Author: Mia

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Article: Gupta empire facing UK fraud probe over Greensill

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Gupta empire facing UK fraud probe over Greensill

Simon Jack, 14 May 2021

The business empire of Liberty Steel owner Sanjeev Gupta is under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

The probe is over suspected fraudulent trading and money laundering, including its financing arrangements with failed company Greensill Capital UK. Greensill, a major lender to Mr Gupta’s business, collapsed in March.

GFG Alliance, Mr Gupta’s family conglomerate, said it would co-operate fully with the investigation. Continue reading “Article: Gupta empire facing UK fraud probe over Greensill”

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Article: SFO launches money laundering probe into Gupta family over ties to Greensill Capital

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SFO launches money laundering probe into Gupta family over ties to Greensill Capital

HMichiel Willems, 14 May 2021

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said this morning it is launching an investigation into the Gupta Family Group Alliance.

“The SFO is investigating suspected fraud, fraudulent trading and money laundering in relation to the financing and conduct of the business of companies within the Gupta Family Group Alliance (GFG), including its financing arrangements with Greensill Capital UK Ltd.,” the watchdog said in a statement shared with City A.M.

“As this is a live investigation, the SFO can provide no further comment,” it added. Continue reading “Article: SFO launches money laundering probe into Gupta family over ties to Greensill Capital”

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Article: Intertrust Cayman receives administrative penalty

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Intertrust Cayman receives administrative penalty

Intertrust Group, 14 May 2021

PRESS RELEASE: Amsterdam – 14 May 2021. Intertrust N.V. (“Intertrust”) [Euronext: INTER], a global leader in providing tech-enabled corporate and fund solutions to clients operating and investing in international business, announces that on 13 May 2021, the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) issued to Intertrust Corporate Services (Cayman) Limited, a subsidiary of Intertrust N.V., formal notice of an administrative fine in the amount of CI $4,232,607.50 arising from breaches of specific statutory obligations under the Cayman Islands Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Regulations identified during an onsite inspection conducted in February 2020. The breaches alleged are administrative in nature and there is no suggestion that Intertrust has engaged in or facilitated its clients engaging in money laundering activities. Continue reading “Article: Intertrust Cayman receives administrative penalty”

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Article: Danske bypasses money laundering legacy in AT1 return

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Danske bypasses money laundering legacy in AT1 return

Tom Revell, 14 May 2021

The lender also took on a challenging market backdrop as it offered investors a US$750m perpetual non-call November 2026 Reg S transaction. The deal came after a volatile session for global stocks on Tuesday, which nudged bank subordinated debt wider in the secondary market and, in the US onshore market, saw insurer Liberty Mutual postpone a junior subordinated note issue.

Some observers were surprised by Danske’s decision to come hot on the heels of Liberty’s postponement. A 4.75% US$1bn Banco Santander AT1 offering sold on May 6 also contributed to a tricky backdrop after it struggled to perform and was bid at a cash price of 99.50 on Wednesday. Continue reading “Article: Danske bypasses money laundering legacy in AT1 return”

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Article: Arrests for fraud and money laundering after scam calls target vulnerable people in Wiltshire

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Arrests for fraud and money laundering after scam calls target vulnerable people in Wiltshire

Daniel Angelini, 13 May 2021

A gang had been targeting victims by calling them, pretending that they were the police and asking for help investigating fraud in banks or other organisations.

The callers tried to trick victims into withdrawing money or buying expensive items and handing them to a courier, who was actually another criminal that came to the victim’s home. Officers from Wiltshire Police’s complex fraud team and specialist support units travelled to London on Wednesday as part of Project Optimise, designed to tackle serious and organised criminality. Continue reading “Article: Arrests for fraud and money laundering after scam calls target vulnerable people in Wiltshire”

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Article: Binance Faces Probe by U.S. Money-Laundering and Tax Sleuths

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Binance Faces Probe by U.S. Money-Laundering and Tax Sleuths

Tom Schoenberg, 13 May 2021

Binance Holdings Ltd. is under investigation by the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service, ensnaring the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange in U.S. efforts to root out illicit activity that’s thrived in the red-hot but mostly unregulated market.

As part of the inquiry, officials who probe money laundering and tax offenses have sought information from individuals with insight into Binance’s business, according to people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be named because the probe is confidential. Led by Changpeng Zhao, a charismatic tech executive who relishes promoting tokens on Twitter and in media interviews, Binance has leap-frogged rivals since he co-founded it in 2017. Continue reading “Article: Binance Faces Probe by U.S. Money-Laundering and Tax Sleuths”

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Article: Pot dispensary suit transferred

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Pot dispensary suit transferred

Rachel Herzog, 13 May 2021

A lawsuit claiming that three medical-marijuana cultivators unfairly refused to sell to a Hot Springs dispensary and asking the state to enact regulations preventing those alleged practices was transferred to Pulaski County on Wednesday.

The complaint from Green Springs Medical, which was originally filed in January, claims that Osage Creek Cultivation of Berryville, Delta Medical Cannabis Co. of Newport and Bold Team of Cotton Plant stopped selling cannabis to the business to retaliate against the dispensary’s CEO, who asked the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission last year to issue more cultivator licenses. Continue reading “Article: Pot dispensary suit transferred”

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Article: Russian central bank to expand market manipulation criteria

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Russian central bank to expand market manipulation criteria

Elena Fabrichnaya, 13 May 2021

MOSCOW, May 13 (Reuters) – Russia’s central bank said on Thursday it plans to expand a list of actions deemed to be market manipulation, facing a need to protect growing numbers of retail investors after a series of cases involving what it called malicious transactions.

