Category: North America

Regulatory Watch News

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  Justice Department Announces Arrest of the Founder of One of the World’s Largest Hacker Forums and Disruption of Forum’s Operation

  US Department of Justice

  March 24, 2023

  FBI Disrupts BreachForums Marketplace for Hacked and Stolen Data

  The founder of BreachForums made his initial appearance today in the Eastern District of Virginia on a criminal charge related to his alleged creation and administration of a major hacking forum and marketplace for cybercriminals that claimed to have more than 340,000 members as of last week. In parallel with his arrest on March 15, the FBI and Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) have conducted a disruption operation that caused BreachForums to go offline.

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  FINTRAC imposes an administrative monetary penalty on Vision Bank Ltd.

  Fintrac

  March 24, 2023

  FINTRAC announced today that it has imposed an administrative monetary penalty on Vision Bank Ltd., also operating as Vision Bank (Canada). This money services business in Markham, Ontario, was imposed an administrative monetary penalty of $33,000 on March 8, 2023, for non-compliance with Part 1 of the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act and its associated Regulations.

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  Treasury Targets Belarusian State-Owned Enterprises, Government Officials, and Lukashenka’s Aircraft

  OFAC

  March 24, 2023

  WASHINGTON — Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating three entities and nine individuals, and identifying one presidential aircraft as blocked property, pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 14038. These designations build on sanctions imposed on individuals and entities in Belarus in response to the ongoing brutal crackdown against the pro-democracy movement and civil society surrounding the fraudulent August 2020 presidential election. These actions also underscore the United States’ willingness to hold the regime in Minsk to account for its complicity in the Russian Federation’s ongoing unjustified war of choice against Ukraine.