AML Conversations

The Tax Justice Network has released its Financial Secrecy Index 2022. The Index “identifies the world’s biggest suppliers of financial secrecy” with the US being number 1. John and Elliot discuss the findings in this year’s Index, the overall progress noted by the TJN, and the need for continued progress in reducing the availability of tax and secrecy havens around the world.

The UK has become a haven for rich Russians. The lax approach to regulation has allowed money laundering to flourish. Recent government action in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine is making a difference, but won’t erase the longstanding relationships that foster financial crime. John and Elliot discuss the challenges presented by the facilitating behavior of gatekeeper professionals and the global nature of the issues in the UK.

Homeland Security Investigations’ (HSI) Outreach Initiative – Cornerstone recently shared information about the rising level of organized retail crime (ORC) being perpetrated by transnational criminal organizations. This activity involves planned theft of retail goods for later sale through gray market channels. John and Elliot discuss the value of HSI outreach to the financial crime prevention community and some of the red flags for identifying ORC.

The International Consortium of Investigation Journalists (ICIJ) recently shared documents with The Irish Times about the Kinahan organized crime cartel. The Irish Times published an extended article about the actions of the cartel in moving to the UAE and taking advantage of its secrecy laws to avoid prosecution. John and Elliot discuss the recent US sanctions issued against Daniel Kinahan, FATF’s gray listing of the UAE, and the importance of financial transparency.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) recently issued guidance about kleptocracies and foreign corruption. The guidance includes insights into typologies and includes red flags. John and Elliot discuss the guidance, the global focus and nature of the problems identified in the guidance, and the value of the red flags as a training tool.

For this episode of our AML Conversations podcast, we sit down with Sara Crowe, the strategic initiatives director at Polaris, a non-profit working to end human trafficking. We discuss how human trafficking has evolved in recent years and concerns following refugees fleeing Ukraine, as well as actionable insights for financial institutions as to how they can help prevent human trafficking. We hope you enjoy this episode.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen spoke recently at American University about digital assets. The speech look at the intersection of innovation, policy and regulation. John and Elliot discuss key points in the speech including how innovation in the financial sector often out strips policy and regulation and how the Yellen’s remarks create a good framework for the discussions and activities in the digital asset space.

John Byrne chats with Brian Szady, Founder of a threat mitigation firm Threatminder, on the various cybersecurity issues challenging the AML world, including ransomware, training staff and defining human as well as artificial intelligence.

This week The Washington Post and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published another segment of the Pandora Papers. This latest release focuses on registered agents and their role in representing companies In the United States. John and Elliot discuss the total lack of transparency of corporate ownership in many of states, weakness this creates in the financial crime prevention regime In the US, and ENABLERS Act which was introduced In Congress In October 2021.

In June 2021, FinCEN issued the first National AML/CFT Policy Priorities for the US. John Byrne sat down with Dan Stipano of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP to record this at the ACAMS Hollywood conference. John and Dan discuss the breadth and importance of the priorities, how to use them in future planning for your financial crime prevention program, and how the priorities may change the overall financial crime response regime.