The Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory, has long been recognized as one of the world’s leading providers of institutionally focused financial services and a preferred destination for the structuring and domiciling of sophisticated and specialized financial services products, particularly investment funds.  However, for a number of reasons, the inherent risks to the Cayman Islands’ financial system of misuse by illicit actors such as money launderers and terrorist financiers are high.  Those reasons include the complexity of the products and services on offer, the high valu ..read more

The authors wish to thank Molly McKenna for her contributions to this post. On February 23, 2024, the Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”) removed the United Arab Emirates (“UAE”) from its list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring (the “Grey List”).  As noted in our previous article (see here), FATF had intimated at its October 2023 Plenary that the UAE may be next off the Grey List as it had undertaken multiple key reforms to improve its overall anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (“AML/CFT”) compliance framework. As set out in our previous article, the ..read more

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York recently announced a policy—called the “SDNY Whistleblower Pilot Program”—that seeks to encourage individuals to voluntarily disclose financial crimes in which they themselves participated. First unveiled in January 2024 and then revised this month, the policy sets forth the circumstances under which SDNY says that it will grant a non-prosecution agreement to an individual in exchange for the individual’s cooperation. As we explain, while it remains uncertain whether and when it might make sense for any individual to co ..read more

Between October 25 and October 27, 2023, the Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”), an international policy-making and standard-setting body dedicated to combating money laundering and terrorist financing, held its third plenary meeting of the year (the “October Plenary”), at which it made important updates to its list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring, often externally referred to as the “Grey List,” adding Bulgaria and removing Albania, the Cayman Islands, Jordan, and Panama.  These developments are testament to the significant progress the four delisted countries have made in ..read more

The United Arab Emirates (“UAE”) has recently implemented a new compliance requirement related to the international importation of goods.  Specifically, pursuant to UAE Cabinet Resolution No. 38 of 2022 on the Attestation of Documents, Commercial Invoices and Certificates of Origin at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (“MoFAIC”), all imports into the UAE worth AED 10,000 (approximately USD 2,723) or more must now be accompanied by a commercial invoice and other trade documentation attested by MoFAIC.  The new rule came into effect on February 1, 2023. As ..read more

On September 15, 2023, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) announced a $15 million civil money penalty against a Puerto Rican International Banking Entity (“IBE”), Bancrédito International Bank and Trust Corporation (“Bancrédito” or “the Bank”).  The public consent order details the Bank’s multiple violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”), which occurred between October 2015 and May 2022.[1] The penalty assessed against Bancrédito marks FinCEN’s first enforcement action against a Puerto Rican IBE, also known as a “gap institution ..read more

Following concerns raised by the government of the United Kingdom (“UK”) about freedom of expression and the provision of banking services, the UK’s financial watch dog, the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”), recently commenced an investigation into bank account closures.  This action follows in the wake of recent reports of banks allegedly closing customer accounts based on those customers’ political exposure or publicly asserted views or ideologies without proper consideration of whether those specific customers posed an elevated financial crimes risk. This recent action spotlights t ..read more

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 amended the Bank Secrecy Act’s whistleblower provisions, setting a floor on the monetary award a whistleblower may receive, allowing whistleblowers to receive awards relating to successful enforcement of certain economic sanctions statutes such as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and establishing a fund from which to pay whistleblowers.  Following the increased maximum recovery amount and expanded protection against retaliation that were part of 2020 amendments to the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”), the establishment of a minimum recove ..read more

This year has brought remarkable change around the globe – including new administrations, changing regulatory approaches, conflicts, and rapidly evolving global sanctions. Staying on top of how these changes impact businesses, individuals and sovereign entities is a challenge that Squire Patton Boggs’ Government Investigations & White Collar team is dedicated to helping our clients manage. Our new blog provides timely content about how to navigate the global investigations, compliance, and enforcement landscape strategically and effectively. Please continue to visit Global Investigations ..read more

On November 28, 2022, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) announced a settlement agreement with Payward, Inc., known as Kraken (“Kraken”), a United States-based virtual currency exchange. Kraken agreed to pay $362,158.70 to resolve its potential civil liability for 826 apparent violations of the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (“Apparent Violations”). The settlement amount is significantly less than the statutory maximum civil monetary penalty of $272,228,964, reflecting OFAC’s determination that the Apparent Violations were non-egregious and voluntarily self-disclose ..read more