NEWS: UK strengthening AML regime ahead of FATF evaluation

Regulatory Watch News

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  Two Men Responsible For Running Hawala Scheme Involving More Than $65 Million Sentenced To Three Years In Prison

  United States Attorney Office -Southern District of New York

  April 23, 2025

  Jay Clayton, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that MOHANAD AL-ZUBAIDI and SHAKER SALEH MOHAMMED HAUTER were both sentenced to three years in prison for operating an unlicensed money transmitting business that was responsible for illicitly moving more than $65 million between the United States and countries in the Middle East, including Yemen, Turkey, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan.  AL-ZUBAIDI and HAUTER previously pled guilty on January 15, 2025, before U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel, who imposed yesterday’s sentence.

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  SEC Charges PGI Global Founder with $198 Million Crypto Asset and Foreign Exchange Fraud Scheme

  SEC

  April 23, 2025

  Washington D.C., April 22, 2025 —

  The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Ramil Palafox for orchestrating a fraudulent scheme that raised approximately $198 million from investors worldwide and for misappropriating more than $57 million of investor funds. According to the SEC’s complaint, Palafox’s company, known as PGI Global, claimed to be a crypto asset and foreign exchange trading company. From January 2020 through October 2021, Palafox offered and sold PGI Global “membership” packages, which he claimed guaranteed investors high returns from PGI Global’s supposed crypto asset and foreign exchange trading and offered members multi-level-marketing-like referral incentives to encourage them to recruit new investors

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  Commission finds Apple and Meta in breach of the Digital Markets Act

  European Commission

  April 23, 2025

  Today, the European Commission found that Apple breached its anti-steering obligation under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), and that Meta breached the DMA obligation to give consumers the choice of a service that uses less of their personal data. Therefore, the Commission has fined Apple and Meta with €500 million and €200 million respectively. The two decisions come after extensive dialogue with the companies concerned allowing them to present in detail their views and arguments.