INSIGHT: Overhaul ‘ineffective’ STRs as 95% do not lead to prosecutions – Wolfsberg Group

Regulatory Watch News

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  Sweepstakes Operators Plead Guilty to Bank Secrecy Act Violations

  US Department of Justice

  July 3, 2024

  Two Missouri men pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiring with bankers to willfully fail to implement appropriate anti-money laundering (AML) controls at a Missouri bank, as required by the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). Kevin Brandes, 60, and William Graham, 56, both residents of Kansas City, Missouri, owned and operated multiple sweepstakes businesses and held accounts for those businesses at the Missouri bank. According to court documents, from 2013 to 2019, Brandes and Graham abetted bank officials in failing to implement key components of the bank’s AML program.

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  Financial Action Task Force Identifies Jurisdictions with Anti-Money Laundering, Combating the Financing of Terrorism, and Counter-Proliferation Finance Deficiencies

  FinCEN

  July 3, 2024

  WASHINGTON—The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is informing U.S. financial institutions that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental body that establishes international standards for anti-money laundering, countering the financing of terrorism, and countering the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (AML/CFT/CPF), issued a public statement at the conclusion of its plenary meeting last month highlighting the growing financial connectivity of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) with the international financial system, and reiterating the FATF’s concerns over the DPRK’s continued failure to address the significant deficiencies in its AML/CFT regime and the serious threats posed by the DPRK’s illicit activities related to the proliferation and financing of weapons of mass destruction. In order to protect the international financial system, the FATF continues to urge all jurisdictions to remain vigilant to these risks and calls for renewed implementation and enforcement of countermeasures against the DPRK.[1]

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  Written reply to Parliamentary Question on family offices granted tax benefits by MAS that were linked to accused persons in the $3 billion money laundering case

  MAS

  July 3, 2024

  Question: To ask the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance (a) how many family offices that were granted tax benefits by the Monetary Authority of Singapore are linked to the accused persons in the recent $3 billion money laundering case; and (b) whether there will be a clawback of the benefits previously accorded to these family offices. Answer by Mr Gan Kim Yong, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry, and Chairman of MAS: 1.  A total of 6 single family office (SFO) funds which were awarded SFO tax incentives have been identified to be linked to individuals who have been convicted in relation to the money laundering case or their spouses. 2.  Tax benefits were withdrawn starting from the financial year the owners of these SFO funds or their spouses were charged or convicted. Tax benefits accorded prior to that will not be clawed back, unless there were breaches of the conditions of the tax incentive awards then. 3.  In addition, as part of enforcement actions in this case, assets have been forfeited from the convicted individuals. The total value of assets forfeited from convicted individuals with links to SFO funds that were awarded tax incentives far exceeds any tax benefits accorded to the SFO funds.