Financial crimes

NatWest Group could face a fine of several hundred million pounds from the U.K.’s financial watchdog after pleading guilty to three criminal charges of money laundering.

A lawsuit filed by Attorney General Maura Healey last year said Credit Acceptance Corp. in Michigan made predatory loans to Bay State borrowers and used deceptive practices to collect debt.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is seeking nearly $19 million from David Julian, Claudia Russ Anderson and Paul McLinko. The trial before an administrative judge is scheduled to begin in South Dakota on Sept. 13.

Victor Ngo, 33, has pleaded guilty to making a false statement to JPMorgan Chase when he said his medical marijuana dispensary was a wellness and fitness company.

Banks are traditionally the target of anti-money-laundering regulations and law enforcement’s efforts to crack down on illicit finance. As the cryptocurrency sector grows, policymakers may subject it to customer identification requirements and other measures, analysts say.

Tech companies that help banks detect money laundering have raised hundreds of millions of dollars in recent months because of advances in their products. Observers suggest the vendors will have to diversify their offerings to survive in a crowded field.

Congress had been close to passing legislation to help banks serve cannabis firms. Now Democratic leaders have all but abandoned the effort, prioritizing a riskier proposal to decriminalize the drug.

Stephen Calk, the former CEO of Federal Savings Bank, wanted to be former President Donald Trump’s Treasury secretary, defense secretary or a top ambassador and approved loans to Trump ally Paul Manafort with that goal in mind, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors have rested their case against onetime bank CEO Stephen Calk, who allegedly approved millions of dollars in loans in exchange for a potential job in the Trump administration. Federal Savings Bank employees have testified against Calk, whose lawyers have sought to shift blame to underlings

Stephen Calk, a Chicago banker, pushed through $16 million in sketchy loans to Donald Trump's onetime campaign manager because he "wanted a powerful government title," Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexandra Rothman said in her opening statement in Calk's criminal bribery trial.

The cloud-based software vendor has completed a $10 million funding round through BlackFin Capital Partners and Picus Capital.

A 2017 investigation into the fake-accounts scandal — conducted by the board of directors with a major assist from the law firm Shearman & Sterling — was billed as independent and objective. Was it?

The Biden administration wants financial institutions to tell the government more about their customers to help the IRS thwart wealthy tax evaders. But critics say the plan could threaten account data security and the privacy of even low-income consumers.

Six Clovers, a digital payments company founded by two former PayPal developers, designed its Rapid platform to enable fast cross-border transactions using cryptocurrencies backed by government-issued money.

The data analytics provider has deployed cloud hosting to scour international payments for signs of fraud and money laundering.

Financial institutions spent nearly $214 billion last year — an 18% jump from 2019 — to meet regulatory requirements for fighting financial crimes, a new study says. The spending included more staffing to manage risks posed by customer growth.

Prosecutors say Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards leaked over 50,000 documents, including 2,000 suspicious activity reports, related to payments involving former President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign chairman.

While the eventual emergence from lockdown will help ease the pressure on overworked compliance departments, there is still an obvious need for tools that will make the anti-money laundering process simpler and stress-free, says SmartSearch's Martin Cheek.

The National Credit Union Administration issued only one prohibition order in April.

The visibility of automated transactions provides a clear view of the flow of transactions, says Hummingbird's Joe Robinson.