Financial Crime Weekly Podcast Christopher Kirkbride

Hello, and welcome to episode 104 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I’m Chris Kirkbride. This week has been yet another busy week for financial crime, which as I’ve been ill, I could well have done without. Anyway, sanctions news covers a broad range of targets, including Belarus, Iran, Venezuela, and North Korea. The action comes in the form of new designations and some enforcement. On bribery and anti-corruption, the all-party Parliamentary Group on Anti-Corruption & Responsible Tax has published its Economic Crime Manifesto II, and Transparency International has been busy churning out publications this week. On money laundering, Tiktok has been referred to AUSTRAC, and Europol has made a number of arrests of members of a money laundering gang. The fraud news contains the usual content from the US on Covid-19 fraud, and the Met Police in London has compromised a website used by fraudsters. There are other bits and pieces, as well as the round-up of cyber-attack news this week. Let’s crack on.
 
As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are:
 
All-Party Parliamentary Group on Anti-Corruption & Responsible Tax, Economic Crime Manifesto II.
Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, “The Decade of Transformation, Towards a Future of Integrity”: the EU gathered partners to mark 10 years of its support to rule of law and anti-corruption reforms in Ukraine.
European Parliament, Fighting money laundering: final vote on a single EU rulebook and a new watchdog.
Europol, 9 arrests in EUR 645 million JuicyFields investment scam case.
Financial Action Task Force, FATF Ministers commit to stepping up efforts to fight money laundering, terrorist and proliferation financing.
Financial Conduct Authority, Consultation Paper CP24/2**: Our Enforcement Guide and publicising enforcement investigations–a new approach.
Governing, How to Protect Water Systems Against Cyber Attack.
International Federation for Human Rights, Fighting grand corruption: an essential lever to protect human rights worldwide.
Mandiant, Unearthing APT44: Russia’s Notorious Cyber Sabotage Unit Sandworm.
Metropolitan Police, Law enforcement infiltrates fraud platform used by thousands of criminals worldwide.
Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Sudan.
Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Iran.
Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial sanctions targets: list of all asset freeze targets.
Pinsent Masons, How social media influencer marketing regulation differs across the Asia Pacific region.
Transparency International, Will the EU act Decisively and Raise its Anti-Corruption Standards?
Transparency International, Stopping Corruption Promoting Integrity.
UK Legislation, Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (Financial Penalty) Regulations 2024 SI No 445.
US Department of Justice, Former North Korean Official Indicted on Sanctions Evasion, Conspiracy to Commit Bank Fraud, and Money Laundering Charges.
US Department of Justice, International Arms Dealers Charged with Conspiring to Unlawfully Export Weapons and Ammunition from the United States to Sudan and Iraq.
US Department of Justice, Biotech CEO Sentenced for $28M COVID-19 Securities Fraud Scheme and Obstruction of Related Investigation.
US Department of Justice, Sterling businessman indicted for Covid-19 relief fund fraud.
US Department of Justice, Three Individuals Indicted in Multistate COVID-19 Relief Program Fraud Scheme.
US Department of State, Venezuela Sanctions Relief: Expiration of General License 44.
US Department of the Treasury, Treasury Targets Belarusian Sanctions Evasion Networks and Cogs in Russia’s War Machine.
US Department of the Treasury, Treasury Targets Iranian UAV Program, Steel Industry, and Automobile Companies

Hello, and welcome to episode 103 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I’m Chris Kirkbride. The busy weeks for financial crime continue this week. Some good news on sanctions from the EU for two designated oligarchs, as well as research on the impact of sanctions on the Russian economy. There is a little money laundering news from the FATF and comments from Janet Yellen following a bilateral meeting between the US and China. From the US, there is interesting Covid-19 news with updates on fraud enforcement, together with a staggering story from Vietnam. However, the week’s big news comes from cyber with major reports from the IMF and the UK government on the threat posed by cyber to the global economy, and the results of a cyber survey, respectively. Let’s crack on.
 
