28th July 2018
JERSEY: MAN EXTRADITED FROM BAHRAIN TO FACE MULTI-MILLION FRAUD CHARGES
Bailiwick Express exported on 28th July that Russell Stephen King, 59, who once allegedly referred to himself as ‘Lord Voldemort,’ and had dealings with Sven Goran Erikksen, was formally charged with a multi-million pound fraud in the Royal Court – less than 24 hours after being extradited to Jersey from Bahrain – indicted on 25 alleged offences including fraud, forgery and theft, including those involving the attempted sale of the Belgravia Financial Services Group, and an attempt to misappropriate millions forming part of the estate of his former business partner who died in 2008.
https://jerseyeveningpost.com/news/2018/07/28/extradited-defendant-faces-16m-fraud-case/
NICOLÁS MADURO UNDER INVESTIGATION IN US MONEY LAUNDERING CASE
Axios on 28th July reported that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is reportedly under investigation as part of a probe in the US for his alleged involvement in a $1.2 billion money laundering scheme.
JAPAN: PROSECUTORS RAID SPACE AGENCY OVER BUREAUCRAT’S BRIBERY CASE
On 28th July, Japan Today reported that prosecutors raided locations linked to the space agency after they arrested Kazuaki Kawabata, 57, the former director general for international affairs at the education ministry on a bribery charge in the second graft scandal to hit the ministry in a month. He was on loan at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and was in a position to evaluate the agency’s business contracts. Prosecutors suspect links to former consulting firm executive Koji Taniguchi, 47, already arrested and indicted for alleged complicity in another bribery scandal involving a different senior education ministry official.
https://japantoday.com/category/crime/prosecutors-raid-space-agency-over-bureaucrat’s-bribery-case?
US STATE DEPARTMENT TO CREATE CENTRAL AMERICA CORRUPTION ‘BLACKLIST’
Insight Crime on 27th July reported that the US House of Representatives and Senate approved a Bill that will require the Secretary of State to share the identities of government officials in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador who are involved in narcotics trafficking, corruption and illicit campaign finance with Congress.
https://www.insightcrime.org/news/brief/us-dept-state-create-central-america-corruption-blacklist/
PENTAGON BLACKLIST OF SOFTWARE COMPANIES
The Air Force Magazine on 27th July reported that the Pentagon had established a “do not buy” blacklist of software companies because of security concerns stemming from their ties to Russia and China – the key concern is software supply from China.
CANADA ON FRONTLINE OF A NEW WAR AGAINST THE RISE OF GLOBAL ORGANISED CRIME WITH ‘NDRANGHETA
An article in the Globe & Mail on 28th July reported that an Italian mob war that has claimed at least 15 lives in Eastern Canada in the past decade, Toronto has emerged as a global hub for Italian mafia money laundering, and in the past 5 years a series of busts of cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and fentanyl traffickers have exposed how Toronto-based clans of the Calabrian mafia, the ’Ndrangheta, are replacing those of the Sicilian mafia, the Cosa Nostra, as the dominant force in illegal drug trafficking in North America.
DOJ SETTLEMENT WITH SWISS FINANCIAL AND ASSET MANAGEMENT FIRM MIRELIS HOLDING OVER TAX EVASION CHARGES
On 27th July, Mondo Visione carried a release from the US DoJ saying that it had reached a resolution with Mirelis Holding SA. Under a non-prosecution agreement Mirelis Holding SA (formerly known as Mirelis InvestTrust SA), a Geneva-based securities trading institution, agreed to co-operate in any related criminal or civil proceedings, demonstrate its implementation of controls to stop misconduct involving undeclared US accounts, and pay $10.245 million to the US, in return for the DoJ not to prosecuting it for tax-related criminal offences.
MALLYA-OWNED FORCE INDIA PUT INTO ADMINISTRATION BY HIGH COURT
On 28th July, the BBC reported that Force India have gone into administration before a possible takeover. Force India had earlier admitted that it faced a “critical period” as financial problems threatened the team. Force India’s problems arise from the legal issues of co-owner Viljay Mallya, who is fighting extradition from the UK to India on fraud charges, which he denies.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/44984140
RUSSIAN PARLIAMENT’S UPPER CHAMBER APPROVED A PACKAGE OF LAWS TO MINIMISE THE POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCES OF SANCTIONS AND POLITICAL RISKS
Sputnik on 28th July reported that the Russian parliament’s upper chamber approved a package of laws enabling Russia-controlled foreign offshore companies to be re-registered in offshore financial centres (OFC) established in Russia’s Kaliningrad Region and Primorsky Territory in order to minimise the possible consequences of sanctions and political risks from foreign countries. It says that the legislation establishes the procedure of creating OFC on the Oktyabrsky Island in Kaliningrad and the Russky Island in Vladivostok, providing an opportunity for foreign-registered companies to become subject to Russia’s jurisdiction and obtain the status of an international company.
https://sputniknews.com/russia/201807281066760287-russia-tax-havens/?src=ilaw
https://geopoliticalfutures.com/montenegro-history-demographics-small-balkan-nation/
CYPRIOT BROTHERS REMAIN IN FIJI IN MONEY LAUNDERING CASE
The Financial Mirror on 28th July reported that 2 Cyprus nationals, Loizos Petridis and Cleanthis Petridis, arrested in December have been further remanded in Fiji custody charged with money laundering, attempt to obtain property by deception and possession of property suspected of being proceeds of crime. The bank accounts from which the money was allegedly taken from were from South Africa, India and other overseas countries.
http://www.financialmirror.com/news-details.php?src=ilaw&nid=35673
BNP PARIBAS NOT LIABLE FOR 1998 US EMBASSY ATTACKS MONEY FLOWS
On 28th July, Law 360 reported that victims of the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Africa and their families cannot hold BNP Paribas liable for its alleged facilitation of money flows that supported the attacks, a Washington DC court has ruled, saying that there was no showing that the bank helped cause the attacks. It had been accused of helping fund the attacks by allowing the alleged terrorism sponsor (i.e. Sudan) to funnel money to al-Qaida through accounts at its predecessor bank, Paribas.
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