The ‘mother of all sanctions bill’ set to hit the Kremlin should Russia invade Ukraine; Counter-Corruption advisor to US Congress lays bare proposed sanctions bill

Regulatory Watch News

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  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.

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  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.

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  Belgium: Three convicted of evading €3.1 million in customs duties on imported e-bikes

  European Public Prosecutor's Office

  April 19, 2024

  (Luxembourg, 19 April 2024) – Last week, one individual and two companies were found guilty of evading customs duties on the importation of electric bicycles (e-bikes) from China, following a case investigated and prosecuted by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Brussels (Belgium). The e-bikes were imported into the EU by a French company via the port of Antwerp, using a company that fulfilled the customs formalities in Belgium. The investigation showed that whole e-bikes were deliberately imported in separate parts, to avoid the payment of anti-dumping duties due on the importation of fully assembled e-bikes. The e-bikes were then assembled in France by the French importer.