FINANCIAL CRIME DIGEST March 2021
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FINANCIAL CRIME DIGEST March 2021 Diligent analysis. Powering business.™ aperio-intelligence.com FINANCIAL CRIME DIGEST | MARCH 2021 ISSN: 2632-8364 About Us Founded in 2014, Aperio Intelligence is a specialist, independent corporate intelligence frm, headquartered in London. Collectively our team has decades of experience in undertaking complex investigations and intelligence analysis. We speak over twenty languages in- house, including all major European languages, as well as Russian, Arabic, Farsi, Mandarin and Cantonese. We have completed more than 3,000 assignments over the last three years, involving some 150 territories. Our client base includes a broad range of leading international fnancial institutions, law frms and multinationals. Our role is to help identify and understand fnancial crime, contacts, cultivated over decades, who support us regularly integrity and reputational risks, which can arise from a lack in undertaking local enquiries on a confdential and discreet of knowledge of counterparties or local jurisdictions, basis. As a specialist provider of corporate intelligence, we enabling our clients to make better informed decisions. source information and undertake research to the highest legal and ethical standards. Our independence means we Our due diligence practice helps clients comply with anti- avoid potential conficts of interest that can affect larger bribery and corruption, anti-money laundering and other organisations. relevant fnancial crime legislation, such as sanctions compliance, or the evaluation of tax evasion or sanctions We work on a “Client First” basis, founded on a strong risks. Our services support the on-boarding, periodic or commitment to quality control, confdentiality and respect retrospective review of clients or third parties. for time constraints. We offer robust, cost-effective solutions, providing our clients with work of the highest Our investigations practice advises clients in a wide range quality at favourable rates. of complex disputes and other contentious matters, including complex cross-border asset tracing claims, Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us if you would litigation support, internal investigations, market like to know more about Aperio’s services or discuss how intelligence, supply chain analysis and country risk we might be able to help you: assessments. Our team has specialist knowledge of and access to a very Email [email protected] or fnd out broad range of public and proprietary data sources, as well more at: aperio-intelligence.com as a longstanding network of reliable, informed local 1 aperio-intelligence.com FINANCIAL CRIME DIGEST | MARCH 2021 CONTENTS ENFORCEMENT 3 CONSULTATIONS 81 REPORTS AND SPEECHES 19 LITIGATION AND CASE LAW 86 SPECIAL FEATURE 36 PRESS AND MEDIA 90 GUIDANCE AND ANNOUNCEMENTS 40 ESG 94 LEGISLATION 59 INTRODUCTION Welcome to the March issue of the Financial Crime Digest. To receive the publication direct to your inbox every month, please sign up here. We are currently developing an online platform, which provides more comprehensive coverage of fnancial crime developments. If you would like more information on the new platform or our services please email [email protected] Aperio Intelligence’s next webinar ‘The impact of Unexplained Wealth Orders on the UK’s fnancial and property sectors’ will take place on 12 May. Our expert panel will discuss the role UWOs have played as an investigative tool in civil recovery proceedings, their impact in the UK, and offer predictions for post-Brexit civil recovery of the proceeds of crime. Register here. EDITOR’S PICKS ENFORCEMENT page 3 SPECIAL FEATURE page 36 16 March 2021 31 March 2021 UK FCA launches criminal proceedings against US reversal of Dan Gertler licence underscores NatWest for AML violations challenges to anti-corruption efforts in the DRC REPORTS AND SPEECHES page 19 CONSULTATIONS page 81 30 March 2021 18 March 2021 UK's Crown Prosecution Service publishes frst UK consultation on restoring trust in audit, ever Economic Crime Strategy includes proposal on fraud prevention DATES FOR THE DIARY see all events APRIL APRIL UK Payment Systems Regulator's call for views Call for input on mitigating the unintended 8 on APP scams closes 20 consequences of the FATF Standards closes APRIL APRIL FATF consultation on guidance on proliferation FATF consultation on draft guidance on a risk- 9 fnancing risk assessment closes 20 based approach to virtual assets closes 2 aperio-intelligence.com FINANCIAL CRIME DIGEST | MARCH 2021 ENFORCEMENT UK FCA launches criminal proceedings against NatWest for AML violations According to 16 March reporting by Reuters, the customer in question was gold and jewellery dealer Fowler Oldfeld, which was purportedly liquidated in 2016 following a police raid. As of December 2020, according to the company’s liquidators, seized company assets remain in police custody. Reuters reporting on 19 March claims that NatWest informed the news agency that the criminal proceedings against it are related to another case involving 13 individuals who have been charged with money laundering, including two former Fowler Oldfeld directors and former gold dealer James Stunt, whose gold trading company Stunt and Company was also The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced on liquidated. 