NEWS: EU pledges new sanctions will stop Vladimir Putin’s ‘shadow banking network’

Regulatory Watch News

• 

  Joint human trafficking investigation leads to three arrests; police seek additional victims

  FINTRAC

  July 21, 2026

  (Ottawa) –The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Provincial Anti-Human Trafficking Unit East Team, in partnership with the Ottawa Police Service through the Intelligence-led Joint Forces Strategy (IJFS), is seeking additional victims following a lengthy multi-jurisdictional human trafficking investigation that resulted in the arrest of three men from the Ottawa area. Between 2025 and July 2026, investigators from the OPP Provincial Anti-Human Trafficking Unit East Team and the Ottawa Police Service Human Trafficking Unit conducted a complex investigation into an alleged organized human trafficking network operating between Ottawa and the Greater Toronto Area. The investigation originated in the Ottawa and London regions and expanded to multiple communities across Ontario, including Windsor, London, Toronto, and Sarnia.

• 

  Treasury Successfully Implements New Safeguard to Stop Payments to Deceased Individuals

  US Department of the Treasury

  July 21, 2026

  WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service announced the successful implementation of a new government-wide payment verification process that helps stop federal payments from being sent to deceased individuals, fulfilling a key requirement of Executive Order 14249, Protecting America's Bank Account Against Fraud, Waste, and Abuse.

• 

  Opening Statement of FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki before the Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions

  FinCEN

  July 21, 2026

  Protecting Americans from Fraud   Combatting fraud has long been a focus for FinCEN, given that it continues to be one of the largest sources of illicit proceeds in the United States. 1 FinCEN works closely with law enforcement and other partners to support the Administration’s whole-of-government approach to unleash every available tool to stop criminal networks from exploiting American taxpayersand the Federal programs they rely  on. FinCEN’s Rapid Response Program (RRP), a partnership between FinCEN, U.S. law enforcement, and foreign partners, helps cyber-enabled fraud victims and their financial institutions recover stolen funds sent abroad and repatriate the funds to U.S. victims. Since its inception in 2015, RRP has facilitated the interdiction of nearly $2 billion in stolen proceeds for 5,790 U.S. individuals and businesses.