Latest AML and financial crime news

Russia has criminalized paying bribes abroad, a problem than anti-corruption analysts said gave Russian business an unfair global competitive advantage.

President Dmitry Medvedev announced the signing into law of the Anti-Bribery Convention of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Wednesday.  More on the RIANovosti website here.

In a report, the Science and Technology Select Committee says that the "increasing proportion of economic activity" taking place online means malware poses a growing threat and recommends that the Government launch an awareness-raising campaign.  The MPs argue that 80% of protection against cyber-attack comes down to routine IT hygiene but there is no single place for people to get advice on this and many sources are "jargon filled".  More on Finextra here.

The FSA has fined Greenlight Capital trader and compliance officer Alexander Ten-Holter £130,000 for failing to make "reasonable" enquiries before being ordered to sell the firm's shareholding in Punch Taverns.  He has also been banned from performing compliance and oversight and money laundering reporting functions, after the regulator found he had not made any enquiries into whether the call had been made because of the receipt of insider information.  More on the Money Marketing website here.

HSBC, which has been progressively reducing its US exposure, is the subject of an investigation by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. It is conducting a money-laundering inquiry.  The subcommittee could hold a hearing and report this spring.  More on the Independent website here.

The work of the SFO in reducing financial crime could be improved if "recklessness" was introduced as an offence, the outgoing director Richard Alderman has said.  More on the FT Adviser website here.

The UK has worked closely with other EU Member States to review and update the Common Understanding on Third Country Equivalence. The list of equivalent countries had not been updated since it was introduced and the criteria for countries being on the list was not clear to firms and others. The criteria for deciding which countries should be on the list has now been updated and a process introduced for reviewing and updating the list on a regular basis. In addition the European Commission now publishes the criteria and the list itself on their website here.

The sum of £26.5 million is the largest amount of cash seized in London in a single year since the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) 2002 came into force. It represents a 33% rise in cash seized in London compared with 2010.  In addition to the cash permanently stripped from criminals, a further £28 million is subject to Confiscation Orders and £16.3 million to Cash Forfeiture Orders awaiting forfeiture under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.  More on info4security.com here.

German prosecutors have indicted five men, including four German banking executives, on charges of laundering $150 million for a former Russian telecommunications minister in one of the highest-level criminal probes of a Russian official outside Russia.  More on the Wall Street Journal website here.

At Southwark Crown Court today, Kevin James Steele, a former partner of the solicitors' firm Mishcon de Reya (MDR) was convicted of forgery and two fraud offences.  Two other defendants pleaded guilty before trial.  They are all to be sentenced on 9^th January 2012.  More on the SFO website here.

The latest global survey of eonomic crime from PWC shows that money laundering has fallen as a percentage of total economic crime from 12% in 2009 to 9% in 2011.  Cybercrime has rocketed, however ...

Full details and download the survey here.

HM Treasury has today imposed new financial restrictions against Iran. From 15:00 Monday 21 November 2011, all UK credit and financial institutions are required to cease business relationships and transactions with all Iranian banks, including their branches and subsidiaries, and the Central Bank of Iran. This means that UK credit and financial institutions are prohibited from entering into transactions or business relationships with these entities and continuing existing transactions and business relationships with them, unless licensed to do so by HM Treasury.  More on the HMT website here.

Key issues to be examined at the ninth annual BBA conference on 29th November in London include sanctions, AML, SARs, fraud, bribery, terrorism, cyber- and computer-enabled crime.  Vital updates will also be available on Government and regulators' plans and international standards, as well as how to prepare for the financial crime implications of the 2012 Olympics.  Click here for full information and to book a place.

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said last week it reached agreements-in-principle with US authorities to resolve a foreign bribery investigation.  The company said in a securities filing it expects to enter into and announce final agreements with the SEC and the Justice Department by the end of the year. The alleged misconduct has to do with "potentially improper payments made by certain Pfizer and Wyeth subsidiaries" connected to sales outside the US, the filing said.  More on the Regional Anti-Corruption Initiative website here.

An 83 year-old woman has been convicted of money laundering after trying to deposit more than £122,000 in her bank account in just one day. 

Her first visit to her bank was on April 15 last year, when she took £15,000 in cash from her handbag and deposited it into her bank account at Barclays in Ladbroke Grove.

