AMLi INSIGHT: Russian oligarchs the ‘most sophisticated in the world’ at dodging KYC and evading sanctions – former FATF chief

Regulatory Watch News

• 

  Two Florida Steel Traders Sentenced for Money Laundering and Russia-Ukraine Sanctions Violations

  US Department of Justice

  April 19, 2024

  John Can Unsalan, aka Hurrem Can Unsalan, the president of Orlando, Florida-based steel trading firm Metalhouse LLC, was sentenced to six years in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering to promote violations of U.S. sanctions against Sergey Kurchenko, a pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarch. Unsalan’s former business associate, Sergey Karpushkin, a Belarusian national residing in Miami, was sentenced to 21 months in prison for his role in the scheme. Unsalan pleaded guilty and was ordered to forfeit $160 million in proceeds from the offense. Karpushkin pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and to commit international promotional money laundering and was ordered to forfeit $4.7 million in criminal proceeds.

• 

  Treasury Designates Entities Involved in Raising Funds for Violent Extremists in the West Bank

  OFAC

  April 19, 2024

  WASHINGTON — Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on two entities for their roles in establishing fundraising campaigns on behalf of Yinon Levi (Levi) and David Chai Chasdai (Chasdai), two violent extremists who were sanctioned on February 1, 2024 in connection with violence in the West Bank. The fundraising campaigns established by Mount Hebron Fund for Levi and by Shlom Asiraich for Chasdai generated the equivalent of $140,000 and $31,000, respectively.

• 

  FATF Ministers commit to stepping up efforts to fight money laundering, terrorist and proliferation financing

  FATF

  April 19, 2024

  The Ministers of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) reaffirmed their unwavering commitment to combat financial crime, and fully support the FATF as the global standard-setter for preventing and combatting money laundering, terrorist financing and the financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (AML/CFT/CPF). During this biennial meeting in Washington DC, members recognised  the achievements of the Singapore Presidency under FATF President T. Raja Kumar. These included major steps taken to enhance the FATF Standards on asset recovery - improving jurisdictions’ toolkits to recover the proceeds of crime, and also to reinforce the international framework for the transparency of beneficial ownership of legal  arrangements, in addition to legal persons. FATF Ministers also recognised that the FATF has led global efforts to effectively implement standards to regulate virtual assets and virtual assets service providers for AML/CFT/CPF.