Oversight

The U.S. Treasury Department on Monday issued an alert urging financial institutions to step up their detection of money laundering, sanctions evasion, and digital-asset transfers tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Australia’s financial intelligence agency on Friday launched two supervisory campaigns targeting the country’s virtual assets sector, stepping up oversight of crypto businesses ahead of sweeping AML reforms, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) said in a statement.

Monaco’s financial markets watchdog has fined UBS €6 million for “numerous serious breaches” in anti-money-laundering and counterterrorism financing controls.

China’s top financial regulator has quietly told the country’s largest banks to suspend new loans to five Chinese refiners recently sanctioned by the United States over their ties to Iranian oil, even as Beijing publicly orders companies to ignore those same U.S. measures.

Tabcorp, Australia’s biggest listed bookmaker, disclosed that the country’s financial-crimes watchdog AUSTRAC has opened a formal investigation into whether it was complying with anti-money-laundering (AML) rules and properly monitoring its customers.

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.

The United States is preparing to lift sanctions on Eritrea, according to an internal U.S. government document seen by Reuters, a move analysts told the news agency was driven by the Horn of Africa nation’s strategic position on the Red Sea shipping route.

ING Belgium has agreed to pay a €1.6 million settlement over alleged failures to report suspicious transactions linked to former European Commissioner Didier Reynders.

Denmark’s financial regulator has reported a local unit of Nordea Bank to police over suspected breaches of anti-money-laundering rules and asked authorities to open a criminal investigation, the authority disclosed Monday. 

China has for the first time invoked a law targeting companies that comply with foreign sanctions Beijing rejects, escalating its pushback against U.S. blacklisting of several oil refineries over purchases of Iranian crude.