ANALYSIS: Inside the people smuggling gangs laundering tens of millions every month – and Germany’s role as centre of the complex web extending from China and Middle East to the UK

Regulatory Watch News

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  MONEYVAL held assessors training in Riga

  MONEYVAL

  April 16, 2024

  In the preparation of the next cycle of assessments, which will place an even greater focus on effectiveness and on countries’ risk and context, MONEYVAL organised a week-long assessors training in Riga. From 8 to 12 April, 39 experts from 24 MONEYVAL and FATF countries attended the training which focussed on both technical compliance and effectiveness aspects.

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  Four arrested on suspicion of smuggling money from UK to Albania

  National Crime Agency

  April 16, 2024

  Four alleged members of an organised crime group that specialises in smuggling criminal cash out of the country and into Albania have been arrested in a National Crime Agency investigation. The suspects were arrested on 13 April in a series of co-ordinated raids which began with a 48-year-old Albanian national being arrested at Dover. Approximately £200,000 in cash was seized from his vehicle which is alleged to have been en route to Albania.

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  FinCEN Issues Notice on the Use of Counterfeit U.S. Passport Cards to Perpetrate Identity Theft and Fraud Schemes at Financial Institutions

  FinCEN

  April 15, 2024

  WASHINGTON—Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), in close coordination with the Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), issued a Notice to financial institutions on fraud schemes related to the use of counterfeit U.S. passport cards. The Notice provides an overview of typologies associated with U.S. passport card fraud, highlights select red flags to assist financial institutions in identifying and reporting suspicious activity, and reminds financial institutions of their reporting requirements under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).