News
One Way Cartels Subvert AML Controls: Apply for Financial Sector Jobs
By Colby Adams
printShould suspicions that drug traffickers infiltrated the compliance department of a U.S.-owned bank in Mexico prove valid, it won't be the first example of such a scheme, or the last. Earlier this month, ACAMS moneylaundering.com reported that employees of Citigroup and Mexican officials have voiced concerns that cartel members may have successfully applied for anti-money laundering (AML) positions in Grupo Financiero Banamex in an effort to subvert reviews of suspicious transactions. The apparent effort involved using the names of deceased individuals, falsifying work histories and enlisting at least one Citigroup employee, multiple sources with knowledge of the matter said at...
TO READ THE FULL STORY
Related News
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.
Mexico's partial reversal of 2010 limits on U.S. dollar deposits will make it easier for narcotics traffickers to launder drug proceeds through Mexican banks, according to current and former investigators.
In internal reviews and an ongoing criminal and regulatory investigation, Citigroup employees and Mexican officials have privately voiced concerns that drug traffickers may have infiltrated Banamex's anti-money laundering department, say sources.
Belarus' House of Representatives advanced an anti-money laundering bill, a MoneyGram and Western Union agent was sentenced to 15 years in prison for laundering fraud proceeds, and more, in this week's roundup.
Singapore will bolster client identification requirements for exchangers of digital currency, Hong Kong's fifth richest man was sentenced to five years in jail for bribery and money laundering, and more, in this week's roundup.
Swiss authorities froze the assets of nine associates of Ukraine's former President Viktor Yanukovich, Chinese nationals are increasingly using state-backed bankcards to circumvent currency restrictions, and more, in the midweek roundup.
Plans to attract foreign capital and expertise to Mexico's oil sector could give organized crime groups and corrupt officials an opportunity to layer and integrate dirty money, say industry analysts.
The country's third largest financial institution is asking the U.S. Treasury Department for licenses related to thousands of transactions involving Iranian-sanctioned banks in the Middle East and Latin America that it says were performed to comply with local laws in those regions.
For the past year, a compliance officer in a midsize Texas bank has been pushing executives to link bonuses to how the officials comply with anti-money laundering rules.
The U.S. regulator of national banks said Thursday in a consent and cease-and-desist order that Citibank N.A. must grant its anti-money laundering compliance department a greater say in business decisions.
Mexican cartel members are exploiting mirror accounts in the United States and Mexico to launder money and evade U.S. dollar deposit restrictions, financial regulators said Thursday.
Of the up to $39 billion in illegal funds smuggled from the United States into Mexico every year, approximately half ends up in Mexican financial institutions, according to a former official in the U.S. Treasury and Justice Departments.
The Mexican Finance Ministry Tuesday unveiled strict new limits on cash deposits of U.S. dollars in efforts to curb the flow of illicit cash into the financial system from drug traffickers.
With an increased focus on fraud and corruption investigations, financial institutions can't afford to silo their separate compliance efforts, according to Jane Wexton, president of Wexton Advisors, a New York-based consultancy.
The U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has named former Citigroup executive Peter Goodyear as the head of its Bank Secrecy Act data analysis unit.
The biggest bank in the country is losing one of the biggest names in anti-money laundering. Rick Small, Citigroups Director of Global Anti-Money Laundering, leaves Citi effective Friday and will take over as Global AML Leader for General Electric subsid