NEWS: 175 arrested in Hong Kong money laundering crackdown after victims scammed out of $100M

Regulatory Watch News

• 

  IEWG Launches New Environmental Crimes Bulletin Series

  Egmont Group

  August 21, 2026

  New resource equips FIUs with financial intelligence insights, typologies, risk indicators, and emerging trends related to environmental crime.

  The Egmont Group Information Exchange Working Group (IEWG) has released a new series of Environmental Crimes Bulletins to support Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) in identifying, analyzing, and disrupting the financial flows associated with environmental crime.

  Developed with contributions from environmental crime subject matter experts, the bulletins examine key crime areas including illegal wildlife trade, rhino trafficking, pollution crime, illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, illegal logging and illegal mining and natural resource extraction. The series highlights money laundering risks, criminal methodologies, industries at risk of exploitation, and indicators that may assist FIUs in detecting suspicious financial activity.

• 

  Two men charged as part of investigation into Australia’s largest cocaine seizure

  Australia Federal Police

  August 21, 2026

  A Brisbane man and a Sydney man have been charged with drug and firearms offences as part of the ongoing investigation into Australia's largest cocaine seizure. The Brisbane man, 41, was charged yesterday (20 August, 2026) after AFP and Queensland Police officers executed a search warrant at a Kangaroo Point home, seizing $80,000 in cash and electronic devices, as part of Operation Minjiang, which has resulted in the seizure of almost three tonnes of cocaine and 142kg of methamphetamine.

• 

  Treasury Increases Sanctions on Hizballah and Targets Network Smuggling Millions in Cash for Hizballah

  OFAC

  August 20, 2026

  WASHINGTON—Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating 10 individuals that are part of a network responsible for transferring cash to Hizballah.  The network utilizes couriers travelling on commercial airline flights between Lebanon, Turkiye, the UAE, and Iran to move up to hundreds of millions of dollars between jurisdictions, providing an avenue outside the formal financial system for Hizballah to obtain foreign currency and evade sanctions.  OFAC is also re-designating Hizballah for service to the Iranian regime under the command of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF).