Month: January 2023

On 31 January, CTV reported that Canada’s financial intelligence agency, FINTRAC, is stepping up the fight against the illicit wildlife trade by taking aim at the criminals who reap big profits from the global racket.  It is encouraging banks and other enterprises to be on the lookout for tell-tale signs that business dealings could involve the illegal trafficking of animals and exotic plants.  Fintrac has published a new operational alert aimed at gleaning useful intelligence to combat a major international crime that generates approximately US$20 billion in annual proceeds.

https://beta-ctvnews-ca.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/beta.ctvnews.ca/national/canada/2023/1/31/1_6253140.amp.html

https://fintrac-canafe.canada.ca/new-neuf/nr/2023-01-31-eng

https://fintrac-canafe.canada.ca/intel/operation/oai-wildlife-eng

Transparency International has released the latest Corruption Perceptions Index which shows that most countries are failing to stop corruption.  It ranks 180 countries and territories.  It notes that 26 countries have fallen to their lowest scores yet and that 155 countries have made no significant progress against corruption or have declined since 2012.  Denmark remains top (Panama, unfortunately, is in 101^st position).

https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2022

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/KoIvM842y

On 27 January, FATF-style regional body CFATF released a report.  During the period December 2021 to December 2022, it conducted a survey on the usage of virtual assets and VASP in the Caribbean Region. The survey was aimed, in part, at examining how VA function, integrate and contribute to the financial sector in the Caribbean region and to gain an understanding of how the inherent risks posed are mitigated by the financial and corporate sector when providing VA services.  The result of the survey is contained in a report, which provides recommendations on the steps countries can take to enable and bolster the infrastructure needed to support actions aimed at mitigating the risk associated with VA and VASP.

https://www.cfatf-gafic.org/home-test/english-documents/cfatf-resources/19788-cfatf-va-vasps-project-report?category_access=1

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/KoIvM842y

On 29 January, the Financial Post reported on revelations from a court case in Quebec which revolves around a dispute over the control of trusts between a Montreal-based wealth management company and a law firm owned by 2 Paris-based lawyers.  While neither side prevailed in the litigation, the judge took great care in detailing the duelling allegations of dubious management strategies, conflicts of interest and dishonesty.  Overall, both sides were involved in managing as much as tens of billions of euros spread throughout at least 300 trusts, according to the ruling.  Rich families were able to avoid for years France’s wealth tax through the ruse of the Canadian trust, the court said.  The article says that, to leave “no traces” as they hid billions in Canadian trusts for rich French families, a group of asset managers and lawyers referred to clients as “the old lady” or “the painter”; and they periodically destroyed office computers.  But relationships soured and spilled into court, and now their methods have been exposed in a ruling that reads as a guidebook to tax avoidance tricks.

https://financialpost.com/personal-finance/taxes/canada-tax-haven-tax-evasion-synnott

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/KoIvM842y

On 24 January, Mongabay reported that, in July 2022, the EU responded to the war in Ukraine by banning the import of Russian woody biomass used to make energy.  At roughly the same time, South Korea drastically upped its Russian woody biomass imports, becoming the sole official importer of Russian wood pellets for industrial energy use.  It also warns of claims of laundered Russian wood pellets possibly flowing through Turkey, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to multiple EU states.

https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/the-eu-banned-russian-wood-pellet-imports-south-korea-took-them-all/

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/KoIvM842y

The FATF-style regional body GAFILAT has published its second follow-up report on Colombia following the mutual evaluation report of July 2018.  This follow-up report analyses the progress made by Colombia in addressing the technical compliance deficiencies identified in its MER, and does not address effectiveness.  In general, Colombia has been making important progress in relation to addressing the technical compliance deficiencies identified in its MER and has been re-rated in relation to FATF Recommendations 10 to Largely Compliant and 12 to Largely Compliant.  Colombia will continue in the enhanced follow-up process and will continue to report to GAFILAT on the progress made to strengthen its implementation of AML/CFT measures.

https://www.gafilat.org/index.php/es/biblioteca-virtual/gafilat/documentos-de-interes-17/traducciones/4505-second-re-rating-fur-colombia-dec22/file

On 30 January, a report from OCCRP claimed that Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, sanctioned by the UK and the EU, held assets worth over €1.4 billion with Credit Suisse through offshore firms that, until recently, he secretly owned.  The information came from 2 leaks shared with OCCRP and its partners.

Meanwhile, on 30 January, the Guardian reported that the “Oligarch Files”, a cache of leaked documents seen by the Guardian, suggest that before Russia invaded Ukraine Barclays and UBS held at least $940 million of assets on behalf of Abramovich’s trusts and companies he ultimately owned.  Shortly before the invasion the 10 offshore trusts were rapidly rearranged to transfer beneficial ownership of a significant portion of Abramovich’s vast fortune to his children.  It is said that the documents raise questions about how the banks responded to the changes and whether, since sanctions were imposed on Abramovich, they have allowed the children to financially benefit from assets that until that month were beneficially owned by their father.

https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/credit-suisse-banked-abramovich-fortune-held-in-secret-offshore-companies

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/30/barclays-ubs-roman-abramovich-trusts

https://www.theguardian.com/world/series/oligarch-files

On 29 January, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported on “pig-butchering”: a brutal and elaborate form of organised crime, often involving criminal syndicates, modern-day slaves and victims around the world, and involves scammers grooming their targets before stealing huge sums in cryptocurrency.  It says that an investigation with The Observer newspaper has found that organised crime groups are using the UK as a virtual base for their operations, exploiting lax regulation to carry out fraud on an industrial scale.  Analysis has identified 168 UK companies accused of running fraudulent cryptocurrency or foreign exchange trading schemes, around half of which are likely to be linked to pig-butchering scams.  Many of these firms are linked through domain registrations and while the vast majority of company directors are resident in China, details about the real owners are scant due to loopholes in the Companies House registration system.

https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2023-01-29/sham-credibility-how-uk-shell-companies-fuel-pig-butchering-crypto-scams

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/29/everything-is-fake-how-global-gangs-are-using-uk-shell-companies-in-multi-million-pound-crypto-scams

On 26 January, FATF published this MER compiled by FATF-style regional body ESAAMLG and dated September 2022.  The on-site visit took place in January/February 2022. 

https://www.fatf-gafi.org/content/fatf-gafi/en/publications/Mutualevaluations/MER-Kenya-2023.html

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/KoIvM842y

On 27 January, FATF-style regional body GAFILAT published the latest follow-up report on Costa Rica.  The original evaluation was in 2015.  As normal, this report does not address Costa Rica’s progress in improving its effectiveness.  The report says that, overall, Costa Rica continues to make significant progress in addressing the technical compliance deficiencies identified in its MER; nevertheless, it has presented deficiencies related to the implementation of requirements arising from the amendments to the FATF Recommendations and the Evaluation Methodology, and therefore has been re-rated as follows: Recommendation15, Non-Compliant (previously Compliant),; additionally, no modifications have been made to Recommendations 2, 5, 7, 8, 18, and 21.  Costa Rica will continue in the enhanced follow-up process and will continue to report to GAFILAT on the progress made to strengthen its implementation of AML/CFT measures.

https://www.gafilat.org/index.php/es/biblioteca-virtual/gafilat/documentos-de-interes-17/traducciones/4503-fourth-re-rating-fur-costa-rica-dec22/file

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/KoIvM842y