Anti Money Laundering Blog

14th Annual Anti-Money Laundering International Conference will be held on March 16-18, 2009 in Florida. The event will take place at the Westin Diplomat Resort and Spa in Hollywood.

The 14th Annual Anti-Money Laundering International Conference will provide practical knowledge and hands-on training designed to help perform everyday anti-money laundering tasks more efficiently.

The event’s team has spent the last 6 months analyzing feedback from thousands of past conferences attendees and over 100 phone interviews with anti-money laundering executives around the world. The team found out that what the public needs is the most up-to-date information on anti-money laundering compliance and practical solutions to save time and money. The conference was worked out according to these requirements. It will feature over 60 speakers and 40 topics that will let people solve the specific anti-money laundering challenges they face.

The conference will contain special presentations on the following issues:
- examining the Anti-Money Laundering-Fraud Connection and Its Impact on the Compliance Landscape;
- streamlining Compliance with a Holistic Approach to Financial Crime Management;
- minimizing the Money Laundering Risks of Emerging Technologies;
- understanding Global Sanctions and their Implications for Insurance Providers;
- effectively Coping and Complying with Conflicting Regulations Across Jurisdiction.

On January 27, 2009, Combating Cybercrime Conference will be held as the 5th annual outing of this highly-regarded conference.

This year’s conference agenda will as always focus on the issues related with fraud, compliance, security, payments, IS and technology managers within i-gaming companies.

The event will be attended by more than 130 attendees from all over the world.

The conference will include Money Laundering session. Nowadays, the online gaming industry faces more complicated challenges in controlling money laundering, and many Internet gambling sites take measures to identify more sophisticated money laundering techniques. Money laundering session will provide 2 different perspectives. Topics under discussion will include the following: how the fraud team unearths fraudulent transactions across its system; how they identify laundered funds and expose fraudulent users; how the company is reacting to more sophisticated attacks; and what measures they have taken to prevent advanced money laundering schemes.

On January 20, the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) said that some banks may be guilty in violating anti-money laundering regulations. The Council meant that the banks allowed former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-joc” Bolante to withdraw money from his bank accounts that the Court of Appeals (CA) recently unfroze.

This was after the chief architect Bolante who misused of P728 million fertilizer fund in 2004 admitted that he withdrew from his questioned accounts.

In a hearing, the Anti-Money Laundering Council executive director Vicente Aquino said that, before allowing any withdrawals from questioned accounts, banks should ask for an official confirmation from it. Aquino told Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile that banks may be fined P100 000 for each violation.

Currently, corporations are outsourcing processes in order to save money and streamline operations, that is why the use of 3rd party payment processors by banks has become topical for regulators. The Florida International Bankers Association (FIBA) is going to discuss this topic on February 19-20 at the annual Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Conference that will be held in Miami.

Pat Roth, FIBA’s Executive Director, explained that “financial institutions are always responsible for preventing money laundering and for detecting suspicious activity”. He also added that “when it comes to using a third party to process payments, the banks now open themselves up to another level of regulatory scrutiny and some significant compliance challenges.”

In order to find out what financial institutions should do to protect themselves, FIBA has pulled together 3 of the leading experts in this field. They will cover the topic and provide some practical insights on how banks can protect themselves from money laundering and terrorist financing.

A gang has been recently imprisoned for a total of 26 years after Norfolk Police’s largest ever money laundering investigation. The money laundering operation was allegedly making about GBP 400 000 a year.

The 6 persons were charged with offences that included conspiracy to produce a controlled drug, conspiracy to money laundering and mortgage fraud.

They were sentenced at Norwich Crown Court. The convicted persons had grown cannabis at houses in Norfolk and 2 other places.

The investigation started in July 2006.

On January 5, 2009, Bulgarian prosecutors said they were investigating an international money laundering scheme that allegedly involves large sums of Russian cash.

A recent newspaper report said that more than EUR 1 billion of laundered Russian money had been laundered through a series of transactions in Bulgaria and Estonia. The prosecutors’ spokeswoman confirmed that such a probe is existent. However, she refused to provide any further details and emphasized that the nature of the investigation was very confidential.

According to a justice official quoted in the newspaper under condition of anonymity, the probe scale is unprecedented for the whole EU.