Latest AML and financial crime news

According to the News of the World, Mazhar Majeed, the Surrey businessman at the centre of the alleged cricket corruption scandal, claimed to have opened Swiss and English bank accounts for some of the Pakistan players, that he laundered betting money through the non-league football club Croydon FC, which he owns, and that gamblers had made $1.3m (£836,000) betting on the outcome of a Test match that Pakistan unexpectedly lost to Australia in Sydney in January. He was taped saying: "I've been doing it with them, the Pakistani team, for two and a half years and we've made masses and masses of money."  More on The Guardian website here.

The fugitive businessman Asil Nadir was spending his first night for 17 years on British soil on Thursday as he prepared to fight criminal charges over his involvement in one of the country's most notorious corporate collapses.  More on the FT website here.

Twelve people are to face court accused of using stolen credit cards to buy their own songs on iTunes.  A gang is alleged to have created about 20 songs and uploaded them to be sold on the iTunes and Amazon online sites.  They are alleged to have used stolen or cloned credit cards to buy songs worth £469,000 and cream off the royalties.  More on the BBC News website here.

A pensioner who was unable to explain how he came across £500,000 in cash found stashed around his toilet cistern has been ordered to hand over the money.  The money was uncovered after Peter Wells, 70, who spent four years in jail for drug dealing, was stopped by police for a minor motoring offence in Kent.  More on the Daily Mail website here.

Organised criminals in the UK are becoming increasingly involved in financial frauds including insider share dealing that they see as lucrative and low risk, investigators have warned.  More on the FT website here.

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The Financial Services Authority has the power to prosecute money- laundering offences, the Supreme Court ruled. yesterday.  It would be "perverse" to limit the FSA's power to prosecute white-collar criminals, the Court said in the judgment.  More on Bloomberg here.

The Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, has signed a law bringing Russian banking legislation into line with recommendations made by the Financial Action Task Force.   More on the RT website here.

The latest six-monthly study by BDO shows that fraud losses in the first half of 2010 were slightly more than during the same period of 2009, which saw a further jump in fraud after steep rises in the previous two years.  The latest data show that mortgage fraud has become one of the country's most prevalent types of financial wrongdoing, costing the UK economy about £1bn a year.  More on the FT website here, and on the BDO website here.

The ringleader of a gang who laundered more than £30m of criminal cash through a network of money transfer offices was jailed for 10 years, following an investigation by HMRC.  Asif Ali, 40, of Luton, controlled a network of crooked money transfer offices which he and others used to launder more than £30m of illicit money.  More on the Manchester Evening News website here.

Two members of a 21-strong tax fraud gang have been ordered to repay a record £92.3m, the biggest ever confiscation order by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).  More on the BBC website here.

Manuel Noriega, the former military dictator of Panama, has been given a seven year prison sentence by a Paris court for laundering money from drug cartels into French bank accounts and property.  More on the FT website here.

Dominic Grieve, the Attorney General, announced on Wednesday that tough US-style anti-fraud measures in areas ranging from sentencing to agreed guilty pleas are to be considered as part of an evolving crackdown on individual and corporate financial crime.  More on the FT website here.

US authorities have charged 1,215 people with mortgage fraud in cases involving an estimated $2.3bn in losses.  The operation was co-ordinated by the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force and has resulted in the recovery of $147m since March.  More on the FT website here.

HM Revenue & Customs is coming under pressure to increase levels of prosecution for tax evasion amid fears that a steady decline in prosecutions is eroding the deterrence factor.  The number of criminal convictions for tax offences fell by 28% to 157 in the year to September 30 2009, according to figures published on Wednesday. The number of cases sent to prosecutors has declined since 2004.  More on the FT website here.

A notification was issued today on the financial sanctions pages of the Treasury website in respect of the financial measures taken in relation to Iran, specifically United Nations Security Council Resolution 1929 (2010) adopted by the United Nations on 9 June 2010.  Click here to download the notification from the Treasury website.

The SFO said on Monday that it would go ahead with theft charges against Asil Nadir if he returns to London from his native Cyprus.  Nadir has reportedly launched a new effort to return to Britain almost 20 years after overseeing one of the era's highest-profile corporate collapses, the demise of his Polly Peck fruit-to-electronics business empire.  More on the FT website here.

Officials at the European Commission have threatened to place financial penalties on France for its failure to implement anti-money laundering rules.  More on the FT website here.

Research by the Financial Times suggests that the FSA, SFO and OFT inreased their public enforcement activity in the months leading up the general election, with more cases being brought against companies and individuals than last year.  More on the FT website here.

The new coalition Government confirmed plans yesterday to form a new white collar crime agency from the SFO, FSA and OFT.  Under the reforms, the new agency will take responsibility for the investigation and prosecution of corporate crime. Companies may also be held liable for the actions of their staff in a move that would overturn current laws protecting businesses from their employees' misdemeanours.  More on the Daily Telegraph website here.

Exchange offices in the UK have stopped selling 500 euro banknotes because of their use by money launderers.  According to SOCA 90% of the notes sold in the UK are in the hands of organised crime.  More on the BBC News website here.

James Ibori, a wealthy and influential former Nigerian state governor, has been arrested in Dubai as part of British efforts to secure his extradition on charges of alleged money-laundering.  More on the FT website here.

The latest legislation aimed at combating money laundering has come into effect following its signature by the Irish President. The Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Bill 2009 transposes the third EU money laundering directive into Irish law. It also gives effect to certain recommendations of the FATF.  More on the Irish Times website here.

