A Honduras-based Chinese national has pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Virginia to conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, to laundering the proceeds of drug trafficking, and to providing material support to a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO), the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG). According to court documents, Wenshen Xu, 52, operated a transportation network across Latin America — encompassing airstrips, airports, armoured cars,

When the Bank of Lithuania granted Revolut a European banking licence in 2018, the decision was read as a vote of confidence in a new kind of institution: fast, digital and unburdened by the legacy systems that slow incumbents down. Eight years later, Revolut now serves more than 75 million customers and lifted pre-tax profit by 57 per cent to £1.7bn on revenue of £4.5bn last year, and is sounding out investors on a share sale that values it at $115bn, a figure that, the Fina

The European Banking Authority (EBA) has published a Consultation Paper setting out a draft methodology for the calculation of fines under its supervisory mandate for the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). The stated objective is to ensure that penalties imposed on issuers of significant crypto-assets are consistent, proportionate and transparent. Under MiCA, the EBA assumes direct supervisory responsibility where an asset-referenced token (ART), or an e-money token

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has censured CACEIS UK, an asset servicing bank, and secured a voluntary payment of £31.7m for clients of WealthTek LLP after the firm failed to act on clear indications that client assets were exposed to financial crime risk. CACEIS UK became WealthTek's sub-custodian in November 2020, when the firm was still trading as Vertus Asset Management LLP, taking on responsibility for safeguarding client assets. On three separate occasions the b

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is consulting on a commitments package offered by 11 commodity futures day traders under investigation for suspected competition law infringements. The regulator's concern centres on whether the individuals exchanged commercially sensitive information about their trading and/or coordinated their trading strategies, conduct that risks restricting competition in markets that depend on participants reaching trading decisions independently. T

The US Justice Department has announced the seizure of a cloud computing account used by subsidiaries of the Huione Group, a Cambodia-based conglomerate alleged to have provided laundering services for the proceeds of cryptocurrency investment fraud, cyber scams, and other criminal activity. The account hosted the backend infrastructure supporting these subsidiaries, enabling illicit cryptocurrency proceeds to be transferred, moved, and concealed before conversion into the le

The United States Department of the Treasury (Treasury) has expanded its campaign against the Prince Group Transnational Criminal Organization (Prince Group TCO), with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designating nine individuals and 26 entities, while the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) moved to extend an existing special measure to capture an alleged successor entity. The OFAC designations, made under Executive Order 13581 as amended, target Prince

When a sanctions screening platform is configured to test every name against well over a thousand watchlists, it is rarely described as a failure of compliance. It is described as thoroughness. The instinct runs deep across the financial system: more lists mean more coverage, more coverage means less risk, and less risk means a defensible position. Yet on 11 June 2026 the Court of Justice of the European Union exposed the flaw in that instinct, and it did so through the small

LOGZONE Inc, a Huntsville, Alabama-based defence contractor, has agreed to pay $507,144 to resolve liability under the False Claims Act (FCA) arising from its failure to meet cybersecurity requirements on contracts with the Department of the Navy. The settlement concerns allegations that LOGZONE knowingly submitted false or fraudulent claims for payment on two Navy contracts despite not complying with the contracts' cybersecurity obligations. Between May 2021 and March 2025,

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), acting jointly with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the Board), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking implementing the customer identification program (CIP) provisions of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act (GEN

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has unsealed a five-count complaint against Reda Mazen Rida Sabassi, 38, of San Diego, charging him with terrorism, sanctions evasion, wire fraud, money laundering and false statement offences linked to the diversion of purportedly charitable donations to Hamas. Sabassi was arrested in San Diego and presented before a US magistrate judge in the Southern District of California. According to the complaint, Sabassi solicited donations from in or a

The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), part of HM Treasury, has imposed a monetary penalty of £1,000,920.59 on Sabre Global Technologies Limited (SGTL), a UK travel technology provider. The figure represents the largest penalty OFSI has issued in relation to the Russia sanctions regime since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and — of greater interest to compliance teams — the first penalty OFSI has issued for a circumvention offence. The underlying conduct is in