INSIGHT: How Balkan gangsters became Europe’s top cocaine suppliers

Regulatory Watch News

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  Treasury Sanctions Nicaragua-Based Russian Institution and Gold Companies

  OFAC

  May 15, 2024

  WASHINGTON — Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is targeting the Ortega-Murillo regime’s repression of the Nicaraguan people and its ability to manipulate the gold sector and profit from corrupt operations. Treasury is imposing sanctions on three Nicaragua-based entities, the Training Center of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in Managua (RTC); Compania Minera Internacional, Sociedad Anónima (COMINTSA); and Capital Mining Investment Nicaragua, Sociedad Anónima (Capital Mining), pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13851, as amended.

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  Romania: EPPO conducts searches in probe into €8 million fraud involving Covid-19 medical equipment

  European Public Prosecutor's Office

  May 15, 2024

  (Luxembourg, 15 May 2024) – The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Bucharest (Romania) carried out five searches yesterday in the Romanian capital, as part of an investigation into an €8 million fraud involving EU funds for the purchase of medical equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the investigation, during the period 2020-2022, a criminal network was formed to manipulate the public procurement of protective masks, disinfectants and other medical supplies for hospitals, schools and other municipal state facilities, in order to benefit predetermined suppliers, which are understood to have been part of the scheme. 

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  The role of virtual currency automated teller machines in laundering the proceeds of crime

  FINTRAC

  May 15, 2024

  This Sectoral and Geographic Advisory describes the key money laundering and terrorist activity financing risks associated with virtual currency automated teller machines. This advisory is designed to help businesses, financial institutions and the public understand and recognize the characteristics of illicit activity involving virtual currency automated teller machines and the types of individuals and entities that may be involved. In particular, this will assist virtual currency money services businesses and virtual currency automated teller machines operators to better identify suspicious transactions to report to FINTRAC in support of law enforcement investigations and FINTRAC compliance activities. Virtual currency automated teller machine operators are to implement compliance policies, procedures and internal controls, including those related to client identification, education, and ongoing monitoring of business relationships for transactions and business relationships identified as high-risk.