Swiss Money Laundering Reports soared by 25% last year, with suspected fraudulent pandemic payments responsible

Regulatory Watch News

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  FinCEN Convenes Virtual Summit of Financial Intelligence Units to Combat Nature Crimes in the Amazon Region

  FinCEN

  January 18, 2025

  WASHINGTON—The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) convened a virtual summit to counter the transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) that illicitly profit from nature crimes in the Amazon region. The summit marked a milestone in operationalizing a partnership among the financial intelligence units of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and the United States. Environmental crime is among the most lucrative criminal activities globally, generating around $110 to $281 billion in criminal gains each year, according to the Financial Action Task Force Report Money Laundering from Environmental Crime, issued in July 2021. Nature crimes fuel corruption, threaten biodiversity, damage fragile ecosystems, and impact public health and the economy.

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  Treasury Sanctions Company Associated with Salt Typhoon and Hacker Associated with Treasury Compromise

  OFAC

  January 17, 2025

  WASHINGTON — Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is sanctioning Yin Kecheng, a Shanghai-based cyber actor who was involved with the recent Department of the Treasury network compromise. Additionally, OFAC is sanctioning Sichuan Juxinhe Network Technology Co., LTD., a Sichuan-based cybersecurity company with direct involvement in the Salt Typhoon cyber group, which recently compromised the network infrastructure of multiple major U.S. telecommunication and internet service provider companies. People’s Republic of China-linked (PRC) malicious cyber actors continue to target U.S. government systems, including the recent targeting of Treasury’s information technology (IT) systems, as well as sensitive U.S. critical infrastructure.

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  SEC Charges LPL Financial with Anti-Money Laundering Violations

  SEC

  January 17, 2025

  Washington D.C., Jan. 17, 2025 —

  The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against broker-dealer and investment adviser LPL Financial LLC for multiple failures related to its anti-money laundering (AML) program. To resolve the SEC’s charges, LPL agreed to pay a civil penalty of $18 million and to implement improvements to its AML policies and procedures