Illicit Finance

California’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) fined crypto lending platform Nexo Capital Inc. $500,000, alleging the company made crypto-backed consumer and commercial loans to Californians without the required state license. 

Panama’s Supreme Court is nearing a decision in a lawsuit that could void a Hong Kong company’s license to operate two container ports at either end of the Panama Canal, The Wall Street Journal reported. 

CaixaBank has been hit with several fines totaling more than €30 million by Spain’s anti-money laundering watchdog, Sepblac, over a legacy real-estate transaction.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas is preparing to push for new sanctions on Iran following a security crackdown that has “reportedly claimed hundreds of lives” since protests began nearly two weeks ago, Euronews reported Monday. 

Former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli is on trial over allegations he laundered millions of dollars tied to bribes paid by Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, a case that plugs Panama into the regionwide “Car Wash” corruption scandal that has toppled political figures across Latin America, according to AFP.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday launched a set of initiatives to investigate what it called “rampant government benefits fraud” in Minnesota, including the imposition of new reporting requirements for financial institutions. 

Two UK-registered cryptocurrency exchanges, Zedcex and Zedxion, operated as front companies for an infrastructure that processed approximately $1 billion in funds linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to new analysis from TRM Labs. 

Spanish National Police, working with Germany’s Bavarian State Criminal Police Office and supported by Europol, arrested 34 people in Spain during an operation against the international criminal organization known as “Black Axe,” Europol announced. 

An elite unit of Portugal’s Public Prosecutor’s Office has taken over a money-laundering investigation involving Elvira Gavrilova Paterson, a Ukrainian movie producer who helped promote alleged crypto frauds linked to Russian entrepreneur Vladimir Okhotnikov, according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. 

A former TD Bank employee pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder monetary instruments after prosecutors said he used his position to help a money-laundering network move hundreds of millions of dollars through the institution.