As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are:
 
Adyen, Adyen finds the global retail sector lost $429 billion to payments fraud last year.
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Western Sanctions on Russia Should Be More Pragmatic and Less Punitive.
Carnegie Mellon University, Leveraging Human Psychology to Thwart Cyber Attacks.
Center for European Policy Analysis, Russia Squeezed as Sanctions Bite.
Court of Justice of the European Union, War in Ukraine: the General Court annuls the inclusion of Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman on the lists of persons subject to restrictive measures between February 2022 and March 2023 (press release).
Court of Justice of the European Union, Fridman v Council (application and judgment).
Court of Justice of the European Union, Aven v Council (application and judgment).
Department of Justice, COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force Releases 2024 Report.
Department of Justice, Plymouth Man Arrested for Paycheck Protection Program Fraud.
Department of Justice, Cincinnati woman sentenced to 7 years in prison for crimes related to COVID-19 relief fraud.
Financial Action Task Force, Private Sector Consultative Forum, April 2024.
International Monetary Fund, Global Financial Stability Report, April 2024.
International Monetary Fund, Rising Cyber Threats Pose Serious Concerns for Financial Stability.
Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, General Licence – Active Denizcilik and Beks Ships Transit to Port and Wind Down INT/2024/4576632.
The White House, FACT SHEET: President Biden’s Sweeping Proposals to Crack Down on Pandemic Fraud and Help Victims Recover Introduced in Congress.
UK Government, Cyber security breaches survey 2024.
US Department of the Treasury, READOUT: Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen’s Bilateral Meetings with Vice Premier He Lifeng of the People’s Republic of China in Guangzhou, China.
US Department of the Treasury, Statement from Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen on Announcement of New U.S.-China Initiatives Following Meeting with Vice Premier He Lifeng of the People’s Republic of China.

Hello, and welcome to episode 102 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I’m Chris Kirkbride. It has been a remarkably busy week this week. While the sanctions news was a limited, further action has been taken by the US against those facilitating Iranian sanctions evasion, but the main content this week comes in the form of bribery and market abuse news. In fact, there has been a noticeable trend over recent weeks in the number of stories relating to bribery and market abuse. Why? Maybe it’s the cost of living, but that argument falls down when you think of the wealth of some of the individuals concerned. Maybe it’s because they might be seen, wrongly in my view, as victimless crime. At least that used to be the view in relation to market abuse. Anyway, there is a load of news from those areas. In other news, the Financial Action Task Force has updated on the implementation of recommendation 15 by all FATF members and materially important virtual asset service providers. What else? Well, there’s a big report from Europol and the usual round-up of cyber-attack news. Let’s crack on.
 
As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are:
 
Ajax, Supervisory Board suspends Alex Kroes due to strong indications of insider trading.
Cyber Safety Review Board, Review of the Summer 2023 Microsoft Exchange Online Intrusion.
Cyber Safety Review Board, Cyber Safety Review Board Releases Report on Microsoft Online Exchange Incident from Summer 2023 (press release).
Department of Justice, Swiss Commodities Trading Company Pleads Guilty to Foreign Bribery Scheme.
Department of Justice, Justice Department’s Investigation into International Commodities Trading Companies’ Foreign Bribery Schemes Results in Six Corporate Resolutions and 20 Individuals Convicted.
Department of Justice, United States Seeks Forfeiture of Former Mongolian Prime Minister's Luxury New York City Apartments Purchased with Proceeds of Corruption Scheme.
Department of Justice, Justice Department Seeks Forfeiture of $14 Million Manhattan Apartments Purchased with Proceeds of Mongolian Corruption Scheme.
Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney Announces Charges In Four Separate Insider Trading Cases Against 10 Individuals, Including Drug Company Employees, Investment Firm Executive Director, And SPAC Investors.
European Securities and Markets Authority, ESMA publishes latest edition of its newsletter (press release).
European Securities and Markets Authority, Spotlight on Markets.
Europol, Europol report identifies the most threatening criminal networks in the EU (press release).
Europol, Report: Decoding the EU’s most threatening criminal networks.
Europol, Europol press conference: Decoding the most threatening criminal networks (YouTube).
Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI Countering Cyber Threats Through ‘Joint, Sequenced Operations,’ Director Says (press release).
Federal Bureau of Investigation, Director Wray's Remarks at the FBI and University of Kansas Cybersecurity Conference.
Financial Action Task Force, Status of implementation of Recommendation 15 by FATF Members and Jurisdictions with Materially Important VASP Activity.
Financial Conduct Authority, Stuart Bayes found guilty of insider dealing.
Gambling Commission, Bet365 to pay £582,120 for regulatory failures.
Home Office, Response to consultation on changes to bodies granted investigatory powers.
National Anti-Corruption Commission, Guidelines for participating in anti-corruption and investment confidence in Thailand.
Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Targets Network Facilitating Shipments Valued in Hundreds of Millions for Iranian Military.
Securities and Exchange Commission, Litigation Release No. 25962 / April 2, 2024: Securities and Exchange Commission v. Treusch, No. 1:24-civ-01050 (E.D.N.Y. filed Feb. 11, 2024).
The White House, Water and Wastewater cyber-attack letter.
UK Statutory Instruments, The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (Re

