Illicit Finance

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether Iranian oil tycoon Hossein Shamkhani violated sanctions while using a global network of banks, according to Bloomberg.

ID thieves based in California’s San Fernando Valley and Glendale have been using the Social Security Numbers of foreign scholars who left the U.S. years ago to file hundreds of bank and credit-card applications, according to a cybercrime expert who spoke with the Los Angeles Times.

Australian authorities charged a former National Australia Bank employee they allege acted as the “gatekeeper of funds” for a Sydney crime syndicate accused of defrauding “all financial institutions,” according to a Reuters report.

Belgian authorities have officially charged former European commissioner Didier Reynders with money laundering, a person familiar with the case confirmed to Follow the Money. He is not being held in custody.

The Central Bank of Ireland has fined cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase €21.5 million for failing to properly monitor transactions, including activity potentially linked to child sexual exploitation, drug trafficking, money laundering and other crimes. 

Germany’s financial watchdog BaFin has imposed a record €45-million penalty on JPMorgan Chase for shortcomings in anti-money laundering (AML) controls, the Financial Times reported, citing the supervisory body. 

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned eight individuals and two entities allegedly tied to laundering illicit proceeds from DPRK cybercrime and overseas IT work. 

Blacklisted charities affiliated with Hezbollah have been directing supporters to send money through Lebanon’s booming digital payments sector, routing contributions to wallets held by private individuals rather than official charity accounts, the Financial Times reported.

British authorities have seized more than £12 million ($15.6 million) worth of fossilized dinosaur bones as part of a court-approved settlement with Chinese national Su Binghai, a suspect in a sprawling money-laundering scandal that has reverberated from Singapore to London, Bloomberg said. 

Federal prosecutors examined Jeffrey Epstein for money laundering and operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business in 2007, according to emails from the deceased sex trafficker’s personal Yahoo account obtained by Bloomberg.