The expected reemergence of Iran on global markets will likely pose the toughest challenge for sanctions compliance officers in the coming year, according to Alexandre Lamy, an attorney with Baker & McKenzie's International Trade Practice Group.
Although the grandson of a former head of the Communist Party USA, Bill Browder isn't exactly beloved by Russian officials, even those professing nostalgia for the Soviet Union's supposedly golden days.
At its highest levels, Russian corruption over the past 20 years has been disguised by networks of shell companies and facilitated by foreign banks willing to turn a blind eye to state embezzlement, according to Karen Dawisha, a political science professor at Ohio-based Miami University.
Prompted by financial regulators, some of the largest U.S. banks have been reevaluating how they gauge geographic financial crime risks in designated high-risk regions of the country, say sources.
High-level corruption in Russia continues to thwart government efforts to counter money laundering and terrorist financing in the country, a European anti-money laundering watchdog said in a report made public Thursday.
An intergovernmental watchdog that advises nations on how to protect against money laundering and terrorist financing has appointed the head of Brazil's financial intelligence unit as its president.
The Russian government has hired celebrated U.S. attorneys Alan Dershowitz and G. Robert Blakey to testify about U.S. RICO laws as part of its $22.5 billion lawsuit against the Bank of New York Mellon for its alleged role in a money laundering scheme.
The Russian government is seeking three times the amount of Russian money a Bank of New York employee helped launder through the institution under the U.S. Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act.
The Russian Customs Service sued the bank under U.S. law, the Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act, in May for unpaid tariffs after a rogue bank employee helped transfer more than $7 billion out of Russia through illicit wire transfers. The case is being heard in a Russian court.
The Russian Customs Service is set to open its case in a $22.5 billion money laundering-related lawsuit against the Bank of New York on Monday after a hearing was delayed this week, a bank spokesman said.
Viktor Zubkov, the head of Russia's financial intelligence unit, the Federal Financial Monitoring Service, was nominated to replace Mikhail Fradkov, who announced his resignation hours before the nomination.