Hello, and welcome to episode 101 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I’m Chris Kirkbride. It has been a busy week this week. There is a broad range of sanctions news this week, with coordinated action relating to the Chinese cyber security breaches in the US and UK. On bribery and corruption, lots from the OECD. The money laundering news brings updates from the FATF on Australia and the US concerning their actions following their last MERs. There is also market abuse and cyber news. Let’s crack on.
 
As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are:
 
Council of the European Union, Death of Alexei Navalny: EU sanctions 33 individuals and two entities under its Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime.
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, CISA, FBI, and MS-ISAC Release Update to Joint Guidance on Distributed Denial-of-Service Techniques.
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Understanding and Responding to Distributed Denial-Of-Service Attacks.
Department of the Treasury, U.S. Department of the Treasury Releases Report on Managing Artificial Intelligence-Specific Cybersecurity Risks in the Financial Sector (press release).
Department of the Treasury, Managing Artificial Intelligence-Specific Cybersecurity Risks in the Financial Services Sector.
Financial Action Task Force, Australia's progress in strengthening measures to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing.
Financial Action Task Force, United States' progress in strengthening measures to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing.
Financial Conduct Authority, FCA warns firms and finfluencers to keep their social media ads lawful.
Financial Conduct Authority, Finalised Guidance FG24/1: Finalised guidance on financial promotions on social media.
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, UK holds China state-affiliated organisations and individuals responsible for malicious cyber activity.
National Crime Agency, The SAR Portal FAQs.
National Crime Agency, The SAR Portal Overview.
National Crime Agency, The SAR Portal: How to register provides guidance.
National Crime Agency, Operation Henhouse: over 400 arrests and £19m seized in national campaign tackling fraud.
National Cyber Security Centre, UK calls out China state-affiliated actors for malicious cyber targeting of UK democratic institutions and parliamentarians.
National Cyber Security Centre, Defending democracy: Guidance.
Norton Rose Fulbright, Horizon Scanning: Investigations and Enforcement.
Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, OFSI Threat Assessment: Threats to Financial Sanctions Compliance in the UK.
Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Russia.
Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Counter-Terrorism (Domestic).
Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, General Licence – Active Denizcilik and Beks Ships Transit to Port and Wind Down.
Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions China-Linked Hackers for Targeting U.S. Critical Infrastructure.
Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions Financial Facilitators and Illicit Drug Traffickers Supporting the Syrian Regime.
Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions Hamas-Aligned Terrorist Fundraising Network.
Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions Actors Financing the North Korean Weapons of Mass Destruction Program.
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Resilient integrity frameworks are key to mitigating new corruption risks from global challenges.
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Anti-Corruption and Integrity Outlook 2024.
Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC Charges Former Arista Networks Chairman Andy Bechtolsheim with Insider Trading.
Securities and Exchange Commission, Litigation Release No. 25955 / March 26, 2024.
Securities and Exchange Commission, Litigation Release No. 25956 / March 26, 2024: Securiti

Hello, and welcome to episode 100 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I’m Chris Kirkbride. It has been a relatively quiet week this week, which is always good for me. Sanctions designations from the US, some news from the OECD relating to Luxembourg and its progress in implementing the OECD’s anti-bribery convention, and the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK has published its Business Plan for 2024/25. I also round-up the limited cyber-attack news this week. Let’s crack on.
 