Royal Bank of Scotland yesterday agreed to pay $500m (£337m) in fines as part of a settlement with the Department of Justice and admitted that the former ABN AMRO, now part of RBS, willfully and systematically violated US sanctions against Iran, Libya, the Sudan and Cuba.  More on the FT website here.

Scottish prosecutors have seized £6.5m from Anatoly Kazachkov, a Russian businessman who allegedly tried to use a Scottish bank to launder money.  This is the largest single seizure of money to date by Scottish prosecutors using proceeds of crime legislation.  More on The Guardian website here.

Identity fraud has climbed sharply, according to latest figures from CIFAS, which indicate that scams involving impersonation rose by a fifth during the first quarter of this year - even though the overall level of reported fraud remained almost constant.  More on the FT website here, and on the CIFAS website here.

The FATF has released a status report on the policy work and consultation being undertaken in relation to proliferation financing.  Download the report from the FATF website here.

Manuel Noriega, the former Panamanian dictator and convicted drug smuggler, faced fresh money laundering charges in France on Tuesday, having been extradited from the US.  More on the FT website here.

An article in the Sunday Telegraph outlines the plans of the Conservative party to create an Economic Crime Agency (ECA), which would take over the "work of investigation and prosecuting serious crime" done by the Fraud Serious Fraud Office, the Prosecution Service, the Revenue & Customs Division and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).  More on the Sunday Telegraph website here.

The Indian government has launched an enquiry into the affairs of the Indian Premier League (IPL) amid parliamentary allegations of money-laundering through the competition.  More on The Guardian website here.

French prosecutors have launched a tax evasion investigation based on data stolen by an ex-employee of HSBC's private client bank in Switzerland.  More on the BBC News website here.

The following key themes are highlighted:

• most respondents were in favour of the risk based approach and would like to see it extended
• there is evidence that simplification provisions are simply not simplifying the process
• there are mixed views on whether the regime is proportionate or effective.

The Serious Fraud Office increased its conviction rate in cases involving complex financial crime to 91% cent last year, with the number of defendants convicted in prosecutions brought by the SFO rising from 78% cent in 2008-09. The SFO has also dramatically increased the amount of money recovered as a result of its investigations.  More on the Times website here.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) yesterday charged seven people with 13 charges in respect of conspiracy to deal on inside information obtained by the defendants from two major investment banks. One defendant has additionally been charged with an offence in relation to money laundering. A warrant for the arrest of another person in connection with this investigation has been issued.  The charges are based on allegations that cover a two-year-period and involve alleged unlawful profits of about £2.5 million.  More on the FSA website here.

Three UK-based executives Alstom, including the country head, have been questioned and nine addresses have been searched in the SFO's biggest operation to date- and searched nine addresses in its operation to date over alleged bribery and corruption.  It is reported that those arrested were Stephen Burgin, Alstom's UK president, Robert Purcell, finance director, and Altan Cledwyn-Davies, legal director.  More on the FT website here. 

Three members of the Board of ALSTOM in the UK have been arrested on suspicion of bribery and corruption, conspiracy to pay bribes, money laundering and false accounting, and have been taken to police stations to be interviewed by the Serious Fraud Office.  Code-named Operation Ruthenium, the investigation by the SFO is into the suspected payment of bribes by companies within the ALSTOM group in the UK.   It is suspected that bribes have been paid in order to win contracts overseas, and that this has involved associated money laundering and other offences.  More on the SFO website here.

The Treasury has launched a public consultation on the Terrorist Asset-Freezing Bill, which was published in draft on 5 February 2010. The consultation document sets out the Government's approach to terrorist asset freezing and its proposals for more permanent terrorist asset freezing legislation. 

The Government is committed to maintaining an effective, proportionate and fair terrorist asset freezing regime that meets UN obligations, protects national security by disrupting flows of terrorist finance, and safeguards human rights.  This public consultation will play an important role in ensuring the new legislation is subject to proper scrutiny and that Parliament's consideration of the proposals in due course is informed by external views and evidence.

A link to the public consultation document can be found on 'Consultations & legislation' pages of the Treasury website at the following url address:

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/consult_terrorist_assetfreezing_bill.htm

The public consultation document itself can be found at the following url address:

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/consult_terrorist_assetfreezing_bill.pdf

Comments on this consultation should be sent by 18 June 2010 to:

Asset Freezing Unit 3/12

HM Treasury

1 Horse Guards Road

London

SW1A 2HQ

or by email to   <mailto:AFUconsultation@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.uk> AFUconsultation@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.uk.

If you have any questions about the content of this consultation paper, you can also contact the Asset Freezing Unit on + 44 (0)20 7270 5454.

Wells Fargo is close to settling claims that lapses in anti-money laundering controls allowed Mexico's ruthless drug cartels to get cash into and out of the country.  Talks with the US Department of Justice are aimed at ending a controversy that made headlines when Martin Woods, in the London office of the Wells Fargo subsidiary Wachovia, claimed he had been demoted for raising his concerns.  More on The Independent website here.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) published its Financial Risk Outlook (FRO) on 10th March, outlining the main risks and issues present in its operating environment, affecting firms, markets and consumers.  This year's FRO is divided into four sections:

• macroeconomic background and outlook
• financial stability and prudential risks and issues
• market risks and issues
• retail conduct risks and issues

Download the report from the FSA website here.

A gang of 12 men smuggled cannabis worth £62m to the UK hidden in boxes of flowers from Holland.  The drugs were smuggled through ports in Essex and Hull and the haul was unpacked and stored in lock-up garages in south-west London and Surrey. The drugs operation, which used a bureau de change in east London to launder profits, was cracked after a 14-month undercover police operation, the Southwark Crown Court jury heard.  More on the BBC website here.