According to KPMG's latest Global AML survey, board-level interest in anti-money laundering is being squeezed by other priorities.  The survey revealed a 9 percentage point drop in boards considering AML to be a high profile issue (from 71 percent in 2007 to 62 percent in 2011).  More on the KPMG website here.

The IMF has issued a report stating that rapid growth of Kuwait's financial sector could create an attractive environment for money launderers and terrorism financers.  More on the dubib.com website here, and download the report from the IMF website here.

Two British nationals and one Pakistani working for the drilling division of Al Rushaid may have accepted millions of dollars in exchange for awarding valuable contracts; the funds may have then been illegally deposited in a Geneva bank.

More on the genevalunch.com website here.

Three men were jailed on Monday 22nd August for a total of 19 years for their part in a £27.5m boiler room scam.  In the trial at Southwark Crown Court, Tomas Wilmot was sentenced to nine years imprisonment while his sons Kevin and Christopher were given five years each.  More on the Money Marketing website here.

The man credited with blowing the whistle on bribery and corruption in FIFA, the body that runs world football, is now himself the subject of an FBI inquiry. US investigators are examining documents appearing to show confidential payments to offshore accounts operated by an American FIFA official, Chuck Blazer.  More on the Independent website here.

A casino worker was sentenced on 1st August for laundering thousands of pounds of drug money with her father.  Nicola Rosser, of Margate, used the training she had surrounding money laundering to carry out the crime alongside Derek Rosser, 63. Canterbury Crown Court heard the pair were guilty of laundering thousands of pounds of cash - the proceeds of a profitable international drug-trafficking plot - into euros.  The police said, "This investigation concerns a known criminal with previous convictions for the importation of drugs and his daughter, a woman who because of her employment in a casino, has benefited from training into money laundering."  More on the Independent website here.

The Royal Bank of Scotland has been issued with a tough warning by regulators at the US Federal Reserve, on its anti-money laundering IT systems.  More on Computerworld here.

Bernie Ecclestone has created an ethics committee and introduced anti-bribery rules to comply with the Bribery Act, to try to calm the storm of allegations surrounding Formula 1.  More on the Telegraph website here.

The FATF has carried out a study which describes the money flows related to trafficking of human beings and smuggling of migrants.  This report attempts to assess their scale and provides red-flag indicators for the various destination / origin countries and different sectors.  Download the report here.

Head of Formula One, Bernie Ecclestone, was on Tuesday accused of paying $44 million in bribes to a German banker, in connection with the sale of the sport in 2006.  More on the Daily Telegraph website here.

A boiler room fraudster has been sentenced to two years in prison and disquailified from being a director for two years.  David Roger Griffiths Mason pleaded guilty to 13 counts of carrying on a regulated activity without authorisation; one count of making false or misleading statements, promises or forecasts; and three counts of money laundering.  More on the New Model Adviser website here.

THE Isle of Man Government yesterday launched a new public consultation with a view to strengthening the Island's defences against money laundering and other financial crime.  New proposals are designed to close possible "weak links in the chain of accountability". The issue has been raised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).  More on isleofman.com here.

Today the Government has published the response to its review of the Money Laundering Regulations. It responds to many of the issues raised during the review and includes proposals for changes to the regulations. Full details can be found on the Treasury website at http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/fin_money_index.htm .

The prosecutor-led approach to tackling large and complex fraud, which the UK imported from the US more than 20 years ago, is set to be dismantled.  The Home Office is to announce this week its plans to break up the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), with its lawyers moving to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and its investigators being transferred to a new Economic Crime Command (ECC) based within the new National Crime Agency, due to be set up in 2013.  More on the BBC News website here.

Overzealous cuts to compliance departments after the financial crisis have left multinational companies exposed to fraud prosecutions, according to data released on Wednesday.  Compared with 2009, twice as many employees of multinationals surveyed by Ernst & Young reported that their company had no anti-fraud measures in place, even as the Bribery Act is due to take effect this summer.  More on the FT website here.

Fifteen people were arrested in dawn raids yesterday in connection with suspected money laundering worth more than £200 million.  Investigators from HM Revenue and Customs swooped on more than 20 properties in Rochdale, Manchester, Bradford, Southport and Nottingham - part of the long-running Operation Enigma.  More on the Daily Mail website here.

BBC website here:  US authorities have unveiled an indictment against the owners of three of the world's biggest poker websites, throwing the young industry into turmoil.  Criminal and civil charges filed in New York have forced online poker sites PokerStars (based in the Isle of Man) and Full Tilt Poker (based in Alderney, in the Channel Islands), as well as Canada-based Absolute Poker, to stop doing business with Americans. 

