 1 billion Swedish kronor, or more […]
ACFCS SPECIAL WEBINAR SERIES: BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP, TRANSPARENCY, AND GATEKEEPERS: U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL ISSUES AND DEVELOPMENTS
The Skinny: This three-part series presented by the Washington, D.C. Chapter of ACFCS will explore issues in beneficial ownership transparency in key financial centers and the enablers of illicit financial flows. The series will also look at how these structures can be abused by a wide range of criminal groups, from organized criminals to corrupt […]
Regional Report Canada: As gun-shy Fintrac regains penalty powers, government strengthens AML, will enforcement rise?
The Skinny: Over the last year, Canada has been bolstering AML across the board with stronger rules targeting riskier sectors like virtual currencies, cracking open beneficial ownership bastions and boosting budgets for investigators. But for the past four years, the country’s financial intelligence unit, Canada’s Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (Fintrac), has been out […]
Scammers could be pilfering $26 billion in fraudulent coronavirus pandemic unemployment claims: Labor Department Inspector General
The Skinny: A key component of the government’s more than $2 trillion CARES Act, an extra $600 a week in pandemic unemployment assistance, could be going to fraudsters – instead of deserving and desperate individuals who are out of work. How much? The Department of Labor’s Inspector General in a “conservative” estimate stated that some […]
Elder Abuse Awareness Day 2020: ACFCS highlights tips, tactics to counter scammers targeting country’s most vulnerable population
The Skinny: June is Elder Abuse Awareness Month, and June 15 is Elder Abuse Awareness Day. The designation meant to highlight the ongoing criminal tactics targeting one of the world’s most vulnerable populations, and better sensitize financial crime compliance professionals, law enforcement and caregivers about an issue growing in scope. Moreover, the challenges of caring for […]