A group of fraudsters who formed part of a criminal gang that used a firm of solicitors to con high street banks out of almost £8m have been jailed at Southwark Crown Court on 1st March.    More on Money Marketing here.

The OFT is consulting on its future approach to supervising estate agents and certain credit lenders under the Money Laundering Regulations 2007.  It is also examining the appropriate fee structure for these businesses.  More on the OFT website here.

US lawmakers are seeking to expand the reach of anti-money laundering regulations after a Senate investigation found that hundreds of millions of dollars in suspect foreign funds have been able to land in the US.  The funds, from allegedly corrupt foreign officials, have entered the US with the help of American lawyers, lobbyists, bankers and real estate agents, according to the inquiry.  More on the FT website here.

Banks could in future have to compensate customers whose transactions are delayed by anti money-laundering procedures that are poorly applied. In the case of Shah and another v HSBC Private Bank (UK) Ltd, the Court of Appeal has ruled that Jayesh Shah and Shaleetha Mahabeer have the right to challenge HSBC Private Bank for having delayed a $28 million transfer.  More on the Banking Times website here.

One of BAE's former confidential agents, Count Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly, was charged by the SFO on Friday with bribery over arms deals. He was remanded in custody in London.  However, the attorney general, Lady Scotland, has not yet agreed to let the case proceed.  More on the Guardian website here.

Fraud costs the economy more than £600 per person each year - double the previous estimate - according to official research published by the NFA on Friday that most likely still understates the problem.   More on the FT website here.

Serious fraud cases totalling £1.3bn reached the courts last year - the highest for 22 years, according to figures released on Monday.  The latest KPMG Fraud Barometer showed that last year 31 cases of mortgage fraud totalling £77m reached court compared with 25 cases worth £36m in 2008 - the result of falls in the housing market exposing scams such as buy-to-let properties being acquired by criminal gangs.  More on the FT website here, and a link to the KPMG website here.

A Chinese court has sentenced a former Supreme Court judge to life in prison for taking bribes and other corruption charges. Huang Song was convicted of accepting 3.9m yuan($570,000; £348,000) in bribes while he was deputy head of the Supreme Court.  More on the BBC News website here.

Renukanth Subramaniam, the founder member of DarkMarket, was facing jail on Thursday.  DarkMarket was an online marketplace where stolen credit card details could be posted for sale, and the administrators "rated" the sellers of the data in much the same way as purchasers on eBay and Amazon do.  More on the FT website here.

The former chief of Mabey and Johnson, the construction company, is to be prosecuted by the SFO over alleged corruption, in a landmark case likely to be closely watched by other directors facing similar troubles.  The charge will be false accounting and breaching UN sanctions on Iraq.  More on the FT website here.

The tentacles of the mafia are spreading to the UK, as British cities become key locations in the mob's vital money-laundering operations, according to Italy's leading expert in organised crime, Francesco Forgione.  More on the Observer website here.

France moved on Monday to defuse a diplomatic row with Switzerland over tax evasion when it agreed to give back files on bank accounts that had been stolen from HSBC in Geneva.  The prosecutor's office in Nice, in liaison with the French justice ministry, said it would "very rapidly" comply with a Swiss demand for the return of the stolen files which the French tax authorities have used to launch a crackdown on tax evaders.  More on the FT website here.

The former governor of Nigeria's oil-rich Delta State has been cleared of 170 charges of corruption - involving the laundering of millions of dollars. The federal court in Asaba said there was no clear evidence against James Ibori, governor from 1999 to 2007.  More on the BBC News website.

A Colombian man who ran a pyramid scheme that defrauded thousands of people of their life savings has received a 30-year jail term. David Murcia Guzman was sentenced after being found guilty in August of money-laundering and illicit enrichment.  More on the BBC News website here.

A review launched by the government in the wake of high-profile match-fixing allegations is set to recommend the creation of a single unit dedicated to investigating corruption in sports betting.  The review panel, chaired by the former Liverpool and Premier League chief executive Rick Parry, is believed to have concluded that a single integrity unit with investigative powers is the only appropriate response to the growing threat.  But there is a debate over whether to house the new unit within the Gambling Commission, the regulator set up two years ago by an act of parliament, or establish a standalone unit based on the British Horseracing Authority's state-of-the-art operation.  More on The Guardian website here.

A man suspected of being one of the underworld's most prolific bankers, and is believed to have a client list ranging from British gangsters to al-Qaeda members, has been arrest in India.  Naresh Jain, desccribed as the "Hawala King" for his alleged dominance of the secret informal banking system used by terrorists and gangsters to bypass legitimate channels, was being tracked by detectives in Britain, the United States, Italy and Dubai when he was seized in New Delhi on Sunday.  More on the Daily Telegraph website here.

The Vatican Bank is under investigation for alleged involvement in a money-laundering scheme using accounts at one of Italy's largest banks, according to a weekly investigative magazine.  Panorama reports that officials from the Bank of Italy's Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) have identified transactions worth up to ?180 million (£160 million) that allegedly violated anti-money-laundering regulations in accounts held at a UniCredit branch in Rome.  More on the Times website here.

Three men were charged with conspiracy to defraud, deception and money laundering offences on 3rd December at the City of London Magistrates Court. This followed searches announced yesterday at 19 properties throughout England.  More information on the SFO website here.