As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are:
 
Financial Conduct Authority, Business Plan 2024/25.
National Crime Agency, SARs in Action: Issue 25.
National Cyber Security Centre, Responding to a cyber incident – a guide for CEOs.
Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Targets Vessel Shipping Iranian Commodities for Houthis and Qods Force.
Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions Actors Supporting Kremlin-Directed Malign Influence Efforts.
Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions Nicaragua’s Attorney General.
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Luxembourg should build upon recent achievements in the fight against foreign bribery by substantially strengthening enforcement efforts and resources.
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Monitoring the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention in Sweden: Call for contributions.
Public Sector Fraud Authority, Government Counter Fraud Functional Strategy 2024-2027.
Transparency International, 12 Countries to Watch on the 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index.
UK Government, Cyber security longitudinal survey: wave three results.
US Department of State, Sanctions on Nicaragua’s Attorney General.
US Embassy and Consulates in Russia, Imposing Sanctions on Actors Supporting Kremlin-Directed Disinformation Efforts.
 

Hello, and welcome to episode 99 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I’m Chris Kirkbride. It is yet another busy week for financial crime, with content across all areas. Sanctions updates from the US and UK, a little money laundering news in terms of a consultation in the UK, and technical advice sought by the European Commission from the EBA. There’s also a wide range of bribery and corruption and fraud news, with the usual round-up of cyber-news this week. Lots to get through, so let’s crack on.
 
As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are:
British Library, Learning Lessons from the Cyber-Attack.
Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption, Republic of Moldova: GRECO calls for improvements in preventing corruption in the central government and the police.
Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption, Fifth Round Evaluation Report on the Republic of Moldova.
European Commission, Provisional request for advice to the European Banking Authority (EBA) regarding regulatory technical standards and guidelines under the future anti-money laundering / countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) framework.
European Parliament, EU sanctions: new rules to crack down on violations.
European Parliament, Amendments by the European Parliament to the Commission proposal on the definition of criminal offences and penalties for the violation of Union restrictive measures and amending Directive (EU) 2018/1673.
Financial Action Task Force, Guidance on Beneficial Ownership and Transparency of Legal Arrangements.
High Court of Australia, AB (a pseudonym) v Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission [2024] HCA 10.
Financial Conduct Authority, FCA progresses market abuse claim against Globo Plc chiefs.
Financial Conduct Authority, FCA discontinues civil proceedings against Konstantinos Papadimitrakopoulos and Dimitris Gryparis.
HMRC, HMRC email updates, videos and webinars for money laundering supervision.
HM Treasury, Open consultation: Improving the effectiveness of the Money Laundering Regulations.
Interpol, INTERPOL Financial Fraud assessment: A global threat boosted by technology.
Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, Response from HM Government’s to Committee’s Ransomware Inquiry.
Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Guidance: Who is subject to financial sanctions in the UK?
Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions Companies and Individuals Advancing Russian Malign Activities in Africa.
Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Designates Transnational al-Shabaab Money Laundering Network.
Office of Foreign Assets Control, U.S. Targets Al-Ashtar Brigades Operatives.
Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) Operative.
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova and Ukraine take promising steps to fight corruption but should improve enforcement and promote business integrity.
UK government, Global Fraud Summit Communiqué: 11 March 2024.
UK government, Wrongful Post Office convictions to be quashed through landmark legislation: 13 March 2024.
UK government, “Criminals should be aware” says Minister as Government upgrades AI fraud detection tool.
UK Parliament, Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Bill.
UK Parliament, The Russia (Sanctions) (Overseas Territories) (Amendment) Order 2024 No 370.
US State Department, Imposing Further Sanctions to Promote Peace, Security, and Stability in the West Bank.