Financial Crime Online

Hacking and banking; 2009 was full of it. Law enforcement was able to capture a ring of hackers responsible for some major 2008 bank data thefts and subsequent fraudulent transactions. ‘Hacking and fraudulent banking’ is likely attractive enough from a risk/reward point of view to see whole floods of hackers trying their luck (or testing [...]

In crime reporting the attention is usually drawn to the ‘latest and greatest’. Spectacular stuff. Medicare fraud seems boring; not the place a cop would want to spend his career? Let’s view it from a criminal’s point of view; risk and reward. Medicare fraud nets billions, without the risks of getting shot or ripped. Medicare [...]

There we go: “Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations’ drugs and crime tsar, Mr. Costa, has told the Observer.” Leave it to UNODC to help bloggers and the press to come up with interesting headlines. The head of the UN [...]

Swiss authorities apparently opened a criminal investigation after being informed that a former HSBC employee took client data from HSBC Switzerland and provided these client details to French authorities. According to the French newspaper Le Parisien the files contain thousands of client records from the HSBC Private Banking Geneva. The bank did confirm that a [...]

‘Fort Lauderdale Attorney Charged in Billion-Dollar Ponzi Scheme’. This headline would probably have hit you harder in a pre-Madoff era. But even now this is quite an impressive allegation. The FBI and IRS seek to confiscate $1.2 billion, including (the usual) ferraris, roll’s royces, yachts, houses, jewelry, bank accounts in Morocco and Gibraltar and what [...]

According to the Italian weekly “Panorama” the Vatican bank is under investigation for money laundering. For all of you who think that is too absurd an allegation, take the time to browse the net (or your local bookstore) for Roberto Calvi a/k/a/ “God’s banker” and Banco Ambrosiano. In 1984, the Vatican Bank agreed to pay [...]