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Record Settlements, Russian Tanks and Legal Weed: AML’s Year-in-Review
By Colby Adams, Kira Zalan and Irene Madongo
printThis time last December, one might reasonably have expected that 2014 would be a year of modest changes for the anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance sector. Then came JPMorgan Chase, BNP Paribas and a convoy of Russian tanks to quash that notion. That the year would unfold differently than 2013, which saw a sharp drop in compliance outlays paid by banks, was signaled as early as Jan. 7, when the U.S. Justice Department and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) disclosed a $2.05 billion settlement with JPMorgan Chase for its failure to report suspicious transactions linked to Bernard...
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In the messy art of prognostication, everything is overly easy and nothing exact, not even compliance expectations. But one thing government officials and financial industry representatives seem certain of: 2015 will prove just as challenging as the past year for AML professionals.
One of Israel's largest banks will pay $400 million to federal and state officials after admitting that it set up fake loans and corporations to help wealthy American clients stash their money abroad.
The United States Thursday fined a former chief compliance officer for MoneyGram $1 million for his alleged role in the company's 2012 violations of anti-money laundering laws.
For all of the rhetoric to the contrary, virtual currencies may turn out to be a tempest in a teapot, at least for money laundering investigators, according to Jeffrey Robinson, author of "Bitcon: The Naked Truth About Bitcoin."
Whatever the effectiveness of sanctions meant to sway Russia's involvement in Ukraine, one thing is certain: they've worsened the country's capital flight problem. By year's end, approximately $128 billion will have moved abroad, up from $63 billion in 2013, according to Russia's central bank.
Federal investigators believe that sales of synthetic cannabinoid products could have links to terrorist financing and criminal syndicates, according to a DEA assistant special agent in charge.
The expansion of Western sanctions targeting Russia will require banks to closely vet additional types of credit and transactions tied to financial, energy and defense firms, according to attorneys.
The EU on Monday adopted extended sanctions targeting Moscow's oil and defense industries' measures expected to raise compliance costs for banks in the economic bloc, once implemented.
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A little-noticed amendment to a U.S. appropriations bill could do what lawmakers and lobbying groups alike have failed to do: ensure that banks don't pay for taking on state-licensed cannabis companies.
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The U.S. Treasury Department Wednesday imposed its strongest sanctions to date in response to Russia's role in Ukrainian violence, blacklisting 12 companies in the federation's financial, energy and defense sectors.
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BNP Paribas pleaded guilty and agreed to pay nearly $9 billion to settle charges that it knowingly violated U.S. sanctions against four nations despite previous warnings from American officials.
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