Major CFT operation in Israel against Binance, German ups its game to attract AMLA and UK’s new online fraud crackdown gets lukewarm reception
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ISRAEL has seized around 190 crypto accounts at crypto exchange Binance since 2021, including two it said were linked to ISIS.
Dozens more were owned by Palestinian firms connected to the Islamist Hamas group, documents released by Israel’s counter-terror authorities show.
Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF) confiscated two Binance accounts and their contents last January, one of the documents on the NBCTF’s website showed. The seizure was to “thwart the activity” of Islamic State and “impair its ability to further its goals,” the NBCTF said on its website.
The NBCTF document, which has not been previously reported, did not give any details on the value of the crypto seized, nor how the accounts were connected to Islamic State.
#Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volumes, did not respond to Reuters’ calls and emails seeking comment.
COULD GERMANY move from being an outlier in anti-financial crime activity to a European leader? Certainly, Berlin is making all the right moves and this week Finance Minister Christian Lindner announced the customs service is to play a bigger #AML role.
"Customs will become even more powerful, specialised and efficient with the new strategy," he said presenting measures to fight organised crime and money laundering that will be implemented by the second quarter of 2025. "The objective is to identify technical developments on the perpetrator side at an early stage and to be able to counter this successfully," Lindner said.
Germany was criticised last year by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for failing to do enough to tackle money laundering and prosecuting few people over the crime despite being one of the world's biggest cash centres.
Meanwhile, Germany is also in line to build out its Federal Financial Criminal Police Office as an authority to combat money laundering and financial crimes, set to be operational in 2024.
Is this a serious attempt by Berlin at luring the new EU AML Authority (AMLA) to Frankfurt?
In Brussels on Wednesday the European Commission announced its new anti-corruption strategy. Now that is something that is long overdue given the level of graft uncovered in the recent ‘Qatargate’ scandal, centring on cash payments to MEPs. Sadly though the strategy has little to say about corruption within the EU institutions themselves.
In London, the government said it was getting tough on online fraud – and even calling in the intelligence services to fight the scammers. But for many the action plan does not lay a finger on the tech giants whose platforms are used to lure victims.
All eyes are on Dublin for May 25 meanwhile where some big fintech names are about to be announced for the ‘European Anti-Financial Crime Summit 2023.’
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Now here’s your Friday AFC digest brought to you from our AML Intelligence Correspondents:
CFT OPERATION AGAINST BINANCE: ISRAEL has seized around 190 crypto accounts at crypto exchange Binance since 2021, including two it said were linked to ISIS. Dozens more were owned by Palestinian firms connected to the Islamist Hamas group, documents released by Israel’s counter-terror authorities show. Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF) confiscated two Binance accounts and their contents last January, one of the documents on the NBCTF’s website showed. The seizure was to “thwart the activity” of Islamic State and “impair its ability to further its goals,” the NBCTF said on its website. Find the story here: Israel seizes 190 crypto accounts at Binance linked to ISIS and Hamas in major CFT operation
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EU MOVES ON CORRUPTION: The European Union announced new rules on Wednesday, in response to the alleged cash-for-influence Qatargate scandal in the European Parliament . An initiative involving all 27 member countries and the European Parliament aims to tighten rules after a scandal involving bags of cash and allegedly corrupt lawmakers has rocked the EU's assembly. Crucially, critics point out there are no specific provisions in this proposal intended to deal with corruption within EU institutions. Read the full story here: EU ramps up anti-corruption efforts following Qatargate cash-for-influence scandal
GERMAN CUSTOMS TO PLAY BIGGER AML ROLE: GERMAN customs will be strengthened to play a key role in the fight against organised crime and money laundering, and illegally obtained assets will be confiscated, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said today (Wednesday)."Customs will become even more powerful, specialized and efficient with the new strategy," he said at a news briefing as he presented measures to fight organised crime and money laundering that will be implemented by the second quarter of 2025. "The objective is to identify technical developments on the perpetrator side at an early stage and to be able to counter this successfully," Lindner said. Find the story here: Germany boosts customs service to play key AML role, finance minister Lindner announces
UK FRAUD STRATEGY: British intelligence agencies will increase efforts to "identify and disrupt" overseas fraudsters as part of ministers' push to curb financial scams, which are estimated to cost the UK around £7BN (€7.9BN) each year. In addition to defining plans to clamp down on scammers' common methods of attack, the British government today also unveiled a national fraud strategy. Home Secretary, Suella Braverman said on Tuesday ahead of the release of the strategy, “Fraud is a blight on our country” and urged it is “vital we adopt a new approach to this threat.” Read this here: UK intelligence agencies clamp down on methods of fraud
‘NDRANGHETA MONEY LAUNDERING TARGETED ACROSS 10 COUNTRIES: POLICE in 10 European and South American countries today struck at the heart of the Italian mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta’s “systematic money laundering” operation. In the raids early this morning (Wednesday) 132 gang members of what Europol described as “one of the world’s most powerful criminal networks” were arrested. “The mafia-style organisation is responsible for much of Europe’s cocaine trade, combined with systematic money laundering, bribery, and violence,” Europol said of the San Luca-based mob organisation. Find the story here: Raids in 10 countries lead to 132 ‘Ndrangheta arrests as police strike at heart of mob’s ‘systematic money laundering operation’
COMPLIANCE, AML FAILINGS SIGNALLED SVB, SIGNATURE MALAISE: The Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp issued detailed reports on Friday on what went wrong and where their supervisors came up short in the run-up to the two biggest bank failures since the Great Financial Crisis. And it is clear now that early compliance and AML issues were signals that the banks were heading in the wrong direction. Mayra Rodriguez Valladares, a financial risk consultant who trains bankers and regulators noted of SVB: "Reading the report, one can wonder how this bank did not fail before. I was not surprised the Fed had warned SVB about its poor interest rate risk management. Find this on: Compliance and AML problems were early signals of major issues at failed banks, SVB and Signature
INSIDER KNOWLEDGE CRYPTO CONVICTION: A former product manager at non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea was convicted on Wednesday of fraud and money laundering for using inside knowledge of which assets would be featured on its home page to trade NFTs. Nathaniel Chastain was accused of buying NFTs he had decided to feature on the OpenSea website and selling them shortly afterward to make more than $50,000 in illegal profit, in what federal prosecutors in Manhattan described as the first insider trading case involving digital assets."Although this case involved trades in novel crypto assets, there was nothing particularly innovative about his conduct - it was a fraud," Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement. Find the full story here: Ex-OpenSea manager convicted in NFT insider trading case
WEEKEND STREAMING TIP: At AML Intelligence we are quite enjoying ‘Rough Diamonds’ on Netflix at the moment. The drama is set in Antwerp’s diamond district. It’s gritty with a love interest and focuses on family-run ‘Wolfson Diamonds’ and its money laundering connections with the drugs organisations who dominate the city’s port. It’s filmed in Flemish and has good insights into the matrix of diamonds, drugs and dirty money. Well worth a binge-watch.
The European Anti-Financial Crime Summit is taking place on May 25 next in-person at the Royal Dublin Society in Dublin, Ireland. It’s set to be the stand-out AFC event of 2023.
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This unmissable conference will feature regulators, policymakers, industry leaders and law enforcement chiefs. Leading speakers including;
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