Among the toasts at Adam Kaufmann's "retirement" party last week was one by a speaker who credited him with turning a bounced check into more than a billion dollars in penalties that have been shared by the city and state of New York over the past four years.
U.S. investigators Wednesday disclosed the seizure of $31 million from seven American banks as part of a probe into an alleged Peruvian money laundering network that exploited industrial firms and shell companies.
Company formation agents would be required to implement anti-money laundering programs to better vet their clients under a broad measure introduced Tuesday by two influential U.S. lawmakers.
Delaware, one of the smallest and least populated states in the United States, ranks as the most secretive jurisdiction in the world for financial transactions, a London-based advocacy group said Monday.
The United States should implement stricter measures to expose how tax evaders and money launderers move funds to and from bank secrecy jurisdictions, U.S. lawmakers and consultants said Thursday.
The bill, introduced last February by U.S. Senator Carl Levin, would broadly limit the ability of U.S. companies to operate offshore and domestic accounts through shell organizations in secret.
Despite Chinas acceptance into FATF, money laundering and corruption in the country may get worse before they get better as root problems remain unaddressed, AML professionals say.
Weak federal and state laws that allow individuals to anonymously create companies leave the financial system vulnerable to money laundering and terrorist financing, experts say.
The U.S. Treasury Department Thursday warned banks and other financial institutions to be wary of doing business with shell companies because they may be assuming increased levels of money laundering risk.
The reduce the threat of shell companies, banks must ask questions to understand the nature of any business opening an account and should seek proof that the business produces something, says David Caruso, an AML compliance expert.
A report released today by the U.S. Government Accountability Office criticized lax and inconsistent state laws that allow states to incorporate companies without knowing the identity of the owners.
Carl Levin's latest recommendations, contained in the subcommittees March 15 report detailing the 125 U.S bank accounts of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, should be taken as diplomatic and regulatory best practices.
New legislation that proposes to eliminate conflicts of interest that arise when federal bank examiners take private sector jobs will be introduced into the U.S. Senate.
A survey of U.S. securities firms by Senator Carl Levin's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has exposed another major Achilles heel in the money laundering controls of U.S. securities firms.