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 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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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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This week’s brief leads with the biggest US AML rewrite in roughly 40 years, layered against an escalating run of mid-tier enforcement on three continents, two FinCEN alerts that reset Iran and trafficking typologies, and a Russia sanctions tempo that is now drifting faster between Washington, London, and Brussels than most screening vendors can keep […]
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On April 24, 2026, the European Union formally adopted its 20th package of restrictive measures against Russia (Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, 2026). This legislation marks a critical evolution in the bloc’s economic statecraft. While the early days of the conflict saw massive, blunt-force sanctions aimed at severing direct bilateral trade, the landscape has fundamentally […]
Read MoreIn early March, U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) released a statement informing American financial institutions that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental body that establishes international standards for anti-money laundering, countering the financing of terrorism, and countering the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (AML/CFT/CPF) recently updated its […]
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Rising geopolitical tensions are intensifying the pressure currently placed on both domestic and international financial institutions to strengthen their compliance safeguards, and nowhere is this more evident than in the rapidly expanding Financial Technology (“FinTech”) sector. Financial intelligence recently released by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) suggests that global conflict and […]
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On November 24, 2025, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), part of the US Department of the Treasury, imposed a $4,677,552 (£3,458,193) penalty on a real estate investor for ‘violating Russia sanctions and reporting obligations’. ‘US Person-1’ was found to have willfully dealt in property which was owned by a blocked and sanctioned individual […]
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In the fast-moving world of maritime sanctions, marine insurers and P&I clubs play a critical role in safeguarding the industry against risk. But with regulators tightening expectations and sanctions regimes growing ever more complex, it is no longer enough to rely on standard compliance approaches. Two areas that stand out as particularly important are: Bridging […]
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