BREAKING: AML concerns mean EU must withhold access to bloc’s market from British financial firms, warn MEPs

Regulatory Watch News

• 

  Treasury Takes Action Against Major Cyber Scam Facilitator

  OFAC

  May 29, 2025

  WASHINGTON — Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Funnull Technology Inc., a Philippines-based company that provides computer infrastructure for hundreds of thousands of websites involved in virtual currency investment scams, commonly known as “pig butchering,” along with its administrator, Liu Lizhi.  Americans lose billions of dollars annually to these cyber scams, with revenues generated from these crimes rising to record levels in 2024.  Funnull has directly facilitated several of these schemes, resulting in over $200 million in U.S. victim-reported losses.

• 

  Rise in production and trafficking of synthetic drugs from the Golden Triangle, new report shows

  UNODC

  May 29, 2025

  The illicit manufacture and trafficking of synthetic drugs from the Golden Triangle have grown exponentially, according to a report released today by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The explosive growth has led to a record amount of methamphetamine seizures in East and Southeast Asia, totaling 236 tons, marking a 24 per cent increase compared to 2023. "The 236 tons represent only the amount seized; much more methamphetamine is actually reaching the market,” said Benedikt Hofmann, UNODC Acting Regional Representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific. “While these seizures reflect, in part, successful law enforcement efforts, we are clearly seeing unprecedented levels of methamphetamine production and trafficking from the Golden Triangle, in particular Shan State.”

• 

  SFO charges global aircraft parts supplier with fraud offence

  Serious Fraud Office

  May 29, 2025

  The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has today charged Jose Alejandro Zamora Yrala with fraudulent trading as part of its investigation into a company that sold airline parts for the passenger and cargo aircraft engines, the CF56 and CF6. Zamora Yrala, the company director, is accused of operating UK-based AOG Technics for a fraudulent purpose. The company’s customers included airlines, maintenance providers and parts suppliers.