Financial Crime Online

The SEC posted some interesting material on its website, including transcripts of interviews with Madoff. Given his recent comments on life behind bars, Madoff is probably glad to have a ‘prison break’ and talk to friendly FBI, SEC or whatever investigators. Madoff expressed his surprise that SEC investigators did not detect the Ponzi scheme during [...]

About 15 million people around the world use heroin, opium or morphine, fueling a $65 billion market, warned Antonio Maria Costa, head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. The trade is fueling terrorism and insurgencies: The Taliban raised between $450 million and $600 million in the past four years by “taxing” opium farmers [...]

A lot of fraudulent activity has a very weak link; a bank account that accumulates the illicit proceeds. Banks nowadays are quite strict when opening an account and double check your address and identity. The ‘real’ criminals will not open a bank account in their own names to use for fraudulent activity. There is even [...]

Yesterday the Assistant Secretary for (against) Terrorist Financing David S. Cohen addressed the ABA Money Laundering Enforcement Conference. Mr Cohen emphasized the importance of the private sector in combating money laundering and terrorism financing. It is mainly the banking sector that actually enforces the filtering of financial transactions against all sorts of lists of unwanted [...]

A recent survey by security vendor Actimize shows that almost 70 percent of financial institutions experienced an increase in ATM/debit card fraud claims in 2008 compared to 2007. Twenty-three percent of respondents say those claims jumped by 5 to 9 percent, while the rest noted growth of anywhere between 10 and 74 percent. These numbers [...]

The ‘Wired’ October issue has an article on skimming; “What’s your magstripe worth?”. Florida is apparently a hotspot for skimming. It could also be the case that skimming is prevalent all across the US and Florida is just a bit more aggressive in prosecution. A review of some Florida court cases show how much (or: [...]

On its website, ICE proudly presented the largest cash seizure in Colombia ever: “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents along with Colombian and Mexican law enforcement officers between Sept. 9 and 18 made the largest bulk cash container seizure in Colombia and the United States – more than $41 million in U.S. currency [...]

The State newspaper reported yesterday that: ‘An Aiken attorney will give crucial testimony against two Columbia attorneys — one a prominent tax lawyer who represents pro golfers — in a federal criminal case involving phantom offshore corporations, doctored records, money laundering and embezzlement of more than $5 million. Columbia tax and sports attorney John Fitzgerald [...]

In Mallorca (Spain) the police dug up 4.3 million euro ($6.2 million) in cash and 7.5 kilograms of jewelry in Palma de Mallorca. Members of a local drug ring buried the loot, under a doghouse annex garage. The police mentioned that they have been preparing for the bust for a couple of months. The police [...]