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Regulatory Watch News

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  EPPO’s Paris office investigates French former MEP and assistant on suspicion of fictitious employment

  European Public Prosecutor's Office

  December 5, 2022

  Since July 2021, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has been running a preliminary investigation into a case of misappropriation of public funds, including aiding and concealment. These acts are thought to have been committed in 2018 and 2019, and relate to the suspected fictitious employment of a European Parliamentary Assistant. The Bordeaux Public Prosecutor’s Office reported these facts to the EPPO in July 2021, based on an alert by the French anti-corruption association Anticor. This report concerned Mr Jacques COLOMBIER, Member of the European Parliament at the time of the facts, and Ms Edwige DIAZ, who was employed by him on a position of local parliamentary assistant at the time.

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  HSBC Bank Malta plc fined by FIAU for on-boarding breaches.

  FIAU

  December 5, 2022

  For three (3) customer files, it was observed that at the time of onboarding, the Bank had failed to collect the necessary documents to verify the identity or address of the beneficial owners (BOs)/senior managing officials. Similarly, for four (4) customer files, the Bank had failed at the onboarding stage to carry out the verification of the agents/authorised signatories involved. Therefore, the Bank was found to be in breach of Regulations 7(1)(b) and 7(3) of the PMLFTR and Section 4.3 of the IPs. However, given that the Bank had already remediated these shortcomings prior to the compliance examination, and taking into consideration the fact that such inadequacies were identified in a relatively low number of files, the Committee deemed this breach to be minor in nature, and proceeded to impose a Reprimand and Follow-Up Directive on the Bank.

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  2469 money mules arrested in worldwide crackdown against money laundering

  Europol

  December 5, 2022

  Law enforcement from 25 countries, supported by Europol, Eurojust, INTERPOL and the European Banking Federation (EBF) have joined forces to crack down on one of the most important enablers of money laundering: money mules and their recruiters. During an operational phase carried out between mid-September to the end of November 2022, 8,755 money mules were identified alongside 222 money mule recruiters, and 2,469 individuals were arrested worldwide. Now in its eighth edition, the European Money Mule Action (EMMA8) has gone international, with actions carried out in countries as far apart as Colombia, Singapore and Australia.