European lawmakers have voted to beef up protection, including guaranteed compensation, for investors who become victims of fraudulent or negligent investment companies.  More on the FT website here.

The Serious Fraud Office has said that it will increasingly make use of the money laundering regulations to prosecute rogue directors whose companies persist in bribery and corruption. Richard Alderman, director of the SFO, told Complinet that the UK's anti-money laundering regime was a "tough" system that had some "fierce" offences and he would not hesitate to use its powers to prosecute offenders.  More on TrustLaw here.

The FSA has confirmed that overall regulatory funding will see a gross increase of 10.1 per cent over the next year, from £454.7m in 2010/11 to £500.5m for 2011/12.  The organisation also confirms that because of the cost of regulatory reform it is not planning any regulatory initiatives and will cap headcount at the current level.  More on Money Marketing here, and the business plan can be found on the FSA website here.

A solicitor from Swansea has been jailed for fraud, money laundering and perverting the course of justice.  Benjamin Jason Cornelius, 37, of Mayals, was sentenced to four years and eight months at Cardiff Crown Court.  More on the BBC news website here.

Reported leaks about the revised content of the Act indicate that the Ministry of Justice changed the treatment of foreign companies following pressure from the London Stock Exchange and investment banks.  This has caused dismay among the fund management community - see the Daily Telegraph website here for more.

A man who ran an international prostitution ring has been told to hand over nearly £2m of his criminal profits or face another 10 years in jail.  Thomas Carroll, 49, controlled more than 35 brothels in the Irish republic and Northern Ireland from his rented family home in Pembrokeshire. He is serving a seven year term for vice and money laundering offences.  More on the BBC News website here.

The Financial Skills Partnership (formerly the Financial Services Skills Council) has produced the draft NOS for AML and CFT, which are available to view on the FSP website here.

They are accompanied by a questionnaire, and the FSP would welcome any comments and suggestions, which should be emailed to Chris Kennedy at chris.kennedy@financialskillspartnership.org.uk by 29th April.

Four people have been arrested and more than £1m seized in connection with suspected money laundering.  The bundles of cash, totalling about £1.3m, were found when police raided two addresses in Huddersfield, on Friday afternoon. A 41-year-old woman and a man, aged 44, were arrested at one property, and a 37-year-old woman and a 35-year-old man were arrested at a second address.  West Yorkshire Police said they were being held on suspicion of money laundering.  More on the BBC News website here.

HM Treasury has frozen around £1bn of assets held by Colonel Gaddafi and five members of his family,as the UK joins European Union states in taking concerted action against the Libyan leader.  More on the FT website here, and a link to the HMT website's announcements of sanctions here.

The Government has announced its plans for replacing the FSA, including a "Financial Conduct Authority" (FCA), which will be tasked with protecting consumers from sharp practices, and making sure that workers in the financial services sector comply with rules.  More on the BBC website here, and the link to the relevant page of the HM Treasury site is here.

In a speech in Aberdeen yesterday Richard Alderman, the Director of the SFO, said that authority would be "sympathetic" to oil and gas industry companies locked into joint venutre agreement in countries where corruption is prevalent.   However, it expects joint ventures agreed after the enactment of the Bribery Act to include "auditing and transparency provision" to allow UK companies to probe their partner's activities.  More on the Daily Telegraph website here.

More than 14% UK companies lack a formal anti-bribery and corruption programme, according to the latest study by KPMG, which found that although 86% of British companies taking part had a written anti-corruption plan covering areas such as risk assessment, training, monitoring and investigation, 14% are without such provisions.  More on the FT website here.

A City banker who made nearly £600,000 by passing financial secrets to his wife has been jailed for three years and four months at Southwark Crown Court. Christian Littlewood, 37, exploited his position as a corporate finance director to obtain advance information about company takeovers over a nine-year period.  The insider dealing scam - the most serious to come before a British court - helped the couple amass a £3million property empire in affluent areas of North London.  More on the Daily Mail website here.

A House of Lords committee has expressed major concerns over 'indefinite' data retention at the Serious Organised Crime Agency.  SOCA's ELMER database, which holds over a million and a half records on activity that may be linked to crime, was also accessible to too many organisations, said a report by the Lords EU Committee.  More on ComputerworldUK here.

