July 23 - On June 21, 2019, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) issued a Public Statement and a statement on Improving Global Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Compliance. These statements are updated and released following every Plenary. The Public Statement identifies jurisdictions for which the FATF has called on its members to apply countermeasures or enhanced due diligence. The Improving Global AML/CFT Compliance statement identifies those jurisdictions which have developed an action plan with the FATF to address their strategic AML/CFT deficiencies.

July 22 - This article is Part Two of a three-part summary of the recently-published Regulations Amending Certain Regulations Made Under the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act, 2019, released by the Department of Finance on July 10, 2019 (Finalized Regulations).1 The three-part series discusses prominent changes made to the Regulations and compares the changes to the Department of Finance's initial proposed regulatory changes released on June 9, 2018 (Initial Proposal).2 In Part Two, we will discuss the finalized amendments relating to open-loop prepaid cards that come into force on June 1, 2021. In Part One, we considered the amendments made to the Regulations regarding virtual currency, Money Services Businesses (MSB) and foreign MSBs. In Part Three, we plan to consider other notable amendments.

July 22 - Whilst technological advancements such as the internet and social media have enhanced our lives in many ways, they have also created an environment in which cybercriminals can thrive. Not only does the internet allow these offenders to conduct cybercrimes such as financial fraud, but it also allows them to launder the proceeds of crime, continuing and expanding their operations.

July 22 - Police-reported crime in Canada, as measured by both the crime rate and the Crime Severity Index (CSI), increased for the fourth consecutive year in 2018, rising 2%. Despite the increase, the CSI was 17% lower in 2018 than a decade earlier. The CSI measures the volume and severity of police-reported crime in Canada, and has a base index value of 100 for 2006.

July 21 - Abdulla Yameen, the former president of the Maldives, pled not guilty to charges of money laundering on Sunday, in the first hearing of a criminal court trial into the matter. Yameen, who drew the Indian Ocean island country closer to China during his tenure, is accused of receiving $1 million of government money through a private company, SOF Private Ltd, which has been implicated in a corrupt deal to lease tropical islands for hotel development.

July 19 - Swedish cash-handling firm Loomis AB reported flaws in its anti-money laundering oversight on Friday and vowed to fix them. Loomis launched an investigation into its operations in May after a journalist alleged it was implicated in a Danish money laundering scandal involving foreign exchange agencies.

July 17 - Ontario’s government needs to take strong concrete steps towards stamping out money laundering in the province, which usually takes the guise of “opaque” home purchases. In an interview with Global News, former FINTRAC deputy director Denis Meunier emphasized that Ontario’s current safeguards are not nearly enough to counteract the corrosive market influence of laundering.