FSA fines firm and its MLRO for inadequate anti-money laundering systems and controls – On 5 May 2010, the FSA published the Final Notices it has issued to Alpari (UK) Ltd (Alpari), an online provider of foreign exchange services for speculative trading, and Sudiptu Chattopadhyay, Alpari’s former money laundering reporting officer (MLRO). http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/final/alpari.pdf http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/final/chattopadhyay.pdf Alpari […]

FOS publishes technical notes on approach to assessing suitability and with-profits bonds – On 4 May 2010, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) published the following technical notes: Assessing the suitability of investments. This note sets out how the FOS approaches cases involving disputes about the suitability of an investment where there has been an advised […]

Businessman Anatoly Kazachkov is being investigated after £7m suspicious transfer from Hungary to Royal Bank of Scotland. Prosecutors have seized £6.5m from a Russian businessman who allegedly tried to use a Scottish bank to launder money, it emerged today. The cash confiscated from Anatoly Kazachkov, 64, a Moscow-based businessman linked to several British financiers, is […]

Consultation Paper on Amendments to the Protection of Investors (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 1987 as Amended – This consultation paper proposes amendments to the Protection of Investors (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 1987 as amended (“the POI Law”). The Commission is seeking comments from interested parties on the proposals in this paper. The proposals outlined in […]

Recent FCPA and anti-corruption news highlights the ever-growing importance of effective FCPA compliance programs – There has been a flurry of important Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and other anti-corruption enforcement news in recent days. All the trends we identified in recent alerts and Proskauer’s International Practice Guide[1] can be observed in this enforcement activity, […]

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has imposed a financial penalty of £140,000 on Alpari (UK) Ltd (Alpari), an online provider of foreign exchange services for speculative trading, for failing to have in place adequate anti-money laundering systems and controls. Its former money laundering reporting officer (MLRO), Sudipto Chattopadhyay, has also received a financial penalty of […]

Three mortgage brokers have been banned by the Financial Services Authority from working in the industry and a fourth has been fined £17,500. Jason Phillips, of Colne in Lancashire, and a former partner of Lancaster House Mortgages, was banned after submitting nine mortgage applications using false employment information and inflated salaries. Ashok Sharma, of Ash […]

On 29 April 2010, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) published a report entitled, “Combating Proliferation Financing: A Status Report on Policy Development and Consultation” which is dated February 2010. The paper was prepared for FATF’s working group on terrorist financing and money laundering by its project team on proliferation financing. The paper outlines the […]