Category Archives: Finance

Following the Drug Money

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EY: Gold, drug money and a major auditor’s ‘cover-up’

Andy Verity and Tim Robinson BBC reports: A major accountancy firm covered up evidence of smuggling by an organised crime gang that was laundering British drug money, an investigation has revealed.EY failed to report suspicious activity at one of the world’s largest gold refineries and then altered a compliance report to hide the crime.

BBC Panorama found the gang laundered money by selling 3.6 tonnes of gold to the Kaloti refinery in Dubai. Both EY and Kaloti deny any wrongdoing. Twenty-seven members of the money laundering gang were jailed in France in 2017.

The gang had collected cash from drug dealers in the UK and other European countries. They then laundered the dirty money by buying and selling black market gold….BBC.com

EY helped smuggle drug money

lawgazette.co.uk

Hybrid Threat Networks Exploit Financial Markets

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There are three types of hybrid warfare.

The first, often labelled as an attack on governance, uses legal means to undermine democratic liberal societies by inserting foreign influence or trying to gain financial and economic leverage over our normal democratic processes. Examples of this type of influencing are all around us: Russian television stations or news agencies and China’s 10% ownership of EU ports as well as its assertive presence in the South China Sea. To successfully respond, we have no other choice than making sure that we are working hard to assert our own democratic values and economic models. We simply need to out-communicate and outbid our adversaries.

The second type of hybrid warfare consists of the more brazen, illegal attempts to undermine and polarise our societies by sowing fear and mistrust. This is achieved by carrying out orchestrated attacks against the core elements of our social cohesion: free and fair elections, critical infrastructure and IT networks, the credibility of news and information, and the integrity of our business and financial transactions.

The third – and the most dangerous – type of hybrid warfare means using the aforementioned strategies as preparation and prelude for a military attack. This happened in Ukraine in March 2014 when Russian Special Forces, posing as “little green men”, seized the institutions, transport links, ports and communication channels of Crimea, thus preventing a Ukrainian response. While conflicts of…Friends of Europe.org
The vital role of public-private partnerships in countering hybrid threats/ Nov 2019
HYBRID AND TRANSNATIONAL THREATS

 

The Laundromat

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Hollywood A-listers Steven Soderbergh and Meryl Streep have spoken out against the secrecy of tax havens and lauded the bravery of the journalists who expose corruption at the opening of Panama Papers-inspired movie, The Laundromat.

The movie, which premiered on Sunday at the Venice International Film Festival, explores the world of tax havens and complex offshore financial structures through the eyes of Panamanian lawyers Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca, played by Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas.

Their eponymous law firm, Mossack Fonseca, was at the heart of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ 2016 Panama Papers investigation, which revealed how politicians, celebrities, criminals and the global elite obscured their wealth and conducted questionable business deals through hard-to-trace companies and tax havens. More than 350 journalists from 80 countries worked together to uncover secrets hidden in a trove of 11.5 million leaked Mossack Fonseca files…icij.org

The Laundromat | Official Trailer |

A widow (Meryl Streep) investigates an insurance fraud, chasing leads to a pair of Panama City law partners (Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas) exploiting the world’s financial system.

“Die Geldwäscherei” – A “MUST“ For Every Woman

What is a Whistleblower?

Dooa Eladl
www.w-t-w.org/en/doaa-eladl/

 

Transparency of Permissible Trade Supporting the Iranian People

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The U.S. Departments of the Treasury and State announced a new humanitarian mechanism to ensure unprecedented transparency into humanitarian trade with Iran. 

This mechanism will help the international community perform enhanced due diligence on humanitarian trade to ensure that funds associated with permissible trade in support of the Iranian people are not diverted by the Iranian regime to develop ballistic missiles, support terrorism, or finance other malign activities.  Concurrently, Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) identified Iran as a jurisdiction of primary money laundering concern under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act, and issued a new rulemaking to protect the U.S. financial system from malign Iranian financial activities.

Treasury and State Announce New Humanitarian Mechanism to Increase Transparency of Permissible Trade Supporting the Iranian People…Home.Treasury.gov/

Imposition of Fifth Special Measure against the Islamic Republic of Iran as a Jurisdiction of Primary Money Laundering Concern..Fincen.gov

Women Benefit Less From International Trade

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Women In Finance:

President-elect Ursula von der Leyen will be the first female Commission president. Not only that, but she has also succeeded in forming the first gender-balanced EU leadership team. Women are back on the EU’s agenda, writes Cecilia Malmström.