16 March that it is fling criminal charges against National Westminster Bank Plc (NatWest) for alleged violations of the The FCA’s charges mark the frst instance of the MLRs 2007 Money Laundering Regulations (MLR) 2007. Specifcally, the being used to prosecute a bank, with no individuals being FCA alleges that the bank’s systems and controls failed to charged as part of the case. adequately monitor or scrutinise large cash deposits into one of its UK incorporated customer accounts. NatWest is due to appear at Westminster court on 14 April. According to the FCA, the violations relate to a single FCA release NatWest customer who, between 2011 and 2016, purportedly accepted “increasingly large cash deposits” that apparently Reuters article totaled £264 million out of £365 million in total deposits into the customer’s accounts. It is alleged that the bank failed to Reuters article (19 March) adhere to MLR regulations 8(1), 8(3) and 14(1). Aperio Analysis by Gunita Thethy The NatWest case is linked to a separate case brought by the Crown Prosecution Service, which fled charges against 13 people linked to the same NatWest accounts for money laundering offences in the UK. Aside from Fowler Oldfeld, this includes two of its former directors, Gregory Frankel and Daniel Rawson, and former gold trader James Stunt, who runs a Mayfair-based gold bullion business and was a one-time supplier to Formula One. The FCA’s decision to pursue criminal proceedings against NatWest for alleged money laundering, rather than a civil action, is unprecedented. It serves as a clear warning to banking and fnancial services frms that if the case is serious enough, the FCA will not hesitate to take this type of action. Further, if successful in April, the FCA could be encouraged to bring more such prosecutions. 3 aperio-intelligence.com FINANCIAL CRIME DIGEST | MARCH 2021 Swiss bank Rahn+Bodmer enters $22 million settlement over helping US clients evade taxes The US Department of Justice (DOJ) In addition, the bank allegedly According to the DOJ, the reduced announced on 11 March that Swiss transferred the undeclared assets of penalty amount took into consideration private bank Rahn Bodmer Co has some US taxpayers from accounts held that the bank conducted an internal entered into a $22 million deferred in the names of sham foundations investigation, provided the US prosecution agreement (DPA) over based in Liechtenstein to new accounts authorities with the required evidence criminal charges that it conspired to in the names of new sham foundations and implemented remedial measures. help US clients evade their tax incorporated in Panama, after a tax obligations, fle false federal tax information exchange treaty between Under the terms of the DPA, the bank returns and defraud the US Internal Liechtenstein and the US was agreed in has accepted responsibility for its Revenue Service (IRS). December 2008. When UBS Group AG conduct and agreed to cooperate fully and other Swiss banks took measures with US agencies. In addition, it has According to the information fled by to curb offshore tax evasion, the bank committed to provide upon request all the US Attorney’s Ofce for the allegedly onboarded some of their information required from Swiss banks Southern District of New York, the bank former clients and undertook actions to taking part in the Programme for helped 340 US customers avoid paying hide their offshore wealth. Non-Prosecution Agreements or $16.4 million in taxes between 2004 Non-Target Letters, in relation to and 2012, with the relevant undeclared The bank also allegedly opened accounts closed between 2009 and assets under management topping “escrow” accounts to facilitate the 2019. If the bank fully complies with the $550 million in 2007. To help US transfer of undeclared US assets held in terms of the DPA, the US government account holders hide assets, the frm gold and other precious metals on will defer prosecution for three years reportedly set up “numbered” or behalf of a Swiss lawyer and helped and will then dismiss the charges. “pseudonym” accounts to conceal accountholders with the repatriation of identities, opened accounts in the assets to the US through incremental DOJ press release names of non-US corporations, trusts payments and the routing of funds to a and legal entities and held bank diamond dealer in Manhattan. Agreement statements in Switzerland. Pension fraud suspect extradited to the UK The UK’s Pensions Regulator (TPR) 245 savers to transfer their savings into new competence to investigate and announced on 20 March that Alan 11 pension schemes that were prosecute individuals who avoid Barratt, a pension schemes trustee, administered by the defendants. employer debts to pension schemes or has been extradited from Spain in who threaten savers’ pensions.