UK Treasury writes off more than £4BN cash stolen by Covid fraudsters; Opposition MP brands the move ‘outrageous’

Regulatory Watch News

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  Treasury Sanctions Head of Online Darknet Marketplace Tied to Fentanyl Sales

  OFAC

  March 4, 2025

  WASHINGTON — Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Iran-based Behrouz Parsarad (Parsarad), the sole administrator of Nemesis, an online darknet marketplace, which was subject of an international law enforcement operation and was taken down in 2024. Prior to its takedown by law enforcement, narcotics traffickers and cybercriminals openly traded in illegal drugs and services on Nemesis, which was designed with built-in money laundering features. Nemesis had over 30,000 active users and 1,000 vendors and facilitated the sale of nearly $30 million worth of drugs around the world between 2021 and 2024, including to the United States.  Today’s sanctions designation is OFAC’s first action as a member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)-led interagency Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement (JCODE) Team.

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  FCA bans former Credit Suisse executives following US criminal convictions

  Financial Conduct Authority

  March 4, 2025

  The FCA has banned Andrew Pearse and Surjan Singh from the UK financial services industry.

  The former Credit Suisse managing directors have been banned for lacking integrity, following US convictions for arranging corrupt loans to the Republic of Mozambique. In July 2019, Mr Pearse pleaded guilty in the US for his role in the conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud, which included him accepting over US$45m in unlawful kickbacks in connection with the loans. In September 2019, Mr Singh also pleaded guilty in the US for his role in the conspiracy to commit money laundering, which included him accepting US$5.7m in unlawful kickbacks in connection with the loans. In October 2021, the FCA fined Credit Suisse over £145m as part of a US $475m global settlement for serious financial crime due diligence failings related to the loans which the bank arranged for the Republic of Mozambique, worth US$1.3bn. The loans were tainted by corruption. The FCA also secured Credit Suisse’s agreement to write off US $200m of debt owed by the Republic of Mozambique.

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  AG Communications Limited to pay £1.4m for regulatory failures

  Gambling Commission

  March 4, 2025

  Gambling operator AG Communications Limited is to pay £1,407,834 after a Commission investigation revealed Social Responsibility (SR) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) failures.

  The operator, which trades as AspireGlobal and runs 58 websites, will pay the money to socially responsible causes as part of a settlement with the Commission.