NEWS: Germany’s FIU ‘Sharks’ unit probing international scam center behind €8m fraud and up to 30,000 victims

Regulatory Watch News

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  Treasury Targets Global Network Procuring Weapons for Iranian Regime

  OFAC

  July 15, 2026

  WASHINGTON—Today, following Iran’s attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned seven individuals and entities involved in an international network supporting weapons procurement efforts on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).  The actors designated today exemplify Iran’s use of foreign aviation and transport firms, financial conduits, and travel coordinators to obscure the IRGC’s role in illicit procurement and to move material and personnel globally.  OFAC will continue to disrupt the overseas procurement and financial networks that sustain Iran’s weapons production and proliferation efforts, which threaten Americans and U.S. partners and allies worldwide.

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  AMLA Chair presents 2025 Consolidated Annual Activity Report to the European Parliament

  AMLA

  July 15, 2026

  AMLA Chair Bruna Szego presented the Authority’s 2025 Consolidated Annual Activity Report today at a public hearing of the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) and Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE). The report provides an overview of AMLA’s institutional development and the progress made in 2025 across its core tasks: developing the EU Single Rulebook, strengthening AML/CFT supervision and supporting cooperation between Financial Intelligence Units.

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  Italy: EPPO indicts six suspects in fraud investigation involving sustainable mobility project

  European Public Prosecutor's Office

  July 15, 2026

  (Luxembourg, 15 July 2026) – The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Bologna (Italy) has indicted six individuals before the competent Italian court for suspected fraud involving EU funding under the LIFE programme, intended to support sustainable mobility initiatives in the Tuscan municipalities of Isola del Giglio, Monte Argentario and Orbetello. The investigation concerns a project financed through the EU’s LIFE programme, a funding instrument supporting environmental, climate and energy transition initiatives. The project aimed to promote integrated sustainable mobility through the use of electric vehicles, including bicycles, scooters, cars and boats. It also envisaged electric boats for navigation in the Orbetello lagoon.