FinCrime Frequency – How a Virtual Asset Trading Platform’s Guilty Plea Redefines AML Expectations in Digital Assets
1. The Enforcement Story – What Really Happened A virtual asset trading platform recently pled guilty in federal court to …
FinCrime Frequency # UK AML Supervision Overhaul for Legal & Accounting Firms
What’s New The UK Treasury has announced plans to move the anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist finance (CTF) supervision of …
FinCrime Frequency # How the UK’s Latest AML Advisory Quietly Changes KYC Geography Risk
1. The Update On 27 October 2025, HM Treasury (UK) released a revised Money Laundering Advisory Notice instructing all firms …
The risk of secondary sanctions
Sanctions risk today isn’t about who your customer is …it’s about who your customer deals with. Secondary sanctions are now one of …
FinCrime Frequency- When One Branch Breaks the Whole Bank: The AML Lessons No One Talks About
In late 2025, regulators revealed that a bank had uncovered multi-year suspicious activity at a single retail branch and what …
FinCrime Frequency – FATF Update – What It Means for Your Risk Radar & KYC Program
1. What’s New – The Update In short: the global AML landscape has quietly shifted – some jurisdictions are now …
The Talent Gap in Compliance – Why KYC/AML Hiring is Mission-Critical
Introduction Technology, policies, and regulations form the backbone of financial crime compliance. But the real differentiator? People.Without skilled compliance professionals—analysts, investigators, …
Beyond Checklists – Why Culture is the Real AML Control
Introduction Technology has transformed AML. We have AI-powered transaction monitoring, real-time sanctions screening, blockchain analytics, and predictive red flag detection. …
The Hidden Cost of Compliance – When Risk Aversion Becomes Risk Itself
Introduction Financial crime compliance is often positioned as a shield. The tighter the controls, the safer the institution. But in …
FinCrime Frequency # When AML Controls Look Strong on Paper but Fail in Practice
1. The Headline In October 2025, a global bulge-bracket bank’s European branch was fined a record amount by Germany’s BaFin …
FinCrime Frequency – Smoke on the Sea: How Oil and Obfuscation Fueled Sanctions Evasion
The Backdoor Route to North Korea’s Fuel In one of the most audacious maritime sanctions evasion cases in recent history, …
FinCrime Frequency – The 1MDB Scandal & the Power of Aliases: A $4.5B Lesson in Global Compliance Failures
When fake names, shell companies, and weak oversight collide… The 1MDB scandal wasn’t just another corruption case—it was a $4.5 …
FinCrime Frequency – When a Global Bank Paid Over $1 Billion for Sanctions Breaches
Sanctions are among the strictest compliance requirements in global finance — and violations come at a heavy price. One major …
FinCrime Frequency – When a Fast-Growing European Digital Bank Was Fined €3.5M for AML/KYC Failures
In 2025, a Lithuania-registered challenger bank — let’s call it EuroPay Digital Bank — was fined €3.5 million by its …
FinCrime Frequency – When a Famous Global Law Firm Paid £465,000 for Sanctions Breaches
Sanctions apply to all professional services, not just banks. In 2025, a well-known international law firm faced enforcement action after …
Offshore = Risk? Or is it time to update the narrative?
For years, offshore financial centres have been painted with the same brush — tax evasion, secrecy, and money laundering. But …
Financial crime isn’t standing still and neither can compliance.
The red flags of future look very different from the cash structuring and fake invoices we used to chase. Today’s …
Laudering Through Luxury Goods: Arts, Watches and Wine
From Van Gogh to vintage whisky — luxury isn’t always innocent. Criminal networks are increasingly exploiting art, high-end watches, jewellery, and …
The Freeport Loophole: CDD Beyond Banks
Introduction When most people hear “Customer Due Diligence (CDD),” they picture banks collecting IDs, verifying beneficial owners, and screening against …
Continuous KYC (cKYC): Dream or Data Honeypot?
The Promise of Continuous KYC For years, financial institutions have treated KYC (Know Your Customer) as a one-off onboarding ritual. Collect documents, …