Illicit Finance

The head of Canada’s anti-money-laundering (AML) watchdog is stepping down as Ottawa overhauls its approach to fighting financial crime and braces for the results of an international audit of its controls.

The chief executive of Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said the regulator will no longer be able to defend against every illicit-finance threat equally and must openly prioritize what it focuses on as technology-linked scams continue to rise. 

Financial-crime authorities across the Middle East and North Africa hold powers that look adequate on paper but fail in practice, with anti-corruption agencies unable to freeze assets, prosecutors acting as political gatekeepers, and high-risk sectors filing almost no suspicious activity reports.

A new report from a U.S. think tank says industrial-scale cyber-fraud operations embedded in Southeast Asia’s special economic zones now generate an estimated $50 billion to $75 billion per year, and should be considered a hybrid security threat rather than a consumer-protection issue.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are urging Wall Street companies to confess to fraud in exchange for behind-the-scenes deals that would spare them from criminal charges, fines, and public disclosure of their wrongdoing.

U.S. officials believe Chinese companies have been negotiating arms sales to Iran and plotting to route the weapons through third countries to disguise their origin.

Brazilian lawmaker and presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro negotiated $24 million in financing from jailed banker Daniel Vorcaro to bankroll a biographical film about his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro.

Jho Low, the fugitive Malaysian financier accused of masterminding the multibillion-dollar 1MDB fraud, has submitted a request for a presidential pardon to U.S. President Donald Trump.

Multiple major German banks have abruptly frozen the accounts of Russian and Belarusian nationals living in Germany, demanding fresh proof of residency and leaving long-term customers without access to their money.

Jeffrey Epstein’s office relied on a dedicated team at American Express Co. to book travel for dozens of women, in some cases arranging sham itineraries designed to help them obtain visas.

Epstein’s Centurion relationship manager and more than a dozen American Express colleagues booked, canceled, and rebooked flights for women whose travel patterns and supporting documents two human-trafficking experts say should have raised red flags.