The government has delayed new anti-bribery laws after a storm of protests by business chiefs.  The Bribery Act was due to come into force in April, but the Ministry of Justice admitted today that it would not meet this deadline after Downing Street ordered a review of the legislation.  Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke also promised a period of at least three months from the publication of new guidance on the law to its implementation - which will now not happen until May at the earliest.   More on the Evening Standard website here.

Southwark Crown Court was told yesterday about a gang that conned innocent investors out of £10m in a Ponzi fraud.  The six men targeted Sri Lankan communities in London and promised plentiful profits for joining the scheme.  More on the BBC website here.

The Government is considering merging the Serious Fraud Office with a proposed National Crime Agency as it attempts to tighten its grip on corporate corruption and fraud gangs costing the UK £30bn a year.  The Home Office has taken over from the Treasury a project to create a single Economic Crime Agency, with the aim of ending what it sees as the "piecemeal" approach to tackling white-collar crime.  More on the FT website here.

Money laundering in Guernsey needs to be tackled more directly by the bailiwick's financial authorities, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says.  A series of reports released last week gave a positive assessment of the islands' laws, but said they needed to be implemented more.  More on the BBC website here.

The Vatican has announced that it will establish a new authority to combat money laundering, and will promise to adhere to European rules targeting money laundering. The decree, or motu proprio, will apply to all government bodies at the Holy See including the Vatican Bank, also known as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR).  More on the FT website here.

Financial crime hit record levels in 2010, with tax fraud, money laundering and complex cases involving new technology all increasing in the year.  More on the Daily Telegraph website here.

Argentina has done so poorly in confronting money laundering and terrorism financing that it risks becoming the first G20 nation on the FATF blacklist.  The FATF has said that it will closely monitor promised reforms before deciding whether to put Argentina on the list next year.  More on the Bloomberg Businessweek website here.

A new poll of citizens' views on corruption in the UK uncovers some fascinating insights into how UK citizens view corruption in this country. The Gallup/ICM Research poll conducted for Transparency International UK reveals that a majority (53%) think that corruption has increased in the last three years - with very few (3%) believing the problem is on the decline.  More on the TI website here.

George Morton, MLRO and Malcolm Thomson, of Marshall Lawson Law Group in Falkirk have each been fined £7,500 for flouting AML regulations.    The Scottish Solicitors' Discipline Tribunal found that Morton, 58, "completely ignored" procedures put in place to stop criminals laundering dirty money.  Law Society of Scotland investigators had discovered £1.43million of payments made without proper background checks. Some were in cash and some were for unidentified clients in Jersey and the Virgin Islands.  More on the Daily Record website here.

A supermarket worker has been accused of targeting her York employers in a fraud running into hundreds of thousands of pounds.  The 46-year-old Asda employee will appear before magistrates in the city next week alongside her boyfriend, facing charges of money laundering, theft and fraud involving more than £750,000.   More on the York Press website here.

The City of London Police have arrested three men in connection with a £1m land banking fraud scheme involving City-based firms.  More on the Money Marketing website here.

Fifa demanded an exemption from a key element of UK money-laundering legislation as part of the government guarantees required in relation to the England 2018 bid.  More on the Guardian website here.

A senior manager of a waste industry firm has been found guilty on five counts of insider dealing and four counts of money laundering after trading on knowledge obtained through his senior role and laundering the proceeds.  Former PM Onboard senior manager Neil Rollins was found guilty earlier this week at Southwark Crown Court in a case brought by the FSA.  More on the Money Marketing website here.

In order to strengthen the fight against money laundering, the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) will further strengthen the supervision on every Austrian financial institution, in particular the on-site inspection and supervision, said the head of the FMA, Kurt Pribil, on Thursday. More on the CRIEnglish.com website here.

Reported financial crime in the UK has doubled over the last four years to a value of £31bn.  Mike Bowron, Ccommissioner of the City of London Police, cited the figure from a report issued in conjunction with the National Fraud Authority (NFA), whilst speaking at a Treasury select committee hearing on financial regulation on Tuesday.  More on the FT Adviser website here.

The FBI arrested two former Madoff employees on Saturday.  They have been charged with conspiracy, securities fraud and tax crimes allegedly committed while working for 20 years in Bernard Madoff's fraudulent investment advisory business.  More on the FT website here.