In a ruling made public on Monday by Spain's High Court, Judge Baltazar Garzon ordered Lucia Hiriart and three Chilean bankers, together with Chile's second largest bank, Banco de Chile, to pay $77 million as a bond while his investigation proceeds.  More on the Reuters website here.

Action by a Swiss judge to order the confiscation of bank accounts held in countries outside Switzerland set a legal precedent that will help in the international fight against corruption, legal experts said.  Yves Aeschlimann, a magistrate in Geneva, found Abba Abacha, son of Sani Abacha, the late Nigerian dictator, guilty of graft, sentenced him to a suspended prison term and ordered confiscation of $350m in funds held in Luxembourg and the Bahamas. The funds had already been frozen in the course of the investigation.  Enrico Monfrini, a Geneva lawyer who acts for the Nigerian government, said the demand for seizure of funds outside Switzerland was a legal first for the country. More on the FT website here.

Hundreds of wealthy Americans with offshore UBS accounts to be handed over by the Swiss government to the US authorities are alleged to have used false documents, sham entities and other fraudulent methods to evade paying tax.  About 250 of the 4,450 names to be handed over to the Internal Revenue Service, the US tax authority, used a "scheme of lies" and are suspected of committing serious fraud, the Swiss Justice Department said. The rest are suspected of simpler tax evasion.   More on the FT website here.

Crown Prosecution Service lawyers are receiving personal bonuses linked to their success in confiscating criminal assets, according to The Times. About £1.37 million has been paid in personal bonuses to staff over the past two financial years, the CPS disclosed under Freedom of Information legislation. It did not say what proportion was for hitting confiscation targets, but the disclosure will add to concern among lawyers that providing financial incentives to prosecutors could undermine the criminal justice system.  More on The Times website here.

The UK's Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies have been told to improve standards of regulation, and find new methods of raising tax. A government-commissioned report suggests changes offshore centres need make to meet international standards.  Michael Foot, the report's author, said that several jurisdictions had "a good story to tell, but others had more to do on regulation and tackling financial crime".   More on the BBC website here, and download the full report from the Treasury website here.

HM Treasury has published a Call for Evidence to launch a Review of the Money Laundering Regulations that it is undertaking, assisted by colleagues in the Better Regulation Executive. The aim is to capture views on how the regulations are designed as well as how they work in practice,  in terms of how effective and proportionate they are and how much engagement there has been. The review will focus on the full scope of the 2007 Regulations  (not simply changes made in 2007), on guidance, and on other communication and engagement with stakeholders. The review will also consider supervisory arrangements, industry practice and the customer experience under the regulations.

Respondents are, of course, be free to make comments on any area of the regime under the 2007 Regulations, but HMT is not reviewing the wider operation of the separate suspicious activity reporting or consent regimes.

The Call for Evidence closes on Friday 11th December 2009.

HMT hopes to announce an analysis of the evidence, and its response to it, in 2010.

The details of the Review and the Call for Evidence, which is in two parts, are available on the HM Treasury website here.

Police in Leicestershire are using online auction site eBay to help reclaim the value of goods that have been confiscated from criminals. The six-month long trial scheme will offer anything from home cinema sets to computer consoles, all confiscated under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA).  It is hoped any money raised will be split between the force and government.  More on the BBC website here.

Analysis of the staff frauds filed during the 12 months from July 2008 to June 2009 reveal some interesting shifts in the frauds identified by CIFAS. Of particular note are:

• Dishonest actions by staff to obtain benefits by theft and deception increased by 69% in the first half of 2009 compared with the last half of 2008
• Dramatic increases in the numbers of women being identified as staff fraudsters

More on the CIFAS website here.

The JMLSG is asking for comments on its proposed amendments to the Money Laundering Guidance, looking at areas of omission, provisions that are difficult to implement or effect, and provisions that no longer reflect current practice.  Comments to be received by 21st October.  A link to the cover note is here, and to Part II of the Guidance here.

The global financial crisis has exposed the need for governments and companies to tackle subtle and damaging forms of graft such as nepotism and over-aggressive lobbying, a report by a leading independent watchdog claims on Wednesday.  The fallout from the credit crunch has laid bare failings across public institutions and business relating to anti-graft safeguards in hitherto obscure areas such as internal controls and conflicts of interest, says the research by Berlin-based Transparency International.  More on the FT website - including a link to the report - here.

Britain's wealthiest criminals are managing to keep hold of the vast bulk of their fortunes even after they have been convicted and imprisoned, according to Home Office research.  The report shows the amount of money seized from criminals is a small fraction of initial police assessments of how much they earned from illegal activities. In the year to 2007, only £55.6m ($90m) was recovered in 3,604 cases - even though the individuals concerned were first assessed to have made £1bn in total.  More on the FT website here.

The Jersey FSC published a Consultation Paper on 7th September that sets out proposed amendments to the Money Laundering (Jersey) Order 2008 (the "Order").  The Order requires businesses within its scope to apply customer due diligence measures, to keep records, and to have policies and procedures in place to prevent and detect money laundering and terrorist financing.  Businesses that are covered by the Order include banks, investment businesses, trust companies, lawyers, accountants, and estate agents.

The main purpose of the draft Money Laundering (Amendment No. 4) (Jersey) Order 200- ("Amendment No. 4") is to deal with some of the technical points that have been raised in a recent review of Jersey's framework to prevent and detect money laundering and terrorist financing by the International Monetary Fund (the "IMF").  That review has now been completed and the IMF's final report is expected shortly.  More on the Jersery FSC website here.

