U.S. law enforcement officials are increasingly focusing their attention on the use by Mexican drug cartels of shell companies and corporate bank accounts in China and Hong Kong to launder proceeds from narcotics sales, sources told ACAMS moneylaundering.com.
American seizures of cash bound for the Mexican border are on track to reach their lowest annual total in the last six years, federal statistics show.
New rules for Mexico's energy sector will soon empower the country's tax supervisor to scrutinize international firms for potential violations of money-laundering and graft laws.
Attempts to smuggle cash from Texas into Mexico have spiked following the country's decision last year to partially lift a cap on U.S. dollar deposits, according to federal investigators.
The recent joint effort between the U.S. and Mexico in the arrest of Sinaloa Cartel head Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman can be seen as a sign of renewed cooperation between investigators in both countries after a yearlong lull.
Mexico's recent decision to ease limits on deposits of American currency has breathed new life into the illicit finance risks associated with U.S. dollar clearing operations, according to sources.
Long considered one of the toughest illicit finance schemes to crack, trade-based money laundering is on the rise in response to stricter regulatory oversight of financial institutions, U.S. investigators said Monday.
U.S. investigators are asking some of the nation's largest banks to tighten their policies on accepting cash deposits in an effort to choke off the financial channels of human smugglers.
Should 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.
Money launderers working on behalf of Mexican cartels have moved southward after a deferred prosecution agreement between Western Union and Arizona gave investigators unprecedented access to remittance data in Northern Mexico, according to Vince Piano.
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.