EU Top Court: OFAC Listing Alone Cannot Justify Refusal of Basic Bank Account
The European Union’s highest court ruled Thursday that a bank may not refuse to open a basic payment account for a consumer solely because the person appears on a U.S. sanctions list, holding that such a refusal is permissible only after an individual assessment of money-laundering and terrorist-financing risk.
Danish Prosecutors Seek Record Penalty for Alleged AML Failures at Nordea
Danish prosecutors are seeking a 6.6 billion krone ($1 billion) fine against Nordea Bank for a series of anti-money-laundering (AML) failures, in what authorities describe as the largest-ever criminal case ever brought against a bank in Denmark.
Trump Administration Reimposes Sanctions on U.N. Special Rapporteur Albanese
The Trump administration has re-added a United Nations human rights official to the U.S. sanctions blacklist just one week after quietly removing her, and less than two weeks after a federal judge ruled the original designation unconstitutional.
BNP Paribas Makes Case to Overturn $21mn Sudan Human-Rights Verdict
BNP Paribas is asking a federal appeals court to overturn a landmark jury verdict that found the French bank liable for enabling human rights abuses in Sudan, arguing the trial judge misapplied both Swiss and U.S. law.
Bitcoin Depot Files for Bankruptcy, Shuts Down After Regulatory Crackdown
Bitcoin Depot, formerly the largest operator of cryptocurrency ATMs in the United States, filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy Sunday and took its roughly 9,700 kiosks offline.
A Defunct Crypto Company Wants Its Money Back from the SEC
Lawyers for Bittrex, the shuttered U.S. cryptocurrency exchange that paid $24 million to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit in 2023, are asking a federal judge to throw out the agreement and order the agency to return the money.
Julius Baer Ordered to Rehire Staffer Who ID’d Potential Sanctions Violations
A German labor court has ruled that Julius Baer Group’s Frankfurt arm wrongly dismissed a manager who had raised internal concerns about alleged sanctions violations linked to the onboarding of clients from Iran and Russia.
Swiss Court Dismisses Gulnara Karimova’s Graft Case
A Swiss federal court abruptly dismissed money laundering and bribery charges against the imprisoned daughter of a former Uzbek president on Tuesday after Uzbek authorities confirmed she would not be released to attend the proceedings before the statute of limitations runs out.
‘Father’ of Catalan Nationalism Deemed Unfit for €290mn Corruption Trial
A Spanish court has declared former Catalan leader Jordi Pujol, 95, unfit to stand trial in a long-running corruption case alleging his family concealed as much as €290 million in illicitly obtained wealth in Andorra
Moldovan Oligarch Heads to Prison for Role in ‘Theft of the Century’
A Moldovan court on Wednesday sentenced oligarch and former political leader Vladimir Plahotniuc to 19 years in prison for his role in a massive bank fraud scheme that siphoned funds from three lenders in 2014.