Banks stand to advance the fight against human trafficking and modern slavery by reporting suspicious transactions and other financial activity that raise red flags, according to a report on March 15, 2017. Published by the...more
The Philippines has been identified by the U.S. as a “major money-laundering country” in the 2017 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (“Report”), published this month. The country now joins 87 others as one “whose...more
The founders of Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca were arrested on Saturday, following their indictment on money-laundering charges allegedly tied to the ever-widening Petrobas corruption scandal in Brazil.
Kenia...more
2/14/2017
/ Brazil ,
Bribery ,
Corruption ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Indictments ,
Kickbacks ,
Money Laundering ,
Mossack Fonseca ,
Offshore Banks ,
Offshore Funds ,
Oil & Gas ,
Panama ,
Panama Papers ,
Petrobras ,
Tax Evasion ,
Tax Shelters
The New York State Department of Financial Services (“DFS”) has issued its fifth BitLicense to date, continuing a marked effort to bring legitimacy and controls to the virtual currency (“VC”) industry, whose advantages in...more
In part two of our review of the 2016 developments in Anti-Money Laundering (AML), the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), the criminal money laundering statutes, forfeiture, and related issues, we discuss four additional key...more
2/7/2017
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Bitcoin ,
BSA/AML ,
Civil Forfeiture ,
Currency Transaction Reports (CTR) ,
Digital Currency ,
Financial Institutions ,
Forfeiture ,
Money Laundering ,
Virtual Currency
Under Internal Revenue Code section 7609(f), the IRS may issue a “John Doe” administrative summons to discover the identities of unknown taxpayers. A “John Doe” summons can be a powerful enforcement tool because it allows the...more
2/7/2017
/ Bitcoin ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Digital Currency ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
IRS ,
John Doe Investigation ,
Money Laundering ,
Summons ,
Swiss Banks ,
Tax Evasion ,
Technology ,
Virtual Currency
2016 was a busy year for developments in Anti-Money Laundering (AML), the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), the criminal money laundering statutes, forfeiture, and related issues. In part one of our year-in-review, we discuss six key...more
2/3/2017
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
BSA/AML ,
Casinos ,
Consumer Lenders ,
Customer Due Diligence (CDD) ,
FATF ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
Fines ,
Gambling ,
Gaming ,
Geographic Targeting Order ,
Money Laundering ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Mortgages ,
NYDFS ,
Offshore Funds ,
Panama Papers ,
Popular ,
Real Estate Market ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) ,
Tax Evasion
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether state laws that prohibit merchants from imposing a surcharge on credit card purchases violate the First Amendment. The petition for certiorari granted by the Supreme Court...more
The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) has announced that it has entered into a consent order with an online payday loan lead generator and its chief executive officer (CEO) (collectively, respondents) to...more
3/25/2016
/ Consent Order ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Security ,
Notification Requirements ,
NYDFS ,
Online Marketplace Lending ,
Payday Loans ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Popular ,
Usury
A federal district court in New York has ruled that a debt collector did not violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) by sending a collection letter in an envelope that allegedly revealed an internal tracking...more
A New York state law that prohibits merchants from imposing a surcharge on credit card purchases does not violate the First Amendment or the Due Process Clause, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently ruled....more
10/16/2015
/ Appeals ,
Credit Card Surcharges ,
Credit Cards ,
Debit and Credit Card Transactions ,
Due Process ,
Financial Institutions ,
First Amendment ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Merchants ,
Payment Systems ,
Retail Market ,
Retailers
A federal judge exceeded his authority when he rejected a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) entered into earlier this year by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and a Dutch aerospace company, the DOJ and company will...more
9/11/2015
/ Aerospace ,
Aircraft Equipment ,
Appeals ,
Compliance ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Deferred Prosecution Agreements ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
DPA ,
Export Controls ,
Internal Investigations ,
Iran ,
Sudan ,
Terrorism Funding
New York City’s Responsible Banking Act (RBA) is preempted by federal and state law, a federal court has ruled. Pursuant to the New York City Charter, only financial institutions that are designated “deposit banks” by the...more
New York City can regulate the conduct of attorneys engaged in debt collection, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has ruled. In Eric M. Berman, P.C. and Lacy Katzen, LLP v. City of New York, et al., the...more
A judge in the Southern District of New York recently granted summary judgment to Vassar College in a case brought by a former student accused of sexual assault. The plaintiff alleged that Vassar violated Title IX and various...more
The Federal Trade Commission—and numerous other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies in the United States and Canada—recently announced that an enforcement initiative dubbed “Operation Ruse Control” has resulted...more
A New York federal district court recently issued a strong denunciation of the practice of debtors attempting to induce debt collectors into committing violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). Finding...more
The New York Department of Financial Services has issued guidance about its new Third-Party Debt Collector and Debt Buyer Regulations in the form of Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”). The FAQs provide insight on the scope...more
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is proposing an "overhaul [of] New York's data security law [that would] require new and unprecedented safeguards for the personal data of consumers." The proposal would create new...more
The consumer financial services attorney (the petitioner) who sued the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) and its superintendent, Benjamin Lawsky, to obtain access to DFS’s database of alleged illegal...more
The New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) published its final debt collection regulations on December 3, 2014, following an extensive rulemaking period. The regulations impose requirements on third-party debt...more
A federal judge recently dismissed a complaint brought by the New York Bankers Association (NYBA) seeking to invalidate the New York City Responsible Banking Act (the Responsible Banking Act). In New York Bankers Ass’n Inc....more
The New York Court System has adopted new rules effective October 1, 2014, to obtain a default judgment in a consumer collection action, Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman announced recently. Debt collectors and debt buyers should...more
The New York Attorney General filed a complaint this week in a New York federal court against a national bank headquartered in the state and its holding company alleging that the defendants violated the federal Fair Housing...more
For the second time in two years, Benjamin Lawsky, the Superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS), has settled another matter with Standard Chartered Bank for alleged “anti-money laundering...more