A court in the Maldives ordered the arrest and detention on Monday of the former president, Abdulla Yameen, on suspicion of money laundering. Yameen, who drew the Indian Ocean island country closer to China during his rule, is accused of receiving $1 million of government money through a private company, SOF Private Limited, which has […]

In march 2018 it was reported in the FT that following a review of 50 firms two-thirds found lagging in compliance procedures. In a review of 50 firms designed to test the sector’s compliance with new, tougher anti-money laundering regulations, the watchdog found only a third had carried out a mandatory risk assessment of their […]

Kleptocracy and grand corruption are now under scrutiny as never before. With renewed global attention on these abuses, a relatively clear picture has emerged of the domestic political economies shaped by kleptocratic rule. Analysts have shown how state institutions are set up to allow elites and their families to systematically loot, while protecting these elites […]

Trouble at the top: why high-scoring countries aren’t corruption-free Denmark, which tops the list this year, has recently been rocked by the money-laundering scandal surrounding Danske Bank, its biggest lender, among other corruption cases. About US$230 billion of suspicious transactions are thought to have passed through Danske Bank’s Estonian branch, which has been linked to the Russian Laundromat and Azerbaijani […]

The daughters of Azerbaijan’s president agreed to buy a £60m London property using a secret offshore company, in a case potentially carrying “a significant risk of money laundering”, a tribunal has heard. Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva sought to purchase two luxury Knightsbridge flats for £59.5m, including £3m to convert them into a single home. The deal in […]

ECB shuts Pilatus Bank as EU readies new move on Malta BRUSSELS, Nov 5 (Reuters) – The European Central Bank has withdrawn the banking licence of Malta’sPilatus Bank, the island’s financial regulator said on Monday, as the European Commission acted to step up a disciplinary procedure against Maltese authorities. The ECB decision came after the […]

The panel   Robert Beixiao Liu, Founder and chief executive officer, Nanling Global Lester Joseph, Manager, Global Financial Crimes Intelligence Group, Wells Fargo Christopher Ruzich, Senior manager, Major Cases and Sanctions Group, Investigations Unit, Financial Crime Compliance, Americas, Standard Chartered Bank Moderator: Joel Clark, Contributing editor, Risk.net The world of financial crime is evolving at a rapid pace. The tools […]

AN IDENTITY thief – who launched an unusual legal battle in Jersey from his cell at New Jersey’s Fort Dix prison – has failed to stop the confiscation of £50,000 he had stashed in a local bank. Michael David Reid, who is currently serving a 14-year sentence in the US, was part of a sophisticated […]