AML

What is Money Laundering? Money laundering is defined as any financial or banking transaction aimed at concealing or changing the source of illegally obtained funds, by passing it through the financial and banking system in order to make it appear as originating from legitimate sources, and then re-pumping and investing…

What is Real Estate Activity Report (REAR)? Real estate agents and brokers licensed in the UAE are required to file the REAR effective from July 1st, 2022. They need to report the transaction related to the purchase/sale of Freehold Real Estate, which involves cash or virtual assets. The purpose of…

Transaction monitoring is a key part in the defense against money laundering and financial crime. It is the process of identifying and reviewing anomalous activity and transactions before deciding to report any suspicious activity to law enforcement. To conduct adequate transaction monitoring today, is an uphill battle on multiple fronts.…

The requirement to undertake transaction monitoring evolved because of anti-money laundering (AML) legislation and its importance has been magnified and reinforced by increased regulatory attention and significant fines. Recently Wells Fargo unit fined $7M for AML transaction monitoring failures. For the second time in five years, a subsidiary of Wells…

Society’s growing reliance on technology to transfer private information has created more opportunities for identity thieves to access and misuse personal data. Cybercriminals are diversifying their targets and using stealthier methods to commit identity theft and fraud. There are three types of identity crimes we should know about: Lost or…

Organizations have long relied on partners, suppliers, agents, contractors and various other third-party services for competitive advantage, operational efficiency, and cost savings. However, this increasingly network of third-party relationships creates the potential for money laundering risk as well. Bad actors can use various methods to clean their money — and,…

What is the Difference Between Structuring and Smurfing? Financial crimes, come in a variety of shapes and sizes particularly smurfing and structuring are frequent in the financial service sector. They, depending on whether they are local or international. Smurfing and structuring are two of the most prevailing forms of financial…

Cryptocurrency Money Laundering using Virtual Currency Exchanges. According to a 2022 report from the leading blockchain analytics company Chainalysis, criminals laundered $8.6 billion in cryptocurrency in 2021, a 30% increase over the previous year. The report says, “while billions of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency are transferred annually from illicit addresses,…

In the last one-year, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have gained popularity between brands as well as consumers. Chainalysis – blockchain data platform tracked NFTs made news for exponential sales from just $106 million sales in 2020 to $44.2 billion in 2021. However, as is the case with any new technology, NFTs…

As the technology continues to offer endless possibilities, it is likely that the financial criminals will discover new methods to manipulate the financial industry to commit money laundering or terrorist financing crimes. However, at the same time, it is possible to use the technologies in detecting those criminal activities as…