PENALTY: CommunityBank of Texas is fined $8M by FinCEN for willful violations of its AML regime

Regulatory Watch News

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  CEO Of Artificial Intelligence Startup Company Charged With Defrauding Investors

  United States Attorney Office -Southern District of New York

  November 19, 2024

  Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and James E. Dennehy, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced today the unsealing of an Indictment charging JOANNA SMITH-GRIFFIN with securities fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft in connection with defrauding investors in AllHere Education, Inc., the startup artificial intelligence education technology company she founded, out of millions of dollars.  SMITH-GRIFFIN was arrested earlier today in the Eastern District of North Carolina and will be presented this afternoon before a magistrate judge in that district. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl.

  U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “As alleged, Joanna Smith-Griffin orchestrated a deliberate and calculated scheme to deceive investors in AllHere Education, Inc., inflating the company’s financials to secure millions of dollars under false pretenses.  The law does not turn a blind eye to those who allegedly distort financial realities for personal gain.”

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  Treasury Targets Fentanyl Traffickers and Other Key Contributors to U.S. Opioid Crisis

  OFAC

  November 19, 2024

  WASHINGTON — Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned a network of nine Mexican nationals involved in fentanyl, heroin, and other deadly drug trafficking and money laundering. Individuals designated in this network also engage in human smuggling in furtherance of their drug trafficking activities. Additionally, as members of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), some of the individuals sanctioned today played a prominent role in the early stages of the U.S. opioid crisis, a leading factor driving the United States’ modern fentanyl crisis. CJNG is a violent Mexico-based drug trafficking organization responsible for a significant proportion of fentanyl and other deadly drugs trafficked into the United States.

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  Financial sanctions update: Russia

  OFSI

  November 19, 2024

  10 entries added to the consolidated list

  On 19 November 2024 the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office updated the UK Sanctions List on GOV.UK. This list provides details of those designated under regulations made under the Sanctions Act. 10 entries have been added to the Russia financial sanctions regime and are now subject to an asset freeze and trusts services sanctions. More information can be found in the notice. OFSI’s consolidated list of asset freeze targets has been updated to reflect these changes.