Category: North America

Regulatory Watch News

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  Operation PANDORA shuts down 12 phone fraud call centres

  Europol

  May 2, 2024

  In the early hours of 18 April 2024, German, Albanian, Bosnian-Herzegovinian, Kosovar* and Lebanese police forces raided 12 call centres identified as the source of thousands of daily scam calls. 21 persons were taken into custody during this Europol-supported action day, which took down a criminal network responsible for defrauding thousands of victims through the use of various modus operandi. The callers’ playbooks would range from shocking fake police calls, persuasive investment fraud or heart-wrenching romance scams. In an unprecedented law enforcement effort, a large-scale German investigation evolved into Operation PANDORA, which identified 39 suspects.

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  Croatia: Former Deputy Minister arrested in investigation involving University of Zagreb

  European Public Prosecutor's Office

  May 2, 2024

  (Luxembourg, 2 May 2024) – At the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Zagreb (Croatia), a former Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Culture and Media, currently Chief Conservator at the Directorate for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, was arrested today on suspicion of corruption, in an investigation into the Faculty of Geodesy of the University of Zagreb. The former dean of the Faculty of Geodesy and a former professor at the same faculty were also arrested today.

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  Enforcement and Monetary Penalties guidance updated

  OFSI

  May 2, 2024

  On Thursday 2 May 2024,OFSI's Enforcement and Monetary Penalties guidance was updated. As well as being re-styled and moved into a digital format, as communicated in our 13 February blogpost, this update communicates a change in policy in how OFSI applies its guidance to cases. OFSI will now always apply the most recent iteration of its Enforcement guidance to cases. This makes engaging with the enforcement process easier and clearer for all parties, especially instances where breaches span across the current guidance and previous iterations of the guidance. Chapter 3 of the guidance, which covers case assessment, gives some more details on the change.