Lenders

An aerial photo of Dubai, UAE

African elites and companies are increasingly routing money through Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong as traditional offshore centers such as Switzerland tighten scrutiny, according to a new University of Oxford working paper reported by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. 

Exterior shot of a TD Bank branch. "Let's invest in you."

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. 

President Donald Trump monitors U.S. military operations in Venezuela, from Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday, January 3, 2026. (Official White House Photo by Molly Riley)

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.

Photo of a sign in Venezuela for the oil company PDVSA.

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

A photo of a Bank of Scotland branch in Halifax

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.