The Presumption of Innocence Podcast: Episode 50 - Hidden in Plain Sight: How Kleptocrats Exploit U.S. Financial Systems
Nonprofit Basics: International Grantmaking – Part 2 Income Tax Withholding Rules
Nonprofit Basics: International Grant Making - Part 1 Overview and Antiterrorism Rules
Is Edward Snowden a Whistleblower?
On June 25, 2025, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) at the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated three Mexico-based financial institutions as primary money laundering concerns under Section 311 of the USA...more
On June 27, 2025, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an order (Order) allowing banks,[1] and their subsidiaries, subject to the jurisdiction of the Office of the Comptroller...more
On May 1, 2025, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding the Huione Group, a foreign financial institution located in Cambodia. This proposal, enacted under...more
Summary of What Has Happened and What Is Yet to Come - On 19 October 2023, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM), pursuant to...more
A proposed rule would increase Treasury’s insight into non-US crypto mixing transactions to combat illicit activities by malicious actors. On October 19, 2023, the US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes...more
On October 19, 2023, The US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) taking aim at convertible virtual currency (CVC) mixing transactions,...more
On January 17, 2023, U.S. law enforcement authorities in Miami arrested Anatoly Legkodymov, a Russian national and the founder and majority owner of Hong Kong-based virtual currency exchange Bitzlato Ltd., on charges of money...more
In 1970, Congress passed the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act, commonly known as the “Bank Secrecy Act” (BSA). The BSA is often referred to as an “anti-money laundering” (AML) law or jointly as “BSA/AML.” The...more
Anti-money laundering (“AML”) issues have been a focus of regulators and law enforcement for the past decade and will likely continue to be a priority issue area for the Biden Administration. The AML landscape is shifting...more
2020 was a most significant year in anti-corruption enforcement; from Airbus to Goldman Sachs and numerous matters in between. Further there were two significant pieces of information from the US government in the form of the...more
Section 314 of the USA PATRIOT Act (Sec 314) was drafted by Congress in 2001 to allow financial institutions to work with law enforcement agencies and with each other to support the common goal of deterring money laundering...more
Financial institutions with anti-money laundering responsibilities under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) take note: there’s a new sheriff in town. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently finished its fiscal year with...more
On October 25, 2019, FinCEN issued a final rule imposing the Fifth Special Measure against the Islamic Republic of Iran as a “jurisdiction of primary money laundering concern” (“Final Rule”) under Section 311 of the USA...more
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a press release yesterday, entitled “New FinCEN Division Focuses on Identifying Primary Foreign Money Laundering Threats.”...more
Financial firms play an integral role in preventing, identifying, investigating and reporting criminal activity, including terrorist financing, money laundering, and many other finance-related crimes. It is a critical role...more
Fulfilling today’s requirements for anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing/sanctions compliance is no easy task for financial institutions. ...more
Alleged Illicit Activity Included Transactions Promoting North Korea’s Missile Program and an Institutional Commitment to Laundering Money - On February 13, 2018, FinCEN announced that it had proposed a special measure...more
FinCEN recently announced the launching of the “FinCEN Exchange” to enhance information sharing with financial institutions. We previously have blogged about the potential benefits of a public-private partnership between law...more
As we recently blogged, the Royal United Services Institute (“RUSI”) for Defence and Security Studies — a U.K. think tank – has released a study: The Role of Financial Information-Sharing Partnerships in the Disruption of...more
As widely reported, the Spanish police raided last year the Madrid offices of the Chinese state-run Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (“ICBC”), the world’s biggest bank by assets. In the nearly 18 months following that...more
On May 23, the federal court of appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected an appeal by the majority shareholders in Banca Privada d’Andorra S.A. (“BPA”) regarding claims that FinCEN violated the Administrative...more
Late last week, Congressional intelligence committees reportedly received some information from the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) related to investigations into Russia’s attack on the 2016 U.S....more
Today we are very pleased to welcome guest blogger Greg Baer, who will address a series of significant issues posed by a detailed paper published by The Clearing House, a banking association and payments company that is owned...more
“Sometimes, the third time really is the charm” wrote the District Court for the District of Columbia on April 14, 2017. In its opinion, the court upheld FinCEN’s imposition of the Patriot Act’s fifth special measure against...more
Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 - Requires U.S. financial institutions to assist U.S. government agencies to detect and prevent money laundering by keeping records of cash purchases of negotiable instruments, and file reports...more