How Dirty Money Disappears Into the Black Hole of Cryptocurrency
Journal investigation documents suspicious trades through venture capital-backed ShapeShift..

After hackers believed to be from North Korea extorted millions of dollars in the so-called WannaCry ransomware attack on businesses and governments, the criminals used ShapeShift to convert bitcoin into an untraceable cryptocurrency called Monero, security researchers found. For the next year, ShapeShift made no changes to its policy of not identifying its customers, and continued to process millions of dollars in criminal proceeds, according to the Journal investigation.

Many cryptocurrency exchanges say they follow federal rules intended to combat money laundering, even though the question of whether they are subject to them hasn’t been tested. They keep records of their customers’ identity and monitor transactions to root out and report suspicious activity…The Black Hole Of Cryptocurrency

US House Passes Bill for Task Force to Combat Crypto Use by Terrorists/Cointelegraph.com

The Finance Sector provides a crucial backbone to the European Economy and -like many other sectors- its increasing dependency on ICT Infrastructures, Providers and their Supply Chain. The importance of ICT Security and Resilience supporting the Finance Sector grew considerably and the objective of protecting automated Inter-Banking transactions and more generally all types of Communications is altogether more critical and complex at the same time.

A stable Financial System in Europe is however the underlying foundation for Economic stability; and the reliance on IT is now life critical for the entire Sector.

Technical Cooperation between the key actors of the Finance Sector at pan-European level becomes an urgent need as the sector faces stronger and larger scale challenges. The following effects of the current silo approach for the protection of the Banks and Finance Institutions presents many inconveniences, such as:

• • • the Implementation of a multitude of security and technical standards, difficult to maintain;
    • the Loss of Interoperability;
    • Imposibility to implement Safe Harbouring, Mutual Aid Assistance;
    • Hosting of more System types, less secure;
    • General Vulnerability to Cyber Attacks.

  NIS support to Financial Resilience
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Financial crises | The Economist

Gangsters’ paradise: Germany

Lax laws draw criminal gangs from around the world to Germany. Constrained by strict regulation and mind-boggling bureaucracy, police are struggling to fight crime.

Germany is one of the first choices for gangs worldwide when it comes to washing dirty money, as a Sicilian official recently confirmed. “I’d invest in Germany,” said Robert Scarpinato, Palermo’s public prosecutor…..Money Laundering

Rodrigo Matos
www.w-t-w.org/en/rodrigo-de-matos
www.rodrigocartoon.com

The Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering is an intergovernmental organisation, consisting of 41 member jurisdictions, focused on ensuring that its members effectively implement the international standards against money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing related to weapons of mass destruction.

In addition to its enormous human cost, human trafficking is estimated to be one of the most profitable proceeds generating crime in the world, with the International Labour Organisation estimating that forced labour generates USD 150.2 billion per year. While in the past, many aspects of the crime went ‘unseen’, there is now an increased understanding of the breadth and gravity of human trafficking, particularly with respect to domestic human trafficking and human trafficking for labour exploitation. Human trafficking is also one of the fastest growing forms of international crime. The increased displacement and vulnerability of people in, and around, conflict zones increases instances of human trafficking, including potential involvement by opportunistic terrorist organisations…. Human-Trafficking-2018

Rodrigo de Matos
www.w-t-w.org/en/rodrigo-de-matos/

A US report says UAE’s capital is a haven
for war-profiteers, financiers of ‘terror’ and drug traffickers.

Aljazeera reports:  With its skyscrapers, luxury villas and a high concentration of millionaires and billionaires, Dubai’s rise to global city and business hub has captured the world’s attention.

It’s one of seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE) an absolute monarchy long ruled by the Al Maktoum family.

The rapid development of the city has made it one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

But the Washington-based Center for Advanced Defense Studies (CADS) has obtained leaked property data from the city-state.

And it has found that those who make money out of wars, who finance “terror”, or are involved in drug trafficking use Dubai’s real estate market as a haven for money laundering.

Dubai real estate market haven for money launderers

Property investigated in US report worth more than $100m in places such as Burj Khalifa and Palm Jumeirah…
Sandcastles by the Washington-based Center for Advanced Defense Studies

Dubai has reportedly become a money-laundering paradise