INTERVIEW: Inside Malta’s FIAU, priorities for 2025 and how it’s managing legal challenges. We speak to chief Alfred Zammit

Regulatory Watch News

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  OFSI General Licence – INT/2022/1280876 amended.

  OFSI

  January 8, 2025

  On 8 January 2025, General Licence INT/2022/1280876 was amended to add Permission 5.3A which states that no distributions on VTB Bank PJSC’s claim should be made without first deducting from the distributions the value of any VTB Capital plc assets which have been or are subject to VTB Bank PJSC enforcement action, and the VTB Group Receivables; and statutory interest should not be paid for any time over which distributions are not paid because of these deductions.

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  BaFin investigates website operators

  BaFin

  January 8, 2025

  BaFin warns consumers about the website cortexfin.com. According to information available to BaFin, payment services are being offered via this website without the required authorisation.

  On the cortexfin.com website, the operators advertise a supposedly lucrative job offer as a financial agent. The job entails opening bank accounts in one's own name. The accounts are to be used to accept funds and forward them to third parties. The funds transferred to these accounts presumably come from persons who have been victims of criminal activities.

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  Marketers and Healthcare Providers in Texas, Virginia and South Carolina Agree to Pay Over $1.1M to Settle Laboratory Kickback Allegations

  US Department of Justice

  January 7, 2025

  Two laboratory marketers — Shahram Naghshbandi, of Fort Worth, Texas, and John Bello, of Chesterfield, Virginia; three physicians — Dr. Abbesalom Ghermay, of Plano, Texas; Dr. Daniel Theesfeld, of Longview, Texas; and Dr. James Cook, of Richmond, Virginia; and medical practice owner Troy Belton, of Columbia, South Carolina, and associated entities, have agreed to pay a total of $1,137,914 to resolve False Claims Act allegations they took part in laboratory kickback schemes in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute. The parties have agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department's investigations of, and litigation against, other participants in the alleged schemes.