BREAKING: Arrests as Europol say tens of millions laundered through offshore accounts, worker exploitation rackets and property; raids in Spain and Belgium target two gangs operating across EU borders

Regulatory Watch News

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  Treasury Sanctions Criminal Operators and Money Launderers for the Notorious Sinaloa Cartel

  OFAC

  March 31, 2025

  Washington — Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated six individuals and seven entities involved in a money laundering network supporting the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most notorious and violent drug trafficking organizations in the world, and a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).  The Sinaloa Cartel is responsible for a significant portion of the illicit fentanyl and other deadly drugs trafficked into the United States and has exploited multiple ports of entry along the southern border for its criminal activities.  Today’s action is the culmination of a coordinated investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigations, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Government of Mexico, including the Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera, Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit.

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  FinCEN Issues Alert on Bulk Cash Smuggling and Repatriation by Mexico-based Transnational Criminal Organizations

  FinCEN

  March 31, 2025

  WASHINGTON—Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an Alert on bulk cash smuggling and repatriation by Mexico-based Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs), urging financial institutions to be vigilant to such activity. The Alert discusses transactions potentially related to the cross-border smuggling of bulk cash from the United States into Mexico and its repatriation into the United States and Mexican financial systems by Mexico-based TCOs. The Alert highlights one of several typologies that TCOs use to launder illicit proceeds generated in the United States through the cross-border movement of cash and how these operations enable the TCOs to place, layer, and integrate their illicit proceeds into the United States and Mexican financial systems where they can be accessed again to fund their criminal enterprises.

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  CEO Of CardReady LLC Sentenced To Seven Years In Prison For $19 Million Credit Card Laundering Scheme

  United States Attorney Office -Southern District of New York

  March 31, 2025

  Defendant Created Phony Merchant Accounts to Obtain Credit Card Processing for Fraudulent Telemarketing Scheme

  Matthew Podolsky, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that BRANDON BECKER, the former CEO of CardReady, LLC (“CardReady”), was sentenced today to seven years in prison for operating a credit card laundering scheme in which BECKER and his co-conspirators stole over $19 million based on false promises that they could reduce thousands of customers’ debt burdens. As part of this scheme, BECKER and his co-conspirators created dozens of sham merchant accounts and false merchant applications, defrauding a credit card processing company and federally insured bank into processing victim payments. BECKER previously pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska, who also imposed today’s sentence.