NEWS: AI to push global AML/KYC spending to $2.9B in 2025

Regulatory Watch News

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  Treasury Targets Hizballah-Aligned Officials and Intensifies Pressure on Global Financial Network

  OFAC

  June 18, 2026

  WASHINGTON—Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating Hizballah-aligned Lebanese officials, as well as members of a Hizballah-associated business network overseen by Alaa Hassan Hamieh, also known as Alaa Hamieh.  The Lebanese officials designated today have used their influence to obstruct Lebanon’s peace process and delay the disarmament of Hizballah. OFAC is also expanding upon the March 20, 2026 designations of Alaa Hamieh and his business network by targeting additional interlocutors in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Oman who raise funds, execute contracts, and operate front companies to generate revenue for Hizballah.

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  FinCEN, Agencies Propose Rule to Implement GENIUS Act Customer Identification Program Requirement

  FinCEN

  June 18, 2026

  WASHINGTON—Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), together with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the National Credit Union Administration issued a joint proposed rule to implement provisions of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act). The GENIUS Act directs that permitted payment stablecoin issuers be treated as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act and be required to maintain effective customer identification programs. The proposal seeks to provide an appropriately tailored regime that mitigates potential illicit finance risks while protecting the U.S. financial system and national security interests.

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  France: Member of organised crime convicted for fraudulently claiming CAP subsidies while in detention

  European Public Prosecutor's Office

  June 18, 2026

  (Luxembourg, 18 June 2026) – An individual with ties to Corsican organised crime was convicted yesterday of aggravated subsidy fraud involving payments under the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), following an indictment by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Paris (France). The defendant had claimed those payments while he was in detention, in connection with other criminal proceedings relating to organised crime. Between 21 November 2017 and 31 December 2022, the defendant falsely declared in his applications for CAP payments that he was carrying out agricultural activities enabling him to receive such payments – despite being in prison at the time, and therefore unable to perform any agricultural activity personally. He also declared an inflated number of bovines in order to obtain coupled CAP aid, resulting in damage of €120 025 to the EU budget.