Retail investors flooded to the market in 2020 as central bank rate cuts reduced the appeal of bank deposits and the COVID-19 pandemic left people working from home and with time to spare. Continue reading “Article: Russian central bank to expand market manipulation criteria”

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Article: Share buybacks roar back – but how good an idea are they?

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Share buybacks roar back – but how good an idea are they?

Adrian Holliday, 13 May 2021

Spurred by the speed of global vaccination roll-outs, stimulus boosts and a white-hot US first-quarter earnings period, some US companies have upped dividend payments to their shareholders. Alternatively, they’re buying back their own shares in ‘buybacks’. So what are share buybacks? Is the UK seeing a similar wave – and how good an idea are share buybacks for investors? Continue reading “Article: Share buybacks roar back – but how good an idea are they?”

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Article: European police bust major online investment fraud ring

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European police bust major online investment fraud ring

Amer Owaida, 13 May 2021

Europol and several national law enforcement agencies have teamed up to take down an investment fraud and money laundering ring that caused losses of approximately €30 million (US$36 million) to hundreds of victims, according to a press release by the European Union’s law enforcement agency.

The investigation led to the arrest of 11 suspects and involved the search of dozens of locations across Europe and Israel with law enforcement officers seizing a range of ill-gotten gains including jewels, real estate, high-end vehicles and some €2 million (US$2.4 million) in cash. The effort was spearheaded by German law enforcement authorities and supported by their peers from Bulgaria, Israel, Latvia, North-Macedonia, Poland, Spain, and Sweden. Continue reading “Article: European police bust major online investment fraud ring”

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Article: Inflation: going stag

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Inflation: going stag

Gary Tanashian, 13 May 2021

Stagflation in the offing, unless it’s not different this time…

As corporations continue to raise wages, market participants fear the Fed is wrong about supposedly “transitory” inflation, long-term Treasury bond yields resume the rally (bonds decline) manufacturers’ (ISM) costs keep rising, the Fed’s inflationary operation – a desperate monetary kick save if ever there was one – labors on.

The Fed has manipulated bonds and flooded the markets and economy with funny munny created out of nowhere, as if by magic. As if by MMT (modern monetary theory) TMM (total market manipulation). So far, so good. Jerome Powell stands to be the first non-Bernanke winner of the Ben Bernanke Award for Heroism in the line of inflating a debt ridden economy. Continue reading “Article: Inflation: going stag”

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Article: Citibank Taiwan, DBS Bank Taiwan hit for AML failings

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Citibank Taiwan, DBS Bank Taiwan hit for AML failings

Kao Shih-ching, 13 May 2021

The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday fined Citibank Taiwan Ltd (花旗台灣) NT$10 million (US$357,194) and DBS Bank Taiwan (星展台灣) NT$6 million for breaches of the nation’s anti-money laundering (AML) regulations.

The NT$10 million fine is the highest penalty that it has imposed on a domestic bank, the commission said.

Citibank Taiwan failed to set up a sound mechanism for evaluating clients’ risk of money laundering and for detecting suspicious transactions, Banking Bureau Deputy Director-General Huang Kuang-hsi (黃光熙) told a news conference in New Taipei City Continue reading “Article: Citibank Taiwan, DBS Bank Taiwan hit for AML failings”

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Article: Libor Replacement Race Heats Up

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Libor Replacement Race Heats Up

Julia-Ambra Verlaine, 13 May 2021

New contenders are emerging in the race to get rid of the London interbank offered rate by year-end.

Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. traded the first complex derivative using a Bloomberg index crafted to replace Libor, exchanging $250 million worth of an interest-rate swap earlier this month. The Bloomberg Short Term Bank Yield Index competes with the alternative preferred by regulators including the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Continue reading “Article: Libor Replacement Race Heats Up”

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Article: N26 faces BaFin scrutiny over money laundering failures

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N26 faces BaFin scrutiny over money laundering failures

Finextra, 12 May 2021

German financial regulator BaFin has ordered mobile bank N26 to fix problems with its IT monitoring and customer due diligence to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.

The watchdog is appointing a special commissioner to monitor the fintech giant’s compliance with the order to implement appropriate internal controls and safeguards and comply with general due diligence requirements.

N26 has also been told to ensure that it has the adequate personnel, technical and organisational resources to comply with its obligations under anti-money laundering law.The order comes two years after BaFin first reprimanded N26 for lax anti-money laundering controls.

It also comes as BaFin tightens up oversight in the wake of the Wirecard scandal, which cost the regulator’s head, Felix Hufeld, his job. N26 says that online criminal activity has soared around the world since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and that it is working closely with the appointed commissioner.

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Article: SEC fines broker-dealer $1.5M for SARs filing failures

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SEC fines broker-dealer $1.5M for SARs filing failures

Kyle Brasseur, 12 May 2021

A Colorado-based broker-dealer will pay $1.5 million as part of a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced Wednesday for lapses in the filing of suspicious activity reports (SARs) related to the threat of cyber-breaches.

GWFS Equities, an affiliate of Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company, provides services to employer-sponsored retirement plans. The company was allegedly the victim of multiple attempts by bad actors to access the retirement accounts of individual plan participants. GWFS failed to file approximately 130 SARs related to these incidents as required, according to the SEC. Continue reading “Article: SEC fines broker-dealer $1.5M for SARs filing failures”

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