BAE Systems is negotiating a possible settlement with the SFO over bribery and corruption allegations that could see Europe's largest defence company pay a fine but admit no guilt. Several outcomes are understood to be on the table as the SFO looks to wrap up investigations into BAE arms sales in Africa and Eastern Europe.   More on The Times website here.

A new agency with beefed-up powers to tackle fraud and other financial crime could be created within the first year of a Conservative government, City lawyers believe.  The move would lead to the closure of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the scrapping of the existing patchwork system of bodies pursuing white-collar crime, to be replaced with a new body, possibly called the Financial Crime Agency.  More on The Times website here.

Banks in the UAE had until Sunday to disclose details of accounts held by foreign officials and politicians as the Central Bank tightens regulations on money laundering.  The move, which brings the UAE into line with standards in other international financial centres, follows recent high-profile cases involving alleged fraud in the region and internationally.  More on The National website here.

James Davis, the chief financial officer at the Stanford Financial Group, on Thursday pleaded guilty to charges that he helped Sir Allen Stanford, the company's billionaire founder, in an alleged $7bn Ponzi scheme.  Mr Davis, 60, pleaded guilty to three felony counts, including fraud and obstruction of justice, for which he could face a maximum prison term of 30 years. He also agreed to forfeit $1bn.  More on the FT website here.

Mortgage providers may face further losses as a result of action by criminal gangs who targeted the home loans market at the height of the boom, experts in countering fraud have warned.  More on the FT website here.

If you are interested in undertaking the ICA Advanced Certificate in Compliance or the ICA Diploma in Compliance, Anti-Money Laundering or Financial Crime Prevention then register for the free briefing session taking place in London on 16 September 2009, 10am-1pm.

The session which gives an overview of the programmes will also include:

• a keynote address on compliance as a source of competitive advantage
• case study examples
• a free copy of a recent compliance salary survey
• a free copy of 'The role of the compliance officer' article
• an opportunity to meet with ICA representatives and ask questions
  

  IMLPO members are entitled to a 10% discount on all ICA courses!  Click here to register for the free briefing session or here for information on ICA programmes. 

Britain assumed day-to-day control of the Turks and Caicos Islands last week amid allegations of corruption. Local government in the islands, 500 miles southeast of Florida, will be suspended for up to two years while the overseas territory's affairs are put back in good order, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said.   More on The Times website here.

An organised crime boss has failed to pay a penny of the £3.26million he was ordered to hand over seven years ago.  Raymond May, 53, was alleged in evidence cited in a Court of Appeal ruling to be a "massive" cocaine importer suspected of involvement in several murders. He was ordered to hand over his criminal profits in 2002 after being convicted for his part in a £12million VAT fraud.  Since then he has refused to hand over any cash despite owning a 20-room house in Bromley valued at £2.5million which has an underground swimming pool. He also has a £175,000 yacht and four other properties. 

The case has raised serious concerns about the performance of the Government's Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office. It has failed to enforce a default penalty imposed after May's conviction, which could send him to jail for six years for non-payment, and is accused by some connected to the case of incompetence and bureaucratic mismanagement.  More on the Evening Standard website here.

Britain aims to become the most hostile country in the world to fraudsters, the government's top law officer has pledged, in an eye-catching riposte to growing criticism about the lack of big financial crime cases being mounted.  Baroness Scotland, attorney-general, said domestic investigation agencies would soon be giving their assertive US counterparts a "real run for their money", in spite of London's failure to bring down large companies or a high-profile individual such as Bernard Madoff.  More on the FT website here.

SOCA intends to reject a recommendation that it should provide solicitors and other professionals with feedback when they make suspicious activity reports (SARs).  A House of Lords committee last week asked SOCA to provide "increased levels of case-by-case feedback" to professionals making SARs. 

However, SOCA said that the "wide range of activity around any one SAR and the variety and number of end-users makes it impractical and unjustifiable to offer universal feedback on a case-by-case basis."

The number of fraud victims have increased by more than 40 per cent in the first half of 2009, according to a recent report by CIFAS, the UK's Fraud Prevention Service.  More on the FT website here, and on the CIFAS website here.

Draft legislation was published yesterday by Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern which will lead to the transposition of the third EU anti-money-laundering directive into Irish law.  This will mean a move towards a risk-based approach to the prevention of money-laundering and terrorist financing.  More on the Irish Times website here.

The House of Lords EU Committee has published its report Money laundering and the financing of terrorism, calling on the UK Government to investigate how piracy and laundering the proceeds of crime contribute to the financing of terrorism.  The committee condemns the current Government attitude as complacent:  they believe that the reason no link between the proceeds of piracy and terrorism has been found is simply that none has been sought.

The Committee also expresses concern that the private sector - who, it points out, are paying large sums of money to make SARs to SOCA - are not given adequate information about how and where the information they provide is used, and the report calls for case-by-case feedback.

The report can be downloaded online here, and the evidence presented to the Committee here, and printed copies of both the report and the evidence can be obtained from The Stationery Office:  House of Lords EU Committee, 19th report of 2008/9, HL Paper 132.

The Finnish government has announced that it is setting up a working group to consider changes in legislation against money laundering.  The announcement follows a report by the OECD that Finland's current Act on Preventing and Clearing Money Laundering does not cover all forms of laundering.  For example, it is impossible to convict a money launderer's cohabitant caught spending unlawfully gained money to cover household needs.  The working group is to convene in August and is scheduled to hand in its report by the end of February 2010.

The SFO's financial crime investigators are targeting the private equity, insurance and hedge fund industries in an effort to counter criticism of their failure to mount more big City cases, according to its Director, Richard Alderman.  More on the FT website here, and download the SFO's annual report here.

