EU

Human trafficking for the purpose of forcing victims to commit crimes is rising across Europe and demands urgent government action to protect victims and prevent their prosecution, the Council of Europe’s Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings said Friday in its 15th annual report.

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.

The European Union has proposed a sweeping 21st package of sanctions against Russia, with a record-setting wave of bank listings at its core and new measures targeting cryptocurrency platforms, oil traders, and shadow fleet vessels.

Morocco’s Banque Centrale Populaire (BCP) has agreed to pay €175,215,571 to settle a Belgian criminal investigation into the bank and its French subsidiary over nearly two decades of alleged unauthorized banking operations serving tens of thousands of Belgian clients.

Hungary’s Integrity Authority has developed an artificial intelligence and machine-learning platform to track Hungary’s financial flows in real time as it works to trace an estimated €160 billion in public funds alleged to have been misappropriated during former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in power.

Britain, Canada, France, and Norway on Tuesday announced coordinated sanctions targeting Israeli networks accused of financing, enabling, and carrying out violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Panama has enacted a 15 percent tax on corporations without domestic activities, targeting shell companies used by wealthy foreigners to shield profits earned abroad, as the country seeks to shed its tax-haven reputation and exit a European Union blacklist.

Digital money transfer giant Wise is under criminal investigation by Belgian prosecutors over concerns that its accounts were used by international criminal organizations to launder proceeds of fraud, corruption, and drug trafficking.

Hungarian prosecutors and police have seized around 92 billion forints ($300 million) in funds and securities in a money laundering probe of foundations set up by the National Bank of Hungary.

Italian authorities are seizing more than €200 million ($232 million) in assets tied to late Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, including funds derived from drug trafficking and laundered across Europe and beyond.