A bipartisan group of 10 senators unveiled legislation Tuesday that would require the U.S. Treasury Department to establish a "high level task force" to focus exclusively on tracking and stopping Russian money laundering operations.
A proposal that would empower U.K. officials to blacklist human rights abusers anywhere in the world and confiscate their assets may be scuppered by the government's reluctance to impose new responsibilities on banks ahead of Brexit, a British parliamentarian said Tuesday.
A draft bill that would enable the U.S. government to impose sanctions on corrupt officials and individuals who commit grave human rights violations anywhere in the world will soon get a House floor vote.
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.
A U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday unanimously approved a measure that would empower the White House to blacklist corrupt foreign officials and individuals responsible for human rights abuses worldwide.
The White House is unlikely to back a bill that would expand a Russia sanctions program to target corrupt officials and human rights abusers worldwide, lawmakers and congressional witnesses said Wednesday.
U.S. and European officials are developing a coordinated response to recent attacks on Ukrainian civilians and could announce additional sanctions against Russia as early as this week.
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.
The United States Monday blacklisted two high-ranking Chechen officials and two Russians for their alleged roles in the torture of a Chechen activist and the death of Moscow attorney Sergei Magnitsky.
Whatever the effectiveness of sanctions meant to sway Russia's involvement in Ukraine, one thing is certain: they've worsened the country's capital flight problem. By year's end, approximately $128 billion will have moved abroad, up from $63 billion in 2013, according to Russia's central bank.
The expansion of Western sanctions targeting Russia will require banks to closely vet additional types of credit and transactions tied to financial, energy and defense firms, according to attorneys.
Threatened U.S. sanctions against large swathes of Russian businesses would likely target defense and financial firms ahead of energy companies if imposed, according to experts.
The first line of the Ukrainian national anthem could well apply to the battered nation's banks these days: "Ukraine is not dead yet."
U.S. officials have no plans to negotiate Russia's compliance with an anti-tax evasion law that takes effect this summer and could impose stiff monetary penalties on nonparticipating financial institutions.
U.S. sanctions against 17 Russian individuals and companies, including three banks and the head of one of the nation's largest energy companies, will raise more questions than answers for compliance officers.
Although sanctions on Russian nationals and companies might seem fairly innocuous at first blush, compliance departments at European banks are finding the task of identifying designees unusually difficult, say legal experts.
Plans by Russia to develop an independent payment network could limit the U.S. government's window into illicit finance in the federation, say analysts.
The House Committee on Foreign Affairs advanced amended legislation Tuesday that would require U.S. officials to report on banks linked to the embezzlement of Ukrainian assets.
Diplomatic tension over Ukraine has raised doubts that the United States will attend an upcoming Moscow plenary of the world's largest anti-money laundering task force, say current and former officials.
International banks are bracing for economic sanctions against Russian officials beyond those announced Monday by Western nations, according to compliance officers.