At least 30,000 criminals are members of organised gangs, including teenage children, a Government report has disclosed.  It is estimated that around 4,000 gangs are costing the UK economy up to £40 bn a year.  More on the Daily Telegraph website here, and download the Home Office and Cabinet Office report here.

The OFT will launch registration on 31 July 2009. Businesses supervised by the OFT must be on the register within six months of the start of registration; that is by the end of January 2010.   More on the RICS website here.

Two Northern Ireland men arrested in connection with one of the largest ever international tobacco smuggling scams have been released on bail. A third man from England is still in custody.   More on the Belfast Telegraph website here.

Football is being used as a vehicle for money laundering, according to a report from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which warns that football is at risk from criminals buying clubs, transferring players, and betting on the sport.  More on the story on the BBC website here, and download the FATF report here.

Cheers erupted in the Manhattan federal courthouse on Monday as Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum possible under law, for running a $65bn Ponzi scheme that has devastated thousands of investors around the world.  More on the FT website here.

Japan's financial regulator has banned Citibank from selling retail financial products for a month after finding the US group had failed to take sufficient measures to prevent suspicious transactions, including money laundering.  More on the FT website here.

Keith McCarthy, head of anti-corruption and proceeds of crime at the Serious Fraud Office, said on Monday that the organisation would use "all available tools" - such as email monitoring and phone tapping - to improve its intelligence-gathering.  More on the FT website here.

Big US companies ranging from Wall Street banks to insurers, investment groups and General Electric on Wednesday faced fundamental changes in the business environment as President Barack Obama proposed what could be the biggest regulatory revamp since the 1930s.  More on the FT website here.

A London gang will be sentenced today after being involved in drug smuggling and money laundering. More than £5 million in cash was seized by police.  The Serious Organised Crime Agency, which investigated the seven men, said it was the largest cash seizure it had ever made.  More on thelondonpaper.com here.

Britain is preparing to suspend the constitution of the Turks and Caicos Islands as a long-awaited inquiry is expected to find evidence that the country has been plagued by endemic corruption.  More on the Observer website here.

The private sector uses bribes to influence public policy, laws and regulations, believe over half of those polled for 2009 Global Corruption Barometer. The Barometer, a global public opinion survey released on 4th June by Transparency International (TI), also found that half of respondents expressed a willingness to pay a premium to buy from corruption-free companies.  Download the full report from the TI website here.

British-linked businesses are the prime foreign targets of US corporate bribery probes, according to research published on Monday that highlights how UK companies and executives are being caught up in Washington's purge on international corporate corruption.   More on the FT website here.

The Justice Department is increasing its prosecutions of alleged acts of foreign bribery by U.S. corporations, forcing them to take costly steps to defend against scrutiny.  The crackdown under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA -- a post-Watergate law largely dormant for decades -- now extends across five continents and penetrates entire industries, including energy and medical devices. Among the companies currently under Justice Department review are Sun Microsystems and Royal Dutch Shell, according to the companies' disclosures.  More on the Wall Street Journal website here.

Two investment consultants were arrested yesterday by police investigating an international fraud involving potential losses of £250 million.   City of London fraud squad detectives detained John Anderson, 43, and Kenneth Peacock, 40, in dawn raids on addresses in London and Surrey. They have been questioned on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud, money laundering and fraud by misrepresentation. Police fear that a third suspect, who has not been named, has fled overseas.  More on The Times website here.

One in seven employees at large UK companies feels that using cash bribes or personal gifts is an acceptable way to win business in a tough economy, according to new research that reveals widespread tolerance of unscrupulous behaviour.  The survey, released on Wednesday by Ernst & Young, shows that senior managers may be cutting ethical corners as they struggle to stabilise their businesses amid the worst economic downturn since the early 1990s. More than 60 per cent of UK respondents said they expected fraud to increase over the next few years - one of the highest percentages in Europe.  More on the FT website here, and download the survey itself on the E&Y website here.

The first man ever to be extradited from Colombia has admitted 11 charges relating to £250,000 money laundering and the use of fake travel documents, at Southwark Crown Court.  More on the BBC website here.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office has charged the four Swiss and three Italians as well as a Spaniard and a French citizen of supporting the so-called cigarette mafia, Italy-based Camorra and Sacra Corona Unita.  Nine defendants are facing charges of laundering  more than SFr1 billion ($880 million).  More on swissinfo.ch here.

The FSA said earlier this week that many small and medium-sized financial institutions have insufficient command and controls to prevent them doing business with those on the Government's blacklist of financial sanctions.  Leading financial institutions were also said to be "falling short".  More on the Times website here.  Download the FSA's full report here.

Brussels is seeking new talks with Switzerland and four other smaller non-EU countries in an effort to include them in tax information-sharing and anti-fraud cooperation, a senior official said on Tuesday.  More on the FT website here.

Public anger over the financial crisis will force companies to reveal frauds that they have long hidden out of embarrassment or expediency, a former top anti-fraud official has claimed. Robert Wardle, former director of the Serious Fraud Office, said businesses' long-standing instinct to cover up frauds would have to change amid popular dismay over the economic damage wrought by rogue traders and fraudsters such as Bernard Madoff.  More on the FT website here.

The only person so far to have been found guilty of an offence connected to the Northern Bank cash centre robbery has been sentenced to 10 years in jail. Financial adviser Ted Cunningham was found guilty of laundering more than £3m in cash from the £26.5m Belfast cash centre robbery.  More on the BBC website here.

