The Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has proposed a rule to counter money laundering and the financing of terrorism that would add significant compliance requirements for financial...more
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the U.S. Treasury Department (“FinCEN”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (the “Proposed Access Rule”) on December 15, 2022 to implement the second key provision of the...more
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) recently issued an advisory urging financial institutions (including certain cryptocurrency businesses) to implement controls to help detect proceeds of foreign public...more
4/27/2022
/ Bribery ,
BSA/AML ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Embezzlement ,
Extortion ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
Foreign Official ,
Misappropriation ,
Money Laundering ,
New Guidance ,
Offshore Funds ,
Public Corruption ,
Ransomware ,
Russia ,
Shell Corporations ,
Suspicious Activities ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs)
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) published a notice of proposed rulemaking (the “Proposed Rule”) in late January seeking public comment on a proposed pilot program that would expand financial institutions’...more
Building on the “first tranche” of sanctions announced on February 22, 2022 described in our prior alert, the United States, the EU, the UK, and their allies have imposed (or announced the imposition of) additional...more
3/1/2022
/ Blocking Sanctions ,
Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Export Controls ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Transactions ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Russia ,
SWIFT ,
Ukraine ,
Virtual Currency
The innovative use of virtual currencies is hotter than ever, but so is a dark side of these instruments: their exploitation in ransomware schemes. This year, since January 2021, ransomware attacks have increased...more
12/30/2021
/ Cryptocurrency ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
FinCEN ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Popular ,
Ransomware ,
Risk Management ,
Virtual Currency
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) reached one of the largest-ever resolutions with a cryptocurrency exchange on August 10, 2021. BitMEX is virtual currency...more
8/20/2021
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
BitMEX ,
CFTC ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
FinTech ,
Popular ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) ,
Virtual Currency
President Biden issued a new Executive Order 14024 (“E.O. 14024”) on April 15, 2021, expanding sanctions against Russia. E.O. 14024 authorizes, for the first time, U.S. sanctions against Russian technology companies and,...more
4/21/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Crimea ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Defense Sector ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Executive Orders ,
Financial Institutions ,
Foreign Policy ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Russia ,
Sanctions ,
SDN List ,
SolarWinds ,
Sovereign Debt ,
State-Owned Enterprises ,
Technology Contracts
On January 1, 2021, Congress enacted a broad range of anti-money laundering (“AML”) reforms within the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (the “AML Act”), as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021...more
2/4/2021
/ AML/CFT ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Beneficial Owner ,
BSA/AML ,
Corruption ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Transactions ,
Money Laundering ,
Terrorist Financing Regulations ,
Whistleblowers ,
White Collar Crimes
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and federal banking regulators recently issued a Joint Statement intended to clarify the due diligence obligations of banks under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) regarding...more
9/17/2020
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
BSA/AML ,
Customer Due Diligence (CDD) ,
FFIEC ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
FinCEN ,
Joint Statements ,
Politically Exposed Person (PEPs) ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Risk-Based Approaches
Earlier this month, senior officials of the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog—the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)—issued a paper identifying challenges, good practices, and policy responses to new...more
I. Background -
Sweden’s financial supervisory authority (“SFSA”) recently fined Swedbank AB a record 4 billion Swedish kronor (approximately $386 million) for deficiencies in its anti-money laundering (“AML”) processes...more
4/19/2020
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Beneficial Owner ,
BSA/AML ,
Corruption ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Transactions ,
Know Your Customers ,
Money Laundering ,
Sweden ,
White Collar Crimes
On March 4, 2020, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the U.S. Treasury Department (“FinCEN”) assessed a civil monetary penalty of $450,000 against Michael LaFontaine, the former Chief Operational Risk Officer and...more
On December 13, 2019, the National Security Division (“NSD”) of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) released a revised enforcement policy (“the Policy”) meant to encourage companies to voluntarily self-disclose potentially...more
12/23/2019
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Export Controls ,
FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy (CEP) ,
FCPA Guidance ,
Financial Institutions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
National Security ,
Sanction Violations ,
Self-Disclosure Requirements ,
Voluntary Disclosure