Deutsche Bank fined US$186 million for sanctions and AML breaches
The US Federal Reserve Board has fined Deutsche Bank a total of US$186 million and ordered it to improve its sanctions and anti-money laundering (AML) systems. The fine is a result of the bank’s failure to respond sufficiently to two enforcement actions in 2015 and 2017…
Africa in firing line as more sanctions target Wagner Group
Fresh sanctions have been imposed by European and North American countries on the Wagner Group, the Russia-based private military company founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin. Sanctions are increasingly focused on the group’s African operations, with the US taking the decision to impose sanctions on a senior…
Sanctions alone will not stop Wagner’s African operations or Russian oil trades
The Atlantic Council, the Washington-based nonpartisan think tank and public policy organisation, has published a comprehensive analysis of the Wagner Group that concludes that sanctions have been ineffective at curbing the activities of the private military company based in Russia.
Correspondent bank relations could enhance effectiveness of Russian sanctions
The Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) has published the main findings and conclusions of a roundtable it convened in May 2023 with a dozen experts in the global financial system with both public and private sector…
OFAC sanctions vast network of Hezbollah-linked traders in precious gems, art, and luxury goods
The US treasury department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated what it describes as a vast international money laundering and sanctions evasion network of 52 individuals and entities in the UAE, Lebanon, South Africa, Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo,…
Wells Fargo agrees US$30 million settlement for trade finance breaches of sanctions against Iran, Syria and Sudan
Wells Fargo Bank has agreed a US$30 million settlement with the US treasury department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in respect of its potential civil liability for apparent violations of sanctions against Iran, Syria, and Sudan. For about seven years, Wells Fargo and its…
UBS, Credit Suisse and US bankers under scrutiny for possible breaches of Russian sanctions
Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse are among banks under investigation by the US justice department in a probe into whether bankers helped Russian oligarchs evade sanctions, Bloomberg reports, citing unnamed sources. Subpoenas were sent to individual bankers before the crisis that led to UBS’s…
New US sanctions target Russian banks, metals and mining sector, and third-country actors linked to sanctions evasion
In one of its most significant sanctions actions to date, the US treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated over a dozen more Russian banks and financial institutions and announced a new determination targeting Russia’s metals and mining sector. It is also imposing…
China, Turkey and Cyprus circumventing Russian sanctions, UAE a particular concern for Western allies
Russian customs data shows that countries most actively facilitating circumvention of wartime sanctions by Russia include China, Turkey, Cyprus and the UAE, according to analysis by the Free Russia Foundation (FRF). Western allies are responding by calling on jurisdictions to curb exports of critical goods…
Nigeria and South Africa added to FATF’s grey list, Cambodia and Morocco removed
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has placed Nigeria and South Africa on its list of countries under increased monitoring, commonly known as the grey list, after they failed to address strategic deficiencies in their regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing….
