Government Suggests that Unusual Pleas are Just the Tip of an Iceberg Chinese law generally prohibits its citizens from converting more than $50,000 in Chinese yuan into foreign currency in a year.  On Monday, two men living in Las Vegas pleaded guilty in federal district court in the Southern District of California to operating an unlicensed money transmitter business, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1960.  Allegedly, they ran a scheme in which they…

On January 29, 2020, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) publicly released the results of a study which the GAO conducted on trade-based money laundering, or TBML, entitled “Countering Illicit Finance and Trade: U.S. Efforts to Combat Trade-Based Money Laundering” (the Study). The Study – sent upon request to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism – was commissioned in January 2019 after the U.S. Department of Treasury issued a related report, entitled…

Note to Government Personnel: Don’t Disclose SARs This week, major developments unfolded in the cases against two former federal government employees for their respective roles in disclosing Suspicious Activity Reports (“SARs”) in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”). Historically, prosecutions pertaining to improper SAR disclosures have been supremely rare, so the fact that two court hearings involving this issue occurred in a single week is particularly notable. Both involve defendants allegedly acting on their…

Happy New Year! And, happy birthday to Money Laundering Watch, which is entering its fourth year. Let’s look back.  2019 has been yet another busy year in the world of money laundering and BSA/AML. We are highlighting 12 of our most-read blog posts, which address many of the key issues we’ve examined during the past year — massive bank scandals; beneficial ownership; potential AML reform; virtual currency; cannabis and financial institutions; counter terrorism financing; money laundering…

AMA Details Components of a Strong AML/BSA Program for the Gaming Industry Earlier this month, the American Gaming Association (“AGA”) released an updated Best Practices for Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”) Compliance (“Best Practices Guidance”) reflecting a heightened focus on risk assessment as well as Know Your Customer/Customer Due Diligence measures for the gaming industry.  This update amends the industry’s first set of comprehensive best practices for AML compliance, issued in 2014.  At the time, the best…

Court Rejects Attempt by Halkbank to Enter “Special Appearance” Contesting Jurisdiction Turkish state-owned bank Halkbank’s efforts to avoid appearing in U.S. federal court for arraignment were squashed recently in a twenty-seven-page opinion issued by the Honorable Richard M. Berman of the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York. The Court made clear that for a foreign entity to challenge personal jurisdiction in a criminal case, it must first accept service of the indictment against it, appear…

ABA Tax Fraud Panel to Discuss IRS CI and Crypto Criminals The Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation (IRS CI) has made it clear that it is focusing on the abuse of digital currencies to further tax evasion, money laundering, and other offenses. IRS-CI also has made it clear that this is an international effort, and that it is trying to partner with law enforcement agencies across the globe in order to coordinate and share…