Department of Justice, 30 June 2021
The Department of Justice announced today that the Western Union Remission Fund began its third distribution of approximately $66 million in funds forfeited to the United States from the Western Union Company (Western Union) to approximately 6,000 victims located in the United States and abroad. These victims, many of whom were elderly victims of consumer fraud, will be recovering the full amount of their losses.
This is the third in a series of distributions. The first two distributions paid more than $300 million to over 142,000 victims, all of whom received full compensation for their losses. The Department of Justice anticipates authorizing compensation for more victims in the coming months. Petitions are accepted on an ongoing basis and potential victims who have not applied for compensation will be provided the opportunity to apply this year. Continue reading “Article: Department of Justice Begins Third Distribution of Forfeited Funds to Compensate Victims of Fraud Scheme Facilitated by Western Union”
The Texas Freeze was one of those unprecedented events that have the potential to upend the way things are done, in this case, in power utilities. The crisis, which saw natural gas prices rise from two-figure to four-figure numbers, prompted an in-depth look at Texas’s grid and electricity market, and measures to ensure it never happened again. Now, gas prices are on the rise again, and many of the February bills have not been paid yet. Disgruntlement is building up across the swathe of states affected by the freezing cold spell in February. In California, people are being warned their bills are going to rise higher.
As Brussels sold its new five- and thirty-year debt, four banks that had previously suspended EU bond sales were selected to manage Block’s latest trading on Tuesday.
The more one zooms into the stock market’s underpinnings, the more surreal it gets. Today, the NYSE has designated AMC as a ‘threshold security’, shining further light onto the situation with AMC shares that fail to deliver.
“No single organization can stop synthetic identity fraud on its own,” reports The Federal Reserve. “Fraudster tactics continually evolve to stay a step ahead of detection—and the most sophisticated fraudsters can operate at scale in organized crime rings, generating significant losses for the payments industry. It is imperative that payments industry stakeholders work together, share information and keep up with the threat.”
As trading platforms like Robinhood create a rise in retail investor market participation and spark a renewed interest in shares of companies dubbed “meme stocks” like GameStop (GME), BlackBerry (BB), and AMC (AMC), the world of finance is seeing an intersection with the social media sphere.
China has asked one of its biggest state-owned conglomerates to examine the finances of China Huarong Asset Management Co., people familiar with the matter said, adding a new twist to the drama that has roiled the world’s second-largest credit market for months.
The financial intelligence regulator has warned reporting entities to stay on top of their obligations, following recent changes to the AML-CTF Act that added clarity on know-your-customer requirements and banned certain types of correspondent banking.
An angry backlash is building across the middle of the U.S. as states step in to help their constituents pay billions of dollars in natural-gas bills racked up during February’s freeze.
Charles Schwab has raised margin requirements for short sellers shorting AMC and GME stock. The broker is adjusting 100% margin requirements for AMC on all long positions, and 200% on short term positions.
The global Financial Action Task Force (FATF), better known for tackling money laundering and terrorist financing, will now turn its attention to ‘environmental crime’, one of the most profitable criminal enterprises, generating around $ 110 – 280 billion in criminal gains each year. It covers a wide range of unlawful activities such as illegal logging, illegal wildlife trade and waste trafficking.
Scotland Yard announced the seizure of £114 Million ($158 million) from a suspected money-laundering operation. 
The jury in a trial involving three Teesside men facing drug dealing and money laundering charges have retired to consider their verdict.