On 10th November HM Treasury issued a Financial Sector Advisory Notice regarding the risks posed by unsatisfactory money laundering controls in a number of jurisdictions. The Money Laundering Regulations 2007 require firms to put in place policies, procedures or systems in order to prevent money laundering or terrorist financing. This advice supercedes previous advice issued by HM Treasury in connection with deficiencies in these areas.  Click here to download the notice from the HMT website.

Under the new financial measures, it is prohibited:

-           To transfer funds to and from an Iranian person, entity or body, unless the transfer is notified to the Treasury if ?10,000 or above and, if not in respect of foodstuffs, healthcare, medical equipment or for humanitarian purposes, submitted to the Treasury for prior authorisation if ?40,000 or above;

-           For financial and credit institutions, to establish new bank accounts, correspondent banking relationships or joint ventures with Iranian banks or their branches and subsidiaries wherever located, and from establishing new representative offices in Iran;

-           To provide new insurance and reinsurance to Iran, its Government and its public bodies,  Iranian legal persons, bodies or entities, and any person acting on behalf of or at the direction of an Iranian legal person, body or entity; and

-           To provide access to the EU bonds markets to Iran, its Government and its public bodies, Iranian credit and financial institutions and their branches and subsidiaries wherever located, any person acting on behalf of Iran or an Iranian credit or financial institution, and any legal person owned or controlled by anyone falling within the previous categories.

More on the HM Treasury website here.

The JMLSG has today published Part III of the Guidance for the UK financial sector.  No substantive changes have been made to the consultation text.  More details on the JMLSG website (and download the document itself) here.

With governments committing huge sums to tackle the world's most pressing problems, from the instability of financial markets to climate change and poverty, corruption remains an obstacle to achieving much needed progress, according to Transparency International's 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), a measure of domestic, public sector corruption released today.

The 2010 CPI shows that nearly three quarters of the 178 countries in the index score below five, on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 10 (perceived to have low levels of corruption), indicating a serious corruption problem.

More on the Transparency International website here.

The Metropolitan Police Central eCrime Unit has detained a man on suspicion of acting as a money-laundering co-ordinator for proceeds from online fraud.  The 34-year-old man was arrested in East Ham, London last week.  Equipment was seized that is believed to be used for payment-card manufacturing, to use stolen card details.  More on ZDNet here.

Four men who helped to launder hundreds of thousands of pounds in casinos have been ordered to repay nearly £100,000 - or face a further 10 years behind bars.  More on the Birmingham Mail website here.

Bank Mellat and the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) were designated persons for the purposes of the Financial Restrictions (Iran) Order 2009. Together with all their branches and certain named subsidiaries, Bank Mellat and IRISL continue to be subject to an EU asset freeze, under EU Regulation 423/2007 as amended by EU Regulation 668/2010 of 26 July 2010. The asset freeze must continue to be applied.  Further guidance on the asset freeze can be found in a revised release at this address. 

A dispute between the Vatican bank and the Italian judiciary over a suspected breach of AML regulations is set to intensify. Rome magistrates are investigating the bank's two most senior bankers, while funds belonging to the Holy See remain frozen by court order. The bank's lawyer has said that it will challenge the asset freezing order if it is not removed.  More on the FT website here.

A former HBOS banker who has been linked to an alleged money-laundering scandal was arrested and bailed last week by the economic crime unit of Thames Valley Police.  Lynden Scourfield, former director of mid-market high-risk at Bank of Scotland Corporate, was later freed on bail. Police said the arrest was part of an investigation into "corruption and large-scale fraud in connection with HBOS".  More on the HeraldScotland website here.

Austrian authorities are examining whether there are any links between Raiffeisen Zentralbank Austria and the handling of the proceeds from one of the largest tax frauds in Russian history, a $230m fraudulent refund paid to three companies in 2007.  More on the FT website here.

Goldman Sachs has been fined £17.5m for regulatory control failings that led the bank to neglect to tell the FSA that it was under investigation by US authorities.  More on the FT website here.

Criminals are suspected of hijacking dozens of law firms whose owners sold up under pressure from the financial crisis, a senior investigator has warned, amid wider concerns over the management of some high street practices.   More on the FT website here.

Former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo has gone on trial on charges of embezzling millions of dollars in public funds between 2000 and 2004.  Mr Portillo, 58, is also wanted in the US for allegedly embezzling foreign donations for education projects.   More on the BBC News website here.

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 Baham