NEWS: Europol says crypto is ‘key’ to tackling organised crime; Virtual Assets offer ‘unprecedented opportunity’ to investigate illicit finance

Regulatory Watch News

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  FinCEN Renews Real Estate Geographic Targeting Orders

  FinCEN

  April 17, 2024

  WASHINGTON—The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) today announced the renewal of its Geographic Targeting Orders (GTOs) that require U.S. title insurance companies to identify the natural persons behind shell companies used in non-financed purchases of residential real estate. The terms of the GTOs are effective beginning April 19, 2024, and ending on October 15, 2024. The GTOs continue to provide valuable data on the purchase of residential real estate by persons possibly involved in various illicit enterprises. Renewing the GTOs will further assist in tracking illicit funds and other criminal or illicit activity, as well as continuing to inform FinCEN’s regulatory efforts in this sector. FinCEN renewed the GTOs that cover certain counties and major U.S. metropolitan areas in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, Texas, Washington, Virgina, and the District of Columbia.

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  Virginia-based defense contractor pleads guilty to bribery conspiracy involving government contracts worth more than $100 million

  IRS Criminal Investigation

  April 17, 2024

  SAN DIEGO — Cambridge International Systems, Inc., a defense contractor headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, pleaded guilty in federal court today, admitting that it participated in a bribery scheme with the company’s former Executive Vice President Russell Thurston, and former Naval Information Warfare Center employee James Soriano, among others. According to Cambridge’s plea agreement, the company — acting through Thurston and an unnamed employee — gave various things of value to Soriano, including jobs for Soriano’s family and friends, meals, and a ticket to the 2018 MLB All Star Game held at Nationals Park in Washington D.C. One of the friends hired by Cambridge, Liberty Gutierrez, was giving Soriano $2,000 a month from her Cambridge salary, according to Gutierrez’s plea agreement.

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  Romania: EPPO conducts searches in investigation into €1.7 million fraud involving irrigation systems

  European Public Prosecutor's Office

  April 17, 2024

  (Luxembourg, 17 April 2024) – The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Iași (Romania) conducted eight searches today in the Galați county, in an investigation into a €1.7 million fraud involving projects for irrigation systems, funded by the EU. At issue is an agricultural cooperative which obtained funding for two projects to modernise irrigation systems, worth €1.7 million (RON 8.6 million). However, according to the investigation, the public procurement procedure to select a company to execute the projects was manipulated, in order to benefit a pre-determined company, owned by the mother of one of the members of the cooperative.