Category: Middle East

Regulatory Watch News

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  Economic Fury Targets Iranian Shadow Banking Networks Moving Billions in Foreign Currency

  OFAC

  May 1, 2026

  WASHINGTON—Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating three Iranian foreign currency exchange houses and their associated front companies as part of Economic Fury and Treasury’s ongoing efforts to disrupt the Iranian regime’s financial lifelines that sustain its war effort.  Collectively, Iranian exchange houses facilitate billions of dollars in foreign currency transactions each year.  Because Iran primarily settles its oil sales in Chinese yuan, these exchange houses play a critical role in converting oil revenues into currencies that are more readily useable by the Iranian military and its partners and proxies.

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  Austria’s measures to counter money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing

  FATF

  May 1, 2026

  30 April 2026 - The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) mutual evaluation of Austria, led by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), assessed the effectiveness of the country’s anti-money laundering, countering terrorist financing and proliferation financing (AML/CFT/CPF) measures, and their level of compliance with the FATF Recommendations, at the time of an on-site visit between June and July 2025. The evaluation found that Austria has made clear progress in strengthening its AML/CFT legal and regulatory framework, with notable improvements related to transparency of beneficial ownership, financial sector supervision and terrorist financing investigations. While measures have been taken to increase the effectiveness of Austria’s AML/CFT framework, improvements are still needed, in particular to increase the operational capacity and resources of the financial intelligence unit (FIU), law enforcement and prosecution in order to be able to effectively investigate and prosecute sophisticated money laundering cases and confiscate criminal proceeds at sufficient levels.

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  Senior member of global drug trafficking syndicate jailed in Melbourne

  Australia Federal Police

  May 1, 2026

  A Chinese-British dual national who was a senior member of the Sam Gor criminal syndicate has been jailed for 15 years for his role in a conspiracy to traffic commercial quantities of illicit drugs within Australia from 2012 to 2013. The man, 70, was sentenced by the Melbourne County Court today (30 April, 2026) to 15 years’ imprisonment. He will be eligible for parole after serving nine years and three months.