A Member of the European Parliament and his assistant have both been charged with false accounting and money laundering after an investigation into claims that they misused thousands of pounds of expenses. More on The Times website here.

The Serious Fraud Office has established a whistleblowers' helpline for City workers in response to rising levels of fraud emerging as a result of the banking crisis.  More on the Guardian website here.

Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's ultra-nationalist foreign minister, has been questioned by police for the third time since taking office last week, over allegations of bribery and money-laundering.  More on the FT website here.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has removed all four countries from its blacklist of tax havens.  The blacklist published last week included Costa Rica, Malaysia, the Philippines and Uruguay.  OECD chief Angel Gurria said in Paris that all four countries had now agreed to adopt its regulations.  More on the BBC website here.

Mary Schapiro, the new chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, is looking at addressing the agency's limited resources by enlisting more private sector help to uncover fraud.   More on the FT website here.

On Thursday 19th March 2009 the UK Attorney General, Baroness Scotland QC, released the first National Fraud Strategy, which aims to crackdown on the fraudsters who cost the UK £14 billion a year, by strengthening the response to their activities and providing real help, protection and support to individual consumers and businesses.  The strategy document can be downloaded here.

A police raid on safe deposit boxes has revealed an "Aladdin's cave of criminality" that spans murder, money laundering, paedophilia, people trafficking and drug running. More than 3,500 boxes were raided by officers from the Metropolitan Police's Specialist Crime Directorate in June last year. The contents of some of the boxes are being investigated by the Met's Counter Terrorism Command.  More on the Times website here.

An Irish businessman has become the first person to be convicted in connection with the Northern Bank robbery, which netted the IRA more than £26m.  Ted Cunningham, 60, a Cork-based financial adviser, was found guilty last week of laundering more than £3m connected with the heist - the biggest cash robbery in the UK.   More on the Guardian website here.

Allied Irish Banks was revealed as the victim of a £56 million alleged fraud yesterday as the Serious Fraud Office announced it had raided three addresses in Central London as part of a formal investigation.  More on The Times website here.

The Government has sets out an account of its counter-terrorism policies.  The strategy - known as CONTEST - provides a detailed account of the history of the terrorist threat to the UK, and explains what led to the emergence of the current threat. It also theorises as to how the situation may evolve in the coming years.  Full details on the Home Office website here.

Online banking fraud losses in the UK reached £52.5 million in 2008, a whopping 132% increase on the previous year's tally of £22.6 million, according to annual fraud figures released by payments association APACS.  More on Finextra here.

Judges will be given sweeping new powers to compensate the victims of serial fraudsters under reforms introduced by the attorney general, Baroness Scotland, who on Wednesday outlined a package of measures aimed at streamlining the most costly prosecutions and returning more money directly to fraud victims. Among the more significant changes will be to give Crown Court judges the power to compensate all victims of convicted swindlers, even when their losses do not form part of a criminal case.  More on the FT website here.

On 25th February 2009 the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) issued a statement drawing attention to deficiencies in several jurisdictions of concern.  Full details of the jurisdictions and the Treasury's warning are on the Treasury website here. 

Global Witness, the human rights and enrivonmental campaign group, has published a report, Undue Diligence, in which it accuses some of the world's biggest banks - including Banco Santander and Barclays - of dealing with some of the world's most corrupt regimes.  More information on The Times website here.

Nine people were arrested on 10th March in raids by police investigating a suspected £40 million mortgage fraud. Officers from City of London Police fraud squad are searching six homes and three business premises in southern England. The alleged fraud involves the purchase of 500 properties between 2005 and 2007 and the operations of a now defunct firm Eastbourne Financial Services.  More on The Times website here.

Senior officers revealed a 63 per cent increase in reported financial crime compared to this time last year, with more than 10,000 victims across UK at a cost running into "hundreds and hundreds of millions of pounds".   More on the Daily Telegraph website here.

The Financial Services Authority should be overhauled and might even be replaced, according to a review commissioned by the Conservative party.  In the review of financial services regulation, Sir James Sassoon calls for "fundamental reform" of the tripartite - Treasury, FSA and Bank of England - regulatory structure.  More on the FT website here.

A US State Department report has linked the hawala system of money transfer "directly" to terrorist financing in India.  The US has urged India to co-operate with international initiatives to check money laundering and strengthen its own control regime.  Download the report from the US Department of State website here.

As many as 52,000 American customers hid UBS accounts from the authorities in violation of tax laws, a US government lawsuit against the Swiss bank alleged on Thursday.  The Department of Justice filed a suit seeking to force UBS to disclose the holders of accounts with about $14.8bn in assets.  More information on the FT website here.

Sir Allen Stanford, the billionaire Texan and cricket bankroller, was charged by US securities regulators on Tuesday over a "massive" investment fraud through his Antigua-based offshore bank.  More on the FT website here.

Richard Alderman, the director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), confirms  that there will be investigations into at least six cases of alleged swindling by financial institutions linked to the credit crunch, including banks.  The SFO has launched an inquiry into the UK operations of AIG, the US insurance company, in co-operation with the American authorities and has announced an investigation into the British activities of Bernard Madoff, the American fund manager who is accused of a $50billion fraud.   More about the SFO's plans for the future in The Times here.

The trial of Ted Cunningham, the Cork businessman charged with money laundering in the Republic of Ireland, has been told that he knew the bags of sterling found at his home came from the Northern Bank robbery, the UK's biggest bank heist.  More on the Financial Times website here.

