Iran has spent years building ways to move money around the international financial system in order to circumvent international sanctions over their notorious terrorism financing exploits, nuclear program development, and human rights violations. Unfortunately, the growth in the cryptocurrency space has allowed the embattled nation to bypass these widespread international banking restrictions that previously had […]
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Withstanding the test of time, economic sanctions remain a crucial diplomatic tool used by governments and international bodies to influence foreign behavior, enforce international law, and protect national security without resorting to military action. Since the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the subsequent escalation of sanctions enforcement taken against Russia has become […]
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For decades, the global financial system has been built around the assumption that all funds leave a trail. Through the use of traditional bank accounts, wire transfers, and credit cards, payment processors and other regulated financial institutions have been able to create records that their own compliance departments and investigators have used successfully to follow […]
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Fraud schemes deployed in today’s digital age are continuing to evolve into increasingly sophisticated processes, with reach extending far across international borders to target the unsuspecting and underprepared. According to the United States Federal Trade Commission, consumers reported losing over $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024 alone, representing a 25% increase from the previous year.4 […]
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A recent federal sentencing further unsealed the veil behind a money-laundering system that American authorities have identified as a major national security threat given the increasingly destabilizing nature of the business, as well as its close geographic proximity to the United States. Last week, a Chinese national was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison […]
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For years, the fight against human smuggling, that being the facilitation of illegal entry or movement of individuals illicitly for financial gain, has largely played out in areas where more traditional crime has often been affiliated: Along international borders, remote roads and back alleys, inside stash houses and in the vehicles used to transport migrants. […]
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Foreign bribery remains one of the most persistent threats to the integrity of today’s global financial system. As multinational corporations and financial institutions increasingly facilitate transactions involving foreign governments, politically exposed individuals, and billions of dollars in international capital, opportunities for corruption can emerge alongside legitimate commercial activity. In recent years, U.S. authorities have intensified […]
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For years, sanctions against long-time international opponents of the U.S.; a group including Iran, Russia, and North Korea, amongst others have focused heavily on restricting weapons development and illicit trade, while targeting the very financial networks which continue to provide a lifeline to these countries in wake of these stringent penalties. With respect to North […]
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For years, the United States and its international counterparts have struggled to answer one of the more fundamental questions surrounding cryptocurrencies: Who is responsible for regulating the digital asset markets? This ongoing lack of a clear regulatory jurisdiction between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC); the two […]
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Over the better part of the past two decades, anti-money laundering (AML) enforcement has continued to intensify across the globe. Regulators have moved away from viewing compliance failures as simply administrative shortcomings and increasingly treat them as systemic threats to national security given their capability to facilitate organized crime, sanctions evasion, corruption, terrorist financing, and […]
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