Financial Crime Online

Another high profile “PEP” investigation. Arafat’s former aide has been accused of funneling millions of public funds abroad. The money allegedly was wired from Palestinian Investment Fund bankaccounts to accounts held by shell companies under his control. In 2009, CBS reported on secret accounts in Israel (..) and Switzerland held by the Palestinian Investment Fund. Check [...]

Switzerland adopted the ‘ Return of Illegal Assets Act’  a couple of years ago, allegedly in an attempt to shake off it somewhat shady image as financial safe haven for dictators. Mubarak is the next batter up. Yesterday his 30 year reign ended. That same day, his funds in Switzerland were frozen based on the [...]

Laundering leaders and their families…. The son in law of Kazakh leader Nazabayev, Timor Kulibayev, is subject of a Swiss money laundering probe according to multiple sources. He allegedly used Swiss bank accounts to launder money. One of the transactions under investigations is probably related to a real estate deal. He bought the Duke of [...]

Now just when you thought it perhaps isn’t as bad as it seems…. Austrian magazin Profil reported that Muammar Kaddafi (or al-Gaddafi; indeed the infamous Libian leader) gave Haider, the late right wing Austrian politician, hundreds of thousands of dollars in tote bags. Profil, based on several sources, claims that the cash was susequently bundled [...]

An interesting spin-off during an investigation by Austrian and German authorities into the near-collapse of Austrian bank  Hypo Group Alpe Adria. The bank was once owned by the Austrian region of Carinthia, which Austrian right wing politician Haider governed until he died in a car crash in 2008. The investigators revealed that Haider had access to [...]

Last Thursday UNODC launched the report “The Globalization of Crime: A Transnational Organized Crime Threat Assessment“. It shows how organized crime has globalized and turned into one of the world’s foremost economic and armed powers. “..Among the findings in the new report, which features a number of high-impact maps and charts that illustrate illicit flows [...]

A new U.S.-Mexico government study estimates that $19 billion to $29 billion is shipped south, then laundered through cash purchases of land, luxury hotels, cars and other high-end items. Remember the recent arrest of Cancun mayor for aiding criminal groups setting up shop in Cancun? The amount of money involved shows the (financial) power of [...]

Reuters reports that the mayor of the Mexican beach resort of Cancun has been arrested and charged with money laundering and drug-related crimes, making him one of the highest-ranking public officials swept up in Mexico’s crackdown on narcotics traffickers. “He was moving so much money and it just didn’t match up with the amount he [...]

Swiss banks are no longer what they used to be. The ‘secrecy veil’ has been lifted to a large extent. Money launderers found ‘safer’ havens for their dirty money. This week it was announced that a Swiss banker, the former CEO of Tempus PrivatBank, is indicted for corruption and money laundering after a 7 (!) [...]

The Quadrangle Group agreed to pay $ 12 million to settle allegations of paying kickbacks to get business from a NY pension fund. The investment firm will pay $ 7 million to the pension fund and $ 5 million to the SEC. News of the settlement came on the same day that the state comptroller, [...]