Dr Bernard Herdan CB has been appointed as Chief Executive of the National Fraud Strategic Authority (NFSA), Baroness Scotland, the Attorney  General, announced on 6th February.  He will take up the post on 1st April, succeeding interim chief executive Sandra Quinn, who is currently on secondment from the FSA.  Full press release from the NFSA here.

The FSA has been forced to publicly defend its decision to bar one of Lithuania's largest banks from opening a branch in the UK.   Bankas Snoras, which was first refused a UK licence in February 2008, claims it was discriminated against and that the FSA's reservations about anti-money laundering and financial crime controls at the Vilnius-based bank are unjustified.   More on The Times website here.

The recession may be "deeper and more prolonged than expected", with continuing pressure on a weakened banking sector, the housing market and an upsurge in fraud to look forward to over the coming months, according to the latest review of conditions by the Financial Services Authority.  More on the Independent website here.

Senegal's former prime minister is facing charges of taking part in a money laundering scheme with an unnamed African head of state. The former prime minister denies the charges which his opposition party says are meant to silence political challengers ahead of March municipal elections.  More information on Voice of America website here.

A police campaign targeting people living lavish lifestyles on the proceeds of crime and money laundering has begun in Sussex.  People are urged to report their suspicions about apparently wealthy people with no legitimate income.  More on the BBC News website here.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has today fined Aon Limited (Aon Ltd) £5.25 million for failing to take reasonable care to establish and maintain effective systems and controls to counter the risks of bribery and corruption associated with making payments to overseas firms and individuals.    Full information on the FSA website here.

The House of Lords EU Committee have launched an inquiry into EU and international cooperation to prevent money laundering and the financing of terrorism.  The inquiry, which will be undertaken by the Lords EU Sub-Committee on Home Affairs, will look at the role of the EU and it member states in global efforts to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. They will consider the level of international cooperation in detecting and preventing money laundering operations. More information on the parliament.uk website here.

The report includes 42 Australian case studies such as: money laundering executed via online betting; students who laundered money in order to receive tax concessions; the use of a money remitter in an attempted people-smuggling operation; the uncovering of a Russian bride scam; and the use of grandchildren's bank accounts in a money laundering and large-scale cocaine importation operation.

The Serious Fraud Office has called for bankers and other potential whistleblowers in the City to come forward with evidence as the credit crisis uncovers financial crime and creates opportunities for an increase in scams. Full article on the Independent website here.

Jonathan Krestin, the managing partner at Butcher Burns, a commercial and property firm of solicitors, has been fined £5,000 on one count of money-laundering at Isleworth Crown Court.  An investigation by HMRC showed that Krestin transferred 14,000 Euro from the account of a client to an Italian account of the client's mistress, while knowing or suspecting the monies to be criminal property.  More information on Wired-gov here.

British anti-corruption investigators have won access to Swiss bank files in an expanding probe into alleged bribery by BAE Systems in a deal involving the abortive £1.1bn ($1.64bn) 2001 sale of fighter aircraft to the Czech Republic.  More information on the FT website here.

Investigators acting for British taxpayers have won the legal right to recover an estimated £200m in unpaid VAT which is sitting in the First Curaçao International Bank (FCIB), which is at the centre of an international fraud inquiry.  Full story in the Sunday Times here. 

Detectives trying to recover the proceeds of the fraud committed by John Darwin, the "missing canoeist", and his wife believe the original £250,000 may ultimately have become £1 million after the Darwins used it to fund a series of property deals.  More on The Times website here.

The failure to recognise the importance of protecting real-money value in virtual worlds has led to an escalation in world fraud that threatens one billion users globally, says the European Network and Information Security Agency.  More information and a link to the report on Finextra here.

The February IMLPO members' meeting will include a speaker on this topic.

Police forces across England and Wales will receive nearly £6m this quarter from funds seized from criminals - a substantial increase over the same quarter last year when police received just under £4m.   More information on the Home Office website here.

The Federal Reserve is taking action against Dresdner Bank AG's New York branch for allegedly violating US federal and state anti-money laundering laws. More information on Marketwatch here.

The FSA has fined Sindicatum Holdings Limited (SHL) £49,000 and its MLRO, Michael Wheelhouse, £17,500 for not having adequate AML systems and controls in place for verifying and recording clients' identities. This is the first time the FSA has fined a money laundering reporting officer.  More information on the FSA website here.

The City of London Police's economic crime department is targeting financial institutions as part of an effort to expand its team of officers and analysts.  The  force hopes to attract banking specialists as part of a drive to recruit at least another 15 analysts, forensic accountants and other specialists, to add to 33 posts already created.  More information here on the FT website.

A new police unit is set to launch in 2009 to help fight cybercrime and and online offences.  Click here for full details of the Police Central e-crime Unit (PCeU) on Finextra.

A Staffordshire man who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to laundering £6.3 million from the proceeds of crime has been given a two year jail sentence at Birmingham Crown Court.  Full story on the COI NDS website here.

An article in the Observer explains the latest Mafia scam in Italy, involving illegal bakeries.  Click here.

Yeh Sheng-mao, who served as director of Taiwan's Bureau of Investigation for more than six years until he retired in July, is facing a probe into the alleged money-laundering scandal implicating former president Chen Shui-bian and his family.  Story on Nasdaq here.

Today's Times includes an article on the US State Department's annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, which identifies the UK as a "jurisdiction of primary concern".  Click here for the full article.

All Accounting Services Providers (ASPs) - ie anyone who provides accountancy and/or tax services who is not already supervised by the FSA - must be registered with HMRC by 1st October.   This includes such people as farm secretaries - click here for information.

 Click here for link to the HMRC website.