Lenders

Mexico’s sweeping crackdown on electronic cigarettes is accelerating a shift in the country’s $1.5-billion vape-pen market toward organized crime, according to ABC News.

A recent guilty plea by a former TD Bank teller who helped move millions in suspicious funds through the U.S. banking system is an illustration of how easily things can go wrong when frontline staff face few internal anti-money laundering (AML) controls, according to a new report by the American Banker. 

The Trump administration has granted confidential licenses to two of the world’s largest oil traders, Vitol and Trafigura, to broker sales of Venezuelan crude, despite both firms’ recent brushes with bribery prosecutions tied to oil deals elsewhere, The Washington Post reported.

Secret audio recorded in Madrid in 2017 captures “shadow bankers” laying out a plan to launder millions of dollars tied to corruption at Venezuela’s state oil company, including a proposed bond swap designed to evade anti-money laundering controls

German authorities raided Deutsche Bank’s headquarters in Frankfurt and a separate office in Berlin as part of a money-laundering investigation linked to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.

The UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) has levied a £160,000 monetary penalty on Lloyds Banking Group for violations of Russia sanctions made by its subsidiary Bank of Scotland Plc. 

Banco Santander has been fined more than €40 million by Spain’s anti-money laundering (AML) watchdog Sepblac for past shortcomings in internal processes at its digital unit.

President Donald Trump sued JPMorgan Chase and CEO Jamie Dimon on Thursday, alleging the bank closed his and related entities’ accounts for political reasons following the Jan. 6, 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol, CNBC reported. 

The U.S. is targeting Hamas’ covert support network, including six Gaza-based nonprofits that purportedly masquerade as medical charities while supporting the Palestinian group’s militant wing. 

Brazil’s Supreme Court has ordered the assets of veteran entrepreneur Nelson Tanure to be frozen as part of an investigation into failed lender Banco Master SA, according to a January 6th decision seen by Bloomberg.