DAVID LEWIS COLUMN: Reflections of a week in Brussels, Berlin and the FATF’s German Presidency

Regulatory Watch News

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  SFC and HKEX collaborate in enforcement action against Main Board-listed company over dubious investment and financial arrangements

  Securities and Futures Commission

  April 25, 2024

  The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (Exchange) have joined hands in an enforcement action to secure a disciplinary outcome by the Exchange against China Ecotourism Group Limited (China Ecotourism) and its seven current and former directors . The investigation centred on their misconduct in granting 13 loans of approximately HK$363 million and RMB91 million to nine borrowers, and acquiring a 37.5% interest in a blockchain technology company for HK$35 million

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  Former Comptroller General of Ecuador Convicted for $10M International Bribery and Money Laundering Scheme

  US Department of Justice

  April 24, 2024

  A federal jury in Miami convicted the former Comptroller General of Ecuador yesterday for his role in a multimillion-dollar international bribery and money laundering scheme. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, between 2010 to 2015, Carlos Ramon Polit Faggioni, 73, solicited and received over $10 million in bribe payments from Odebrecht S.A., the Brazil-based construction conglomerate. Polit, in his position as Comptroller General of Ecuador, was responsible for protecting public funds against fraud and rooting out corruption. Instead, Polit took bribes from Odebrecht in exchange for removing fines and not imposing fines on Odebrecht’s projects in Ecuador. Additionally, in or around 2015, Polit received a bribe from an Ecuadorian businessman in exchange for assisting the businessman with obtaining certain contracts with the state-owned insurance company of Ecuador.

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  Pakistani smuggling network busted in Romania

  Europol

  April 24, 2024

  A cross-border investigation led by the Romanian Police (Poliția Română), supported by Europol and involving the Austrian Police (Landeskriminalamt Salzburg) and the Italian Carabinieri Corps (Arma dei Carabinieri), has resulted in the dismantling of an organised crime group involved in migrant smuggling. The group arranged the illegal arrival in Romania of migrants via fraudulently obtained work visas, before facilitating their further illegal movements towards other EU countries.