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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The unsettled truce between the United States and Iran once again showed signs of fraying this past week as both nations exchanged accusations over ceasefire violations while simultaneously attempting to keep diplomatic negotiations alive. Renewed disputes over maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. military strikes following attacks on commercial shipping, and the Trump […]
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For years, the United States’ battle against Mexican cartels has centered almost exclusively on drugs: cocaine in the 1980’s, methamphetamine in the 90’s and 2000’s, and, most recently, fentanyl; the synthetic opioid responsible for tens of thousands of American overdose deaths on an annual basis. Yet a recent series of actions announced by the U.S. […]
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A recent report from Europol, the European Union’s primary law enforcement and criminal intelligence agency confirms that organized crime is undergoing a profound transformation across the continent. No longer defined solely by rigid structures and territorial control as seen historically, today’s criminal enterprises have reportedly begun to increasingly resemble multinational corporations that can quickly adapt […]
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Fraud and money laundering are converging into one financial crime problem. From the AML Intelligence roundtable at the European Parliament: why prevention beats reimbursement, why responsibility is shifting to platforms, and what compliance officers should change now.
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The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently launched a far-reaching investigation into financial ties linking multiple major Wall Street financial institutions to Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. Khamenei, who just recently became Iran’s supreme leader in February after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in a joint U.S. – Israeli airstrike, acts as Iran’s […]
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Financial fraud has become one of the most costly and disruptive threats facing consumers and businesses across the globe today. In the United States alone, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported that Americans lost a record $15.9 billion to fraud in 2025, an increase of more than $3 billion from the previous year, with approximately […]
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Last Friday, FinCEN handed banks 18 new red flags, a SAR key term, and a direct tip line to ICE. The advisory is framed as payroll fraud guidance, and the fraud is real, but read alongside EO 14406 and the CFPB’s new statement on immigration status, it amounts to something bigger: financial institutions being drafted into immigration enforcement. I broke down what’s actually in FIN-2026-A002, what it means for compliance teams, and what belongs on your agenda before month end.
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Last week, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) delivered another reminder that sanctions compliance remains paramount for financial institutions both domestically and abroad, and a rapidly evolving area of risk for organizations small and large. In a series of actions targeting the embattled countries of both Cuba and Iran, OFAC expanded […]
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