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Regulatory Watch News

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  Florida Woman Sentenced for Laundering Millions of Dollars from Romance Scams

  US Department of Justice

  January 8, 2025

  A Florida woman was sentenced today to 30 months in prison for her role in a money laundering conspiracy connected to romance scams that defrauded American victims. Cristine Petitfrere, 30, of Miramar, Florida, was sentenced after admitting to personally laundering millions of dollars as part of her participation in the conspiracy. Petitfrere helped to funnel large sums of money from victims of romance scams into the hands of her overseas co-conspirators, retaining a portion as payment for her services and transferring the rest.

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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.