When TD Bank pleaded guilty in October 2024 to violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and agreed to pay approximately US 3.09 billion in penalties to the United States Department of Justice and federal regulators, much of the post-mortem focused on culture. Commentators dwelt on the internal "flat cost paradigm" that capped the bank's anti-money laundering (AML) budget regardless of business growth, and on the conduct of individual employees. Less attention was paid to a qu

Two Chinese nationals have been charged with conspiracy to launder narcotics proceeds on behalf of transnational criminal organisations, including the Sinaloa Cartel and the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), according to an indictment unsealed in the Eastern District of Virginia. Ruhuan Zhen and Hongce Wu are alleged to have laundered drug money over a period spanning nearly nine years, from November 2016 to April 2025. Both defendants remain at large following their

A Georgian citizen has been sentenced to 37 months in prison for laundering more than $1.1 million in proceeds from a large-scale healthcare fraud scheme targeting Medicare and private insurers. Irakli Nakashidze, 35, a Georgian national residing in Miami, Florida, owned ABRH Care Inc (ABRH), which presented itself as a medical supply company but operated as a sham entity used to defraud Medicare. Court documents reveal that in the first six months of 2025 alone, ABRH billed

Mehrdad Tabrizi, the owner of two Southern California medical companies, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering after admitting he fraudulently obtained more than $1 million in COVID-19 relief funds. The case highlights the continuing enforcement focus on abuse of pandemic-era support schemes, particularly where dormant or ineligible businesses were used to secure government-backed loans. According to the DoJ, Tabrizi used Life Fleet Inc. and Resonante Group to

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has secured a 15-year prison sentence against Mohammed Zohair Adi for money laundering conspiracy and providing false testimony, in a case centred on the laundering of proceeds from a large-scale marijuana trafficking organisation. The sentence, imposed in the Southern District of Alabama, also included a $50,000 fine and three years of supervised release. According to court documents, Adi helped launder millions of dollars linked to a netwo

Former Venezuelan Industry Minister Alex Saab has appeared in a federal court in Florida after US prosecutors unsealed an indictment accusing him of orchestrating a major international money laundering conspiracy tied to Venezuela’s CLAP food subsidy programme and illicit oil trading operations. The case marks one of the most significant US anti-corruption and sanctions-related prosecutions connected to the Maduro regime in recent years and underscores Washington’s continued

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has intensified its campaign against Mexican cartels after unsealing a superseding indictment against alleged Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) leader Audias Flores Silva, known as “Jardinero”. Prosecutors allege Flores Silva oversaw the trafficking of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine into the United States while coordinating the laundering of drug proceeds back into Mexico. The case marks a significant escalation in th

For over two decades, the financial services industry has invested heavily in the architecture of compliance. Transaction monitoring systems, sanctions screening engines, customer risk models and suspicious activity reporting workflows have been built, tested, upgraded and rebuilt. Regulatory expectations have sharpened. Enforcement penalties have escalated. In 2025 alone, anti-money laundering (AML) related fines exceeded $1.1 billion in the US, with crypto exchanges, money

FinCEN’s 11 May 2026 Alert signals a renewed enforcement focus on Iran-linked illicit finance, with particular attention on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its oil smuggling networks and the financial infrastructure used to move proceeds through the international system. The Alert is significant because it connects several core risk areas: shadow fleet activity, front company abuse, exchange house networks, money services businesses, trust and company service pr

The FCA has secured an additional 499-day prison sentence against convicted money launderer Richard Faithfull after he failed to fully satisfy a confiscation order linked to a £2.5 million laundering operation tied to overseas investment frauds. Faithfull, now 36, was originally sentenced in 2021 to 5 years and 10 months in prison following an FCA prosecution. Authorities said he played a role in a transnational organised crime network that laundered proceeds from at least se

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued a 60 day notice inviting public comment on the renewal of the Office of Management and Budget control number covering the Registration of Money Services Business (RMSB) framework. Published on 30 April 2026, the notice relates to requirements set out in 31 CFR 1022.380 and the continued use of FinCEN Form 107. The RMSB regime forms a core part of the Bank Secrecy Act compliance architecture in the United States, req

A federal jury has convicted Afghan national Mohammad Sharifullah for his role in a nine-year conspiracy to provide material support and resources to ISIS-K, a designated foreign terrorist organisation. The conviction centres on Sharifullah’s involvement in multiple ISIS-K operations, including the 26 August 2021 Abbey Gate bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. The attack killed 13 US military service members and approximately 160 civilians during the evacua