Cecilia Malmström is the Commissioner for Trade in the current European Commission. Before that, she was the Commissioner for Home Affairs.

This is a big step forward, but we must not stop here. Every EU leader must look hard at what they can do to continue this progress.

It is a well-established fact that international trade brings prosperity. It is equally well-known that the gains from trade are not always spread evenly.

In recent years the EU has completed deals with some of the world’s biggest economies. Since 2014, agreements with 15 countries have entered into force, including Japan, Canada and many more. Companies and their workers in the EU benefit from being part of what is now the world’s biggest trade network.

Nevertheless, it seems that some citizens are benefiting more than others.

Our research says that 36 million jobs in Europe are linked to EU exports. But of those 36 million, only 37% are women. Why?…Euractiv.com

shutterstock

What Is a GONGO?

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How government-sponsored groups masquerade as civil society.

The Myanmar Women’s Affairs Federation is a GONGO. So is Nashi, a Russian youth group, and the Sudanese Human Rights Organization. Saudi Arabia’s International Islamic Relief Organization is also a GONGO, as is Chongryon, the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan. GONGOs are everywhere, in China, Cuba, France, Tunisia, and even the United States.

GONGOs are government-sponsored non-governmental organizations. Behind this contradictory and almost laughable tongue twister lies an important and growing global trend that deserves more scrutiny: governments funding and controlling nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), often stealthily. Some GONGOs are benign, others irrelevant. But many, including those mentioned above, are dangerous.

Attack Of The GONGOs: Government-Organized NGOs Flood Warsaw Meeting.

Some of these NGOs are not like the other ones.
ne’s Russian-occupied territory of Crimea to Central Asia, repressive regimes in former Soviet republics have been setting up fake nongovernmental organizations — so-called GONGOs — to try to influence the international debate about their poor human rights records.

Some GONGOs from Central Asia furtively attempted to infiltrate a coalition of bona fide civil-society activists who work with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

New York-based Human Rights Watch says GONGOs from Tajikistan that have been proliferating since 2016 were in large concentrations at the OSCE’s Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) in Warsaw, and even threatened self-exiled Tajik rights activists who view the forum as the only international venue where they can call attention to abuses by the authorities in Dushanbe.

Russia-backed GONGOs at the conference blatantly championed the Kremlin’s policy goals in Crimea — leading to angry shouting matches with Ukrainian government delegates who walked out in protest….Rferl.org

Finger-Puppets: Kremlin planning to get back in the GONGO business in a big way

From Anti-Corruption To Criminal Justice Reform

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Elizabeth Warren is becoming Trump’s greatest threat

Dean Obeidallah reports:  How did Warren climb from single digits in national polls in March to now topping Biden in the new Iowa poll? She hit all the right notes with Democrats and especially with the progressive wing of the party. Her debate performances have been consistently very good. Warren’s ‘I have a plan for that’ mantra where she has released detailed plans for policy issues facing our nation from childcare to anti-corruption to criminal justice reform — and the list goes on — has resonated with voters…..CNNSearch Elisabeth Warren

International Conference on Counter-Terrorism

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The 19th Conference will surround the theme of “Terrorism 2020: Understand the Present, Prepare for the Future”.

  • The largest and one of the most influential event in the field of counter-terrorism today.
  • vital opportunity for high-profile experts from diverse background of disciplines to establish professional relationships and serves as a platform for the formation of international cooperation.
  • Over 1,000 top decision-makers, defense, intelligence and police officials, prominent academic scholars and security industry
  • leaders from over 60 countries take part in the world summit on counter-terrorism.

Speakers | ICT 19 World Summit
Comm. Saad Amrani / Belgium, one of the best in his field, about the ecosystem that gives rise to terror.

British Bankers On Trial In Germany Charged With €447m Fraud

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UK pair accused of defrauding German state through ‘cum-ex’ share trading scheme.
Two British investment bankers have gone on trial in Bonn in what German media have called “the biggest financial fraud trial” in the country’s postwar history.

The two British citizens, Martin Shields, 41, and Nicholas Diable, 38, are accused of having defrauded the German state of €447.5m (£405m) from London’s banking district with so-called cum-ex trading schemes, a complex shell game of share transactions.

Cum-ex transactions work by trading shares at high speed on or just before the dividend record date – the day the company checks its records to identify shareholders – and then claiming two or more refunds for capital gains tax which had in fact only been paid to the state once…..theguardian.com

Cum-Ex- UK Bankers on Trial /C.Ohde

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