News
California AG’s Plan to Strengthen AML Laws Expected to Garner Strong Support
By Brian Monroe
printProposals by California's top prosecutor to strengthen the state's anti-money laundering laws are expected to find broad support among lawmakers. In a report published last month, California Attorney General Kamala Harris called on the state's legislature to prohibit structuring even when prosecutors cannot show that individuals are intentionally avoiding reporting requirements and permit investigators to seize illicit proceeds prior to the filing of criminal cases and civil asset forfeiture petitions. With local law enforcement agencies behind the proposal, the "state legislature would seriously entertain the recommendations," said Courtney Linn, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California,...
TO READ THE FULL STORY
Related News
Attorneys for a Florida couple accused of selling black-market medical devices argued before the Supreme Court Wednesday that the government's power to freeze the assets of defendants should be further limited.
The U.S. government's landmark case against HSBC Holdings Plc for knowingly turning a blind eye to financial crime is seemingly fated to end much as it began: complex and messy.
An intergovernmental group's revised expectations of how countries should seize looted assets may prove difficult to meet, and could lower the mutual evaluation scores nations receive for their anti-money laundering controls.
U.S. banks will face additional freeze orders and banking data requests from federal prosecutors when a new asset-freezing measure adopted Wednesday by U.S. lawmakers takes effect next year, say analysts.
Inconsistent international forfeiture laws continue to hamper global asset forfeitures, according to Stefan D. Cassella, chief of the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering section of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Maryland.
The U.S. Treasury Department levied a $1 million fine Thursday for Bank Secrecy Act violations against a New Jersey bank that paid $5 million in March for related compliance problems.
The United States is "very weak" in retrieving assets lost abroad to criminals, and should make better use of international treaties designed to aid asset recovery, according to the head of a company that helps investigate lost funds.
Information on tax evasion and asset recovery cases will likely top data-sharing requests filed by foreign governments with the United States over the next three to five years, say analysts.
A group of seasoned attorneys and investigators is launching a non-profit organization to help developing countries recover some of the billions of dollars in assets plundered by corrupt political leaders.
An anti-money laundering watchdog group today released guidelines on how countries can best identify and freeze assets tied to terrorist financing.
The United Nations Tuesday released its finalized recommendations on how member states should draft legislation to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, including provisions to seize criminal assets.
The Southern District of New York collected over 52 percent less in asset forfeitures in fiscal year 2008 than it did in the previous year, the agency said Thursday.
At least four international banks with operations in the United States are in negotiations with the Chilean government to repatriate as much as $40 million tied to former dictator Augusto Pinochet, an attorney involved with the case confirmed Friday.
Many compliance officers say there is a shift in the way financial institutions investigate and report cases of suspected structuring and that they are quick to file a SAR, even when a simple conversation could have sorted things out.
The U.S. Justice Department is seeking the forfeiture of $110 million in proceeds from an allegedly corrupt Italian bankruptcy case.
RBC Dain Rauscher Inc. failed to establish written procedures for filing suspicious activity reports, adequately review transaction structuring or establish adequate monitoring systems so it could act on exceptions identified by the firm's AML department, according to the order.
A New Jersey man has been sentenced to 37 months in prison for credit card fraud and making structured financial transactions totaling over $600,000 in banks located in Hudson County, N.J.
The Chicago-based bank failed to follow requirements for filing suspicious activity reports in a timely manner, which resulted in one money transmitting company wiring millions of dollars to beneficiaries in Pakistan, India and the United Arab Emirates, FinCEN said.