AML

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has launched a dedicated portal to accept whistleblower tips on money laundering, fraud, and sanctions violations, the U.S. Treasury Department announced on Friday. 

Paxful Holdings Inc., a peer-to-peer virtual currency trading platform, was sentenced on Tuesday to pay a $4-million criminal penalty after pleading guilty to conspiracies tied to illegal prostitution, anti-money-laundering failures and transmitting criminal proceeds.

Drug cartels and other criminal groups are increasingly using cryptocurrencies and a growing “gig” workforce of freelance brokers and couriers to launder cash and evade law enforcement, Bloomberg Businessweek reported.

The Council of Europe’s anti-money-laundering body on Tuesday published a new report on how criminals exploit crypto-assets to launder illicit proceeds, fund terrorism, and evade sanctions.

El Salvador’s top prosecutor has effectively halted a money-laundering investigation into a Venezuela-financed oil venture whose funds flowed into bank accounts linked to President Nayib Bukele.

Two U.S. senators reintroduced a bipartisan bill that would subject informal-value transfers and blank checks to anti-financial crime laws and strengthen the hand of prosecutors pursuing money-laundering charges. 

Brazil’s Finance Ministry has urged the country’s central bank to tighten regulation around pooled and escrow accounts that authorities say are being used by bad actors to circumvent asset freezes, according to Reuters.

A massive corruption trial that spanned a decade ended last week in Turks and Caicos with the convictions of the jurisdiction’s former premier, his brother, and a one-time governmental minister, the Miami Herald said. 

The European Union’s new Anti-Money Laundering Authority said it is on track to become fully operational in 2028, setting out a multi-year plan that flags emerging illicit-finance threats ranging from crypto-assets to “novel payment channels.”

A Spanish police corruption investigation has widened into a narcotics and money-laundering scandal that links a senior economic-crimes investigator and a son of the Duke of Seville to an international drug-trafficking ring, The Times reported.