When a bank approves a new customer, it assumes one thing above all else: that a real person sits behind the application. For most of the history of customer due diligence, that assumption held. The fraudster of the past stole an identity that belonged to someone, and somewhere a victim would eventually notice. Yet synthetic identity fraud breaks that logic entirely. There is no victim to raise the alarm, because the person being onboarded does not exist. The identity is asse

The transfer of Abdikerm Abdelahi Eidleh from Somalia to Minnesota, nearly four years after he fled the United States, is worth more than a passing read for anyone responsible for detecting illicit money flows. Eidleh, described by prosecutors as second only to central figure Aimee Bock, faces 31 charges, and money laundering sits at the centre of them, alongside conspiracy to commit money laundering, wire fraud, federal programmes bribery and the related conspiracy counts. T

Two former employees of TD Bank, N.A. have been sentenced to prison in the US for their roles in enabling money laundering and fraud from within the institution, in cases prosecuted by the Department of Justice (DOJ). The outcomes are a pointed reminder that the control environment is only ever as strong as the people operating it. Wilfredo Aquino, an assistant store manager, received 46 months after admitting he conspired to launder monetary instruments. Between 2019 and Feb

When the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined Nationwide Building Society £44m on 12 December 2025 for anti-financial crime systems and controls failings between October 2016 and July 2021, it read like a familiar story of weak technology and incomplete due diligence. The regulator described ineffective systems for keeping customer risk assessments current and for monitoring transactions, failings serious enough that the society missed a customer using personal accounts to

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged Catherine Beth Washburn, 37, of Irondequoit, New York, with attempting to provide material support to the Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years' imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. According to the criminal complaint, Washburn made approximately 80 separate transfers of cryptocurrency totalling around 30,116 USDC (roughly $30,116

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,

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

Two former senior officials in the US Virgin Islands have been sentenced for their roles in a procurement fraud, bribery, and money laundering scheme involving federal pandemic relief funds. Ray Martinez, former Commissioner of the Virgin Islands Police Department (VIPD), was sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Jenifer O'Neal, former Director of the Virgin Islands Office of Management and Budget (OMB), received a seven-year custodial

A Texas couple who defrauded more than 10,000 people of over $30m through a fraudulent chain-referral pyramid scheme have each been sentenced to 40 years in prison, following their conviction on conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering charges in January 2026. LaShonda Moore, 38, and Marlon Moore, 39, of Frisco, Texas, co-founded and operated "Blessings in No Time" (BINT), which they marketed through weekly live-streamed broadcasts to thousands of participants across the

A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia has indicted Jaime "Jimmy" Sanchez Soriano, 45, a Mexican national accused of importing substantial quantities of methamphetamine into the United States and laundering the proceeds. Sanchez Soriano sourced methamphetamine from Los Viagras Cartel, a violent organisation affiliated with the United Cartels (Cárteles Unidos), before his arrest by Mexican authorities on 19 March. The United Cartels rank among the world's largest met

A California man has been sentenced to 27 months in prison for tax evasion, operating an illegal gambling business and money laundering, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced. Jason Noah Feinman, of Calabasas, operated a Costa Rica-based business whose website enabled unlicensed and illegal gambling operators to facilitate betting activity. Customers placed wagers through sites Feinman maintained, in breach of both state and federal law. The case offers a textbook

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