Category: EU/Europe

Regulatory Watch News

• 

  AUSTRAC issues 16 businesses with infringement notices for failing to comply with reporting requirements

  Austrac

  November 27, 2024

  AUSTRAC has issued sixteen businesses with infringement notices for failing to meet their reporting obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act). The infringement notices were issued because the businesses failed to submit their 2023 annual compliance reports. While the majority of the 17,000 businesses AUSTRAC regulates submitted their compliance reports, AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas says ensuring businesses are compliant, and using enforcement measures to secure this, is essential if AUSTRAC is to continue safeguarding Australian communities from serious crime.

• 

  Treasury Targets Cartel-Enabled Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing Operations

  OFAC

  November 26, 2024

  WASHINGTON — Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is sanctioning five Mexican individuals associated with the Gulf Cartel, one of Mexico’s most dangerous criminal organizations. Those designated today are tied to the Gulf Cartel’s involvement in criminal activities associated with illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, human smuggling, and narcotics trafficking in the Gulf of Mexico. IUU fishing often involves criminal activity, forced labor, and human rights abuses, and is often a revenue stream for criminal organizations. IUU fishing is also a threat to U.S. maritime security, as criminal organizations may use the same vessels for smuggling narcotics and humans across borders.

• 

  Germany: Two arrests in €19 million VAT fraud involving Voice over IP

  European Public Prosecutor's Office

  November 26, 2024

  (Luxembourg, 26 November 2024) – At the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Munich (Germany), two suspects were arrested today in an investigation into a €19 million cross-border VAT carousel fraud involving the sales of Voice over IP (VoIP). The suspects, who were arrested in Frankfurt am Main (Germany) and in Rome (Italy), are believed to have acted as strawmen for a German buffer company, which served to hide the fraud from the authorities.