January 22 - In an effort to further improve the effectiveness of the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Regime, two sets of regulatory amendments were published in the Canada Gazette on July 10, 2019, and another one more recently on June 10, 2020. Some of the regulatory amendments came into force on June 1, 2020, but the majority of the amendments will come into force on June 1, 2021, the latter of which is the focus of this message to all reporting entities.

January 18 - The crypto industry has boomed over the past 12 months. While 2019 began with a total market cap of $200 billion, the explosion in Bitcoin’s value resulted in this figure surging fivefold as 2020 began — and according to CoinMarketCap, the digital assets space was collectively worth $1 trillion at one point. However, as the crypto sector continues to grow and flourish, so too does crypto-related crime. Virtual assets worth $3.8 billion were lost to fraud in 2019. This figure rose to almost $4.9 billion in 2020.

January 18 - The NSW Crime Commission fears the Australian economy could become a safe haven for ill-gotten money as international criminals, like legitimate businesses, are drawn by the nation's successful management of the COVID-19 crisis. The commission's concerns have emerged as new figures show the state's poker machine profits in the final months of 2020 were up on the year before, fuelling concerns about widespread exploitation of the machines as a money laundering avenue for criminals.

January 15 - On January 1, 2021, Congress enacted the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (the “Act”).1 As part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, the Act creates a broad range of new anti-money laundering (“AML”) obligations for banks and other financial institutions, certain private investment structures, and even federal regulators. Spanning more than 85 pages, the Act contains a number of significant new provisions and changes. Many of the new provisions, including those creating a federal beneficial ownership registry, call for implementing regulations that will be promulgated months or years from now. Other provisions, including new criminal offenses and new subpoena authority over foreign banks with U.S. correspondent accounts, take effect immediately.

January 14 - In October 2014, Canadian intelligence leaders were invited to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s headquarters in Chantilly, Va. The DEA had a theory: the upper echelons of global money laundering, terrorism, drug-trafficking and organized crime all bleed together. And only a handful of men in this murky world of extremely powerful criminals had organizations capable of laundering more than $10 billion annually. The DEA undercover agents had infiltrated one of them, Pakistani national Altaf Khanani. They learned how Khanani used money mules and currency exchanges across six continents to collect cash for drug cartels in cities such as Toronto and Montreal. And many of Khanani’s transactions helped arm and finance terrorist organizations including Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda.

January 14 - A Toronto-based conspiracy to ship goods to Iran in violation of sanctions involved the movement of money through banks in the Middle East and Africa, an indictment unsealed in the United States alleges. As part of the alleged conspiracy, financial transactions were allegedly routed through the United Arab Emirates, Uganda, China, Turkey and Canada in what U.S. prosecutors said was money-laundering.

January 13 - On December 23, 2020, the U.S Department of Treasury released for comment a proposed anti-money laundering (“AML”) rule on Requirements for Certain Transactions Involving Virtual Currency or Digital Assets (the “Proposed Rule”). The Proposed Rule would require banks and money service businesses (“MSBs”) to submit reports, keep records, and verify customers in connection with specific transactions involving unhosted virtual currency wallets and “otherwise covered wallets” in respect of convertible virtual currencies (“CVCs”) or legal tender digital assets (“LTDAs”).