January 21 - Last month, the global watchdog, known as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), released a report showing that digital currency exchanges in the UK are at a low risk of terrorist financing and money laundering. For most players in the cryptocurrency space, the report is an affirmation of the emerging threat that these challenges pose for digital assets. In the UK, regulators plan to put in place comprehensive measures to counter terrorism financing and money laundering using cryptocurrencies.

January 18 - Documents that say money laundering in British Columbia now reaches into the billions of dollars are startling to the province’s attorney general who says the figures have finally drawn the attention of the federal government. David Eby said he’s shocked and frustrated because the higher dollar estimates appear to have been known by the federal government and the RCMP, but weren’t provided to the B.C. government.

January 18 - An Ottawa dentist has been sentenced to house arrest in what tax officials say is the first case in which the Criminal Code’s money laundering provisions have been successfully used in a tax evasion conviction. Kin Tung Fong pleaded guilty Thursday to one count each of tax fraud and laundering the proceeds of crime, the Canada Revenue Agency said in a release Friday. He got a conditional sentence of two years less a day including 12 months of house arrest followed by a curfew.

January 17 - While the RCMP’s massive E-Pirate money-laundering investigation in B.C. has collapsed, Ontario’s gambling regulator is continuing to look into whether employees of Richmond’s River Rock Casino were connected to Chinese VIP gamblers and alleged loan sharks targeted in RCMP anti-gang investigations related to E-Pirate. As Global News has reported, Crown prosecutors stayed charges in November in E-Pirate, a case against an alleged Richmond underground bank estimated by international anti-money-laundering officials to be laundering over $1 billion per year, when prosecutors mistakenly exposed the identity of a police informant whose life was judged to be at risk if the case proceeded.

January 17 - A Richmond man targeted in B.C.’s largest money-laundering investigation has been accused in a B.C. civil forfeiture suit of washing money in Lower Mainland real estate. In a civil claim filed Jan. 4, Stephen Hai Peng Chen, also known as Hoy Pang Chan, is accused of using money obtained from drug trafficking to purchase and pay off properties in Vancouver and Richmond.

January 16 - Fortnite's audience and reach are peerless, so it's no surprise to see it attract some strange legal issues. That being said, I have to admit I never expected to see it used as a vehicle for money laundering by international criminal groups. According to a joint investigation from The Independent and cyber security firm Sixgill, Fortnite's premium currency, V-Bucks, is being used to launder money. Simply put, criminals use stolen credit cards to buy V-Bucks, then resell the V-Bucks in order to launder or 'clean' their profits. This operation preys on "Epic Games' weak security measures," said Sixgill analyst Benjamin Preminger, and has been managed "with relative impunity."

January 15 - Illegal gambling will continue to drive people to suicide and facilitate money laundering and match-fixing unless government action is taken, warns the Asian Racing Federation. In a research paper, the ARF’s anti-illegal betting task force outlines the widespread damage as illegal gambling grows at a quicker rate than the legal market.